Happy New Year!
"I am humbly grateful... For my experiences are always beautiful and fulfilling.
I am humbly grateful... For miracles include me in their play."
 |
| Visit my Website Follow on Instagram Subscribe to my YouTube Channel |
The last four weeks have been exciting, exhausting, expansive and somewhat of an endurance test. Stress has been high for me, which is unusual. And you know- being a yoga teacher, I am supposed to be ever-calm and in manage of my emotions... NOT!
"I now live the life I love to live!"
Why did I make that statement? Because I feel my stress has a lot to do with ME being resistant to fully receiving the very things I have been asking for. In 2014 I asked for a lot. And now that everything I asked for is here, I'm dealing with my own fear of really stepping into 'it' and being more of myself in it.
What did you ask for in 2014?... Either consciously or subconsciously?
Has it arrived? Is it on its way?
Are you enjoying the process of 'becoming more of yourself'?
COMMITMENT
In 2014 I committed to living a life much larger than I had ever known. To me, this meant setting specific goals as a writer and following through with them to get results- just as we do when preparing a workout regime. This also meant teaching more of my homemade style classes on Meditation and BellyDance, in honor of creating community and stretching my skills as a teacher. Committing to a much larger life also meant leaving a long-term and very comfortable job that had outlived its growth for me.
In the last month...
What did you ask for in 2014?... Either consciously or subconsciously?
Has it arrived? Is it on its way?
Are you enjoying the process of 'becoming more of yourself'?
COMMITMENT
In 2014 I committed to living a life much larger than I had ever known. To me, this meant setting specific goals as a writer and following through with them to get results- just as we do when preparing a workout regime. This also meant teaching more of my homemade style classes on Meditation and BellyDance, in honor of creating community and stretching my skills as a teacher. Committing to a much larger life also meant leaving a long-term and very comfortable job that had outlived its growth for me.
In the last month...
1. I moved into an amazing new home with my fiancé... on New Years Eve!
something we had been talking about for four months, happened in less than two weeks.
something we had been talking about for four months, happened in less than two weeks.
2. I now have 'office space', whereby I can get into the 'writing zone' for my next book.
the space has arrived, when will I?
the space has arrived, when will I?
3. I left a job after ten years of very wonderful service. Thank you, and you're welcome.
an outgrown comfort zone. It's time to expand my vision of the program I was running, and expand my vision of self too.
4.My body suffered an on-off winter cold, from mid December to mid January.
an outgrown comfort zone. It's time to expand my vision of the program I was running, and expand my vision of self too.
4.My body suffered an on-off winter cold, from mid December to mid January.
yuck.
~
I feel my 'on-off winter cold' reflects all the ways I am changing- from the inside out. The expansion of home-space chosen by my partner and I is a huge step in trusting the direction we envision for our life together. In our new home, we each have an abundance of space to 'create' and experiment in our own magical ways. Him with his new food business, and me with my teaching, dancing and writing. I have been given, and have gifted myself a new playground to play in... so why is it so damn hard to play? Is it because it is a very new type of living situation for me? One that I have never experienced before? Indeed it is. I feel like my new living situation is a dream coming to life. It is a reality that takes me outside of a comfort zone I didn't even know existed.
My on-off winter cold had taken its toll. I felt run-down. My shoulder and lower back became strained and I was near to tears. I was officially exhausted. I barely had a moment to catch my breath, with being away for Christmas and then the big move. I wanted to cry, but couldn't let myself surrender, as I had to leave soon to teach a yoga class (irony). I became emotional and felt something bubble up that I had been trying to push down. It was STRESS! James, my fiancé put his arm around me and said: "We have been in 'preparation-mode' for some time. Now we get to live what we have been preparing for!" I knew he was right. 'Be grateful. Celebrate the abundance Tuesday,- and expand into it with ease and joy. Get to work now, and own it...Otherwise, go kicking and screaming- until you break." I told myself.
As I walked to work with a sore shoulder and twisted lower back, I knew the stress I felt was the resistance I had to relaxing into my new life. This stress is based in fear! I thought. I am afraid of trusting this growth spurt, and so the 'little me' is trying to hold onto the past, even though I have outgrown it. The old me from our last home is trying to hold onto the easy comfort zone of only having to live up to a much smaller vision of myself. That old job was super easy, and paid a certain sum that I am sacrificing for my growth. Now that I have let go of the old life- I am scared.. I have to step up and step into this new life I have created. I admit, I am afraid of letting go completely and trusting my heart. But if I don't, I will be dying a slow death, and won't really be living at all.
