It’s January, and many of us are setting goals and have a “let's go!” attitude, which is great but not always sustainable.
Sometimes slowing down is the fastest way to accomplish those goals.
Where I live, it’s winter.
Gray, cold, dormant.
Nature is resting.
Storing up energy for new growth and preparing to expand into glorious beauty in the spring.
Expansion is the natural order.
Winter is necessary for nature to expand.
Winter is a necessary time of rest and contemplation for us as well.
When nature has enough rest, water, nutrition, and sun, it grows, it expands.
When children have enough rest, water, nutrition, sun, love, and safety, they grow, they expand.
It’s who we are.
We are meant to expand.
What do you need today to expand?
Enoughness creates expansion.
Enoughness creates a sense of safety in your brain and your body.
Paradoxically, believing we are enough and have enough leads to being and creating more.
Believing we aren’t enough or don’t have enough leads to fear, and when we are afraid, our primitive brain tries to keep us safe by keeping us stagnant and stuck.
Physical, mental, and emotional safety is a prerequisite for change, for expansion.
As children, we are dependent on others to provide this for us.
When it is, we internalize safety and can eventually provide it for ourselves.
Unfortunately, we live in an imperfect world, and even if you had the best of parents, this doesn’t always happen.
Learning to create safety for ourselves is a skill my clients and I work on intensively.
It’s the key to expanding into a life of passion, purpose, and peace.
If you are experiencing chronic anxiety, overwhelm, and stress, or if you are feeling stuck, try this:
Before you get out of bed in the morning, while you are relaxed, gently, lovingly, slowly tell yourself, “I have enough, I’ve done enough, and I am enough.”
Do it again before you fall asleep.
Feel the love, warmth, and peace.
This will help create new neural pathways of safety.
And, if it’s winter where you are, it’s okay to rest.
We are meant to conserve our energy during the winter months.
Without safety and rest, change isn’t sustainable and often leads to burnout.
Your internal world is always creating your external world.
So, be kind to yourself.
Eat well, move well, and take your vitamins, like vitamin C, D3, B complex, and magnesium.
Read a book, take a walk, nap, go to sleep early, and prepare to expand in 2023.