Fancy Footwork
The last two weeks I have been on a wild ride of ranging circumstances from extraordinary good fortune to traumatic and dramatic misfortune. I received the most unexpected gift that was undoubtedly divinely orchestrated. I was gifted a ticket to the Florida Annual Herbal Conference. I had wanted to go to this specific conference for the last 3 years so this falling in my lap free of charge felt like a lottery win. In addition to receiving a free ticket to the weekend long conference, I was also gifted the hotel stay for the weekend… also free of charge. I was feeling blessed and was flying high from the synchronicities that were happening and then BOOM! No…literally…boom! I ended up in a car accident the following week that nearly totaled my car. I couldn’t help but to question why the sudden down turn in events for me. I felt played with, teased, and self-pity. Literally seconds before the crash I was certain greater blessings in all forms were on the way to me, as I had been experiencing positive movement forward in many facets of my life. My faith was rattled. After a couple of days on an emotional and mental rollercoaster, I heard from my inner ear; “None of your spirituality is relevant if there isn’t real life shit to practice on.” It was in that moment that I recognized the need to fully embody true gratitude was in order. We all survived the crash! The opportunity to exemplify my primary theme for this year, practicing true gratitude, was presented big time. When the accident first happened I almost couldn’t see the forest for the trees; my mind quickly went to the fear and doubt side of things. It often times can be difficult to see the good in the bad or see any good when you’re entrenched in a rough or uncomfortable situation. The truth is most of the time we have to use focused intention to get ourselves back on our feet. These are the times when it’s required to flex our spiritual muscle. Our inner resources are called upon and needed to make certain choices so that 1) we aren’t completely twisted up riddled with fear, anxiety and stress while on rocky ground and 2) we are able to raise our vibration high enough to transform/shift into better circumstances as soon as possible. This certainly is no easy feat however below are two ideas I have practiced through tough times such as this that has helped me to be as poised as I possibly could be under the pressure.
How can we navigate through the bumpy roads and still maintain our footing without completely losing our sanity? I hope the following insights are as useful to you for finding balance during unsteady times as they have been for me.
1- Stay in the present moment often enough to be aware of what you’re thinking, how you’re feeling and what you’re saying- aloud and silently.
Mindfulness is so powerful. Being aware is half the battle to mastering one’s self. It enables us to assume the absolute control that we all have…control of ourselves! You cannot control what you aren’t privy to. Take a moment several times throughout your day to be engaged enough to assess how you’re feeling. Once you can determine how you’re feeling you can identify the thoughts that created those feelings and thus can manipulate your thoughts, words and actions toward what you desire or at least towards something more positive and productive. This is something that takes serious practice and most of us are so used to living life on auto pilot that initially we will find that we have to check ourselves more often than we would have ever imagined!
2- Make feeling good your biggest priority!
This tip may sound like pure nonsense but the truth is when we feel good, we do good! I have to be honest and admit that when I first heard of this concept I judged it as irresponsibility. We live in a world where the perception is that everything should be hard earned. Most people don’t feel like they have the time, energy or luxury to be playing games, having fun or catering to themselves in any way that may make them feel good. Even worse is that most people deep down don’t even feel like they deserve it! That’s a whole other topic for another post. It did take me some time to give myself permission to even seek this out from myself for free without me having to have endured some kind of daunting task to receive feeling good. However the truth is we’re often more motivated, inspired and inspiring when in a high vibrating state. We’re a pleasure to be around and become magnetic which allows even more good things to readily flow to us. This is not implying to totally abandon the pertinent things in life just because they DON’T feel good, however we can incorporate little things to give us mood boosters throughout the day to keep up our constructive power. The key is to deliberately make ourselves feel good instead of waiting for something good to happen to invoke that emotion. In addition when things occur that don’t encourage us to feel good, we can empower ourselves to take the reins and create our own good mood.
I recommend writing a list of all the things you can think of that make you feel good. Initially allow yourself to list anything that raises your mood regardless if it is people, places, activities or things. Create an “If…then” mood boosting plan where you have options regardless of the circumstance you find yourself in. For example if you have the time and opportunity maybe a brief walk around your neighborhood or a workout could be the pick. However, if you are at your office job perhaps listening to a motivational audio or reading an excerpt from your favorite book would be in order. The most important thing is to become conscious of what puts you in a good mood and to be ready to pull out whatever is appropriate under the circumstances so that you’re never the victim of outer circumstances you can’t control anyway. It also helps to start your day off, first thing in the morning with something that will boost your mood significantly.
Life’s storms and challenges are inevitable and everyone is certain to lose their footing at one point or another. However we can build a playbook with an arsenal of moves that will have us landing on our feet every time.