Awareness Archives - Susan Choi

Friday Focus – 10/27/17 {Shedding Trauma}

I don’t know where you guys are in the world but Seattle is having an absolutely gorgeous day. I mean, look at the sky and these beautiful amber turned leaves!

As I walked the pup this morning hearing the crunch of fallen leaves… I couldn’t help but think about old stories. Experiences. Hurts. Past Traumas.

If you’ve been reading along you know I emphasize how powerful our brains are. It’s interesting and noteworthy, again, to recognize our brains are powerful. So powerful that they hold on to these old stories, experiences, hurts, and past traumas in order to help us. But without special attention what can happen is that they begin to inhibit us.

It keeps us small. afraid. quiet. simple. frustrated. angry. bewildered. anxious.

And in staying small (and afriad, quiet, simple, frustrated, angry, bewildered, anxious, etc.) we begin to generalize these core feelings until it becomes a THING. Suddenly it’s not in the past anymore it’s something you believe you have now.

So what’s REALLY the thing, the thing in the past or the thing now?

Does it even matter?

No matter what conclusion you came to, what matters is re-training your brain to stop from firing the old story over and over again in the present moment. The larger YOU knows you are safe. You have options. You aren’t IN the past you’re IN the NOW. And largely, we have God.

When we come to understand this truth, we begin to break the barrier.

We begin to notice the firing.

That’s not to say there isn’t more work to be done such as Release Work and Re-Training The Neural Network. While it sounds deep and heavy, trust me… with a good practitioner you can be healed and released from old hurts and begin taking steps toward the life you know you deserve. Yes, it’s possible.

So back to Fall… as I listened to the crunch of fallen leaves this morning I couldn’t help but think what a great time it is to release and re-train. Nature reveals everything. After the harvest comes death and rebirth. Yet, it’s ironic how this is barely practiced in our own lives. Where are the rituals to process our latest stories and hurts? Do we take the time for the yearly tune up we all could use?

So this Fall I am thankful. I am thankful for the reminder of death and rebirth. With every action there is a reaction. With every force there is an opposite force. With every old story there is a new story. Nature proves this so and how powerful is that?

In wellness,

Susan

Best healthy PMS milkshake! Guaranteed to solve any chocolate craving. Decadent and delicious!

The Best Chocolate Milkshake Recipe for PMS

Men, you may need to skip this post or if you have a woman in your life, read on because this post is GOLD.

Before I dive into this I need to mention one thing, the best part about this chocolate milkshake recipe is that it’s completely healthy for you! Yes, you read that right, HEALTHY. Put yo hands up!!! ?

I know so many women who suffer some form of hormonal change right before menstruation. This could result in feeling hot, irritable, bloating, and/or of course craving all the salty and sweet foods a person can ask for.

I’ve actually found NLP and training the unconscious mind to be immensely helpful when it comes to reprogramming your brain on the expectancy of PMS but that is a whole other (possibly series) of post for another day.

Today, I wanted to share with you a recipe that I love to indulge in even if I’m not craving a milkshake because it’s THAT good.

The recipe:

2-3 ice cubes
1 cup almond milk or milk of choice
2 tablespoons of pure cocoa powder
1 tablespoon of raw cacao nib for an extra chocolatey punch
Sweetener of choice such as dates, honey, agave, etc. but purely optional
Stevia to taste (just make sure you put enough sweetener whether stevia or caloric based into this shake, indulge a little!)
1/2 and avocado (yes this is what makes it SO creamy plus it’s full of magnesium!)
Adaptogens or other garnish to taste. You can put in your favorite adaptogens such as rhodiola or ashwaganda without it distorting the flavor, OR you can add in cinnamon and turn it into a Chocolate Horchata Milkshake!

I don’t know about you but just writing about this is making me want one RIGHT NOW and I just had one a few hours ago 😉

I hope you have access to these ingredients right now, I guarantee you it will satisfy. Enjoy and happy craving busting!

In wellness,

Susan

Seeking Confirmation

Why do we do that? Whether it’s out of curiosity or we want to hear something other than what we know deep down inside, it’s as if us humans have an insatiable need to constantly seek confirmation outside ourselves.

On one hand if you have a healthy mindset about it, scratching a particular itch doesn’t hurt. I often find that when you’re honed in on your own intuition and your deepest desires you always know the answer and aren’t as stressed because you already have faith in the unfoldment of what is to be. Instead, what we mistaken as confirmation are really therapeutic experiences; after all as humans we love to be in community and what better way than to share and find a tribe of people who understand what you’re going through?

