Anxiety and overwhelm feel horrible. And a scattered, dis-regulated nervous system affects EVERYTHING, especially our relationships. Breathing can help. In this post I share how paying attention to your breath can help you calm your nervous system, bring you back to yourself, and even help ease the sense that there is never enough time.
Volition is a source of energy that informs our intentions and energizes our actions, but not all volition comes from the heart. When we’re swept away by clever, compelling messaging from outside of ourselves, we lose touch with our internal volition — with our values and our authentic desires.
If you grew up without learning that mistakes are ok you may have developed a strong inner critic who, like a 5 year old trying to prevent trouble, now controls your adult life to keep you from taking risks. The antidote is to give your self the compassionate leadership you missed out on when you were growing up.
Each time I benefit from the perspective that hindsight offers, it adds a little to my ability to surrender to the present moment.
Locating power outside of myself leads to me trying to create safety for myself by controlling the people and events around me. Conversely, locating power within myself liberates me to change my internal experience regardless of my outer relationships or circumstances — and that makes a difference to how satisfied and effective I can be both personally and in my efforts to make a difference in the world around me.
Here are some of the things I have absolutely had enough of, and some of the changes I want to contribute to. Do you feel the same way? What would you change, in this list?
The Inner Critic is here to stay. But it doesn’t have to be a source of anxiety and overwhelm. Here are 4 steps for making it your ally.
“REAL” – genuine, authentic, true; not artificial, imitated, or virtual. “GREEN” – regenerative/doing as little harm as possible. If all you do is take this approach to caring for your self, your family, and the places and things you love, you’ll be making a difference.
A short post on how we use our time and those uncomfortable feelings of “not enough time,” and “not good enough.” Turns out, they might all be connected.
As you learn to inhabit your core Self more easily, and from there to bring your internal world into emotional regulation, you’re also developing the capacities that our wider world is asking of us.