How To Make Life Easier When Times Are Hard

The year just gone was a tough year.

One of those years when you just wish you could hide under the thickest blanket, shut your eyes and magically re-emerge when it’s all calmed down.

These are times when even the most enlightened souls will carry around their personal blanket to hide under when the “growing pains” become too much to bear. No matter how much we tell ourselves that this is all part of a master plan, which sees the human race shifting towards higher vibrations, everyday life can become extremely challenging to say the least.

Talking to my clients, it came to my attention that the general theme right now is wanting to push against limiting beliefs, negative patterns and old structures.

This leads us to confusion, anxiety and moodiness for we no longer know who we are; while our old way to be, does not feel enough anymore and our new self has not surfaced yet.

Now more than ever we go around like hormonal teenagers not quite knowing who we are yet, but mostly wanting to rebel against anything and anyone that has indoctrinated us with ideas, beliefs, credos which were never meant to be ours.

We want to expand and be free, yet we are afraid to ease through these changing times for fear of the unknown.

So we push against…

Could we choose to “move through” these unsettling times instead?

Could we stop resisting & pushing and choose to ease ourselves instead through the inevitable changes brought about by this universal energy shift?

And if we choose "yes we can" how do we do that?

While we are constantly bombarded with new techniques that promise to set us free from our self-imposed limitations, one thing becomes clearer by the day: there is almost a need to go back to the basics.

Do we really need to master 10 different types of breathing? Do we really need to have our left foot touching our right ear during our 4am yoga session?

Can we survive our day without the need to know if Mercury has gone retrograde again and if it will ever come back?

It appears to me time and time again while talking to my clients that most people are on some sort of self-imposed mastery path where the pressure to be enlightened is huge.

How about we drop the mastery bit and we gently expand our souls, remaining neutral and accepting, in the midst of so much confusion and change.

Many folks won't like the “neutral" choice because it may feel passive, running the risk to react to whatever shows up in their lives.

Keeping neutral & accepting instead will allow facing life without judgement, blame, guilt or shame.

This way we will be able to observe and then choose. Choose what's best for all those involved, best for our hearts...and our mental health!

How do we do that while trying to juggle our endless & confusing mind chatter, family, work, pets, holidays to book, bills to pay, Facebook updates, TV to watch?

Could we choose something everyday that keeps our heart clear and open, that expands our mind and keeps us in a neutral place while life evolves?

 Just one single thing!

And if our choice meant giving up on something that deprives us of precious energy, could we happily create room for stillness and rest instead?

So as you go about your business, make the point to watch yourself giving your energy away to worries about a future you don't have any control over, to anger arising while you are on the tube or dealing with a challenging colleague, to anxiety about not being enough for this crazily fast paced world.

 Watch yourself dealing with whatever comes up: do you choose to respond or react? Do you observe and then choose, or attack and then hide away? What is the one activity that gives you joy, makes your skin tingle and your mental noise lower down even just for a little while?

And while you watch yourself just breathe!

Just pause and breathe, 'cause Life can really be as simple as just breathing if you allow it to be.

Through one nostril, through your mouth, open eyes, closed eyes, counting to 4 then 8, pausing between the inner and outer breath....however you choose to breathe....just breathe!

Because this always was and always will be the one single thing that will keep you anchored in the now and allow vital energy to move through your body enabling you to remain present and hold vigil.

Antonia Lyons

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