Resetting Within

How many of us look like we have it all together on the outside but don’t take the time to nurture what fuels and aligns us inside? 

We often wear masks that build our brand to the outside world – gaining credibility and keeping up with comparisons – and forget what our real face looks like. 

We ask ourselves what it’s like to be a good woman, mother, or leader. “How should I behave? What’s expected of me?”

We might ask further, “And what do I expect of myself?”

We can reach a point when we feel we have little that’s truly inspired left to give.

What a beautiful wake up call this actually is! What a sacred invitation to break from allowing the events and opinions that swirl around us on the outside to determine our priorities, decisions, and sense of reality.

Nurturing our inner world cultivates lasting peace and freedom. It activates inspiration, creativity, productivity, and joy. We feel clarity.

While public opinion, cultural roles, and society's definitions of success change, alignment with our spiritual center and what we value is our unchanging core. 

Within the soft walls of serenity and gratitude, we move from enduring, to accepting, to allowing. We discover deep joy and satisfaction HERE and NOW. And it’s powerful!

I've been feeling like I’ve lost my edge. Maybe I’ve reached the end of a period of growth and inspiration, gotten caught up in the day to day, and neglected to consistently nurture inspiration.

What do we do when we sit in times of uncertainty or doubt, when we don’t see next steps or feel a motivating impetus?

Just this morning, my husband reminded me, "Every day is beautiful. It's just our perception of it that needs to change."

When we get stuck viewing life through the lens of how we think it SHOULD BE - ignoring the promise and blessings of what it IS - we need to reset our perspective.

Try this:

• Slow your breath, close your eyes, and get still.

• Align your focus and feeling. (I like to bring my attention to a central point high in my head and feel it connect to my heart. Outside distractions fall away, and I feel a presence of warmth and peace.)

• Then, recognize any scurrying emotions of worry, fear, regret, etc. Don't judge them; rather, observe them from a distance with a curiosity that acknowledges but doesn't fear or give them power. 

• Here's the lesson I've learned: Don't bury, suppress or ignore these emotions and allow them to fester. This fuels a lower burning fire that eventually flares up. Rather, embrace the opportunity to focus on grace - compassion, patience, forgiveness, humility, and so on - so that you're ready to let the fire die out. Gently release these feelings, and they dissipate on their own.

• From a focused core of serenity, we hear and feel answers. Know that you don't need to do or be anything else. Just sit with the peace of this freedom.

• Now, turn to gratitude. Where have you taken steps forward? Learned a lesson or gained wisdom? Released crippling beliefs about yourself, or another? Gone outside your comfort zone and acted with courage? Experienced real Oneness? Create your own list... Take time to record these healing moments so you can't devalue or disown them later. Recognize how these successes have changed your life.

Celebrate them. Claim them. Own them. This gives them life, and legs to stand on. 

And treat celebration as more than a postscript or quick check on your to-do list. Step into its light and linger!

Rejoicing is a positive and affirming life force that opens our hearts to welcome more good, more progress, more joy. It doesn’t hold back. It’s a natural impetus. And we need to feel it, fully, to find our unfiltered, undistracted power and freedom.

We drop the masks and turn our natural faces to the light when we take time to reset within and tether to our abiding core.

When we do this, we have the courage to not care about outside opinions, comparisons, and expectations that tempt us to withdraw from or ignore our spiritual core. We feel a free flow of inspiration, and alignment with our Source.