Step Out of the Rat Race

Hello There

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged as life has been 100mph for almost a year now! So much so, it’s been a struggle to maintain my balance & energy in 2018. The word ‘simplicity’ has been whispered time and time again, yet I’ve been moving too fast to really pay attention.

As happens often, it took an intuitive trigger and nudge from the Universe to prompt me to write this blog. Not only to help others, but to remind myself that it’s the simple, disciplined, heartfelt things we do on a daily basis, for ourselves, that make all the difference in the ever pressured, fast paced world we live in today.

The Universe and our Galaxy are expanding outwards. This is causing every atom in the Universe to speed up as this slow, but continual expansion makes them move faster. Think of how agitated water becomes when it’s boiled. That’s what expansion does to atoms, even the ones in our body.

This speed is starting to become noticeable to many. There don’t seem to be enough hours in the day, expectations & responsibilities seem to be escalating, we aren’t just dealing with one issue at a time with the space to meditate and think it over for a few weeks ~ those issues are coming thick & fast, often on a daily basis and seem to be asking a lot of all of our systems simultaneously. Human beings are becoming multi-tasking wonders in an effort to keep up with the pace!

Those who are walking a path of awareness & are embracing change are being confronted with past life, ancestral, genetic or mental/emotional/behavioural patterns that aren’t going to wait any longer to be addressed. This is the final year of motivational, ‘kick up the bum’ energy to make those necessary changes or for many, the ship will have sailed and we may be saddled with those issues for the rest of our lives. Am acutely aware of that because I am one of those people.

Am shifting as fast as possible, but WOW does it leave me feeling vulnerable, shaky, frustrated, angry or simply worn out some days. And there are STILL those pesky little wounds that demand that I dig down deeper, that I transform habits, thoughts or coping mechanisms that aren’t the healthiest choice, but I’ve been comfortable with them for decades. Am extremely lucky & grateful to have worked hard to heal & become relatively happy in life. Am tackling the issues where unhappiness occasionally does occur, but it’s the other areas where things aren’t negative that am struggling the most. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is an age old adage, so being asked to change things that feel OK at the moment, where those changes may actually cause stress where there currently isn’t any, is even more of a challenge.

The following exercise helps us to step out of the rat race. It allows us to move through the world based on being very much in tune with ourselves and our changing daily needs. It enables us to feel more confident, more empowered and is a wonderful exercise in Self Love & connection to our Higher Selves. It has been developed over the years through experimentation with grounding, protection, meditation and visualisation exercises.

When I first started on a spiritual path, everyone used to say ‘go inwards’, but what does that actually mean?

To me, it means tuning into the wealth of Universal connection and information that lies within us. Evolution has taught us how to forget who we truly are, to take our cues from people or things outside of ourselves instead of tapping into a place inside that knows exactly who we are and what we need in life. For those who have been struggling to connect to their higher self, intuitive guidance or Universal energy lately, this simple exercise goes a long way to solving the problem. In fact, I think the difficulty in connecting for many lately is deliberate. It is forcing us to find a different way and what better way than to go inwards!

I used to do it daily myself, but pushed it to one side as life got busier. If we cannot gift ourselves 15 minutes a day to help ourselves feel more confident, connected & stable in whatever way works for us, there’s a problem and we need to change something to ensure we get that time. Simple.

I highly recommend a daily practice that can be carried out each morning when we first wake up. It brings our awareness to the fore, which makes everything we do that day much easier to process and handle. So many of us have ‘to do’ lists that are ridiculously long, have creative ideas crowding to be heard, have our Ego mind nagging from the background, have kids & responsibilities that demand attention the minute we open our eyes, or we have become so ingrained in the routine of sleep – work – eat – repeat, that it guarantees we’re unfocused and unbalanced.

What can help us is a daily practice that allows us to get in touch with the primary FOUR levels of our energy system ~ physical, emotional, intuitive (spiritual) and finally mental. I often struggle to meditate, so this exercise is how I connect with myself and Universal energy on a daily basis. The awareness & connection it brings, over time, are worth making it part of a morning routine ~ just like brushing our teeth or getting dressed.

It gives us an opportunity to step out of the rat race, out of the speedy pace of life, out of everything that is causing us stress or anxiety for a moment to come home to ourselves. Doing this exercise as a daily discipline over 30 days can form a wonderful habit that supports us our entire lifetime. 

