Are you the kind of person that sets goals or resolutions for the New Year? What is your experience with that? Do you enjoy the process? Does it help you stay on track?
My New Year’s resolutions were usually setted and forgetted by January 20th or so. Then, two years ago, one of my friends gave me the book, “One Word That Will Change Your Life.” Instead of setting multiple resolutions, the authors encourage you to essentially pick a theme word or short phrase, a guiding principle, for the year. This word serves to give you clarity and focus, two experiences that are so hard to come by in our over-stimulated, over-busy lives. One word is also easy to remember. When my business coach asks me what my goals are for the year, I’m always like, “Erm. Let me remember where I wrote them down, so I can re-read them, and then I’ll get back to you.” Ask me what my Word is for 2022, and I can tell you in a flash.
FLOW
My word came to me clearly when I was sitting on the soft white sands of the Gulf, listening to the surf rhythmically pound the shoreline. I was reading “Healing Ourselves” and was YET AGAIN reminded that in order to be healed and to help other people heal, you really just gotta feel those feelings. Instead of laminating them over with a big suffocating brush of “I’ll get to you later when I have time,” you need to SLOW the f*#k down and notice those feelings and stay with them. You have to let them flow instead of damming them up.
Flow also means letting go off resistance, letting go of clenching, letting go of not being at peace until everything is JUST the way I want it, releasing the need to be in control. You can’t ride the current of life if you have a death grip on the dock.
Flow also means getting into that state where you lose track of time because you are SO engrossed in what you are doing. It’s actually an altered state of consciousness! It happens at this sweet spot where you are challenged *slightly* beyond your capabilities, but not so much so that you freeze. This is where the magic happens.
Flow also means opening up to your innate creative potential. In Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert describes how there is this undercurrent of creative ideas flowing through the ether. An idea will jump out and grab you, and if you don’t bring it to life, it will abandon you and move on to a more willing subject. I’m opening to that flow, letting go of the fear of “doing it wrong” and taking imperfect action on my ideas.
What word bring clarity and focus to your 2022? Here are some questions that might help ignite your creative fire:
- What do you need?
- What do you need to let go of?
- What do you want more of in your life?
- How do you want to feel?
- What makes you lose track of time?
- What gives you goosebumps (in a good way :P)?
- What do you secretly desire?
If you can manage it, I recommend finding a time and space where you can be alone. Bring a pen and paper. Get into a comfortable seat. Watch your breath enter and leave your body for 5 breaths. Notice the connection of your feet on the floor and your butt in your chair. Settle your awareness in your chest (for me, if I think about moving my vision from my eyes to my area right behind my sternum, I can make that instruction to “settle awareness in your heart center” make sense. :P). Then ask yourselves these questions and be open to whatever comes up. If you feel like sharing your word, I would love to hear it. Text me at 319-360-9662, or email me at heather@spacetobehuman.life.
And here is a practice to help improve your PHYSICAL flow. It’s that time of year where between colds, Omicron, allergies, excessive dryness, etc. the nasal passages get all blocked, dry, and boogery. But breathing through the nose is essential for our health (it improves immunity, promotes better blood flow, slows breathing, increases lung volume, improves the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide).* So what to do??
BOOGER PRACTICE
This! This is what to do: Nose Unblocking Exercise.
*Source: Buteyko Instructor Training Manual.
That’s all for today, my friends! Please respond to this email if you have any questions or comments, or book a session with me here if you would like some help to bring more balance and peace to your body, mind or spirit.
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