Where I think it can do more harm than good is when you constantly seek confirmation without giving anyone’s opinion or advice deep thought. When you feel the need to jump from one thing to another, stop and ask yourself, “what am I seeking?” “what do I want to hear?” “what am I afraid of?” “what is the underlying emotion that is driving my actions?”

Whether you’re in one boat or the other, consider relabeling what you are seeking. Rather than seeking “confirmation”, position your thoughts to identify with this activity as a “therapeutic experience” or a “discovery session”. Whether you do this with friends, a tarot/astrology reading, therapist, or life coach, when you identify this as a self discovery process suddenly the desperation falls away. Did you feel the shift?

When we come from a place of seeking confirmation it implies a yearning for a particular goal, outcome, or indicates an illusory fear.

So the next time you feel the need to seek confirmation, take a moment to re-identify the action from seeking to discovery. It may make a world of difference and save you the stress.

And remember, you already have the answers within ?

In wellness,

Susan

When You’re Stuck In Fear

Oftentimes when working with clients we come across a situation, and it could be the most mundane situation, and yet the mind can’t seem to loosen it’s grip on it.

Whether it’s from a traumatizing experience, or perhaps the client is already in a stressful situation, or maybe it’s hitting a very sensitive part of the client’s soul – a part of them that needs X to feel secure and safe.

Regardless of how hard the grip is we have to remind ourselves that our brain is programmed to behave this way thanks to how smart we are and the years of repetitive Miracle Combo’ing we do.

What is the Miracle Combo? MC is when you behave in such a way that actively engages the thought with a rush of feeling & emotion throughout the body while repeating this action until it begins to groove a new path in your neural network. It’s the Miracle Combo I’ve seen work over and over again whether you use it to define a new, positive neural pathway or hard-wire a negative pathway.

But back to fear. We need to realize fear is nothing but:

a familiar state we innately have within us
a state that needs to be acknowledged, not pushed away
a state that is trying to protect us

When we objectively look at what is causing us fear, it is typically not even in present RIGHT NOW. It is typically a future state our minds wander to and gets stuck with repetitive thinking.

Fear becomes bigger in our minds because it suddenly becomes the pure focus of our attention. Remember that phrase, “what you focus on grows”? Well, it’s true. So in order for this not to get any bigger than it actually is you need to acknowledge the fearful state and accept it. Instead, what most people do is try to control the fear, not think about the fear, or fix the problem.

Thankfully there are several NLP techniques and coaching frameworks (a hyper focused awareness session is one of my favorites for calming the mind and inducing beta/theta states) to help each individual person identify what works best for them when it comes to their unique fear. For one person it may be simple as shifting their unconscious attention by way of bilateral stimulation, or perhaps it’s tapping the meridians as a way to release stuck energy, or using self hypnosis to speak to the unconscious mind.

If you’re stuck in a fearful state just know there is a way to peace. Let this be a reminder to you that your LIGHT is much bigger than any fearful thought. That your fear is nothing but a small part of you that wants to seek and be in Love. That this fear doesn’t define who you actually are.

You are light. You are divine. You are whole. You are always held by something so much greater than we can possibly imagine.

With love,

Susan.

Naturally Shed Deer Antler. Hand made with real, high quality crystal beads. Sage cleansed and high vibe.

Divine Prana

What does it mean to live with unconditional love? To infuse this unconditional love with your personal power? Your life force? Just how different would our lives be if we lived from this state?

Not too long ago I completed this mala for a beautiful soul. When choosing the gemstones I found Blood Jasper and Honey Jade to be the perfect combination to help support Divine Prana. Let’s do a quick deep dive into what these gemstones represent and support.

Blood Jasper: Ahh, this stone is special. I love how you can get lost in the depths of its dark green mass mixed with a unique blending and swirling of it’s equally dark counterpart – red. Legend has it that the red represented the tears of an ancient dragon. Blood Jasper is known for its prana, Qi, and life force. This stone supports anyone to develop and harness one’s courage, strength and vitality.

Honey Jade: When looking at this beautiful stone I am reminded of the sweet, delicate drops of natural honey. I choose Honey Jade to complement Blood Jasper due to its representation of the third chakra – the Solar Plexus – the power house chakra. Not only does Honey Jade aid in supporting your personal power, it radiates divine, unconditional love. It is also a grounding and calming stone.

Lastly, I felt called to choose the naturally shed deer antler to complete the piece. For some reason I felt that it represented the full circle of life.

Very excited for this mala to meet its special owner. May this mala support personal power and living life with integrity, yet showing up in the world with the most powerful force available within all of us – Love. May Love always lead us to co-create with Nature to uplift and raise each other up.

