Letting Go

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Ahhh to feel truly relaxed, at peace and free. To have this feeling fill you up and flow through you. That is just a wonder.

Letting Go is all about setting yourself free, softening, finding solace, a place of comfort and being released from any discomfort.

It is a brilliant tool to use in bringing more and more happiness to you. As you begin to let go in different areas of your life, you become closer connected with your core, your essence. You relearn how to breathe deeply, see the hearts around you and spend moments of pure happiness with loved ones.

Letting Go is such a valuable skill to nurture. And one to keep close to you on your life’s journey. It is precious. For the process of gradual release allows you to unwind, untie and discard anything in you and your life which is in ravels, knots, piles and perhaps has been for some time, accumulating dust.

As you begin to let go, you can stand back and see before your eyes how the world can change and look so different. This new softer, calmer perspective allows your breath to lengthen, muscles to relax and the stars to brighten above you.

No longer do you need to hold on to any anger bubbling inside you, hate spitting out of you, resentment festering, regret lingering, greed all-consuming, frustration revving. The tightness constricting you can relax, old thoughts can be blown away and peace can set in.

How can you Let Go? When you’re holding on with all your might to a world you know so well and have habituated – How can you refresh the moment, untangling what you no longer need?

How can you find such peace and tranquility, a release from caught-up emotions? How can you see the sunlight again after it’s been hiding for so long behind that cloud?

Not always an easy process. Taking longer for some than others. But totally possible and definitely worth the effort.

For each of us, the ravels, knots and piles vary. The things you want to let go of in your life are different from your partners, friends and family. Letting Go is a personal journey. So you need to think carefully about what it is that you are holding on to that restricts you from being truly free and the best, healthiest version of yourself. What is it that’s wasting your energy, enthusiasm and potential?

Ways of Letting Go: Close any arguments that have been going on for countless time, no matter who’s fault you think it is. Forgive everyone, no matter how much hurt you feel. Lose all blame, taking full responsibility for yourself. Do not victimise yourself, this only wastes time. Know that happiness is an inside job, the answers aren’t ‘out there’. Be grateful for everything you have, little and large. Make friends with your supposed enemies, see them as innocent. Speak with loving words to yourself, harsh words feed the pain. Seek the things that bring you lasting joy, lose the things that weigh you down. Look on the positive side of life, lose negativity. Stop trying to please everyone, it’s not possible or worthwhile. Drop the habits which leave you feeling bad, see them as old.

Forgiveness, Self-Responsibility, Inner Happiness, Gratitude, Friendship, Kindness, Compassion – these are your keys to peace. And unless you unlock the doors, you may never see how different it can be.

Throughout the process of Letting Go stay close to your breath. Breathe in everything that you feel, good or bad. Use your breath to steady yourself, stay in the present moment and slow things down for you to see clearly what’s really happening.

Breathe in. Let Go. Breathe out.

A Balancing Act

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Life is a Balancing Act. – Get the balance right and life feels great!

When you are in good balance with yourself and the world around you, you surely reap the benefits, feeling happier, more grounded, steady, focused, calm and clear-minded. Things just seem to run much smoother, work goes well, your energy levels are higher, people around you are smiling more, you reach your daily goals and you feel in a natural flow with life!

Whereas tipping the balance can leave you hanging too high or falling too low. You may feel under the weather, unsteady, anxious, too high, light-headed, wobbly, even depressed or ill. There may not appear a clear solution when you’re feeling like this. Sometimes it can feel as though the world is against you – but often in reality we are simply out of balance – something that can definitely be changed for the better!

It is a good idea to take time out from your day to day life and assess how things are going for you. If you run at full speed you can sometimes overlook feelings of imbalance, so make some quiet time for check-ins and ask yourself these questions – Are you feeling balanced? What areas of your life could do with a better balance? Job/Career, Relationships, Friends & Family, Fun & Recreation, Physical Environment, Finances, Health & Wellbeing? How could you bring this about? Be sure to allow space for answers to come. Notice how you are breathing and feeling as you do so.

When you are caught up in a whirlwind in your life, often the ups and downs help you to pinpoint where you are lacking balance. You may catch yourself acting unusually, perhaps symptoms of being off balance appear, or a friend or family member could be your wake up call. However you discover it, be thankful for this new understanding and start to look for ways of tilting the scales back to neutral. Otherwise things can go from bad to worse causing upset in a life which needn’t be so.

The great thing is there are lots of ways of bringing more balance into your life! And useful tools to help you feel steadily happy and stress-free! Identify what your priorities in life are, what things mean the most to you. This will help bring more focus, direction and balance in the things that you do. You will find it easier to say no to invitations and demands from others which steer you away from your own path. You then won’t feel burned out by trying to do too many things at once.