 

The Physical

When you first wake up in the morning, lie in bed for a few moments, relax and breathe deeply until you feel fully awake. If you need to set your alarm 15 minutes earlier, that’s OK!! In the words of that maddening L’Oreal advert……….. ‘You’re Worth It’ *cringe* 😉 LOL

Sit up and move to a sitting position on the edge of the bed. If you need to pop to the bathroom quickly first, that’s OK too. Do what you need to do, then come back and sit on the edge of the bed. Do not ground yourself. Take a few deep breaths to calm yourself and then become aware of your physical body. How does it feel today?

Start at the bottom with your feet and wriggle your toes. Is there any tension in them anywhere? Move slowly up the body, moving and bending limbs or muscles, feel those muscles with your physical hands if you wish. Is there any tension or tightness anywhere that isn’t simply down to age? Do you feel stiff, aching, not quite right or tired anywhere in your body on a physical level? How is your physical energy in general? Have you woken up feeling refreshed and energetic? Do you feel drained and wish you could go back to sleep?

How is your nervous system doing? Do you know how your physical body responds to nervous/anxious/stressful energy? Are you sure? When is the last time you checked? Some of us hold tension or nerves in our stomach. We’ll get butterflies or our stomach may feel tense, tied up in knots or full of nervous energy. Others get stiffness or lack of movement in their hands, feet, the back, the shoulders, across the chest, at the bottom of the neck or into the head. Some come out in a rash, have difficulty breathing, get headaches or ache all over…… the list is endless as each of us responds to stress or nervous energy in a different way and it’s not always the same way either. We may hold our body differently at work (in an effort to control showing how we truly feel) to how we do at home. Work stress may primarily take up our mental energy and result in headaches whereas relationship or parental problems may cause our stomach to bottom out.

Different emotions elicit different nervous responses in different areas of the body. Checking in with our entire body without assuming we already know where we’re tense is quite important. Particularly for those who think they’ve already been here and done this (errrm *cough cough*, that includes me!). If you haven’t done it lately, you might as well have not done it at all because who you are now isn’t the same person you were six, twelve or twenty four months ago! Think about it 😉

Think of how we take a deep, sharp intake of breath when something shocks or surprises us ~ pretend and try doing it yourself now. Can you feel that tension across your chest, how the muscles tighten in the face, jaw, neck & shoulders, how your lungs freeze? That is how our body responds to daily stress in such an imperceptible way, we aren’t even aware of it, but that tension slowly builds over time.

The object of this exercise is to learn where any tension lies and what that tension means to you. Once you’re aware of that, the next step is to try and honour the physical body. For those with illness or pain, tuning into the physical body on a daily basis and ascertaining where it’s at is even more important as your capability to get through the day often depends on it. Tune in before taking any medication or pain killers, which immediately dull the nervous system and senses, tuning essential information out. There are subtle differences on a day to day level and becoming aware of them may help.

The energetic days are the days we can get lots done, can carry out physical exercise, take part in active hobbies or we may feel up to socialising. The days when we feel drained or fatigued are the days we need to reschedule anything that is going to drain us further. We all know this, but how often does anyone listen to their body and honour it?

Doing so will change the quality and pace of your life. For women in particular, our physical body runs on a monthly cycle which is different for each of us. 9am – 5pm life has forced us to do a huge amount, every day we can, regardless of whether our physical body is actually up to it. If you can, start to pay attention to your body. It is our primary source of information about ourselves, particularly if we’re living a fast paced life or are struggling with our emotional balance, mental overwhelm or Universal connection.

The Emotional

The next stage is to check in with your emotions. How do you feel? Are you feeling vulnerable, nervous, happy, worried, positive, sad or joyful? What emotions are you experiencing primarily and how are they making you feel? Are they lifting you up or bringing you down? Do you feel calm, like it is a solid, balanced day emotionally or do you feel a bit wobbly? Have you woken up in a great mood or are you angry or grumpy? How do you feel you should go through your day based on how your body is feeling and how your emotions are presenting themselves? Again, particularly for women, are you in a part of your monthly cycle that hormonally affects, lowers or unbalances your emotions? If so, it’s not wise to push ourselves on those days as our emotions aren’t likely to cope very well.

Is it a good idea to put yourself into a stressful situation if you’re feeling physically drained, tired, in pain or emotionally wobby? Is it a good idea to have a day of rest and relaxation if you’re feeling full of energy, restless or agitated?

