
This year has been one of the hardest of my life. I have faced a significant health crisis with no known reason for months, mounting medical bills, and a journey into the depths of my mental and emotional health that have gone off the rails. I have been stretched to the edge of my comfort zone, pushed out of the crib of “connection,” and questioned my reason for showing up each day. My intuition is being tested daily, “do I lean into what I “know” or rest on what I don’t know but what is comfortable”? Through the thick dark fog, I was reminded recently to move “Always Forward, Never Back” which stuck with me as I continue to persevere and make small steps toward better days. I am reminded daily that I must:
Show up Don’t Give Up ~Karyn.
Creating Space for what is Essential- Always Forward
This year has been a ripe opportunity for a Tune-Up. Like tuning up a car, it has been a chance to fill the fluids, fix the squeaks, and tend to soft squishy brakes. It has hollowed me out to make room for only what is essential. I had to hold space for the inevitable, the pain, discomfort, the unknown, and sitting with it made me empathetic to everything I have been running from for so long. When we create space for only what is essential, we find a new lens for authenticity and trust that can only be uncovered by being with what is. I don’t have more answers today than a year ago, but I have more faith, and facing life with the truth from within helps me understand that I don’t need to have the answers to continue meeting the challenges.
Rising up to the challenge of change-Never Back
At any moment in time, we have the opportunity to rise and meet who we are at any level and continue to help us grow, or we can stay within the confines of what is comfortable or status quo and perhaps stay stuck, stale or stagnant. Change doesn’t happen when you stay in one place. Change is happening all the time all around you, inevitably, are you moving forward with the change or not?
A rolling stone gathers no moss ~Publilius Syrus.
Always Forward Never Back
I tend to look back on my life as an indicator of how I am doing today. I have learned that I can’t look back to course correct, penalize, ostracize, or “should” all over myself. This path is a unique journey toward a new evolution, and I should be celebrating. Always Forward, Never Back, look back for reference to how much you have grown, but never as a barometer for your self-sabotage.
Tune In to Tune-Up
We all know that trying to control every moment of our lives is very much lost in the doing. So much of every moment that happens to us is scripted by so many parts in motion by other things happening that we couldn’t possibly anticipate or control every situation and it is exhausting even trying. What we can control is how we show up in each moment. Ready and Open or Frantic and Stressed. The choice is yours.
Tune In the Clarity
When you tune-up, it’s as if you are adjusting the static out of your life, right? It’s like when you tune an old school radio, and you reach static, static space is uncomfortable, and you continue to search for a clear channel. Search for that clear channel in your life, that clear vision and focus. Do that by continuing to align with what’s open and transparent. Static can also be compared to the status quo. Static Status.Quo.
Either you defend the status quo, or you invent the future -Seth Godin.
Suppose we’re living on the edge of what’s possible. We’re continuing to sit in a place that’s a bit uncomfortable but helpful for our evolution. If you sit within the static and the noise long enough, that is all you will hear. Static tunes out the clarity of what is essential. It will tune out the well of inner wisdom, the stillness, the messages, the downloads, the connection. That’s precisely what it’s doing; static is tuning out your relation to all that is, the divine and the divine template. We always need to be looking for a clearer vision and a more transparent way for our lives.
Questions to ponder to identify the static in your life:
- How do I feel in my body today?
- What is occupying or flooding my headspace today?
- How am I showing up in the world today?
- Where am I going in too many directions that I lack clarity?
If any of these questions bring up friction or unease, it might be a clear indication of where the static is within your body. Listen.
Tuning Up
- Look at your nutrition; the best way to enhance your overall health is by improving what you put in your body. Commit to improved nutrition through dietary changes
- Create a sleep routine- turn off all technology 1.5 hours before sleeping. Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep
- Show up-Each day, commit to showing up in your life. For me, this happens when I get out of bed and walk to the bathroom each morning. I ask myself two questions.
- How do I want to show up today? If it is anything less than excellent or ideal, I reframe my answer to show up giving my best effort, I am in control of myself, and while that isn’t always easy, I do my best to commit to that level of change
- How do my feet feel? My feet are the first thing to touch the ground after laying prone for 7-9 hours. My feet support my body; they are a good barometer for change; if they don’t feel right, I ask my feet what they need for the day ahead, often that includes wearing a supportive pair of shoes or a nice pair of wool socks or a salt bath for your feet to help with the aches and pains.
- Take a Measurement (you can’t master what you don’t measure) This is an evaluation of how you are feeling. In your journal each day, spend 5-10 minutes freewriting. Put these letters in bold:
PEMS
-
- Physical-How do I feel in this body?
- Emotional-What emotions am I feeling the most?
- Mental- What is taking up the most headspace?
- Spiritual-What fills me up and supports my connection to Spirit.
Freewriting is a powerful tool to access the subconscious thoughts that live right below the surface of our conscious mind but often get trapped by our conscious “to-do” lists. This process will help you identify your static and give you a safe space to work through the emotional bottlenecks of your lives.
TIP: When freewriting, there are no rules; just write whatever is coming to your mind, it will help unlock whatever is holding you back.
5. Stillness– Where can I slow down to show up, to continue to allow freedom of expression, from an open-heart centered space, rather than a reactive space. Pause right now and close your eyes and take three slow, deep breaths that feel like a good sigh, the cleansing Ahhh!
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty ~Maya Angelou.
Recognizing our humanness
Our evolution as humans takes many different steps and twists and turns. Like a butterfly, it is a process of transformation, moving from one physical state to another. When we are in the depths of change, we often reflect that we want our process to be different or better than what we are experiencing. We soon realize that no one way is right, it can be ugly, challenging, emotional, and exhausting, but it can equally be enlightening, fulfilling, and empowering. If you sit too long in the struggle, your life becomes a filter that every battle is sifted through. By reflecting regularly and tuning up to tune into our lives’ clear channel, you find a path through the static, not around it. And remember: Always Forward, Never Back.
The wings of transformation are born of patience and struggle ~Janet S. Dickens.