I have heard myself saying to people lately, let's take this a step at a time, the incremental movements will add up, I promise you. This is very interesting to me when I see a pattern happening. I used to think I was in a particular advice place then I realized they were patterns that were showing up in peoples lives and I was picking up on that pattern by offering what I knew to be the most helpful route to whatever they were wanting to create in their life.
It is also interesting to me because one of my challenges in this lifetime is slowing down and taking things piece by piece rather than thinking I have to do the whole project at once. Over the last year I have realized that I am much better balanced when I give myself permission to relax and accept that warp speed is not always the most productive. I would vacillate between being so busy I couldn't see straight and non-movement. Oh, it might still look like I'm moving because I always have something I am working on but to me it felt like standing still...in cement...hardening cement. Not a great feeling to be mired in your own energy.
When I decided this past summer to not teach any classes, I was relieved then completely freaked out by what I would do instead. A good indication you have a hard time relaxing is when you give yourself a break, you immediately fill it with something else. Luckily, I caught myself wanting to fill my schedule with other commitments. I decided perhaps I wasn't a cold turkey sabbatical person. Perhaps I had to open my schedule a little at a time until I was comfortable with, gasp, a whole day without something scheduled! A little bit at at time was a good way to ease myself into a new way of life.
Of this I was clear, I wanted a way of life rather than a way to life. I wanted to learn how to be as relaxed as people thought I was. I wanted to feel inside that calm, confident, everything really is ok way that my soul knew is true. I want to know I lived life. That I experienced it. I wasn't just here to pass the time. I did it one step at a time. I know this is something I will put into practice every day of my life as it is too easy to get pulled back into the frenetic energy. It takes some concentration and commitment to live the way I want. It also takes the ability to hear oneself. How do you know what kind of life you want to have if you can't hear yourself through all of the static?
I decided, I say with a tongue in cheek because I feel pushed, to walk El Camino in France/Spain in 2016. It is the five hundred mile hike through mountains, forests and farmland depicted in the movie The Way. As is the way of the universe, as I decided I wanted live a way of life, this movie was introduced to me as well as a few books. The clincher was when I was cleaning the bathroom and opened the cabinet we have had for over a year and the stamp on the inside was Camino brand. Seriously? I don't need to be hit with too many cosmic 2x4's before I listen anymore. I started researching. It typically takes people around a month to walk the path. Do you know how they do it? One step at a time. This was confirmation to me that I was on my own right path and that little by little does work.
How do you want your life to be? Do you know? Can you be nice to you and recognize that you didn't learn to walk overnight? Can you be accepting and loving of the path you are already on, while fine tuning it to what you really want?
It seems to me that when a way of life is practiced, this living thing could get really fun because we will be in ease of who we are. Doesn't that sound exciting? When you know how you want to be, the knowing of what you want and what to do follows suit. In case there is any question, just look in the cabinets or closets you've had for years....it's written right there even though you couldn't see it before. Amazing.
Willing to see the signs,
Vicki
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