September is my birth month! There are a LOT of September babies. I guess we know what our folks were up to New Years Eve!
All September, my gift to you in appreciation for your friendship, are a series of 4 notes with my tried and true tips for making the Fall flow beautifully into the Holidays, to make you more joyful, lighter of heart and productive through the end of 2020.
It’s so EASY to be negative. Our brains are set on negativity as a default. It used to keep us alive when Saber Tooths were prowling outside our caves. Everything WAS trying to kill us!
But now, to thrive, we have to work to be positive. We understand the concept that what we focus on, we attract more of. And it’s been a massive challenge to stay positive through our political divide and pandemic stress. Hey I had worked my ass off to start Quest Retreats, Adventures for Nerds…a TRAVEL business, only to be completely derailed.
So dude, I get it.
That’s why this timing is perfect.
September is a month of renewal. The air gets cooler, we change our wardrobe, we feel the change in the seasons, even here in Southern California.
We have the holidays looming large in the background. We feel the stress of making the year mean something. Is it too late?
Absolutely not. It’s simply a time to pull out a paper calendar and make some plans. Get a marker. Put in the holidays, birthdays, and events you know you have coming up on the calendar.
Now let’s take a moment. You know you have these things coming and I bet you already have some feelings coming up about it. What do you feel in your body? WHERE do you feel it? A tightness in your chest, a lump in your tummy? Just a darkness descending? And you want to stop feeling it, so what do you do? Change the topic, distract yourself, get busy, drink, eat, stuff your sadness and disappointment?
OR
Relax. Feel the feelings, they are not going to hurt you. If you really let your body and soul tell you how it’s feeling, something happens that’s marvelous. It changes and lightens up, eventually letting go. Relax into the sadness, anger, numbness, whatever it is. Relax more. Allow it. My coach taught me this mantra: Accept, Breathe, Allow, Receive. And I’ll say that over and over again, while I’m letting the feelings flow.
Feelings MUST move. Emotions are made to move. IF YOU STOP IT, it turns into something else and it’s NOT GOOD. Emotions will lock up, lump up, harden. They freeze you up. Stop your progress.
So let it flow. Relax or maybe simply ALLOW. Allow them to move. ACCEPT them, your emotions are a personal truth. Keep BREATHING, keep taking breaths as you accept and allow and face any hard feelings. Don’t hold tight, just breathe and let them move and morph. Now RECEIVE. Receive the grace that comes from being more open hearted.
You’ll also receive messages, insights, synchronicities, from the universe. When you are constricted around stuffed down feelings you can’t let the good stuff in. You shut down a part of you to not feel something hard and uncomfortable, and you shut down your ability to feel the wonderful things too. You can’t just pick and choose the feelings to turn off. You dim the whole rainbow.
So right now as you look at the calendar, let the worries and sadness come up, accept, allow, breathe….and they will move through.
NOW receive the vision of how you want things to go. How do you want that event to feel like? Easy breezy and fun as hell? How do you want that job to go, or project? See the smiles on the faces. See yourself relax and blissfully happy. You don’t have to know the HOW it happens yet. Just HOW you want to feel.
Keep doing that, every day. Look at the calendar in the morning and feel the emotions stir and move. Focus on what you want. Let go of what you don’t want.
This is a perfect time to boost your strength, reset your vision for your career, your relationships, your energy and optimism.
That shit isn’t an accident or “Just Happens”. It’s ON PURPOSE. It takes focus.
And I’m sharing it all with you here, and in the next 3 emails.
Start right now by doing the most basic mental health super boost there is: Meditation.
Take 5 minutes to start, and watch your breathing. Just that.
As your mind wanders, bring it back to the breath.
You can set a timer, play some quiet sounds like rainfall or waves. Nothing with a melody.
Just do it.
Practice being wordless. In that stillness there’s more healing and connection than in any hospital.
And it’s where you connect to your superpower.
The Jedi strength of The Force.
The Force will provide you with an internal map and compass to your passions, purpose and most magical life.
It’s everything you need to make your life the adventure of your dreams.
So just do a meditation every day.
Extra Credit:
Get some markers and color the events and holidays you have in the calendar. Make it cheerful, fun, attractive.
Back up to where you might need to shop before the event, or travel, prep food, clean house, decorate and put that down in the days before so you have time to prepare and not stress.
Fill in other plans and details. Keep making it attractive for you.
We will do more in the next emails!
Good work!
(photo by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos)