If you can do everything you 'do' with your eyes closed (Jedi joke not intended), then maybe you need to sign up for some activities that get you excited, and make you stretch beyond your comfort zone.
Where can you make sacrifices for your own growth?
What have you been doing that you know does not offer you challenges to grow?
How can you stretch beyond your known limits?
~
COMFORT ZONES
As I walked to work with a sore shoulder and twisted lower back, I knew the stress I felt was the resistance I had to relaxing into my new life. This stress is based in fear! I thought. I am afraid of trusting this growth spurt, and so the 'little me' is trying to hold onto the past, even though I have outgrown it. The old me from our last home is trying to hold onto the easy comfort zone of only having to live up to a much smaller vision of myself. That old job was super easy, and paid a certain sum that I am sacrificing for my growth. Now that I have let go of the old life- I am scared.. I have to step up and step into this new life I have created. I admit, I am afraid of letting go completely and trusting my heart. But if I don't, I will be dying a slow death, and won't really be living at all.
~
Where can you make sacrifices for your own growth?
What have you been doing that you know does not offer you challenges to grow?
How can you stretch beyond your known limits?
CALMING STRESS
You know when you are given (or give yourself) the opportunity to stretch beyond your comfort zone? Growing pains can happen, and growing pains are not comfortable- but they give us the chance to practice self-love and self-care.
After teaching my yoga class, it was evident to a close friend that I needed a stress release. "Take an epsom salt bath girl... Put some lavender in it and just chill..." She spoke to me while holding my arm. "You need it." She was right. I am always telling other people to take epsom baths, and now its my turn. I usually take them to soothe aching muscles, but I forget that it is an excellent way to aid relaxation and pull toxins out of our bodies, including toxic thoughts, so I believe.
You know when you are given (or give yourself) the opportunity to stretch beyond your comfort zone? Growing pains can happen, and growing pains are not comfortable- but they give us the chance to practice self-love and self-care.
After teaching my yoga class, it was evident to a close friend that I needed a stress release. "Take an epsom salt bath girl... Put some lavender in it and just chill..." She spoke to me while holding my arm. "You need it." She was right. I am always telling other people to take epsom baths, and now its my turn. I usually take them to soothe aching muscles, but I forget that it is an excellent way to aid relaxation and pull toxins out of our bodies, including toxic thoughts, so I believe.
 |
| Bathtime |
I needed a ceremony. So I didn't just take a bath, I took a ceremonial-bath. I needed a real happening to signify a release of the past. Something I had not done yet. I got a 4 pound bag of Epsom Salt from Walgreens and collected some flowers from around the house. I poured half the bag of salt in and carefully placed the flowers, along with stems of green- into the piping hot bath water. With some gentle-piano and flowing-water music in the background, I lit a candle just for me.
"This bath is a healing and a cleansing. May I be forever changed in the highest ways, upon leaving this sanctuary." I stated upon entering the steamy waters.
I got in and didn't get out for two hours. One hour in, I began to unravel and breathe deeply- releasing sighs of relief along the way. I drained the bath a little and refilled it with more hot water and added the rest of the Epsom salt. I placed the flowers along my stomach and the branches of green along my legs. I submerged my rose and clear quartz crystals into the water with me and started to sob. I allowed myself to feel it, and so sobbed some more. As I did, I felt myself unravel. I started to relax for the first time in a month.
Afterwards I left the flowers to dry along my bath and kept the greens at the foot. Everyday when I showered, I was brought back to the reminder of beauty and relaxation and how vital it is to enjoying the very transformation we call to our lives.
 |
| Beauty in our surroundings reminds us to relax. |
~
What can you do this week- to help relieve stress in your life, and to treat yourself with extra loving care? Do it! Let it be a healing... Let it renew you. Surrender to the process and slow down to live it.
©TuesdayMayThomas
P.s. My book Confessions of a Spiritual Apprentice is on sale at amazon.com til' the end of January- you have ten more days to purchase on Kindle for $2.99!
Love
Tuesday
