As we wind down the year, you may be taking inventory of what you liked most or you could be taking inventory of the areas that you wish you could just stow away in the closet and never visit them again, or perhaps a combination of the two. Maybe you are thinking about the goals you set and attained, and which ones didn’t manifest due to lack of time and motivation, or perhaps they just weren’t the right goals for you in the time and place you found yourself through the year 2014. As we reminisce over the past year – taking the good with the bad – let’s breathe ourselves into 2015 with a new vision. Let’s play big in 2015, let’s play big in love.
In order to play big in love, we must find our inner light. When we play big in love we think, say, and act from a place of big love for ourselves, others, and the world. Finding and tuning into our inner light is a discipline as much as it is an art.
Tuning Into Your Inner Light
- Step out of your comfort zone
Take a step out of your comfort zone. When we step out of our comfort zone, we navigate the edges of our existence where beauty meets fear and when we hold steadfast in our edge, walking mindfully through this fear zone, there is a miraculous beauty to see on the other side and we discover a Herculean inner strength that we perhaps didn’t think was possible. Taking a step out of our comfort zone doesn’t have to be a big step. Just take a step, take a small step, even little baby steps. Any step we take that is stepping out of our comfort zone is playing big in love and will help us tune into finding our inner light.
- Practice power poses
Self-confidence can make or break our lives. When we are not feeling so great about ourselves and our abilities, it’s quite the challenge to step out of our comfort zone and sometimes just quite the challenge to get moving at all. Here are some baby steps to take to boost our self-confidence and help us tune into our inner light – take 2 minutes a day to strike a power pose (or two or three). Thank Warrior I, II, or III, inversions, arm balances, and heart openers for power pose options.
Amy Cuddy, a Harvard researcher and professor, studied the effect of power posturing on individuals interviewing for a job. The ones that put themselves into power poses for two minutes prior to the interview connected more with the interviewer and the interviewer felt they were more authentic, poised, and relaxed than the ones that interviewed that didn’t put themselves into power poses. The interviewer was not aware of the power pose piece, they were just asked to interview in the study. The folks that did the power poses are the ones that got the job! In Amy Cuddy’s words, don’t just fake it until you make it, “fake it until you become it.” So, get your power pose on and start lighting up your inner beauty.
- Get organized
We are living in postmodern times – we are in the information age. We have so much available at our finger tips and with more information available, we have more information to keep track of. We can’t keep it all in our heads! When our lives are unorganized, that’s a big indicator that are brains are probably a bit unorganized too and when our brains are unorganized, it’s hard to focus on fostering, creating, and tuning into our inner light.
There are many different techniques to getting our lives and calendars organized, but the key here per Daniel Levitin, the author of the Organized Mind, is to externalize as much as possible so our brains have maximum fuel and energy to use for important decisions and creative endeavors. Get your to-do lists in order and up-to-date, find an organizational app that works for you, use a tickler (a systematic reminder system) system on your calendar to make sure you are not missing important projects and milestones. Also, use your technology wisely. Don’t allow technology to take over your life and waste your valuable brain space (i.e., don’t incessantly check e-mails, text, and get on social media).
When we are organized in our homes, with our calendars, and our to-do lists, we preserve our precious brain space and mind energy so we can tune into our inner light and start playing big in love and perhaps take a baby step into a step up a few notches on the creative endeavor ladder. Let’s use our brain and mind space wisely so we aren’t taxing it on the small stuff.
- Integrate perspectives
Yoga gives us a rich history, philosophy, and metaphysical understanding to add to our own framework of how we view ourselves, others, and the world. But don’t stop with yoga, seek out other perspectives. Don Miguel Ruiz and Don Jose Ruiz co-authored the 5th Agreement. The Fifth Agreement is an additional agreement to Don Miguel Ruiz’s renowned book, The Four Agreements. The 5th Agreement is – Be Skeptical, But Learn to Listen, “Don’t believe yourself or anybody else. Use the power of doubt to question everything you hear. Is it really the truth? Listen to the intent behind the words, and you will understand the real message.”
The Ruiz team is asking us to listen with our heart. They are asking us to seek out different perspectives and breathe in the pieces of truth that lie in many ancient and modern practices. Go to a lecture, get a new book, take a class, and whatever fashion you seek to gain a different view, listen so the words through your heart and integrate the pieces that resonate with you in your own framework. Supplement your intellectual faculties with soul food for the mind, body, heart. Other perspectives can fire up our own inner light, especially when we integrate the vast knowledge waiting for us to take on out there, in here, within ourselves.
- Take wellness adventure
A wellness adventure is a bit of a fast from technology. It could be 1 hour to a few days or longer. Put the phones, computers, and remotes down and get out of your house and experience life. You don’t have to travel to the other side of the world to take a wellness adventure. Explore a museum you never have been to in your home city, go check out your local culture via a religious ceremony or a restaurant. Get in the car and drive out somewhere completely unplanned and take life in the moment enjoying the little surprises along the way. Explore your local waterways and byways on foot or bike.
Don’t just get outside and take a few breaths, get outside in a new and adventurous way. A familiar mundane walk to the park can turn adventurous when we take a new route or make the entire walk mindful noticing the sensations with acute awareness along the way. When we are outside getting our adventure on, our whole system, mind and body, work together and a general sense of wellness can manifest in the moment giving us the much needed fuel to tune into our inner light a little deeper.
Work with one or all of these tips I’ve suggested in tuning into your inner light. When we are working with them, we can start playing big, but not just any kind of big, we will start playing big in love. The truth is that finding our inner light today, may be different than finding and tuning into our inner light tomorrow. Stay disciplined, which means find something here that resonates with you and stick to it, not just occasionally, but every day/week/month/year. It can be few minutes to an hour a day or a regular weekly or monthly appointment with yourself for your wellness adventure. Add these on your calendar. Add a tickler on your calendar to make sure you are tuning in with fervor.
It’s time to stop downsizing how amazing you are and it’s time to start playing big in love. Wind down 2014 with gratitude for the lessons learned, the goals accomplished, and the energy in you now to step into 2015 with a new map to navigate your inner terrain of light. Light it up in love for the next year.
Om Shanti Om ~ Athea
