Have you ever woken up and just wanted to stay in bed, keep the curtains closed and sleep the day away? Overwhelm and stress can lead to a total lack of enjoyment for even the simple pleasures in life and if not recognised quickly can also progress into deeper states of emotional being that will impact our perspective on life, relationships or business.
The current unusual climate being experienced by the whole globe has sent a lot of people into a flat spin where they feel out of control and that they have no choices or options to regain the grip on their reality. However, this is a massive illusion and when you develop self awareness and make a solid decision to take back control of you and your human system, perspective changes and even through the toughest of times people can find clarity and balance again.
How then do you do this? The first step is to become aware that you are creating all of your emotions, feelings and thoughts on the inside of you and that they are not being embedded in you by someone else. No person can pick up a ball of anxiety and throw it into your body or give you anger, these states are the end result of an internal process that if it goes unchecked will just run outcomes on autopilot. Think about it now for a moment, you have a thought that generates a feeling which changes how your body feels chemically and then you demonstrate a behaviour. For most people they do not even consider that this process is happening they just think, feel and do which then leads to more of the same. It is like a loop that will keep generating deeper and deeper responses until something breaks the chain.
We have to run on autopilot for the majority of the day otherwise we would never get anything done. What I mean by this is just for a moment consider the aspects of your day that you do not even have to think about;
• Walking • Talking • Reading • Making a cup of tea • Driving • Getting dressed • Brushing your teeth
When you get up in the morning do you think about what leg goes in your trousers first or do you just get dressed? Do you have to read a manual on how to walk, talk, drive or make a cup of tea or do you just do them without thinking? Now imagine all the things you know and how the information is just there for you without having to relearn anything, the names of items in your home, names of food, people, places and much more. You are basically one giant storage unit of information that is designed to help you live life with the least resistance possible.
This is the same with emotions and behaviours if you do anxiety on a daily basis without checking in and taking control, your system will begin to run this feeling as a default for you because it thinks you like it. The human system is designed to get you results with whatever program you are consciously or unconsciously directing it to run and if you imagine that 90% of your day is run on autopilot, what have you been previously instructing it to do and is it getting you the results you desire?
I always say to my clients “you are not broken and you don’t need fixing, you are running perfectly” the system is just performing the tasks it has been asked to do, the case maybe though that the tasks are not getting great results.
What then do you do? Firstly make the choice to look at the autopilot system and become fully aware of its current programs. Then own those programs and recognise that you have a part in the running of them. Lastly, make a decision to change the ones that are not getting you the best results and work on those.
Here are a few tips to begin the process of taking back control of you;
Waking awareness - stay in bed until you have your thoughts in the right place, waking from dream state can mean taking negativity straight into your day without realising, so take a few moments on waking to check in with the thoughts and direct them into a neutral space on purpose.
Conscious dressing - notice what foot you go to put in your trousers first and change the leg, this starts breaking basic habitual programs.
20 minutes of you - spend some time without your phone and everyone else’s agenda and set your state/intention for the day on purpose, maybe listen to music or meditate or read or sing and dance... find what gets your juices flowing in the right direction before you leave the house.
Change your route to work - notice how we habitually take the same route whenever you go anywhere familiar like shopping or visiting friends. The more you change the mini habits the more plasticity you generate in your brain.
Become aware of what drains the life out of you or juices you up - people can be total mood hoovers and suck the energy out of you or fill you up with super juice. Notice how much time you spend with hoovers or juicers and make a choice to do more filling up than being hoovered out.
The language you use can deflate you or boost you up - do you have a pessimistic outlook or optimistic? Do you use words like “problems, can’t, have to, don’t want”? Could you change them to “challenge, can find a way, want to”?
Notice whether you own your emotions or blame other people for them - do you use phrases like “they make me angry, he/she doesn’t make me happy”? These phrases mean you give over your power to feel to someone else and loose the ability to control and direct emotions to outcomes that benefit all.
Finally, how do you close your day down? Do you come home talking about everything that went wrong and gossiping or do you ask what went well, what was enjoyed and what could be improved tomorrow? All the above will accumulate to make a massive difference in your daily state of being and may also help those around you to regain some balance too. Just remember feeling, thing and being is all an inside job and you are the most powerful super computer on the planet.... How will you use this power now?
Start living life on purpose now!