Writing things down is a very therapeutic way of creating clarity for yourself. Buy a diary and just put pen to paper with no expectations, just see what flows! – New ideas, plans and goals can formulate before your eyes! Set yourself realistic goals and go for them! Practice self-discipline and speak kindly to yourself at all times. Nourish your body and mind with things that leave you feeling balanced, whether it be hot, cool, spicy, sweet or salty, find out how you react to certain foods. Clean and tidy your living area, read your favourite book, take a break away, sit in the shade or sun, play your favourite sport, laugh out loud, take a long relaxing bath – do whatever you need to do to feel balanced.

For me, I know several key things I can do to help bring more balance in my life. My yoga practice, swimming, wearing cool colours, spending time with my family, eating cool and nutritious simple foods – lots of fruit and veg, being outdoors in nature, reading my favourite books, having a relaxing dinner with my best friends, meditating, teaching and being with children, taking a peaceful bath, writing in my diary, making cards and just sitting on my bed taking some ‘time for me’.

What things help you to feel more balanced? Is there something that you could do right now?

Let’s all try and bring more balance into our lives – Stay Balanced for a Healthy Life!

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The Calmest Possible Option

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Recently I’ve learnt a new technique that I’m wholeheartedly applying to my life. I feel so happy and grateful for this and welcome it with open arms! Thanks to this discovery, I am currently processing great change in myself and my surroundings. I feel a positive shift within me, a sense of spaciousness forming, new energy being released and peacefulness arising. This is definitely a direction I want to go in!

My new and embraced technique I call ‘the Calmest Possible Option’. Simply because that is what it is. No matter what the situation is, how I am feeling, my environment or any of its involvement, I choose the Calmest Possible Option available to me. In exploring this technique I am already noticing that there is an abundance of options available to me and my once closed vision is widening.

In using an example of anger, if I feel angry in the presence of someone, perhaps it is something they say, instead of reacting immediately, impulsively, which was my default response and often led me somewhere lacking resolution or joy and to a great deal of counterbalancing actions, I now have a handy tool up my sleeve. This tool being a conscious and active choice of calmness. I choose peace. I throw in the towel of emotional bursts, flashes of rage, vicious words and backlash and I choose peace.

So there I am feeling angry, my body trembling, a rush of fury inside my belly and I take time to still myself. I detach myself, remove myself away from what is happening and I come to my breath. This may involve me physically taking myself out of the room or place that I am in, or by staying put but altering my focus, either way drawing in on my breath, a powerful force. I count around five deep breaths consciously slowing it down to a steady pace. This process allows me to immediately feel more calm and steady. It also gives me time and space to feel a gentle change taking place within me. I then in that moment recognise that I am in control of my actions, my choices, my words and I am able to choose my next step. A step that will soon become my past.

I can’t fully comprehend where this new awakening came from, but I can say that the timing is perfect. I had been feeling somewhat out of balance, uncertain and fearful of things around me, as though I had no say in the unfolding of my life. Such feelings are now being pushed out of me, as calmness sets in. I am experiencing feelings of freedom and strength as I choose how my behaviour and actions progress.

It is not an easy method to set in motion. Although it involves peace, quietness and time for reflection, it can be very difficult to detach yourself from a situation, a scene in the making and choose differently. It can be difficult to alter your reactions, your responses, the default mode you have set it place. And it can be difficult to let go of justification for emotional outbursts and cries of pain. But it is without a doubt an incredible tool to uncover, to recognise and to embrace.

I have been enjoying the recent process of putting the Calmest Possible Option into play. Just today I actually noted the exact moment I caught myself in an oncoming angry bolt. I felt my fierce emotions, the fire within my belly and something told me to step away, and so I did. In that moment where in the past I would feel uncontrollable, throwing judgments and losing my energy to a point of exhaustion, I chose otherwise, I told a different story. I choose peace. I thereby kept my energy reserves, put a new story into action and did something I didn’t previously know I had control of.

The Calmest Possible Option is not only something that you can apply in angry situations. You can choose to step away from moments of any kinds, such as sadness, over excitement, fear, worry, greed or even happiness. And you can decide to take a different step on your journey and create new behaviour patterns.

Sometimes we think that we just have to act in certain ways, that there is a justification for all that we do, and we’ll go on justifying this until we’re sick and tired of it. But this is not the case! We do not have to act in any such ways, we can choose what we do next.

It is an incredible vision if we think about what we would be saving in our lives if we just took time to think in the present moments we are in. We can save energy and time and friendship if we notice our current stories that we are playing in our lives. We often become so absorbed in what we are doing that we forget that we have choice, that we are choosing every way in which we move. We get ourselves in such states when we could in fact avoid them and have more peaceful times. We can change the dynamic of our relationships, our thoughts and create such healthy minds.

Are you choosing the Calmest Possible Option in the things that you do or say? Or are you setting things is motion for a Storm?

Choose peace. Choose calm without a storm.

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