A Beautiful Time to Reflect

What a time of reflection we have had and are still having!

On the precipice of returning to our lives.

But do we?

What do we return to?

How much?

What else have we woken up to?

Seen more clearly or with different eyes?

This feeling, this niggle that we have just seen something that we know. We know it deep down.

A simplicity. A slowing down.

Connection maybe more in this state. Connected to ourselves. Connected to the earth, nature. Connected to spirit. Connected to our families.

Presence. Better presence. Truer presence.

Blinkers being taken off. Looking at how we live…

Perhaps you already live this way. What beautiful validation that you are living in alignment with your true self!

This is on our minds. I have spoken about this with some of you. I hear and read others talking about this too. How beautiful that so many of us are all together in this discussion.

And may I say how lucky we are that this is our conversation right now as country WA emerges comparatively unscathed to other places in our world.

This time has allowed us (or offered us a chance!) to see.

We have been and are being forced to slow down.

It has been and is a chance to reset. The people, the world. Humanity.

“JUST BECAUSE IT’S WHAT IS DONE, DOESN’T MEAN IT’S WHAT SHOULD BE DONE.” - Cinderella

I listened to a fabulous podcast with Oprah on Super Soul Conversations, who interviewed Dr Alan Lightman, physicist and author. Here is a little of what he said and discussed with Oprah….

(This is) “a chance to choose a less hurried life”. (We have been) “living too fast”. “We have sold our inner selves to devil of speed, efficiency, hyper connectivity, money, progress, and productivity”.

He said, “When we live that way we have no space and time to be still. In this stillness we ask Who are we? We connect with ourselves. We can reflect on what is truly important to us.”

“We have been forced to slow down.”

Does this resonate for anyone? It does for me. Wholeheartedly. Not just on a personal level, but broadly in our world, the economy, systems of how we live and work. But to heal the world we must start with ourselves…

For me this is the essence of more conscious living. Knowing ourselves. What is important to us. Choosing with awareness rather than the mindless and robotic following of what everyone else does…

What you choose, you are voting for with your time and energy. And as parents, we vote with our children’s time and energy too don’t we!!!

By choosing all the things, you are determining that you value those activities and their outcomes more than something else. More than the time, space, stillness, slower pace perhaps.

And that may be ok for you and your family. It may be more than ok!! It may be in alignment with you. But make it a conscious choice. Then be in wholeheartedly with no regret, no resentment.

But know that all choice comes at a cost. Have we forgotten that? We certainly are given the message that we can do it all so it is no wonder that we continue on this path of piling on more and more with the costs rising slowly but surely.

What about the cost to your health? Too busy to cook. Too busy to eat real food. Instead we buy pre-prepared packaged food like products to feed ourselves quickly, often distracted and mindless. Losing the sacred act of home cooking and eating as our ancestors did.

What is the cost to your energy? Your vitality. Do you remember what feeling vital is? Have you felt more vital recently?

What is the cost to your mind? A calm and clear mind. Do you remember having such clarity?

What is the cost to your relationships? Deep connection to yourself and others?

And what about your soul? What is the cost to your soul?

I have this feeling, a knowing that our souls become tired when we are constantly being pulled out of alignment from stillness, space, deep and true connection to each other, the earth, nature and ourselves. I know my soul has felt tired with a lack of alignment.

That perhaps this is the modern pandemic of poor health; physical, mental and emotional.

Do you know this? Feel this?

So, what to do?

What are we waiting for?

Permission?

I felt this during the past 2 months…like I had just been given permission to slow down.

What stops us from making change or living more gently?

Guilt?

I feel this. Guilt over not doing it all.

Fear?

Of missing out?

Of our kids being left behind – in what…a race…for what?

Of us being left out. That we must do all the things to be happy healthy social humans?

Of fitting out. Being different. Choosing differently to the pack?

“RATHER THAN FITTING IN, WHAT IF YOU TRIED TO FIT OUT?” - Joshua Rosenthal, IIN Founder and Teacher.

So here we are. With this beautiful time to reflect.

Before everything rushes back, perhaps grab a journal, cup of tea and ponder some questions…maybe while children are at school, early in the morning before the sunrises, in the evening as you wind down with some beautiful music. Set the scene.

Get clear. Write it down. Yourself, as a couple, as a family.

What are the most important things to you?

What do you value the most?

What have you loved about isolation and how much do you value that?

What takes up too much time and energy, your vitalism?

What is out of alignment?

What would you like to shift? More time for…less time to…?

If you are a parent, when you look back at the years of raising your children, how do you want to have lived? How do you want to feel at the end of that time and during that time?

“WE CAN DO IT ALL, JUST NOT ALL AT ONCE”. - Quentin Bryce, Former Governor General.

And the final three for whatever choices you are pondering:

Why am I doing this? (Insert said activity, role…)

Who am I doing this for? Really…who?

And…Is there a different way of looking at it? Is the solution something I hadn’t considered….for example, can that sporting activity be done for ½ year instead of the entire year? Or 1 term instead of all 4?! Can we do it every second year?

It is about choice.

It is about what you value.

I write this for you, I write this for me.

With love, Abbie xo