“When you realize the depth of your soul, you know, the wholeness of who you really are, suddenly life gets a whole lot simpler.
In wellness,
Susan
Photo by Gianandrea Villa on Unsplash
Tag: Mindfulness
Friday Focus – 11/3/17 {Time Is Of The Essence}
Only 2 months left in the year… Can you believe it? I sure can’t. It’s as if with every passing year it goes by faster and faster. Makes me recognize, yet again, how precious our life is and how wisely we need to choose how we spend each moment.
This reminds me of something Naval Ravikant once said, (and I’m paraphrasing) “our time on earth is like a blink of a dragonfly”. It’s true, in the grand scheme of the Universe our time is so short and I often ask myself, do my actions reflect this truth?
So for this week’s Friday Focus I wanted to ask another set of powerful questions we can use to reflect on time. Especially since we only have 2 months left in 2017!
Powerful Questions
- What were some initial goals I had for 2017?
- With what I’ve learned in the past 10 months, where do these goals fit in to my evolving Purpose?
- What matters most in my life?
- How can I spend these next 2 months so that they can be something to remember years from today?
- What is one special thing I can do for myself and/or others every day?
Go ahead, spend some time for yourself reflecting on these powerful questions and allow your heart to answer these questions. You may notice some new truths that have been brewing within yourself begin to surface, or some overarching themes that consistently come up.
Speaking of time… don’t forget to set your clocks back this weekend. We have an extra hour to make things extra special 🙂
In wellness,
Susan
Micro vs. Macro
Are you living your life with a micro perspective or a macro perspective? Here’s what I mean; you get rejected from a sales opportunity, a friend, a lover, a job, a client, a barista, whatever it may be… and if you find yourself dwelling in the rejection this is micro living.
It’s important to learn, acknowledge, but what’s more important is to move on and look at the macro picture.
What is the bigger picture of your life? What is your purpose? If you are strong in your own vision of your self and your life the micro doesn’t need to paralyze you.
It doesn’t need to carry the weight you give it.
Give yourself permission to let go. You are precious. You have something to offer. You have an unlimited supply of energy within you if you tap into the right resource states we all have within ourselves.
We give ourselves too much of a hard time for what life is meant to be, which is why so much of this blog is dedicated to bringing greater awareness around neural networks, paving new pathways, mindfulness, and self compassion.
Live with lightness. Enjoy every second. Be grateful for every breath. Hug someone you love.
Live in the macro. It’s where you’re meant to be.
In wellness,
Susan
Moving Forward
Everyday may not be perfect, but one step backwards doesn’t suddenly define where you actually are. LEARN then most importantly FORGET.
#keepmoving
#lookforward
In wellness,
Susan
Building The Personal Power Mindset
In an earlier post I wrote about personal power and how easy it is to give it away to other people, objects, or simply daily events that happen in our lives.
Today, I wanted to focus specifically on one major way we give away our power so easily, and that is: caring about what other people think.
If you’ve done the 24 hour self realization test you may have noticed this particular theme come up over and over again. Why is it that we care so damn much about what others think? To the point that it actually changes our very own behavior and possibly the trajectory of our path?
Let’s be honest, we’ve all done this at one point or another in the past. Heck, maybe even within the last day!
- Your baby is uncomfortable and crying on his/her first flight and you’re flushed and embarrassed at the thought of other people being annoyed at you and your baby.
- You wear something amazing to school or work only to notice someone else is getting much more attention. You decide to keep your jacket on and wear your outfit on another day.
- You pack your lunch because there’s an important lunch meeting and you notice no one else is eating. You decide to eat later and hope to God your stomach doesn’t growl during the hour.
- You have an accent and you’re afraid other’s might think less of you so you avoid any job that requires speaking over the phone or public speaking.
The list can go on…
What I’ve noticed a million times over is that people who have this tendency are doing one thing 90% of the time – they aren’t caring enough about themselves.
What’s happening in our brains is that we are already looking outward and caught up in a fear based state of other people’s projection. Now, remember what I’ve said over and over again – with every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. This is power.
If you have a tendency to immediately jump to what other people think, you also have an equal tendency (or the opportunity) to immediately jump to what YOU care about in yourself.
Instead of caring about what other people think about you, why not care about what you want to do?
- Why not care about your world for once?
- Why not care about your voice?
- Why not care about how your potential failure can lead to future success?
- Why not care about yourself?
You may begin to feel something shift within you. You may begin to imagine all the times that if you shifted your mindset to caring about yourself first, how empowering this actually feels.
Remember, no one is actually thinking about you as much as they are thinking about themselves.
Take baby steps to build your personal power. Use the right tools whether they be books, meditation, a spiritual practice, or a coach/therapist to get you along the right path.
Owning your personal power is a birth right and we need as many people (with the truest of intentions) to step into their God given power – your true Light!
In wellness,
Susan
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
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
Friday Focus – 10/20/17 {Don’t Let IT Define You}
Labels. Society and humans have created labels as a way to quickly categorize every thing possible including the way we feel. While it is highly efficient to name and label things so that we can go about our lives and continue to evolve, labels can be detrimental to our quality of life.
What I’ve seen time and time again is how a feeling or an event can suddenly be so generalized in the mind that suddenly you are IT.
