A bit of a deep one for you today 😉
Life is full of endings and new beginnings, so much so that we hardly even notice many of them most of the time. Some on the other hand, jump out at us and sweep us off our feet. In reality the same experience is happening, but we are feeling it very differently because of the attachments we have made with it.
We know that endings are a part of life – we see it all around us every year with the seasons. Trees turning from lush green to brown, leaves on the floor. Then in spring new growth, new beginnings and we know that in a short time the landscape will once again look and be full of life.
I think we’ve lost touch with this in more recent years. The more we switch to digital living and eat foods we enjoy anytime of the year we want to, rather than living by the seasons. I don’t think this is a good thing either. I feel we’re losing something precious as we step into the world of never ending.
So it’s important to make time and space in our busy lives to find this space again. To become aware of the constant flux around us, which helps us to process what happens in our own lives. We are a society of medication, self or prescribed. We’re rushing from pillar to post and we’re losing ourselves in this new world we’re creating.
It’s time we STOP and re-find ourselves again.
We’re beginning our 3rd week of the new year (already!), so 2017 is swiftly fading into memory as we focus on the months ahead, but it’s important to acknowledge what has been before we blindly rush into the future.
I urge you to take some time this week to get outside in nature, switch off your phone and simply ‘be’ for a little while. It’s incredible how free you feel when you switch off from it all and get back to basics. We all know this but then get caught up in it again and don’t even realise how sucked in we are most of the time.
I’ve recently started having an alarm set for 9pm as a reminder to myself to stop looking at my phone. I’ve started making an effort to read a few pages of an actual book before I go to sleep, rather than look at that little screen again. Baby steps.
Beginnings of things can be fun, all consuming, exciting, maybe a little it scary too. Then we have the actual moment that we’re experiencing it. Then it’s all over.
Pretty much everything we experience day to day is packed full of beginnings and endings. That perfect cup of tea; the expectation of feeling all warm inside and thirst quenched, then, before you know it, the cup is empty. Food cooked, enjoyed and then washing up done and it’s over until next time. We don’t even notice these things most of the time.
The bigger experiences; businesses, friendships, relationships, jobs and of course lives. These are the ones that can creep up on us and tug that rug out from under our feet. We may stumble but if we can acknowledge the lessons we learned from the things that are ending, be grateful for the good times and let go of any feelings of resentment, fear, anger, we are free to approach the new that awaits us.
Endings can be incredibly painful but we have a choice with how we are in ourselves through those times.
One of the biggest areas of impact for me on my personal development journey is embracing being the ‘hollow bone’. It’s something that Manda Scott teaches with her shamanic work and it took me a while to get my head around it. My take on this is that it’s so easy to become a vessel; to store everything inside and never let any of it go. But as with all vessels, there’s only so much you can fit inside it before it starts to overflow and potentially even crack or break. However, if we can be a hollow bone; strong and yet able to let things flow through and around us, we are unchanged and yet still able to experience in the moment. It’s a place of strength.
For me, it’s about embracing the feelings as they come to you, being in the moment, fully experiencing them and then letting them flow through you.
If you experience sadness, acknowledge it, really feel it, and then let it go.
If you experience joy, acknowledge it, really feel it, and then let it go.
Every moment we have the ability to feel so much and by not clinging on to things we can fully embrace all that amazing life around us has to offer. By letting go and simply focusing on being fully conscious right here, right now, we have the ability to live a richer life.
Endings are never really endings, more a transition from one place to whatever happens next. If we can take the energy away from them we take back our own power to step forward with a brave heart, ready to embrace life, in all its forms, and fully live it.
I urge you to embrace your own power and remember, even when you’re feeling powerless, you always have a choice for your own personal experience.
What will you choose for yourself this year?
Love, Sophie
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