Each Day Can Be A New Journey
Often, people long for that ideal break or that perfect retreat from the daily grind. We desire to get away from the office, the laundry, the business calls, or the routine drive getting ourselves (or our kids) from point A to point B. And often times we think in order to relax, or to feel like we have taken some time for ourselves that we must book a trip to a far-off place. Maybe you yearn for a grand adventure somewhere exotic. But there are things we can do in the here and the now to help us find our own escape. The vehicle we use to get away from it all does not have to be a car, a train, a plane, or a boat. Each day can be seen as a new journey with a start, a middle, and an end.
As a Life Coach I would love to share with you some of the techniques that I use to help people change their perception on their day-to-day life. These tools allow us to get centered and grounded and gain a fresh outlook on our experience. We can have our own little mini retreat without even having to leave the house and every day becomes its own adventure with these simple, yet effective tools.
The first tool is meditation. This can be listening to a guided audio or simply sitting quietly for a few minutes. Meditation can be very powerful in that it reinforces positive thoughts and helps to shrink the fears. It creates a safe space to let your mind open and allow for a flow of new thoughts, ideas, and inspirations.
Deepak Chopra says it well, “Meditation takes you beyond the mind’s noisy chatter into the pure awareness that is the source of all your happiness, inspiration, and love.”
Meditation has been shown to reduce stress, improve sleep patterns, lower cortisol levels and even boost memory and learning. Meditation can leave you feeling happy and fulfilled. And no matter what you are looking for in a guided meditation whether it be for manifestation, abundance, relaxation, or something else, there are so many to choose from and they can be easily accessed through the internet. Long or short, there is one to fit into each of our schedules.
The next tool that I love to tap into is the Imagination. Have you ever sat back and watched a small child using their imagination? They are living their best life and just having a great time. And while it can sound silly or underwhelming as an adult, the imagination is a very powerful tool.
Some may say they don’t have an imagination or they are unsure if they know how to use it anymore. This is simply not true. If you have ever found yourself thinking of all the bad things that could happen in a situation, then that is your imagination at work. The opportunity now is to consider using your imagination to visualize a beautiful image of something you really want to experience. Once you allow yourself to really dream up something expansive, you will quickly find that you will not only feel recharged and enlivened, working with your imagination in this way will help you to create a clear vision of what you would love to manifest in life. Our imagination is a gift that can take us anywhere we would love to go, do anything we would love to do, and create anything we would love to create.
Albert Einstein said, “I am enough of an artist to draw freely on my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
And Muhamad Ali said, “The man who has no imagination, has no wings.”
And as we work with our imagination to gain clarity on what we want, we become more aware of opportunities around us and actions we can take to serve our vision.
Maybe you don’t feel like you have time to sit down and listen to a meditation or to allow your imagination to run wild, but you desperately need a break. This is where the third tool comes in – the breath. Breathing deeply can be a restorative and transformative experience.
You simply breathe in slowly through the nose and out through the mouth, like you are blowing through a straw. Do this for a minimum of three times to calm your nervous system and bring clarity to your busy mind. For a small moment all the cares and frustrations are left behind and you are able to just be present. The deep breaths send a signal to your brain that everything is alright, our body relaxes, and our productivity can improve both personally and professionally.
“With every breath, the old moment is lost; a new moment arrives. We exhale and we let go of the old moment. It is lost to us. In doing so, we let go of the person we used to be. We inhale and breathe in the moment that is becoming…We repeat the process…This is renewal. This is life.” -Lama Surya Das
By establishing a daily self-care routine and adding in meditations, quiet moments to allow ourselves to “dream” or taking a few minutes to breathe deeply and intentionally, we can create a safe haven for our thoughts and our feelings. We make space to love this life we are living and by doing so we are allowing ourselves to recenter and to feel more relaxed and empowered in the moments that we’re in. Life no longer feels like something you need a vacation from and each day becomes a journey of new discoveries.
It does not matter if you can or can’t take a vacation or travel to far off places. There are fantastic tools, literally right at your fingertips, that can be used right now to expand and grow your life to something others may refer to as a “dream life.” But don’t take my word for it. Try them yourself, see each day as an opportunity to learn something new and watch as your life transforms right before your eyes.