As some of you might know, I’ve been renovating our downstairs bathroom at home for the last “I don’t even know how long because it’s been so long”. It’s been an education! I’ve watched many YouTube videos making sure that the people in the videos actually know what they’re talking about.
I’ve also had ample opportunity to observe myself. And at times, it hasn’t been pretty!
For example, at one point, as I was getting ready to tile the shower walls, I watched how I was needing to psyche myself up for it. I kept procrastinating and eventually I realized that I was scared to go ahead with it. “What if I make a mistake?” “What if I don’t do it PERFECTLY?”. My heart was actually racing at times!!
The good news is that I’m almost done the shower now and then I’ll be finishing by putting in the plumbing for the sink and the sink itself.
In thinking about all of what I observed within myself during this time, I’ve been reflecting:)
And what I’ve seen is that sometimes I run in neutral. That’s when nothing in particular is going on to challenge me. I think that when something does come up to challenge us, like a health issue or a task that’s asking us to stretch out of our comfort zone, we either rise to the occasion and persevere or we retreat and we don’t even try. And sometimes we waiver, stuck between the two.
This I see as the main reason that we can find change (especially change that we initiate) difficult and confusing at times. The difficulty or confusion happens when we’re trying to approach a circumstance by rising when we ought to retreat. Or the same is true when we’re trying to retreat, when we ought to be rising.
Whether we choose to rise or retreat is situation specific and highly individual. Even having the same person in the same circumstance doesn’t mean that they for sure should choose the same approach as they did last time.
What’s important though is to notice what sort of result does your approach create? Maybe you’re trying to lose weight to get healthier and you choose to retreat and say ‘that right now it’s too hard, there’s too much going on for me to be able to focus on this’. With this approach the result is inevitable…you’ll stay the same and not progress towards your goal.
If you instead choose to rise to the occasion and reevaluate your priorities, maybe you’ll decide that being healthier is more important than spending time and energy on something else. So then you create the time to make progress to reach your goal.
And whether you can muster enough energy, courage, focus and conviction to rise above your circumstances and conditioning, is often found in your nervous system.
When we rise above our circumstances, we utilize a novel set of connections in our brain and nervous system. In comparison, when we retreat, we tend to use the circuits that are being run by our ancestral, conditioned programming, where the grooves are well-worn. It takes a resilient nervous system and a flexible nervous system in order to realign yourself to your goals and sense of achievement, meaning and satisfaction.
If your nervous system is locked into patterns of conditioned behaviour and thinking, you’re more likely to keep retreating and shrinking from life’s calling because you lack the access to your bountiful energy.
On April 25/26, we will be holding our annual Align Adventure experience. It is a time of personal revitalization, reflection and renewal. Participants take the opportunity to have a novel experience. This can have lasting effects on their lives. For many it can be a time of deep personal connection. For some, it can be a jumping off point to a new way of living their lives: living with more meaning, satisfaction and happiness.
Tomorrow, March 17th, I will be hosting an Info session on Zoom about the Align Adventure. You are welcome to attend, listen and ask questions. I hope to see you there!