Self-Motivation

Oh, I don´t know if I can be bothered writing this!!

Only joking...although I have to admit I am feeling a tad tired today after an unusually poor night´s sleep, so I figure this is as good a day as any to write about self-motivation.

Perhaps the best way to look at this whole business of motivating ourselves, is to first of all ask what is stopping us from feeling motivated in the first place? It´s all too easy to flippantly blame “laziness” or “idleness” - we do love to beat ourselves up after all. But when you stop and think about it a little bit deeper, there is always something else going on beneath the surface.

For the most part, lack of motivation usually stems from fear; fear that we will be unable to cope with something, or won´t be able to complete it; fear that we will fail or do a bad job; fear that it won´t work out quite as we expected and we will have to admit we were wrong; fear that people will laugh at us and we´ll look silly. But as Stephen King says (and I am paraphrasing here) “getting started is the hard part, after that the rest is easy”.

So, let´s get started!

I find Qi Gong exercises the best to get me motivated, but anything that gets the energy flowing around the body and the mind is good – a quick boogie in the lounge to an uplifting tune, a jog around the block, a shower, scalp massage – whatever works for you, but it should be something you enjoy that´s going to make you feel good. Couple the activity with (yes, you guessed it) affirmations – something along the lines of “I am filled with motivated energy. I am charged with energised chi,” and within a very short space of time – less than 5 minutes – you´ll be starting to feel a slight buzz of enthusiasm.

Next, visualise yourself having done whatever it is you were so un-motivated to do, feeling chuffed to bits with yourself and telling someone you care about “you know what? I really wasn´t in the mood, but once I got started, it was easy and I loved every minute.” Try to feel as strongly as possible the relief, the pride, the excitement, the happiness, the sense of achievement you´ll feel...as this is true motivation. We all want to feel like that as much as possible, don´t we?

Having said that, there are inevitably times when we absolutely do not want to do a particular thing and sometimes this has nothing to do with motivation at all. Sometimes, it simply might not be right, might not be in our best interests or for our highest goods to do a certain thing at a certain time. It´s important to tell the difference. When our inner voice is advising us against doing something, the message will be calm and soft with an overriding sense of easiness about the decision. Putting a note in our planner to remind us to do it another day feels like the natural, sensible thing to do and almost immediately, we will feel prompted to do something else – something that will prove to be a more constructive and appropriate use of our time and energy at that moment.

In other words, follow where your inner voice and your energy is leading you. Go with the flow and you won´t go far wrong. As my hubby is fond of saying “don´t yin when you should yang and don´t yang when you should yin”.

Wise words indeed!

Until next time....Namaste.

:)

Self-Healing

Self-healing is one of those funny things – we don´t really think about doing it until something goes wrong and we find ourselves sick.

Perhaps it´s something to do with our system of medicine in the west – I mean, we only go to the doctors after we actually become ill. When was the last time you visited your local GP and said “no, everything´s fine thanks, doc. I was just wondering if there was a prescription you could give me to help me keep it that way”? So, we´re used to paying attention to our bodies only when they are displaying unpleasant or frightening symptoms.

What we need to understand is that by the time we get to that stage – by the time we are sick – our bodies have, in fact, been giving us warnings and messages which we have ignored or misunderstood, so the only alternative left is for them to stop us in our tracks, make us ill and make us do something about it. Wouldn´t it make more sense if we could just take a few moments each day to consciously tune into our bodies and listen to what they´re trying to tell us – and thereby prevent many of the illnesses we fall prey to? This is the core of true self-healing.

And...it´s easy.

I found myself naturally starting to do this as I was doing my Reiki attunements – although you certainly don´t need to be a Reiki healer – or any other kind of qualified healer for that matter – to practice this. It´s just common sense. Get into the habit of noticing what´s going on in your body. For instance, if your shoulders get sore after a while sitting at your computer, you might want to change your posture and expand everything a little bit. If you find yourself feeling bloaty at the end of the day, perhaps it´s a message to drink more water. If your chest feels tight in certain situations or in the company in certain people, it might be a good idea to focus on breathing deeply into your abdomen. Persistent heartburn could well be a sign that you´re eating too much rich, spicy food. Lower back pain in a morning might be a message to change your mattress. Simple things – but noticing them and taking action could prevent a whole host of unpleasant and unnecessary nastiness.

Prevention is better than cure, as they say, and I believe them. Our bodies are always on our side; they know what is best for them and for us. And if we could take this a stage further and spend a few moments, preferably each day, visualising a beam of golden light from the universe, entering us through our crown chakra, flowing naturally down our bodies, gently but firmly coursing through any areas of stuck energy, any areas of dis-ease or potential dis-ease and replacing them immediately with healing energy for our highest and greatest good, then we could save ourselves a whole host of possible problems. We become stronger and more in tune with our bodies and our health.

