Turn Headaches Into Healing
Maybe it’s me, but it seems that so many of us are going through challenging times. There’s the recession, global warming, and countless other global and personal challenges. As a life coach my goal is to empower people to consider how they create their lives and how they can look at things differently, shifting their priorities. Would you like to know how to use your challenges to move you closer to yourself, feel better, and go about the business of creating change? If you say yes, follow these four steps.
1. It starts with recognizing how precious it is that you actually care. You wouldn’t be so disturbed by these things, if you weren’t a sensitive, compassionate person. So first things first, I invite you to deeply appreciate yourself for having the ability to be affected by things. You are wonderful.
2. It’s key that you make the choice to express. In fact, there is a magic that comes out of finding the right balance between experiencing and expressing. If you don’t feel good, chances are you are doing too much experiencing without expressing or too much expressing without enough experiencing. If you are overwhelmed by circumstances, make time and space to express. Tell a friend how you feel. Get art supplies and draw a really bad picture. Put on music and make your “blah” dance or movement to match what you are experiencing. If you are talking and talking without noticing life around you, take time to tune in and listen. You will start to notice your own personal favorite balance of expression and experience.
3. The next thing is to examine if you are getting anything out of your position of being stuck in the place you are in. If you are frustrated by things, it’s useful to realize that you are angry. Anger is present if there’s a fundamental injustice. Depending on what you are angry about, this may be a sane response. What if you are angry because you want things to be different? If so, how do you want them to change? What are you willing to do about it? What if you are upset, because you want there to be a big change? The film THE COVE, a documentary about the annual devastating slaughter of dolphins in a small Japanese cove, exposed how this cultural ritual was so entrenched that there was no support to change it. But due to awareness raised by the film, and a mass international effort, the practice of killing those dolphins has ended. Isn’t that incredible? If you align yourself with actually making a big change, you will feel better, and perhaps even end up transforming what really disturbed you in the first place.
4. The filmmakers of THE COVE took action. In the end we all need to do that, to transform ourselves and the world. For me, engaging in a creative act always brings more energy. If I feel drained by being alone when I am parenting, I make a movie of Lily. As a result I get energy, because I am being creative in the way I want to be creative. And if I entertain others by my creativity I am honored to have brought joy to someone’s day. For some just choosing to be more loving is enough of an action to take. For others saying an affirmation is powerful. For some, starting to build stamina by exercising can give them the energy to tackle their goals. A goal need not be huge, but by making up your mind to actually choose something different and take action you will experience a shift.
In life, we always get to choose whether we are resigned to things as they are, or if we are willing to change. If we are willing to change, we get a burst of creativity, inspiration, an actual feeling of being alive. What could be better?
