Choose to Live Your Richest Life
Have you ever gotten so tired of the way things are going that you say to yourself, ‘Enough!’? Maybe it is your finances or your exercise regimen or your weight or what you eat or a job that doesn’t satisfy you or a relationship that doesn’t serve your highest good. Have you reached a point where you have had enough and you’re ready to choose a different path?
Sometimes things have to get really terrible before we make that choice. You have to ‘hit bottom’ before you start to pull yourself up. Or maybe the Universe has to hit you on the head with a 2 by 4 to get your attention.
I am trying to learn my lessons before it reaches that point. I confess that I don’t always shift in time to avoid the 2 by 4, though. My goal is to help you learn to make the shift BEFORE that 2 by 4 hits you.
Many of my clients come to me because they feel ready to shift but don’t know what their next step is. This is the perfect time to start working on yourself and your personal growth. Others, though, come only after they’ve been knocked down and can’t figure out how to get themselves picked up. That’s okay, too, as we do figure out what to do next.
But don’t you want to avoid the drama? Avoid the ‘I must do something’ scenario and be proactive about making choices in your life?
The first step is to realize that you are always at choice. Even when it feels as if you can’t do anything to make a change, you are deciding (choosing) to stay the way things are.
There is a big difference between feeling that things are horrible, that they must change and knowing what to do to make that change. This is where it is important to ask for help.
Even if you don’t get help from a professional, for whatever reason, at least talk to a trusted advisor or friend. You don’t have to navigate big shifts alone!
Sometimes it is important to find someone to see what you cannot see, to help you find possibilities that, when you are stuck in the quicksand of a messy situation, are difficult to sort out. This is where seeking help is so important. Someone outside of the quicksand can see what is hidden from you and steer you in the direction of what you want instead of what you feel is holding you stuck.
A client of mine recently told me that she was driving along and suddenly realized that that day was the ‘ideal day’ that she had written as her homework from one of our early appointments. She was living that day and loving it! And was thrilled at the difference between when she started the process and where she is today.
You can have the same experience. Stop doing what you’ve been doing that keeps you stuck where you are uncomfortable, in any area of your life. Ask for help. Seek your ideal day. Choose a different path. One step at a time, one behavior at a time, one action at a time.
Your Richest Life awaits you!
Are You the Director or the Actor in the Play that is Your Life? – Richard’s Commentary
October 15, 2014 — RichardThis is such a wonderful question Rosemary asks. It’s one of those questions that makes you go “hmmm”! It stops me and makes me think. And, it’s another one of those questions that take me inside, to examine, to evaluate, and maybe, just maybe to shift!
Here’s the key to Rosemary’s Exploration:
What did you used to believe about yourself, life, the world around you that might be holding you back today? Is it your unconscious mind that is the Director while you and your conscious mind are merely the Actors on the stage?
It’s those old beliefs, those old programs that run on automatic when our attention strays, when “unforeseen situations arise,” or when we simply get caught off guard in a moment of weakness.
Here’s a simple example that is trite but true, a cliché of our times: driving in traffic I still find myself getting upset by unconscious drivers who are in some way impeding my progress! Then I realize I am being unconscious myself in my angry reactions. I take a breath, go briefly inside to remember my impatience is getting in my own way, release frustration and then move along more smoothly – until the next inattentive driver annoys me!
This is a life-long habit. I probably learned it from my father, even though in rural Wisconsin he did not face the driving difficulties we have here in the East! I know I am being the Actor in my little stage play about driving in traffic and my unconscious mind is the Director in this play. It is a hard habit to break and I get plenty of opportunities to practice!
I find my breath work, as part of my Qigong and Yoga practices help me overcome, or at least recover from habits of a lifetime. As long as I remember to breathe intentionally I can short-circuit the old programming and my conscious mind can recover control and direct my life.
Here’s how that works: one of my practices is to employ the Hamsa mantra as taught by Swami Muktananda (ref: I Am That The Science of HAMSA from the Vignana Bhairava). This is probably the simplest yet most profound mantra in the Yogic tradition. “Ham” means “I am” and Sa means “that.” It may also be seen and pronounced or read as So’ham “that I am” depending on personal preference and breath flow.
Ham is the sound of the breath as you inhale. Sa or So is the sound of the breath as you exhale. My natural breath includes a more lengthy pause after exhaling so I use Hamsa as my breath mantra; in other words it seems more natural for me to inhale before I exhale. Practice both ways; if it seems more natural for you to exhale first then So’ham may be the better way for you to use this key mantra.
For that matter you can even use English here inhaling on the “I Am” and exhaling on the “That.” The real key is to become aware of the breath and then become intentional about breathing through the recovery from habitual action and reaction you are working to reprogram. As Rosemary writes:
You can’t just decide to do things differently and have your unconscious mind let go of those old beliefs. They are programs that are running all the time. They are beliefs that trump conscious decisions many times.
The work is to go inside and uncover the programs and reprogram your mind.
Breath work is an excellent tool to aid you in the reprogramming effort.