In life we are sometimes so overwhelmed by external noise we become disconnected from our internal guide or voice.
Your natural sleep is disrupted by an alarm first thing in the morning. And if you tend to reach for your phone or tv remote when you wake up, you are inundated with the thoughts, observations, experiences, and energy of the world. You move through your day meeting the demands of family, work and relationships, barely stopping to breathe or even consider how you feel.
We do this day in, day out and when we start to feel a little off there are plenty of tricks to mute the feelings and to help us keep pushing. For example, a sugary snack or caffeine fix for an artificial energy boost to override the signal from your body saying that it’s tired and needs a break.
The grind is constant, even during the pandemic whilst there were changes to how we worked and lived the option of simply doing less wasn’t given the same energy. It’s no secret we are the generation of workaholics, “work hard, play hard” and “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” are often chanted by dedicated members of grind culture.
"The voice telling you that you can do it, that you are enough."
In 2018, 60% of US adults said they at least sometimes felt too busy to enjoy life and 11% said the fast pace of their lives was harming their health. And it’s not just work, we have family commitments, social lives and we must remember to eat well, stay hydrated and move our bodies. And of course, there’s the latest Netflix series and multiple social media accounts vying for our attention.
There is so much noise that it becomes increasingly difficult to hear or even recognise your own voice. The voice telling you to slow down or to get up and go for it. The voice telling you it’s time for a change or to let go. The voice telling you that you can do it, that you are enough.
When we are really disconnected from that voice, unable to hear it or we simply just don’t trust it we can start to feel lost, helpless, stuck or even frustrated. These feelings can manifest in physical, mental or emotional symptoms. And again, it may be difficult to identify them and the cause through the noise.
If you’re fortunate you may already have the tools in hand to help you reconnect with that voice, with yourself, but there’s a good chance that you don’t. And in the absence of those tools maybe you try to mute the feelings, ignore them (2-4-1 cocktails anyone?). Sometimes we try to rationalise them, almost gaslighting ourselves and other times we turn to our reliable friend “Comparison”. To affirm that we are better off than some people so should be grateful. There’s a range of mental gymnastics that we do to avoid holding space for our authentic feelings.
Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all approach to overcome this, and that is not the intention of this post. But I invite you to commit to a 7 day challenge to create space for you to explore your feelings and your connection to self. Each day you will commit a minimum of 5 minutes to sit, reflect and write the answers to following questions:
1. How are you feeling in this moment?
2. Have you had any moments of joy today?
3. Is there anything you wish went differently? How did it make you feel?
Before you put pen to paper or fingertips to keyboard, create an environment that makes you feel safe and relaxed. Take the time to make yourself a nice hot drink, light a candle or incense, put on some soothing music and take 10 slow deep breaths. Then allow the words to flow.
Some days you will have pages filled and others you may struggle to write a sentence, but the main goal is the practise of creating the space in your day to reflect and feel. And to start the process of connecting with your intuition or inner guide.
Feel free to connect on Instagram to share your progress on the challenge, and of course if you can commit to more than 7 days then please do it.