Life is too busy. Life is hard. Life is unfair. Life is… (fill in the blank).
What we believe becomes our truth. That’s not to say that life isn’t too busy, hard or unfair at times. It is. But, if that becomes the story we tell ourselves, over and over, that will begin to become our reality.
I know this because those stories are my own. I was just wallowing in some self-pity last night as I told my husband, “There is just too much going on, I can’t keep up. Life is way too busy!”.
As I pulled myself eventually out of the story, I realized that I am in control of my reality. I make decisions each and every day about how I spend my time, where I spend my time and where my energy goes.
I also know that there are a lot of self-care techniques that can help me when I’m feeling this way. I teach them to my students but sometimes forget to draw upon them myself when I’m in need.
There is an old zen saying, “you shoud sit for meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you are too busy, then you should sit for an hour.”
The truth is, the more you meditate, the more your mind becomes focused. When your mind is focused, you can make decisions that are more inline with who you want to be and how you want to spend your time.
Are you feeling like life is too busy, hard, or unfair? We’ve all been there. Some of us live there.
Here is a short meditation and some tools for pulling yourself out of the story and back into living the life you want for yourself.
Let’s get started (this will only take a few minutes - remember the zen saying…)
- Allow yourself to lie down or sit comfortably
- Take a few deep breaths, filling your abdomen up with prana
- Close your eyes and focus all of your attention on your breath
Once you feel relaxed, ask yourself the following questions and simply observe what comes up for you (without judgement):
Who am I?
Who do I want to be?
Where is my time and energy being focused?
Where do I want my time and energy to be most focused?
Am I living the life that I want for myself?
Let the questions float over you and just see what comes up. You may see, hear, or feel concrete answers and you may not. You may want to come back to this practice over and over and notice the responses you get from within. They may shift or change over time.
When you are ready to open your eyes, grab a pen and paper and write down what came up for you. Do you know who you are? Does who you want to be align with who you think you are at this moment in time?
Where are you focusing your time and energy? Does it match where you want to be spending most of your time and energy? If not, what can you do to make some changes to begin to shift that?
Finally, are you living the life you want for yourself? Are you making space for what matters most?
You might realize that there are some major blocks or obstacles in your life that are keeping you from being your best self. If that is your realization, you might want to spend more time trying to get clear on what it is that you most desire and determine a path to get there.
Maybe you realized you are living the life you’ve dreamed of, yet your awareness of that is getting overshadowed by the busyness of your days. If that’s the case, take a few deep breaths, bring your awareness back to the present moment and soak in all the things you have to be grateful for.
At the end of the day, ask yourself; did I create space for what matters most? If not, the beauty is that tomorrow is a new day and you get to start all over again. When you wake up in the morning take a few moments to connect with your intentions to put them into motion as you step out into your day. You might just find that you had all the time and energy that you needed, all along.
If you are wanting to get more focused on the things that matter most in your life, or are looking for a path to living a more intentional life, a Life Coach can help. Nicole Lovald, owner of Spirit of the Lake Yoga is a Life Coach who helps people reconnect with their inner Self so that they can live their best life. Schedule a FREE 30 minute coaching consultation here: www.spiritofthelakeyoga.com/wellness