For example, you have a prolonged depressive time in your life where you are in a medical condition you wish you didn’t have. Suddenly that moment (or moments) where you felt severely depressed is so generalized you are suddenly “in depression”.
Or how about the few times at work where rushing deadlines and frantic managers have caused an uncomfortable level of anxiety within you and suddenly you believe you “have anxiety”.
This list is endless as you can imagine. Fortunately, through awareness and active monitoring of our thoughts, we can stop the generalization of these moment to moment feelings so that we suddenly aren’t just a label.
Yes, that feeling was real. The event did happen. However, it doesn’t define who you really are.
You are much more than the feeling that lasted a couple of minutes or maybe an hour or two. You are much more than what happened in the past. You are now. You are living and breathing. You are love in this very moment. You are the experiencer of experiences. Not the actual experience.
The power is in your minds, and how freeing is this? To know you always have a choice. To know that if it’s possible to generalize a thought so much so that we become the thought, that we have the same power to go the complete opposite direction and unbecome that very thought in an instant.
Powerful thoughts on this wonderful Friday morning.
In wellness,
Susan
Visualization – Getting To The Truth In Minutes
Have you ever found yourself literally talking to yourself inside your head? Or perhaps talking to yourself, and it’s as if you can’t stop your own voice from thinking?
“I know what I’ll say to her when I see him next time, I’m going to say….”
“That just doesn’t make sense, why would you even think such a thought? It’s not even who you are!”
“Why is this the longest minute ever… and I still need to run another 3 minutes before my next station. Oh I see that it’s still raining maybe I do need to get that new umbrella this season.”
“Why am I having this thought and why the hell can’t I stop myself from thinking?!”
And so it goes on…
If you’re advanced in the mindfulness arena you’re well aware this is your ego, your smaller self. But what is one to do once you’re aware of what’s actually going on?
One way, as there are several, is the use of NLP. What I love about NLP is the use of customized visualization. You can visualize whatever detail you need to help you get to the truth and today, I will share with you exactly what helps me in this type of situation when I struggle with stopping thoughts whirring inside my head.
Whenever I need to get out of my head and into my heart I drop into the heart space. I go straight to visualizing my living, breathing heart in the flesh. I imagine it’s steady heartbeat, the blood pumping in and out of the main arteries. I see my heart doing what it does automatically and suddenly I feel and know the deeper truth of the moment. It’s as if I stepped down (or up, remember NLP is all about finding out what works for YOU) out of the silliness of my thoughts into something real… the TRUTH.
Now stop and think about what works for YOU. Is it imagining that you’re suddenly in outer space and you can’t hear a single thing? Or maybe it’s visualizing looking into your dog’s eyes and knowing there is a deeper wisdom in those eyes and by looking into those eyes suddenly you are made aware of a deep truth you always knew inside.
You see, visualization is limitless. You just need to find what works for YOU and how powerful is that?
Spend a few minutes today figuring out what works for you. After all, it may save you hours of misery from the mental rat race we so easily find ourselves in if we’re not mindful of our thoughts 😉
In wellness,
Susan
Are You Giving Away Your Power?
Are you? Are you aware of how often you give away your very own power? Are you aware that your power is limitless and no matter how empty you feel, you can feel on top of the world in an instant?
When we aren’t conscious about it, we give away our power in so. many. ways.
Case in point:
- Someone is rude to you and you feel offended. I mean, how could they?!
- You’re trying to make a coffee order and the server treats you halfheartedly while smiling enthusiastically at someone else. Really?
- The customer service rep doesn’t seem to respect your situation. I can’t even…
- Your boss/client says something in passing and you can’t seem to stop thinking about what they said. What’s wrong with me? Am I a failure?
- It’s a month into your new diet and the scale doesn’t seem to agree. Why do I feel like a loser?
- A beautiful, young woman seems to have everything going for her while you happen to be in your rumpy old work out clothes. Don’t go there, don’t go there…
While these may not all apply to you, the point of the examples above was to reflect the ways in which we give away our power so easily. To others, to objects, and yes, even that small anxious voice in our very own heads.
The first step in harnessing our own power is simple yet requires training and discipline.
It’s self realization.
Have you actually tried to count the ways you give away your power in a single day. I bet you’d be surprised at what comes up 😉
Try it! Set an alarm each hour and track the moments of the past 60 minutes in which you felt annoyed, depressed, stressed, or worried. At the end of the day, you may notice an overarching theme or two… or three.
You see, most of the “why’s” in which we give away our power stems from old beliefs or anchored fears. What do I mean by that? Here are a few examples:
- I’m never good enough
- People don’t respect me
- What if I don’t make it?
- I’m not loveable
- I’m emotionally weak
- I appear to be too powerful
- People don’t listen to me
- I get sick too easily
- People always seem to leave me
- I’m “fat” or I’m “too skinny”
This list can go on forever… that’s how smart and powerful our minds are. If we aren’t careful we can be chasing this wild rabbit for YEARS.
I can’t tell you enough how many people begin to expand their own awareness once they realize what their overarching themes are.
Once you realize what old beliefs and anchored fears are holding you back you begin to step OUT of the story and IN to your own power.
For the most deeply rooted fears and limiting beliefs there are several techniques that can be used to help offset the years of patterned behavior which I hope to write about soon. But for now, try the 24 hour journal. Get to know your self in a way that will change your life forever.
In wellness,
Susan