Regular practice of something like Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Yoga or swimming – something that aligns the breath with the movement of the body and gets the chi flowing healthily around the body are also wonderful tools in the self-healing process.

But of course, there might come times when, with the best will in the world, we get ill as I found out myself just the other day. We´d been out to a restaurant with my parents, for a farewell dinner on the last night of their visit here and even though we´d throughly enjoyed our meals, both me and my hubby woke up through the night with chronic pains in our stomachs and...not wanting to be too graphic...an urgent need for the bathroom – an experience that proved most unpleasant for both of us! This continued for a good couple of days, leaving us feeling drained and decidedly off-colour. Now, these kinds of things can´t be avoided – sometimes shit happens (pun intended!). But, if we are strong to start with, we can handle it much better and more healthily. It´s important at times like these to accept you´re feeling lousy and be gentle with yourself. Keep visualising that stream of healing energy fighting the negative and doing you good. Ask it directly to do so and trust that it will.

Maintaining a sense of gratitude also helps enormously. If one part of your body is feeling sick, send it love and healing, then focus on and give thanks for another part that is functioning well and healthily. Focus on all the blessings of your life and I guarantee that before long, that gratitude and positivity will have an impact on the not-so good aspects.

For now, even though Mike and I are far from recovered from our stomach upsets, I´m choosing to focus on giving thanks for all the things working well within my body.

And above all, I give thanks for the fact that we have two bathrooms in our house!!!

Sending healing light and love to everyone reading this.

Namaste.

Keeping Yourself Protected from Negative Energy

The first thing that we really need to get to grips with here, the most important thing to understand, is that energy – negative or otherwise – only ever comes our way as a direct reflection of what energy we have been putting out. What you put out, you get back. Usually multiplied. Think negative thoughts about someone – in other words, put out negative energy – then that negative energy will bounce right back to you (and not necessarily from the person you directed it to in the first place). The flip side to this, of course, is that all good & loving thoughts/energy you beam out will also return to you multiplied. So, you see what I´m getting at here – making sure you keep your thoughts positive and kind is a key factor in keeping you protected from negative energy.

But, come on, there are inevitably times when we feel downright bloody-minded and end up having a good old bitching session about this person, that situation. None of us are saints (and if there are any saints reading this, please get in touch and I will re-write this column!) and living in the World of the Ten Thousands Things (as the Taoists call it) can be confusing, fearful, frustrating and annoying – all the things guaranteed to get our negative juices flowing. All we can do is to be aware of the thoughts and energy we are projecting and if they are not so positive once in a while, to refrain from beating ourselves up and simply acknowledge the fact we are having a bad hair day, then consciously beam out some good vibes to get our balance back.

So whilst it certainly helps to be aware that, on a deep level, we are responsible for all the energy coming our way, I´m sure we´ve all had times in our lives when we´ve been on the receiving end of some-one´s negative energy (a psychic attack, as it were) and we haven´t a clue why. Why should it be that the first time you meet a particular person, you feel hostility emanating from them straight away? Why does this other person always somehow make you feel inadequate, or wind you up? You know the type of thing I´m talking about. Maybe it´s just their issues, perhaps they´re jealous of you, perhaps you inadvertently once said something they took exception to. Who knows? Shit happens. But the one thing we can be sure of is that we will receive a gentle warning from the Tao – a kind of “watch your back here” sensation. And this is tricky, because I believe all of us are a bit paranoid at times and we need to distinguish between the incessant chatter going on in our heads that tells us we are unworthy and the world is a hostile place full of hostile people, and that quiet voice that whispers only truths for our highest good.

The more we can be tuned in at all times to that little voice, the more protected we will be from negative energy. See my article on “Intuition Rocks” for a more in-depth explanation, but in a nutshell, anything in your head that sounds harsh and shrill and makes your stomach flip in a sort of “oh no” fashion is more than likely to be “monkey mind” and should be viewed with suspicion. Anything that comes through quietly and calmly, more from the back of your mind rather than the emotion-fuelled front, and gives you a comforting sense of “a-ha” will be what you truly need to know. The more meditation you do, the more you focus on your breathing (deep into your abdomen and not shallow in your chest), the more Yoga, Qi Gong & Tai Chi you can incorporate into your daily life, the more easily you will be able to attune to your inner voice and the clearer all things will be.

Affirmations and visualisations, as always, are wonderful tools. Start each day visualising a rose-coloured light emanating from your heart. Watch it as it expands and forms a bubble around you. Charge it with the power to allow in only good, loving, healing vibes and to bounce back to the universe any negative energy that may come your way, for it to be refined into something more positive. Then affirm as many times as you can as you go through your day - “I am safe and divinely protected always”.

And it will be so. For you and everyone you come into contact with.

And so it is. :)