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FEAR. It's really quite comforting.
Crazy man say what???
Yep. The way I see it, fear is really more of a result than it is a cause (although it turns into a cause as well).
From my experience, fear is simply a result of feeling disconnected from who we really are. Plain and simple.
As the new school year greets us, many are struggling with anxiety and fears...for a number of reasons. This may be one of the most important times of the year to check in with our young people. It may be your own kids, a niece or nephew, or a grandchild, but now is the time to take stock of their tools to navigate our ever-changing educational landscape.
Ever feel guilty about enjoying life, or celebrating occasions, when there’s so much turmoil happening around us?
If so, you’re in good company.
So, how can we manage these polar opposite energies?
~ Excerpts from Our Friend, and Author Shannon Kaiser's Article in Spiritual & Health Magazine HERE
1.) Drop From Your Head Into Your Heart: Move from your head, the overthinker, the answerer, the rationalizer, into your heart space, the way of oneness, unity, compassion, and kindness, and you will see a shift in your life.
"Excuse Me, I Beg MY pardon."
How We Can Be More Loving Toward Ourselves.
Conscious Ink's main purpose is to support us to in NOTICE and ACKNOWLEDGE negative thoughts and hurtful self-talk. In doing so, we can identify old subconscious patterns that do not serve us and SHIFT to more loving self-talk and self-affirming thoughts that DO.
Kanye West has become one of my favorite people in the spotlight over the years.
If you are looking for the back button ready to X out of this email, hear me out.
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So here’s the funny (not so funny, and then funny again) thing. I’ve noticed that many of us are pretty miserable trying to be happy and pretty sick trying to be healthy! We read this book. We read that book. We follow this advice. We follow that advice. We monitor our thoughts. We imagine feeling good. We repeat mantras. We attend workshops. We drink weird healthy concoctions. If we were to be honest, most of us would admit we resent the #@&! out of trying to be happy and healthy. Please make the insanity stop! Wouldn’t it be nice if there was JUST ONE THING we could focus on and everything else would just magically fall into place? And what if that one thing was actually something WE WANTED TO DO? Good news! Because that ONE THING does exist and it couldn’t be more blissful. Since that’s what it actually is: LIVING OUR BLISS. You might be thinking, really? This isn’t a new idea, dude. C’mon. I could be surfing the interwebs right now. Plus, who’s got time for bliss??? Aha! It’s with that question right there dude (and dudette) do we go astray! Once we live our bliss, we’ll have all the time in the world! (Literally too. You know, a quantum physics thing.) The trick is…we must: PUT OUR BLISS FIRST. FIRST, FIRST, FIRST! (Sorry for yelling. I get excited!) |
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Remember what Einstein said? “A problem can’t be solved in the state of consciousness it was created.” |
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That’s why living our bliss is THE MOST IMPORTANT, PRACTICAL & NECESSARY THING we can do. From a blissful state, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE! Living our bliss is also the most loving thing we can do…for ourselves and others. It’s like being in love 24/7. As a SIDE EFFECT, we will NATURALLY do more loving things. We will NATURALLY eat healthier foods. We will NATURALLY attract more fulfilling work and relationships. We will NATURALLY practice more self care. After a particular blissful expansion of my own, I noticed myself organically flossing more…out of the blue! |
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REACH BLISS IN 2 STEPS: |
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1. LIVE YOUR BLISS DAILY. Identify and SCHEDULE IN your most blissful passions and activities. DAILY! Don’t even start with the “no time” thing again. Remember, we already schedule things into our day that are supposed to lead to our bliss? But we have a problem with scheduling in bliss itself?????! The actual end result! Dear goodness humans! 2. ACKNOWLEDGE & ALLOW ALL FEELINGS ALONG THE WAY. Bliss IS NOT about denial. Quite the opposite! It’s about fully embodying who we truly are and letting go of who we are not. And that happens by being present with ALL our feelings. That’s when we feel most alive. No need to jump out of a plane or go Bungee Jumping to feel alive people! Now do be aware of the possibility of self sabotage. We need to acclimate ourselves to our new plateaus of blissfulness as we would climbing a mountain to avoid altitude sickness. Go easy. Breathe deeply. Enjoy the view as you go. Join me? Blississippi, here we come! |
My 7-year old son likes to make things. He turns sticks into wands and bubbles into beards; he weaves together books with words and drawings of worlds he dreams up and mashes keys into melodies on his Yamaha keyboard.
He can’t wait to tell me--and anyone else within his proximity--about the things that he makes. In fact, he never fails to ask someone to record his work, with a picture or a video, or preferably, both. Every song he composes has a spot in my video library, and his books are placed on the bookshelf next to the works of Tolstoy and Maya Angelou.
His friends are the same--all anxious to share their creations.
I like to make things too. My medium of choice is writing. I write poems, articles, stories, and sometimes even whole books, like my son. Though, I hesitate before sharing the things I make. It takes a lot to move my writing beyond a private folder on my laptop. I, unlike my son, have years of experiences that have told me, directly or indirectly, that it isn't safe to share the things that I make. More specifically, that others will reject me if I am too much of myself.
Over time I learned to bend and sway with the current of public opinion, bringing to light the aspects of self that received positive affirmation and eroding away the bits that weren't received well by others.
This is, of course, a human ability we all have to mold ourselves to better align with outside expectations. And it's useful. For thousands upon thousands of years, it served as the unifying fabric of tribes, protecting us from the threat of rejection at a time when belonging was essential to survival.
The same instincts that helped us fit in with the tribe also make stepping into our authenticity all the more terrifying. It puts the inner critic on high-alert, causing us to doubt ourselves and our abilities, to look to others to validate us rather than leading with our gut instincts. If we're not careful, we risk prioritizing what others think of us over what we think of ourselves.
This is why transformation is an inside job--the biggest shifts take place when we turn down the volume of public opinion and promote our inner knowing to CEO. And so much of this work is about unlearning--stripping away everything we were taught we needed to be to win the love and approval of those around us.
When we remove these outside layers, what remains is our authenticity--the little self bursting at the seams to share their ideas, eager to hang their stick-figure drawings in gold-plated frames.
Amanda,
Conscious Ink Staffer
