What wakes you up in the morning?

That was a question I was once asked during a job interview back in 2008. Since then, it’s a question I often come back to when evaluating my life purpose and whether I’m living in alignment with it.

It’s easy to be filled with shoulds and shouldn’ts, comparisons, judgements, expectations, pressure to please others, as well as social and cultural norms that you think you couldn’t possibly challenge or deviate from.

It’s not as easy to take the time to reflect on your journey, be conscious of every action and interaction you have, live your life on your terms or create your purpose.

Before you can discover what wakes you up in the morning (besides your alarm clock, your partner nudging you, your pets drooling on you or your kids asking for breakfast) your mind needs to free of clutter and any limiting beliefs.

Here are 6 ideas to help get you started. Feel free to experiment, mix and match, and tweak them until you find what works best for you.

Accept and release your thoughts

Your thoughts are just that: thoughts. You have so many throughout the day, but nothing has actually happened. Yet, there are instances where you allow these non-events to prevent you from participating in the event itself!

Examples: Notice your thoughts, notice which parts of your body are affected by your thoughts, thank yourself for having a thought and then release it.

Approach your day with a beginner’s mind

A beginner’s mind is open, receptive, contains no baggage and is willing to experience everything as if it was for the first time.

Examples: As you go about your day, notice any new sensations you have, look at activities you frequently do from a different angle, and be mindful if you are making assumptions and jumping to conclusions.

Learn honesty and presence from animals and children

Animals and children have a knack for expressing exactly how they feel in the moment they feel them. They don’t play the passive-aggressive game, nor are they deeply burdened about their future. They just joyfully experience life in the present moment.

Examples: Think of how you would most like to express yourself, and see if you can experience beauty right in this moment.

Do something that doesn’t feel like ‘you’

In the movie, ‘Hitch’, Will Smith says: ‘You’ is a very fluid concept right now.

Your identity is not set in stone and you’re free to modify any aspect of yourself at any time, particularly if who you’re currently being isn’t serving you. In this process, you don’t actually ‘lose’ yourself, but become more of who you really are.

Examples: Have fun doing something spontaneous and random, cross something off your bucket list, learn something new, have a few electronic-free days, and say yes to anything that aligns with who you are.

Practise forgiveness and not holding a grudge

Forgiving and not holding a grudge can help to release you from your past. If there’s someone or something that is causing you tension or pain, it’s often a result of you resisting reality, trying to control your future or trying to change your past.

Your willingness to forgive doesn’t mean that you don’t defend or advocate for yourself. Instead, you’re freeing yourself of your past and are at peace with your current reality.

When you are in this peaceful state, you can begin to set clear intentions.

Note, the person you may need to forgive the most could be yourself.

Examples: Write down the name of the person that is the most difficult for you to forgive and why. For each reason, can you think of how you could be more compassionate? If you each have your own perspective of reality, can there be more than one version of the truth?

Plan a little, but not too much

Do just enough planning to keep yourself organised, but not too much that it hinders your discovery process. It’s OK to not have all the answers and your ducks lined up in a row. If your life is easy, where’s the fun in that?

Examples: Keep all your due dates, appointments, and activity and task lists in the one place, and diarise self-care/reflection time too.

If you’re interested in exploring these concepts further, here are some handy resources:

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott

Loving What Is by Byron Katie

The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay

 

What steps will you take to declutter yourself? | Are you ready to start?….Of course you are!

Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray. Rumi

 

Article by: Geraldine Phua

Geraldine Phua is the founder of Geraldine Pierre Skin Care, a Melbourne based atelier of natural, animal-friendly handmade skin care products. The new range will be launched in late 2015.

My mission is to:

* Empower and encourage you to be your most authentic self more often.
* Give you tips to improve your skin and overall health by using a natural and holistic approach.
* Help you form a deeper connection with animals and work towards ending their suffering.

W:Geraldine Pierre Skin Care

F: /geraldinepierreskincare