Welcome to the Autumn Equinox!
Welcome to The Autumn Equinox!
As an Agent of Change, assisting you to create positive change in your Life, I am always seeking resources to assist you to make those changes with ease. To make choices that are positive and in support of you and your goals. To create a Life that is meaningful to you.
The seasons and cycles of life are one of those resources and each carry profoundly different energies to assist you in your process.
From March 18 – 22 we enJOY the benefits of the Autumn Equinox (in the Southern Hemisphere) and the Spring Equinox (in the Northern Hemisphere).
It’s a time of Balance when light and dark, night and day are of equal length, a time of major transformation as we begin a new cycle … allowing us to replace old ways of thinking and living Life with better ways more easily.
The Autumn Equinox encourages us to celebrate the last of the Summer’s abundance and warmth and to get rid of the “dead wood” in our lives.
I have heard from many of you how hard life has become over the past few weeks as we move toward the Equinox:
“I know what I need to do Deb, I have no energy to do it”
“Deb, I’ve lost all motivation”
“I feel too confused and heavy to make a choice”
“My thoughts are busy with the past. I can’t focus on making anything new happen”and
“I’m having lots of accidents and near misses. It’s like my head and body aren’t communicating”
have been common remarks.
In the last few weeks I have seen many clients re-defining who they are, what they want from life and re-organising accordingly.
Relationships too have been under the spotlight …anything negative or unsupportive is being re- assessed and re-calibrated through improving communication, or discarded.
We are moving through times of great energetic change. As our hearts open after letting go of old pain, resentment and limitations we make room to step more fully into a loving, fulfilling life.
It is time to take the opportunity to heal the hurt from the past, leave behind what no longer works and have energy for life now. To live your “heart’s desire” in every part of your life moving forward.
The following quote is one of my favorites, so much so that it appears in both Living Life Passionately and Ignite Your Heart workshops (with different exercises of course.)
Just Who Will You Be?
“ You know, many years ago, my father gave a college graduation speech where he told the students, “Allow me to challenge you not to think so much about what you will do or where you will go. Allow me to challenge you to think about … what you believe.”
In other words, he was challenging them to look at what they believe, in order to find out who they could become.
In truth, that’s the most important question we can all ask ourselves throughout our lives:
“What do I believe – and who do I want to be?”
Answering that question is crucial, because what you believe is the foundation upon which you build yourself as you continue to grow. “
Maria Shriver, Just Who Will You Be?
What Do You Value?
We often forget that who we are is much more than how we earn a living.
It’s about HOW we live, so it creates a Life that is meaningful to you.
How we live is based on who we are inside…what we value. Values are principles, standards, or qualities considered worthwhile or desirable. Values are motivators: they propel us into action or stop us in our tracks. Values are what are important to us, that we hold ourselves accountable to, like integrity, professionalism, caring, teamwork.
Values are integral to the life we are living. In the Ignite Your Heart workshop we look at how to find and create relationships with people that have same or similar values to ourselves. Why? Well, when we are in conflict with others it is often because our values conflict.
Think of a couple who both value money. She may value money from the point of creating financial security and consequently saving money is a high priority, while He values money from the point of sharing/ generosity…and spend it on her, his friends, family and charity. This difference creates conflict. Neither is wrong, and both started the relationship agreeing “Yes, money is important to me”. So it’s important to be clear on what each Value means to you and to communicate that with those around you.
In Living Life Passionately we have a surprising “OMGoodness Deb!!” values exercise that starts a process to show why some goals you set for yourself are still on the To Do list. Our goals need to be aligned with our values to be achieved. If our values conflict with our goals, or if we spend little time living our values then we get stuck, stagnant and blocked.
Are You Reacting or Responding?
We also forget we have the CHOICE to be who we want to be. We have the choice to react to life = stress or RESPOND to life…to BE present, balanced, centred and en-JOY life from that space. Most often I see people who are reacting to their life: their job/ bosses; their partners; their parents, their inner most selves and to life.
When we react we can feel angry, fear of loss and separation or we could feel resentment, grief and guilt …all this leads to a feeling of NO Choice, and No Choice equals stress.
Where Does Fear Sit?
These emotional patterns are REACTIONS to stress, and stress can come from fear.
When we are in fear our right brain (filled with creative solutions) and our frontal lobe (where present time and most recent memory sit) go into shutdown mode.
This leaves the back left quadrant of the brain handling ‘The Situation’, the home of old memories (The Past) and where Neuro-scientists have found that FEAR sits.
So our REACTIONS to life are fear based.
What To Do To Let Go of the Fear?
Head hold and breathe!
Place one hand across the forehead and it adds blood flow to the frontal lobe and the limbic system (Home of Emotions), bringing you back into Present Time and helping you find Calm.
Place your other hand across the bump in the back of your head, helps all quadrants to talk to each other giving you a whole brain response.
Now belly BREATHE through your NOSE:
In for 4, hold for 2, OUT for 4, hold for 2 and repeat 9 times.
This connects the para-sympathetic with the sympathetic nervous system, the cerebral brain with the enteric brain after the 9th breath via the vagus nerve.
So you begin to think about something in the future outside of the stress/ pain/ situation you were feeling stuck in. Whether it is imagining what you are having for dinner, what to do for your birthday or where you would rather be it is all creating a Vision for your Future.
And you can start to RESPOND to Life in a way that will get you to what you envisioned.
When we RESPOND to life we are WILLING to release resistance and make Changes that are positive and in support of ourselves and our goals, we are filled with Assurance life will only throw at us what we can handle, we have a sense of Oneness with others, our true self and Life.
Or we have Interest in creating the life we are seeking, we are Equal to the challenge to do so. All this leads to the CHOICE to live the life we are meant to.
Enjoy the wonders of the Autumn Equinox!
Be Kind. And True to you always,
Deb
Musical Inspiration of The Week
Our friend Barry Goldstein’s …. The Heart Codes
EnJOY!
The Autumn Equinox Exercise
Using the energy of the Autumn Equinox you can let go of the past to create the Life that is meaningful to You now and moving forward.
This exercise is focused on Values. You could use it on any part of your Life you want to clean up.
Now is the time to release outmoded Values from your past that no longer work in the Present. Then you can get clear on what you Value now and become conscious of Living them!
Who are You?
- How would you describe yourself in the past…at primary school, as a teenager, in your first job, relationships, your passions/ hobbies? What was important to you at each of these times in your life?
- What would others say your values are? Through the eyes of your Colleagues? Friends? Spouse/ Partner? Parents? Write a list of 5 for each
- Re-read Maria Shriver’s quote to write a list of your Top 5 values…who you want to be Now and in the Future eg. “ I am optimistic/ honest/ caring/ assertive/ brave/ childlike/ unselfish/ creative/ loyal ( to?)/ confident/ logical/ joyful/ focused/ vulnerable/ safe/ harmonious/….”
- Now tick or highlight the same values on each list. Choose which Values now need to go, what are outmoded, outgrown or unsupportive? And Choose what Values you keep…the Values you will consciously integrate into your everyday.
- How much of each day would you spend DOing that value? Living it?
- Make a choice: find 5 actions/ habits that will align your Values with the life you are creating. Make them a part of your daily schedule.
- Place a candle on top of the Values Action list, repeating 3 times “ I release the old easily and gently. I CHOOSE to live My Values and My Truth gently and easily.”
I’d love to hear your experiences of this exercise…please email me to let me know.
EnJOY! the benefits of the Autumn Equinox!
Be Kind. And True to You.
Deborah