how to keep connected to your spirit (in the midst of everything else)

There is so much tugging right now. Can you feel it?

It can literally be tugging from your kids or partner. It can be friends, family, volunteer groups tugging for your attention, for your time. It can be social media tugging for a reaction. It can be work tugging you to put more hours in. It can be bills tugging you to work harder. It can be spirit tugging you to listen. Listen.
When you have so much tugging it can be hard to know what your inner voice sounds like any more.

If you, like me need to hear the sound of your own spirit, and know it gets drowned out in the midst of everything else, here are 2 things to keep that connection:

FullSizeRender

Retreat daily with yourself

This can be 5 minutes or hours. It is about saying, yes, I want to listen to my heart.

Right now I am doing a 40 day practice, Get Your Creative On, a daily retreat with 50 women from all over the world. We are finding our personal creative practice, what feeds us. We are listening daily. If you’d like to start your own daily retreat, here are 3 things you can do:

1. Find your personalized retreat ingredients
Choose 2-3 things you want to have in your practice. Is is a prayer, art journaling, dance, lighting a candle, writing, painting, pulling an oracle card? What are your personal ingredients? The things that would nourish you?

2. Create your structure 
Is it 5 minutes or an hour? Early in the morning or before bed? 5 minutes on weekdays and an hour on weekends? What works best for you?

3. Get support
Your daily practice will only last as long as you’re excited unless you get support. Find a buddy, a friend to check in and see how you’re doing. If you’d like some support, you can post in the Woman Unleashed Facebook circle here. Share how you’re doing with your daily practice. Join us and post daily on social media and use the hashtag #my40dayretreat

Positive Juju

What inspires you? Motivates you? Feels good?
Add more of that.

The emails and newsletters I subscribe to help me feel yummy.
The music I listen to helps me feel peaceful.
The books I read are inspiring.
The movies I watch motivate me.
The friends I hang around are positive.

That being said, I also let go of stuff that isn’t nourishing. Subtract the negative. Here are things I cut out:
Emails that make me feel like I’m lacking something or market to my pain.
Music with lyrics that are depressing.
Books that make me feel hopeless.
Movies that make me angry.
Friends that like drama or gossip.

Negativity doesn’t bring you home to yourself. It just helps you point the finger at others. Or worse, point the finger at yourself. You may feel anger or sadness. You may feel judgment. It is good to feel. Just watch how much negativity you are inviting in. Watch how it shifts your mood.

A note on social media:
Listen sister, I know there has been A LOT going on. Seriously.
Election in the US.
Syrian refugees.
Environmental destruction.
Marches. Protests.

I’m not going to talk about politics here. What I AM going to talk about it how to keep your positive juju when your newsfeed is clogged with anger and sadness.

Limit your time
Don’t scroll away on social media for hours. Letting the newsfeed change your mood. Give yourself a 15 minute chunk. Timer. Done. If you don’t have great self control (Note: there are chemical reactions happening in your body to keep you on social media), and find yourself scrolling through the newsfeed 2 hours later, there are lots of apps to help you. Check out Rescue Time or Minutes Please.

Look at what you CAN do
No getting sucked into apathy or argument. Write a kind post. Create healing art and share it. Meditate. Dance your prayers. Look for common ground. Plant seeds of love. Call. Write. ALL with your loving intention.

These are 2 things I’m doing now. What about you? In the comment box below share with me. What do you do to listen to your spirit? To return home?

Facebook Comments