What a beautiful opportunity to start new
Let's take a second to breathe…
I think all of us need that reminder a little more often these days. So let's be here together, and just for a moment, let’s breathe… Take a second to observe where you are. Let go of your thoughts, put down your work for a moment, and be in the now. Where are you? Check in with your physical body. What are the sensations that you are feeling at the moment? Does your body feel tense? Is it calm? Where are you holding tension? Drop your shoulders, and soften your jaw. Now let's check in with your thoughts. Are they racing? Are they gentle? Intrusive? No need to judge them right now, just simply observe for a few seconds. Now let's check in with your breath. Again, we’re not looking to change anything, we’re just checking in for a moment. Are your breaths shallow and fast? Or deep, and through your belly. Does your neck tighten as you breathe? Continue observing for a few breaths.
How do you feel after doing this exercise?
This is something I like to do throughout my day, just to check in with myself and see where I am at. The reality is, we have ALL been through more than a lot over the past couple of years. We need to be gentle with ourselves, and find understanding on the days that we are struggling. This is such an important time to develop the ability to check in, and listen to the wisdom of our bodies.
Something I myself have realized, and I am sure you have too… is that the world we once lived in, will simply cease to exist going forward. Now I know the idea of that scares you, if i'm honest, it scares me a little at times as well. But I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that this needed to happen, for us all to wake up. Our planet is sick, so is our society, and so are we. Collectively, we have been living out of alignment for FAR too long. And mother nature is coming to take her power back. (She doesn't lose by the way, you will hear me say this a lot)
What a beautiful opportunity we have been given though. If we can look past the fear, the politics, the divisiveness, that seems to be around every corner, and on every channel. We would see that opportunity awaits us! A fresh start. A new way of living. What is something that this time has given you that you are grateful for? For me, it has changed everything. Quarantine meant more time with my children. Time to connect, time to re-discover them in a way that working 40+ hours a week didn't allow me to. Time that allowed ME to be their teacher (and full disclosure, that had NOTHING to do with sitting them on a computer all day, zoning out to zoom calls, while they shared what their favorite colour was, with their equally under stimulated classmates.) We explored outside, found new trails, swam in rivers, collected rocks, and searched for tiny creatures under logs. We laughed, we snuggled, we read books. That is a time that I will cherish forever. We learned that it was OK to have a slower pace to life. That running from activity to activity, and filling our calendars as full as we possibly could, did not mean that we were “living.” Our lives were perfectly fine without those things, in fact…They were better! There were no distractions… nothing we could “busy ourselves with.”
Did that mean that this time also exposed some aspects of our lives that we maybe chose to avoid at all cost, in the past? You're damn right it did… and that part wasn't easy. A light has been shone upon, everything that we have so strategically kept hidden in the dark. Easy? No… necessary? Absolutely. If we truly want to heal, we need to have the courage to look closely, and go through our lives with a fine tooth comb. Decide what still fits, what we have outgrown, what we align with, or don't. Relationships we want to keep, and ones that we are better off without. We need to look at everything as a whole. Our jobs, our relationships with our spouses, and children. With ourselves… ESPECIALLY with ourselves. If you are not absolutely in love with your life, then why are you doing it? That's the hard question you need to ask yourself. If you're doing it for ANY other reason than, “because it fulfills me, because it lights me up, because it gives me purpose, because it makes me feel at home, because I couldn't live without it.” Then your intention is all wrong.
This past 2 years has given us this opportunity. Hate your job? Perfect! Find a way to leave it. If it's important enough to you, you will find a way. What did you discover about yourself, when everything was quiet. When you didn't have all of the outside noise and business of life to pull you away from the calls of your soul? You only get to be here, in THIS body, as THIS version of you, once. This life is whatever you make of it. This life is beautiful. This place is beautiful. You being here is an absolute miracle. And if you knew that… if you truly knew that, you would not waste another second living this mundane existence, simply because you think you have to. Because you think “these are just the cards I was dealt.” You deserve so much beauty, you deserve the deepest love. You deserve all of the adventures, and to answer the calls of your soul.
Where are you being called to go? Go there! I have faith in you, you are going to do the most incredible things with your life. Leave nothing behind, give yourself nothing to regret when your body takes its last breath, and your soul leaves this place.
All the love -
Shawnna