In wellness,

Susan

Unresolved Emotions

Do you often find that unresolved emotions lead to regretful decisions?

Why is that? Well here are a few examples:

1) Anger at someone > “I’ll show him/her!” > Send hasty email
2) Anxiety, depression > Escapism > Open pint of ice cream
3) Regret, shame > Need to fix > Run 5 miles
4) Frustration, angst, sadness > Need to get it off your chest > Call friend in a heated moment, say the wrong things
5) Guilt > Need to fix > Over compensate or over commit to something you, deep down, don’t want to do

I don’t know about you but I have certainly found myself in a number of these situations before… and then I realized there was a key step in-between the emotion and the decision:

SELF AWARENESS / MINDFULNESS / SURRENDER / GOD / COMPASSION

Call it what you need to fit into your framework but for simplicity’s sake let’s call it Awareness.

When you have the awareness right **after** the emotion begins and right **before** the decision THAT is all you need to step back for just a moment.

And in that stepping back can you just sit with the emotion? Where is it in your body? Can you drop into it? What is it really trying to tell you?

Take a moment or two, heck take a week if you must! Take as long as you need until you feel good about your decision and know you aren’t trying to avoid the feeling. We seem to be good at that as we humans evolved.

Last but not least, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get it each and every time! For some it comes easy and for others it requires a bit more practice, mindfulness, and/or guidance. But but know this: there is absolutely nothing wrong with you. You are everything you need to be and everything is unfolding in your divine order.

In wellness.

Friday Focus – 7/14/17 {Stay In Your Lane}

Good morning beautiful people! It’s absolutely stunning here in Seattle on this magical Friday morning. I hope no matter what season it is in your area you are diving into the weekend with an expanded heart and inspiration.

This week’s theme came to me suddenly but resonated deeply. I may have written about this before but I always welcome the reminder, and it is this:

The time spent worrying or thinking about what others feel/think/act/say to you is their business. Stay in your lane and keep your eyes on your business.

Take a moment to truly ask yourself, “is this really true?”. No matter what worries you, ask yourself this question. How much of what is going on in your head are your own projections, worries, and fears?

Remember no judgement, only awareness.

As we dive into the weekend take a moment to pause and ask yourself this question whenever you come up against a resistance. Oftentimes you will find the thought you were just thinking is either based in the past or is a future projection. And what a relief that is!

You are free in THIS moment.

May you find a bit more peace, love, and laughter as you head into the weekend.

Namaste.

Photo by Tanner Larsen

Friday Focus – 7/7/17 {There’s Nothing Wrong With You}

There’s nothing wrong with you

Are your hormones are a bit wonky? Sure
But it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.

Do you feel like crawling under the covers because of a string of bad days? Sure
But it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.

Struggling with a health issue? Sure
But it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.

Dealing with relationship issues that keep coming back? Sure
But it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.

Fighting an intense fear of failure? Sure
But it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.

Experiencing grief that doesn’t seem manageable? Sure
But it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.

Wondering why it feels like it’s taking a million years to achieve X when for others it seems so easy? Sure
But it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.

There’s nothing wrong with you

No matter what is happening in your life just remember this, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you.

Namaste.

The Benefits of Mindful Eating

Have you ever heard of mindful eating? Or eating with intention? If you have, have you actually put it to practice for an extended period of time?

Believe it or not, just like meditation or exercise, it takes work! But if you have tried it, you very well may have noticed all the wonderful benefits that come with mindful eating such as:

Complete digestion
A sense of well being and ease
Increased vitality
Feeling satiated
Better poop (yes, #2)
(just to name a few)

I wanted to write about this in particular because just like with exercise or other “seemingly” important things that we know we should be doing, mindful eating seems to be last on the priority list. And what better time to put this into practice now that the 4th of July and all of it’s bbq’ing festivities are complete?

To start, as with anything, we need a current understanding of what we are doing today as it relates to what we desire to change. So ask yourself a few questions to start:

What are you doing when you eat a meal?
How do you feel right after a meal? 1 hour after a meal?
If you prepared your own food what was the step by step process you took in order to eat your meal?

You may notice a sense of awareness and connection beginning to occur already as you take inventory of how, with whom, what, where, and why you eat your food.

Remember, no judgement, just awareness.

The point of this exercise above is to better understand where you can make small changes to set the intention of mindful eating.

