Awaken

Reawaken and Balance

In our daily hectic and busy lives it can sometimes be difficult to make decisions from a place of truly knowing what is right for each of us and our families. Reawaken your spirit and balance yourself.  One way to do this is by allowing creativity into your life and reconnecting with your soul.

Reconnecting with your soul means accessing that place in your heart that is the very centre of your core. Your soul essence. We all can benefit from this, regardless of our religious or spiritual beliefs. Having balance and inner peace makes us able to function more fully as human beings, family members, and effective employees or business owners.

It doesn’t need to take up a lot of time if you don’t have it. It can even help to spend 20 minutes a day on yourself if you have small children and time to yourself is in short supply. And don’t feel selfish, time spent on yourself benefits your family and others around you as you become balanced, highly functioning, and truly present.

Or if you have more time available to yourself, you may be able to spend a one or two hour block of time on this. Do whatever works for you. And don’t feel guilty. Working on yourself now means that you will reap the benefits in both your personal and professional life as you begin with a balanced state of being, making choices that are truly right for you and your loved ones.

Meditation

Simple meditation techniques can help you to attain a sense of balance and inner peace. The calmness that you get from beginning a meditation practice will benefit all aspects of your life. It will help you to take your next steps, and to neutralize some of the stress that you will be feeling as you evolve in different ways.  If you don’t wish to try meditation and feel that it is not quite your cup of tea, try taking a walk in nature instead.

Simple Meditation Technique

Find a comfortable position, even sitting in a chair is fine, and take deep slow breaths. The  breaths should begin and end in your stomach.

Say the following words to yourself in your mind, with each slow breath:

Breathing in, I know that I am alive.

Breathing out, I am grateful.

Breathing in, I know that I am here.

Breathing out, I am living in the now.

Breathing in, I know that I am connected to the earth.

Breathing out, I am balanced.

Questions

1.    What makes you feel centred and balanced? Make a list of the things that help you reconnect with your inner core essence and help you to feel balanced. They can include things as simple as a bubble bath, or slowly enjoying a cup of your favourite tea while sitting in a quiet corner, just list whatever you have found that works for you.

2.    Schedule it in! What are some times in your schedule where you can fit in an appointment to spend some time on one or more of these things? The length of time and the way that you choose to spend it are up to you. Schedule it in now in your calendar or phone or whatever system you use for planning your time.

Four Easy Creative Project Ideas

Sometimes we all feel like choosing an easy, fun, creative project or action, which speaks to us. Something without a high learning curve, that will not add more stress to our lives.  An activity that feels like playing, and that helps us to find our creative joy again.

Here are four easy project ideas to get started.These can be modified in any way you choose or may even get you thinking of other ways that you can be creative. Don’t be afraid to try your ideas out. Happy playing.

Camera Closeups. Take photographs that are very closeup and that show the beauty and texture of the patterns of nature. Your subject matter can be anything in nature such as the inside of a flower, or a puddle on the ground. Blades of grass. The sky. You can use your children as subject matter by photographing the palm of their hands for example. Really look and see and enjoy.

Alphabet story. This is a great one for people who have families as you can get the whole family involved. Make up a story about anything you like with the first sentence starting with the letter “A”. Then the second sentence must start with the letter “B”. The third sentence must start with the letter “C”.  And so forth through the alphabet until you reach the end. You can either end the story there or start again at the beginning of the alphabet. Don’t worry about the quality of the story, or overthink it. This is about having fun and finding joy again as you reconnect with your inner creative spirit.

Collecting leaves and drying flowers. When I was a child I used to enjoy picking up pretty leaves that I found interesting. My mother taught me to press them between the pages of a heavy book. You can put paper on either side so that nothing dirties the book page. Wildflowers can be picked and then hung upside down to dry. These are very simple but satisfying pursuits.

Crafts, everyday games and playtime with your children. One idea is to make up a story with them that you write down. Have them colour a picture for the cover and your children will have published their first book. You can make the book at home by gluing, stapling, or sewing the pages into a book format, or if you prefer you can collect these stories and use an online publisher such as blurb.com to upload your child’s stories and pictures and then have the finished book mailed to you.

Open to Creativity

Although we sometimes feel that we don’t have the time to be creative, and are caught up in the daily grind of our everyday lives, even by spending a small amount of time on creative projects on a regular basis, or by being open to allowing creativity into our lives in whatever form it appears, we can each feel more connected with our souls. There are many reasons why we yearn to allow creativity into our lives, and to reconnect with our core essence, and many benefits from doing so.

Being creative is fun, and helps us to be in touch with our inner child, the one who never grew up and who still knows how to play. Being creative can help us to find balance, and to centre us, allowing us to increase our abilities to find tranquility in the chaos of life, and to better deal with stress and anxieties. Allowing creativity into your life will also help you tune into your own intuition, and the more creativity that there is in our lives, the stronger our intuition becomes. It is as if it is a muscle being strengthened.

The act of creating (art, crafts, doodles, anything!) is an ancient primeval act. It is elemental and natural, when our lives can sometimes seem so complicated. Our souls yearn for creativity. If you feel this and are listening to your heart, you can begin to allow more creativity into your life, and learn to balance your soul’s elemental needs with the roles and responsibilities that are so much of your life but that may not be fulfilling everything that your core essence is waiting for.

If you have a hectic and busy life you can begin by choosing an art or craft project to work on for 30 minutes a day, or only on a weekend for an hour at a time before your kids wake up, or whatever works for you. Or you may choose to instead go and see a play or to an art gallery, or to go for a walk in nature and really look at and see the beauty of the leaves. As a child, such a simple thing as collecting pretty leaves and pressing them between the pages of a book used to fill me with joy. Perhaps if you have children you would enjoy fingerpainting with them. The important thing is to schedule in time for creativity and make an appointment with your soul.

If you have a more relaxed life and have free time, or are not a scheduler, you may wish to be creative as the mood takes you, and to blend your creative projects in with the rhythms of your life, the seasons and your energy, following your intuition as to when to nourish your soul with creativity. By allowing creativity into your life, you will feel a sense of peace and well-being as you reconnect with our soul. You will feel more centred and balanced. And you will find yourself listening to and hearing more of what your heart is trying to tell you.

Balance in the Midst of Chaos

Before making a major decision it is wonderful to have time to balance yourself. By centring ourselves and reconnecting with our inner core essence, we are able to make decisions that are truly right for us, and our loved ones. But we don’t always have time to do this right in the instance before a decision must be made. In our daily hectic lives we often need to make a business or life decision on the fly as the world spins around us and we are caught in the thick of things.

The solution is to practice balancing and centring yourself on a daily basis, so that when you are in that situation where you have to make a decision on the fly, you will be ok even if you aren’t able to take time out, find a yoga mat, light candles, and whatever other techniques you normally would use when you are able to take your time.  By reconnecting with your inner core essence, finding balance, and centring yourself on a daily basis, even for small amounts of time, you will increase your overall ability to find tranquility in the eye of a storm, and to be in touch with your own intuition during your day to day dilemmas and disasters.

Whether you are walking in nature, practising yoga, or trying simple meditation techniques, it doesn’t have to take a large amount of time each day, just spend as long as you can manage. Think of it as building a muscle. The more you use that muscle, the stronger it will be, and the more useful you will find it.  By having a daily practice or ritual  of centring yourself in some way, you will discover that your inner core essence, intuition, and sense of balance, are accessible for you even as the world hurtles past and you find yourself in the midst of chaos.