It’s important that we start to run our day based on how we feel on every level ~ our system gives us a huge amount of information when we go inwards to explore our body, to explore our feelings and then move on to running that information past our gut intuition. The next step is to ascertain the best way to move through the coming day.

The Spiritual

Our gut level intuition can often give us some of the best information we will receive on any given day. Sometimes we may feel tired and need to rest. If our physical body is tired and our emotions are low, on an intuitive level we know we need to rest. If we ignore our intuition and force ourselves to do too much (because that ‘to do’ list, meeting or appointment can’t possibly wait or be rescheduled), we may not do very well. If you can reschedule or move something, do so. The world will not end 😉

There may be some tension in our body and our nerves may feel jangly or edgy if we’ve got something coming up that day that we have to deal with. Not everything can be moved or rescheduled. That’s life, but if we’ve acknowledged we have some physical tension, we can help ourselves by doing something to release it. If we are feeling restless and edgy, we can do things that will calm our nerves. This awareness means we can ask our intuitive selves how to approach the day from a calm, mature, honest perspective.

Think over the day ahead ~ whether you will be at work, at home or on holiday ~ think about how your body is feeling that day and what emotional state you are in. Then take a deep breath, quieten your mind and ask for intuitive guidance about how to approach the day. You may get an image, words, ideas or feelings. Trust them. Our inner self knows exactly what we need long before our conscious mind does, we simply need to trust the information it gives us and act upon it when we are able.

The Mind

The last of our systems is the realm of the mind. The one that is actually the least helpful to us. Throughout this blog, I talk and ask about how things FEEL.

Our mind thinks, it processes, it analyses and it distracts. It does not feel, yet how many of us let our mind run the show? All of our sensory information is based on feeling and sensing in realms outside of the mind ~ the mind is there to simply process any information we direct it to focus on.

It is the mind that creates fear, that worries, that stresses, that talks to & criticises us like we’re stupid or unworthy. Trust your wealth of feelings and information from the physical, emotional and intuitive sides of yourself over the thoughts of the mind.

This exercise forces our mind to focus first on our body, then on our emotions, then to pay attention to intuitive guidance. The negative self critic that lies within all of us can’t get a word in! The key to mentally stepping out of reach of negative thought patterns & that voice at the back of our head that makes us feel bad, unworthy, frightened or incapable is to give it something to do.

We need our mind to be focused on the different levels of our energy systems, not barraging us with ideas, words, negativity or endless things we have to do first thing in the morning. Our mind is there to do our bidding. It’s only when we stop focusing it that our awareness drops and it becomes harder to remain strong or achieve clarity. Pay attention to how your mind jumps around  or tries to distract you without actually letting it do so. Witness your thoughts as they may give you information of how your awareness is disrupted by the mind on a regular basis.

Complete the exercise by standing up and grounding yourself firmly in whatever way works best for you. For some, grounding is a visualisation exercise, for others, having breakfast or eating in general is very grounding. If you would like a simple grounding and protection exercise, there is one available free on the website. Please Click Here.

The Discipline

Through doing this exercise on a daily basis, you will start to become aware of just how different each day is and you will be able to honour whatever given state you are in.

It won’t always be possible to do so, but we can help ourselves by becoming aware of how our entire human system is feeling and take action to support it as much as possible. If we’re exhausted, we can give ourselves breaks during the day or at the very least communicate to others that we aren’t feeling our best. If we’re aware we are emotionally vulnerable that day, we can chose to walk away from a difficult conversation until we feel stronger, rather than pushing ourselves or blundering in with no awareness, which usually results in even more emotional stress! If we’re feeling motivated and energised on a day when there isn’t a lot going on, we can channel that energy into something physical or creative so it doesn’t go to waste.

Just remember to stay focused and check in with yourself throughout the day. Keep that negative self critic or thought pattern at bay by giving yourself positive things to focus on or think about. If you’re too tired to bother, read a book, deliberately give the mind a rest from ‘thinking’ by getting lost in a good television program/movie or go to sleep.

Over time, if we undertake this exercise as a daily practice, it becomes instinctive and we are able to check in, ground and protect ourselves within minutes. Some days the exercise is really quick, particularly if I’m feeling good. Other days, it takes more time & going slow and being gentle with myself works much better. It also helps to ascertain whether disruptive energy during the day is coming from us or if it’s something affecting everyone on an external level. Crystals can help support us in this exercise, particularly Scolecite & Blue Kyanite.

With love and bright blessings

Krissy xxxx