A Sunday Walk, A Moment To Pause
“If I don’t wake up at 5am every morning and do an hour of meditation followed by an hour of working out before going to work I feel overwhelming guilt.” Well, that’s one way to approach life and your daily living but definitely not the most productive- emotionally, psychologically or physically. Feeling guilt and failure will only attract more of these feelings. What do you feel guilty about?
We have fallen into the trap of becoming human doings – constantly running from one appointment to the next, eating on the run, unable to relax, our shoulders are up to our ears from stress, thinking that multi-tasking is actually more productive than focusing on one thing at a time. Talk about fragmenting our energy.
I’ve had many breakthroughs this February – the main one is that this year I am going to start saying “no” to distractions and “no” to putting more projects on my plate. With my 2018 Strategic Plan in hand, I have no room for distractions. This year is a year to embody feeling centered with clear focus on my top priorities. The need to busy myself with more things is an escape from being with myself and taking me further away from truly knowing myself. We are not the things we do. If you are starting to lose things like forgetting your purse, wallet or phone somewhere, or find yourself injuring yourself like spraining your ankle or wrist, it’s a sure sign it’s time to slow down.
Working out doesn’t have to be a rigid idea of barbells, high intensity sweat or Soul Cycle. Your workouts will change as you change. You are not the same person you were last month. Your hormones are different, your flora and microbiome are different especially if you’ve traveled, your emotions and thoughts are different. As you change, so must your idea of working out. There will be moments where you’ll have so much energy that you will need to use it on more aggressive workouts. Other times, you will feel tired and need more sleep, that’s when your body will crave more gentle and loving forms of exercise.
Getting out this Sunday to powerfully reconnect with yourself and nature is a must do. As soon as you catch a glimpse of sunshine, throw your tennis shoes on, wrap yourself up so you aren’t cold and get out there to clear your head and breathe in the fresh air. Most of us are hiding indoors all winter but fresh air can do us all a lot of good. Let go of the guilt of where you think you should be and get into your body and this present moment. The practice of allowing things to be as they are without feeling guilt or making yourself wrong is key to living a happy life.
What happens when you give yourself the space to be? Flow happens. Life will flow so much more if we don’t push against it all the time with our expectations of what it should or shouldn’t be. Don’t should yourself. Let it all go and let if all flow.
