Boldly Follow Your Way in Life

Never worry whether you can boldly follow your way in life. Each of us finds our level of boldness.

Boldly Follow Your Way in Life

Does this headline scare you or expand your heart space? These two reactions are right next to each other. One step forward brings you closer to expansion.

Sometimes, the unknown future keeps us rooted in a spot of fear.

How to Overcome Fear

Fear lives in our thoughts about the future. We feed our fear by choosing to question our power.

What if I don’t know the answers to the test? How will I perform in the new job? I don’t know anyone in my unique situation. How will I make new friends?

Instead, use your thoughts to review a personal triumph or known success of others.

I’ve done well on tests before. Every new job has a learning curve, and my new manager knows that. Once I’m in a unique situation, the unknown becomes the known. I’ve made new friends before by following my interests.

One Simple Tool Helps

Since fear lives in our thoughts of the future, we use a tool to live in the present. This tool helps you boldly follow your way in life.

Taking one deep breath brings you to the present.
Lower your gaze to the floor, and take another deep breath.
Continue to breathe normally, noticing how your body reacts.
Bring your focus to your breath, whether you can feel the breath at your nostrils, the rise and fall of your belly or your lungs filling with air.

Of course, you must be in a safe place when you use this simple tool. So safety is your first concern.

Practice This Tool Often

How many times have you practiced something before you needed it? For example, did you play with dolls as a child, practicing how to be a parent? Or perhaps you made mud pies and practiced cooking.

By spending time each day practicing mindful deep breathing, you can more easily live in the moment.

Some people call this meditation. You can call it whatever you want. It’s your life and your choice to follow your way in life boldly.

Give yourself credit each time you make forward progress, and forgive yourself when you stumble. We all have ups and downs. Take time to celebrate every improvement. You are worth it.

Bringing More Balance Into Your Life

How often have you read headlines about bringing more balance into your life? Do you have any idea how to do this? Is this imbalance physical, mental, energetic, or something else?

Bringing More Balance into Your Life

Most of us acknowledge the wisdom of the statement above. It’s been a real problem for me that was accentuated when I began to raise my spiritual awareness. Although it seemed innocuous, raising my awareness created an energetic imbalance for me.

Determining Energy Imbalance

My study of the System of Reiki identifies two opposing energies that affect all types of balance: earth energy and heaven energy.

Too much earth energy may result in feeling stuck.

Imagine yourself dreading another day at your desk job. All your friends are tired of hearing you whine. The more you complain about your situation, the more stuck you feel. However, during your afternoon coffee break, you hear someone excitedly talking about the change in their life after they start journaling. So you begin to write the following day and slowly discover you have options in life.

Too much heaven energy may result in feeling scattered or unable to make decisions.

Now imagine yourself preparing to walk out your door on the way to run errands. Unfortunately, your house key isn’t in your pocket or purse as you start closing the door. Walking back inside, you feel dizzy and filled with apprehension. Two possible ways to react; race around looking in every room for the keys or calmly stop, taking slow deep breaths before retracing your steps the last time you used the house key.

Some Ways to Bring More Balance

Grounding is associated with balancing earth energy, while developing spiritual awareness is linked to heaven energy. I’ve written articles about grounding with my favorite method of walking in nature.

In addition to journaling, meditation connects us to heaven energy. There are many ways to meditate, including:

Yoga
Mindfulness
Spiritual prayer
Chanting
The System of Reiki

Positive Side Effects

Since I’ve improved my life balance, I’ve noticed:

An inner calmness
Feeling more accomplished
Elevated gratitude

Was there Resistance? Definitely

For me, resistance often shows up as slipping into old unhealthy habits. My favorite form of resistance is eating in a harmful way, both in my food choice and amount.

In the past, overeating brought on harsh self-criticism. Next, I either resorted to a restricted diet, sank deeper into a pattern of overeating, or both.

Now, feeling more balanced, I started improving my food choices and amounts. Finally, I experienced the wonder of intuitive eating. Self-love has replaced self-criticism.

By bringing more balance into your life, you can naturally slip into healthier ways of living.

Our Reaction Can Decrease Stress

Our reaction can decrease stress. When the pressure of world events feels so heavy, there is only one lasting solution. We choose to adjust our response.

A Metaphor of Arrows

During my morning meditation with Anushka Fernandopulle with the app from Ten-Percent Happier, she asked me to imagine a troublesome event as an arrow piercing my body. It hurts. But when we take on even more stress in our reaction, the one indicator becomes many, piercing our flesh until we completely shut down.

How to Remove the Arrows

I will lead you through a meditation that gives you the tools to reduce stress in your body. When your body rests, the mind follows.

Furthermore, I invite you to record the next section as you read it aloud, going through the motions to give yourself time to breathe and relax for a ten-minute meditation. Then you can play the recording whenever you want a break from stress.

Take a Break from Stress

Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. For example, your feet are flat on the floor if you sit in a chair. Relax the belly.

If laying down, allow your feet to fall to the sides naturally. Relax your arms either alongside your body or resting on your belly. Close your eyes if you’d like, or have a soft gaze on the floor or your chest.

Softly inhale through your nose, gently releasing the exhale. Repeat this a few times while noticing any tension in the face or shoulders.

Now take a slightly deeper breath and release the tension in your face on the out-breath. Take another deep breath and release the tension in your shoulders on the out-breath. Once more, breathe in deeply. Notice where you hold tension in your body and release it on the out-breath.

Allow your breath to return to a normal rhythm.

As you gently breathe in and out, imagine a tiny splinter in the tense area of your body loosening its grip. The tiny sliver eases out more with each out-breath until it falls out and disappears.

Continue gently breathing in and out until you feel relaxed throughout your body.

Begin to move your fingers and toes, returning to a more awake state. Please open your eyes, perhaps fluttering them a little at first. Now, look at the objects in the room or the space around you.

Take a nice cleansing breath and begin a less stressful day or evening.

A Few Final Thoughts

It is easy to revert to an overstressed condition when we engage in spending time on our cell phones, watching the news, reading the newspaper, or rehashing world events with friends and family.

Our reaction can decrease stress. We can choose to act differently. For some, it is easiest to go cold turkey by silencing the cell phone or removing it to another room.

You can mute the news on the radio or television, change the channel, or remove yourself to a different room. Perhaps you can enjoy a book or go outside.

Be gentle with yourself. Take these suggestions as just that, suggestions. And always make changes one step at a time.