Restoring my soul.

Here we are in the mid month of the Spring season. Spring is traditionally a time of clearing out, cleaning, decluttering, re-sorting or re-discovery. Whilst the physical clutter is distracting and overwhelming, our mind is often cluttered with unwanted and unneeded thoughts and beliefs. It is just as important to take time to clear these blockages from joy as it is to clear out the clutter in the kitchen cabinets or the garage.

Our thoughts seemingly are always prominent, always floating in the background of our everyday. Sometimes they are bossy and demand attention, yet other times they sit idle but with awareness. Why is it important to take note of our thoughts, no matter how unreal they may seem? Even if a thought, on its surface appears to be unrelated to us or our vision, it can be of value. It has risen to the surface of all other thought to point us to a new idea, a new creation, a new way of being.

Even a thought as seemingly innocuous as “i should paint the wall blue” is an indication that our mind or our body is wanting a change. It could be that it really wants the wall blue, or it could mean that our subconscious is trying to direct us to a change in environment. It’s bored, disengaged, unexcited, uninspired, in need of a new energy. Pay attention, think about it, action a change.

Hopefully the change is a simple as painting a wall a new colour. Quite often it isn’t and that is where we get stuck. Our ego develops a fear blanket around us and the situation. We tell ourselves stories of inadequacies (true or false), we develop imposter syndrome (me each day I write a blog post). Old messages we received rear their ugly heads – “I’m not good enough”, “why would people listen to me?”, “Who do I think I am?”. “I’m not worthy of success”.

Spring is the time to begin to retrain our egos and restructure those stories that no longer serve us. Of course anytime is a good time to do this, but let’s begin where we are at, here in Spring. 🙂

Anytime and everytime one of those negative impact thoughts pops into our heads we need to answer it. I give my negativity a name, it’s easier to argue with an identity than an abstract. Mine is called Nancy, Nancy is bossy and pushy and loud, she will not sit down and take a back seat especially when I try something new. I am embarrassed to say that Nancy has won the argument many times, too many to count really. Each time I sit down to create this blog, Nancy is sitting on my shoulder, yelling in my ear that “no one wants to listen to you lady”. I am certain that Nancy is the reason that I am so sporadic with posting.

In response to clearing Nancy from my shoulder I am developing a new positive persona to stand up for me, her name is Patsy, Patsy is ballsy, bolshy and brash. Patsy doesn’t take crap from anyone and she gets the job done. If you are of my era, think Patsy from the TV show Absolutely Fabulous fame, minus the alcoholism and chain smoking of course. (if you are younger or unfamiliar I suggest a quick google search). Patsy shouts at Nancy to sit down and clear the room, an artist is at work and there is no place for her here. I like to believe that as new as Patsy is to the game, she is a quick learner and is winning more than she loses.

All of this to say, our minds can work for us or against us. As I have said before our Amygdala is just doing its ancient job of keeping us safe from the new and scary and the unimaginable. We must actively retrain it to know that each new thing does not mean we are about to jump off a cliff or that a lion is chasing us. How do we do that? It an be as simple or difficult as telling it “we are safe”, “we can do this”. Over time, while new things will always have a tinge of fear, we will be able to overcome that fear with excitement for the new learnings we are about to receive. Just a fun fact, fear and excitement have the same physiological response in our body, those butterflies in our stomach can signify both emotions, which one you give power to is the one that wins.