Written by Michelle Robinson
This month’s Life Chat invites some personal reflection.
Where are you right now?
I don’t mean, ‘Where are you right now?’ in the physical sense of your location, but rather I am wondering where you might be mentally and emotionally. Are you in one place in your body, while also in other places with your thoughts and feelings?
Our hectic lives, with the responsibilities of work, juggling family roles, maintaining relationships,
caring for our children, and dreaming of hopes yet unfulfilled, pulls us in multiple directions.
Add to this list the pressure of having to do everything within tight timeframes – sometimes within
only minutes or hours – and we find ourselves under a heavy mental and emotional load.
So, as I return to my opening question, ‘Where are you right now?’ I invite you to consider whether you have aspects of yourself, through your thoughts and feelings, in different places from where
you actually are.
Are you worrying about one or more persons who are important to you?
Perhaps you are at home, but still thinking about what needs to be done at work tomorrow? Is there something you are thinking about, either from the past or still to arise in the future, that draws you away from what you are doing right now?
In other words, are aspects of you, ‘away from home’, where ‘at home’ means being completely present within yourself, and focused on the current moment?
It is natural to care for others and plan for the future, yet unless we recognize the energy we consume in thoughts and feelings that distract us from ‘now’, we scatter ourselves like seeds
on the wind.
At the end of each day, we wonder why we feel so exhausted. The answer can be simply put; it’s because we spread ourselves too thinly, and do not conserve the energy we need to live a
vibrant, healthy life.
Believe me, I have been superb at worrying. If worrying over loved ones was a well-paid career, I’d have been a millionaire by the time I reached However, with a couple of extra decades added to my life experiences, I have learned the folly of needless worry, and through training and meditation, conserve my energy much more efficiently than in the past.
The strategy I share in this column is straightforward. I call it ‘Coming Home to Yourself.’ Doing it at the end of each day, perhaps even in bed before you sleep, is well worth the short time taken to compete it.
Step One: Assess where your thoughts and feelings are. Notice if you are still carrying concerns or worries.
Step Two: Notice what is your responsibility and under your control. Promise yourself you will make a plan tomorrow and deal with these things when the time is right.
Step Three: Notice what is not under your influence and/or is not your responsibility. Surrender all of that. Imagine a heavy cloak of concerns slips from your shoulders and falls to the ground behind you.
Step Four: Call all your energy home. Imagine the energy you have left ‘scattered’ in each of those situations, returning to you. Feel yourself consolidating, feeling more centred and calmer. Mentally affirm, ‘I am centred and calm.’
This mind-rehearsal process allows you to re-group energies each day, let go all that is unhelpful for you to carry, and brings some peace of mind.
I hope that ‘Coming Home to Yourself’ is a strategy you find as worthwhile as I do.
Blessings,
Michelle