You may have asked-how can I get my life on track? You know those days or weeks when things feel completely OUT OF SYNC?
Life feels really hard (more than usual). You’ve lost your footing.
Nothing happens with ease…
Each door that looks wide open, slams in your face.
Everyone around you seems to be constantly saying “no.”
Everything you try to accomplish takes at least 2 (often 4) tries to get it done right.
Everything feels like work (even going out to dinner with friends feels like job).
You can’t get enough sleep.
Even breathing feels hard (or were you too caught up in the chaos around you to notice?).
You feel a bit like a mess and your life feels complicated. Yet, each time you think you’re over the hump, another challenge arises.
Grrr…let it stop! Let it move! Let something give!
All you know for sure is: something needs to shift. You need to figure out how to get life in order.
You aren’t asking for what seems like a lot. You just want to wake up tomorrow feeling flow and ease versus being the world’s best Fire-Putter-Outer (that’s a thing, right?).
It can all change in an instant.
Here’s what life needs from you and what you need to know…and it may not be what you would think…
It’s ok to not be ok. You don’t have to “have it all together” to be happy, to live well and to enjoy being human. In fact, you will have many times of not being ok in your lifetime and that’s really ok (even though it feels bad).
We’re are all not ok sometimes. No one “has it together” all time. Yes, this includes me (in fact, so much of what I write about are things that I, too, have struggled with or I continue to work on within myself)! Being human means sometimes not being ok. The big secret, that very few people discuss openly, is that we’re all just figuring things out as we go along. No one has cracked the code to experiencing a life of 100% pure joy and ease. By the way, take a moment to imagine how devoid of meaning life would be if we all just skipped along happily and sang zippity-doo-dah all day, every day?
To have a life of depth and meaning
you need to experience both highs and lows.
Flipping the switch to freedom comes from within you. Creating an internal shift usually requires less of your hard-pressed effort and more of your presence. Pushing against what IS to get to what you believe SHOULD BE is painful and usually fruitless. Instead, simplify. Pause more. Create mini-mindful moments in your day to tune-in to your breath, your body and the messages of your heart. Allow what’s there to emerge, just as it is, without trying to change it. Instead of actively doing, forcing, blocking, resisting…TRY: being, listening, receiving and accepting.
The less you press, the less you stress.
There’s a lesson here that will make your life better later. Ok, so life is feeling crappy right now. Give yourself permission to have feelings about that. Also, remind yourself that something really good – something that you can’t even begin to imagine right now — will emerge from this challenge. You won’t be able to see it yet, so don’t even try. But trust, that if you stay open to receiving it, there’s a gift of deep meaning that awaits you.
It’s often our grit that yields us the most precious gifts.
Disclaimers:
If you feel like you’re not ok and you’re thinking of hurting yourself or someone else, call 911 or go to the nearest Emergency Room.
If you are not in harm’s way, but you’re not feeling ok to the extent that you’re struggling to get out of bed in the morning, you’re often sad or crying out of the blue, you’ve lost interest in things that used to give you joy, or you have major changes in your sleep or appetite – it’s time to reach out to a professional psychotherapist.
May you trust in your ability to be resilient…
P.S. If you liked this, check out the on-going conversations and sharing that’s happening in the MindBodyWise Living Room (a private Facebook group for like-spirited people).
P.P.S. Get the pulse on your mind-body connection by taking this free 10-question MindBody IQ Quiz.
