Are you disconnected from what is true for you? And how do you know?
Feeling overwhelmed, stressed or anxious can be signs that your heart just isn’t in something, but you are doing it anyway. Tension is also created internally when the conscious mind is in conflict with subconscious beliefs. When you are out of alignment with what is true for you.
If you aren’t sure what is true for you, look to your dreams and your desires.
And if you have forgotten how to dream, or reigned in your dreams to what seems ‘practical’, ‘reasonable’, or ‘realistic’, ask yourself:
What if?
I worked as a researcher and project co-ordinator at universities for years. For much of that time, I felt overwhelmed, inadequate and was in chronic pain. I remember sitting at my desk in 2007 and thinking: What if my life could be about yoga and healing and learning and sharing, every day?!
(What a ridiculous idea… even if the thought made me feel light and giddy and excited!)
In 2010, after leaving my home and career and completing yoga teacher training, I wondered: What if I could combine my loves for yoga and healing to support people to feel happier and be free of pain?
(Dreamy! But I had no idea how such a thing could happen.)
When I moved to Toronto 2 years ago, bringing with me my two passions of yoga and craniosacral therapy to create Pranasacral, I asked: What if I could get away every winter?
(Okay, maybe that one was not so much a question as a non-negotiable presented to my partner.)
As I think back to these junctures I recognize that, by dreaming, I was allowing myself to listen to my desires. By reconnecting with what was true for me, I was collecting information that I would then use to make choices that were in alignment with my desires.
Give yourself permission to imagine and desire what feels exciting, inspiring and maybe even a little bit outrageous. So that you can let your dreams come true.
This doesn’t mean that I am now in a permanent state of alignment or enlightenment. But it does mean that I am in better relationship with my self. I am more aware when something feels ‘off’, and am better able to recognize when I am slipping into old beliefs that may have been useful at one time, but are no longer necessary or helpful. I can then choose how I want to respond.
Our relationships with ourselves and our beliefs are foundational to our experience of the world. For me, yoga put me in communication with the hidden and forgotten parts of me. Craniosacral therapy helped old imprints and trapped energy in my mind and body surface, so that my heart could open, and so that my body could be free of pain. Together, I believe these medicines allowed me to dream again.
What about you? I’d love to know how do you recognize disconnection in yourself. What do you do about it?
Thanks! This is just what I needed to read today.
That makes me very happy Sheila
I love this Karishma. It makes me realize just how important it is to deepen one’s relationship to self. Such medicine! Thank you.
Thank you Lissa! *Your* work with writing and the body is just this kind of medicine. Folks, check Lissa’s beautiful course: https://www.udemy.com/writing-the-body/
You’re welcome and thank you! I forgot to answer the question you asked at the end: How do I recognize disconnection in myself? Typically it’s when I’m mulling over something that happened and I really get tangled in my thoughts. I usually remind myself that I’m not my thoughts. Sometimes I laugh lovingly at myself. I try to get a yoga class in, go for a swim or spend time in the sauna. Do things that get me out of my head and back in my body. And breathing is also very important!
Yes, the breath! Thank you for the reminder that there is a good reason why the words for breath and spirit are the same in many languages
Loved this! For me, it’s usually a nagging sense of mild nausea, that I’m able to ignore for a little while, but not forever.
Lots of great ideas to think about here, thanks!
I love hearing how the body communicates… Thank you for sharing, Marsha!