This week was a busy week
My favourite word for many years in contexts like this is “challenging”. This wasn’t a challenging week in the way that I normally experience a challenging one.
Normally, challenging = frazzled.
Frazzled = my mind is running circles around the many different and long to-do lists that are all, in parallel, demanding attention.
This was challenging because I was preparing for a big assignment. Training – for a whole week, 6 full days worth!Working with several different groups of adults – over fifteen hundred. I should have been frazzled – really – a wreck by the end of it!
But I wasn’t!
And I want to share what I learnt about why not …
Yes, this was a busy week. And my mind was in a calmer place. There was a lot of trust in future positive outcomes, in the processes of arriving there and in the Universe to support me. I had sunk my roots deep.
This is what I learnt about myself this week
a) My body accumulates stress (feelings) on a daily basis; this week it was off the charts. In my neck and shoulders, around my eyes and yes, my sinuses.My mind whirring and my body in pain – isn’t the best of cocktails for the “calm and centred” me that was needed.
So this week, because it was so important, I had to let that energy go. I did Jin Shin Jyutstu, EFT – tapping; I clapped loudly with arms extended 100 times every morning, I twisted and I breathed.
Each time, I felt lighter. I begged a dear friend to do process work that released the denser energy.
We did something called parts integration – holding the “irritable” and the “centred” part of me at once. The whole experience was liberating; I felt restored to centre- from where I could handle anything.
b) The second thing I did differently this week was that I asked for help. I allowed for that support that was offered.
I took up a friend on their offer of baby-sitting my kids for the one day when my husband was busy at work.
I reached out and talked to a couple of friends about my presentations and got amazing feedback and validation (I didn’t realize I needed that and it did wonders for my confidence).
I reached out to my other friend for process work. I contracted with my therapist and a few friends, that I would do “phone a friend”, if I found myself flagging during this upcoming intense week.
I feel so equipped and supported. A new feeling; like being enveloped in a warm secure and cozy blanket on a cold winters night.
I invite you to find your stress antidote – energy work
Something or things that will align you again and again with your centre by helping your body release the buildup. Not everything will.
There are many different types – there is Reiki, Emotional Freedom Technique (E.F.T.), Jin Shin Jyutsu, Pranic healing, Access Bars, Family Constellation work, Affirmations of Louise Hays and others, Meditation, Yoga, Breathing, Trauma Releasing Exercise (TRE), Psych- K, Bach Flowers, there is Aroma Therapy, Crystals, Magnet healing and many more. Movement and Dance also releases blocks and rearranges your insides– maybe that’s for you.
Find a practitioner whom you can relate to
Honour your instincts as you search for a good fit. Don’t be shy to experiment, mix and match. Measure outcomes by how you feel – not what your mind alone says.
There is no one right answer. Take this as permission to be patient with yourself and your process. Energy work is as old as civilisation and is present in every culture around the world. It is Kosher.
Last word
For far too long have I forged full steam ahead with my mind in charge. My body is far wiser than I have ever given her credit for. When I listen to and support her, she supports me.
Wisdom is in working with both -my mind and my body
PS: This piece is dedicated to my daughter for her innate wisdom and generosity of spirit, to my son for his acceptance of all that is and his warm hugs and my dear husband for his steady presence as I take on new frontiers.
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Very well written and I strongly agree that releasing stress is important; after all Health is Wealth. Yoga surely is one of the simplest practice to be picked up.