Whether you tend to buy prepared food, eat alone, watch TV, or come from a family of fast eaters there are a few solid steps you can take to incorporate mindful eating:

If you’re preparing your own food take the time to study your subject. Yes, look at every detail of the asparagus and it’s tiny intricate details! If you’re adding grapefruit to your salad try scraping a tiny piece of the skin and taking in the sweet and tangy fragrance it offers. Just by doing this you are already in the now and honoring what will soon be consumed.
If you bought a prepared meal take the time to thank the food and all the ways it got to be where it is today. From the sun, soil, worms, the farmers, and yes, even the people who prepared it. Without any of these elements this delicious meal wouldn’t have been possible! By doing this you may notice a sense of ease and gratitude, simply by taking the time to notice the miracles that occur on a minute by minute basis.
As you begin to eat really take a look at what’s on your fork or spoon and notice every single detail of the food in front of you. You’ll notice things I bet you haven’t seen in years, for some, the first time in their lives. As you look at every detail on your fork you may notice the thought, “wow, I’m not actually thinking about anything else”. Yes, that’s right. Continue to practice this art of noticing your food before each bite. An added side benefit of this art is that every single bite will taste that much better because your senses are now engaged with the food and not the distraction!
Don’t just swallow, chew! There’s something beautiful that happens when you really chew. First, it’s the body’s process of starting the digestion process. Your saliva acts as the break down agent for the food that will travel down to your stomach and intestines, so why not give it a kick start? Instead of having bigger pieces of food for your body to break down, really chew and mindfully notice the food as it breaks down in your mouth. Again, you may notice just how good food tastes and just how good you will feel not only physically, but m mentally as well.
Last but not least, end your mindful eating by giving thanks and staring at your bowl or plate with appreciation for what was in front of you. Rather than rushing off to the next thing, give yourself a minute or two to really take in the moment. Honor the time you gave to yourself and the food that is now in your body.

I hope you enjoyed these simple, yet powerful tips that work for me personally. During the transition between San Francisco and Seattle it was a hectic time, but when I needed it most mindful eating was the peace and solace I needed to ground myself and step into gratitude. As you can see, truly the benefits are endless!

In wellness,

Susan

Goat Lake

One of the best things about spending more time in Washington is that these beautiful mountains and trails are literally in our backyard. For example a quick 1 hour drive and I’m deep in Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

This past Sunday was spent hiking up to Goat Lake. Let me tell you… it was GORGEOUS.

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset — Goat Lake

As I made my way through the trail I decided to head up to Goat Lake via the lower trail and come back down to the trail head via the upper trail. The pounding pulsation of the river and numerous waterfalls making it’s way down the mountain was incredible.

The hike was approximately 11 miles round trip, and it was 11 miles of fresh air that I desperately needed.

The night before I got into a sneezing frenzy due to allergies which always zaps the energy out of me; to the point where my throat is sore and my energy is just depleted from me. When I woke up the day of the hike my nose was so stuffed I couldn’t breathe!

Miraculously when we got to the mountains it was as if the body knew how good the air was and decided to clear the nasal passages for all the fresh air. As soon as this happened I started to breathe DEEP. Deep into the belly with each and every inhale and I could slowly feel my energy coming back.

I don’t know if it was the allergy attack the night before but not only was my energy low, my mood just wasn’t as upbeat either. Honestly, it could have been a whole RANGE of things:

Was it hormonal? Time of the month?
Has weeks of stressful work hours impacted the adrenals and thus neurotransmitters?
Was it the tossing and turning from being unable to breathe last night?
Maybe it’s the days of overcast skies that finally got to me.
Did I not eat enough breakfast and this is just a dip in energy?
Am I putting too much pressure on myself at work?
Is it because the weekend is almost over and I didn’t get a chance to eat at my favorite Indian restaurant this week? 😉

I’ve written about this before but it’s so easy to want to place meaning behind everything. Our minds find it inherently necessary to analyze the who, what, why, when, and how, but sometimes that takes us down several chases down several rabbit holes!

Instead I took some time to mindfully investigate each and every thought that came up and most importantly to allow and to BE WITH the emotion behind every passing thought. Fear, sadness, anxiousness, stress… were a few of the emotions that arose with each thought.

I took time to ask, is this really true? And if it is, what would that mean? Who is the one having this thought? What am I reacting to (or what do I think I am reacting to)?

Then silence. Step by step, breath by breath.

And when you’re surrounded by beauty like this how can you not begin to feel shifts as you fall into the wonder, awe, and gratitude of mother nature?

Sometimes it takes a good long bit of time to realize reality from reaction, or a place like this to put you in the present moment. The true present, moment by moment, breath by breath.

How about you? When do you find yourself having ah-ha moments? What helps you bring your awareness to your thoughts?

Cheers to a beautiful start to your week.

Namaste.