Nourishment for your spiritual awakening

Published by Lola

I love it when I come across an inspirational quote that really speaks to where I am in my life. This week the following quote dropped into my inbox.

“Your power is proportional to your ability to relax.” David Allen

It totally verified for me something that was bubbling under the surface. You see we’re only 4 months into the year yet this year has been the most transformational year I have encountered so far.

What with 3 months to go until I give birth to my first child, my soul calling me to play bigger in my business, HUGE no, QUANTUM shifts in my spiritual and personal growth and a greater level of energy being exchanged with the Universe; I have a lot on my plate right now.

As much as I feel bang on purpose and love it, some days I’m just physically shattered! On the day that this quote fell into my inbox, I had slept almost until the afternoon and woke knowing this was going to be a ‘taking it easy’ day. There was an inability to stop my mind from leaping into the future thinking of all the things I still had to do over the next few months, even after meditation and yoga.

I felt it was pretty obvious that I was being told to chill out from the work I was doing, take some time out and get back to it another day. But I didn’t feel capable of switching off completely so instead of fighting it, I just let myself be with the anxiety.

Now, I’ve been here time and time again but this time was different. This time when I sat with my feelings I found that I was actually excited! The main emotion running me at that time was excitement, excitement about the future and all it would bring me. I couldn’t switch off because I loved my work and literally couldn’t wait to get back to it although I was feeling less than productive.

In the end I took a relaxed approach to work where I took a step back and worked on my business as opposed to in it. I thought about strategies and plans and as a result have decided on some big changes (more info on that soon). I have a lot more clarity and direction on what I do and where I’m heading and clearly needed the time out to think.

In this case, conventional relaxation was not what was needed, I tried it but it felt wrong, it felt forced. Once I allowed myself to be where I was and then shifted my mindset from excited to relaxed, I enjoyed a beautiful breakthrough. I was being called to be relaxed not do relaxed.

When you are finding it hard to relax:

1. Remember that relaxation, like most things, is a state of mind. You can be involved in an act of relaxation and not be in a relaxed state. You can also be doing a so-called stressful act in a relaxed manner. Eg, I have a friend who moves a lot and doesn’t find it stressful at all, it’s up to you and not the meaning of others.

2. Remember that your ability to relax correlates highly with your ability to be productive. Feeling that you have to work all the time is indicative of some underlying conditioning you have that says you have to be in action all the time to make things happen.  This is just a belief.

3. Get curious and unearth the judgements and interpretations you have placed on the meaning of rest and relaxation. Try changing your perspective on what relaxation means to you.

4. Be with your anxiety and all that arises from it. You may be surprised what you find. I thought I was feeling guilty but really it was excitement. Don’t be so quick to get rid of your uncomfortable feelings, find the gift.

5. Remember it’s about balance, work AND rest, and rest is vital for high quality work. In fact you could reframe rest and relaxation as work if it helps. Some of you may have the opposite problem and could do with more work in the equation as your fear is keeping you stagnant. Too much relaxation can also be an issue, I know I can get bored!

6. Don’t be shoulding all over yourself. As long as you’re moving forward in life you will have to learn the same lessons at different levels. It could be said that I should have known better but growth can be a messy affair and I’d rather be operating outside of my comfort zone, making mistakes and learning and growing from them than playing it safe from the sidelines, scared to feel any discomfort.

7. You may be probably entering new levels of success in your work and being shown by the Universe an opportunity to move deeper into alignment that will help you be more successful.

8. Rest and relaxation means different things to different people. It could mean a massage or watching a film, but it could just as well mean hardcore physical exercise or business planning and strategising. It’s up to you.

9. It may be time for a break or holiday, book some time out and do something energising not draining.

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Apr 06, 2009
Filed under: Growth, Personal Power, Personal development, inspiration, productivity