New Year’s Ease

This year I spent about three weeks really focused on learning from the past year and getting clear about how I want to live into this New Year.

I’m so grateful for this practice…there were many years I didn’t feel like I could take the time—or that it would make any difference if I did. I didn’t feel I could consciously influence the way my life would play out over time. I knew the value of practicing to change something in myself, but I felt at the whim of life’s unfolding events all too often…

As I reviewed, visioned, and felt into myself, over and over, a yearning in my soul arose—balance, ease, abundance, balance, openness, ease…

Ease, Work / Life Balance

I WANT this! And I’m struck with the fact that I only found out how much I want it by taking those 3+ weeks to settle in, to look at 2015, at all that I accomplished (or didn’t) and all that I had felt during the year…

As I was writing this post at my favorite local cafe, a friend I run into 1-2/month there stopped by to say hi, and as I showed him this New Year’s collage and talked about my theme for the year, he had an insight and spoke these simple and profound words:

Work is part of life.
It’s all life.
Life includes work.

So, the question becomes: How can I live my life fully, including the work that is part of it? (Thank you, Stewart.)

This reminds me of the book Slow Time, in which Waverly Fitzgerald suggests that we substitute the word “life” for “time.” “I don’t have time for that” becomes “I don’t have life for that.”

[GULP. Pause to take that in.]

Yes, it’s ALL life. Do I have life for this task in front of me? Do I have life for this life?

The other day I got caught up in feeling there was not enough life.

I was working at something that I choose to do. And normally I enjoy it. But I started to feel stressed. I was resisting my experience. I did not want to feel the rush, the deadline, the competing demands on my time [life]. I found myself moving faster, getting frustrated, telling myself there wasn’t enough time [life].

Checking in, my inner child Kimmy was feeling really left out. She wasn’t having fun. She wanted more ease and life RIGHT NOW.

But the inner patriarch voice in me had other ideas—I needed to work harder, faster, have more focus—not take a break or I wouldn’t get it all done…

Luckily, I was able to touch into my inner wisdom, a part of me who knows how to find work/life balance and ease in any moment. She guided me to get some dark chocolate, a lovely pot of tea, and turn some music on. While I let myself take in this nourishment, I found myself breathing more deeply, moving my hips and dancing a bit as I worked, savoring the sweetness I had prepared for myself.

This was ease in the moment of my life—which included work.

The next day, instead of jumping into my normal morning ritual, I felt called to the collage table. I had been laying out this collage for a few days, returning to it during the day—first to pull out images that attracted me, then to start laying them out, forming them, letting them tell me where they belong, being curious and allowing them to shift and try new positions…

That morning, I felt, it was time. [It was life.]

After shoveling the new snow, I started the fire for Dave, got my pot of tea, and settled in to the collage table, to the life that was calling me.

How are you taking the time to listen to the life that is calling you?

 

Join me for my Women’s Self-Care Mini-Retreat on February 7th, 2016 to slow down enough so that you can hear the calling of your life. We’ll create sacred space, journal, engage in yoga, partner, and embodiment practices, and share in circle.

Sign up for a free Discovery Session with me to explore how my 6-month coaching program can support you to create a rich and soul-fulfilling life.

**Inner Wisdom card is Athena, from Doreen Virtue’s Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards.

p.s. Do you have friends who would love inspiration and support in living a more present life? I’d love it if you would share this post with them on Facebook!