Coming to you with a loving hug today. Let’s just take a moment together. Consider this your break from all the insanity and a chance to breathe.
Let your shoulders drop, and perhaps let out a nice long sigh.
Breathe in…
Let it out…
Let’s take our feet off the gas in this moment. On this break, I want to talk to you about something vitally important, especially for where you may be right now, and where we are collectively.
I think a word we can all relate to right now is chaos.
Chaos in the news, in the world, in our lives, especially these last two years.
But today, I want to offer a wise teaching from Chinese Qi Gong Master Duan, who lived to be 107 years old. I think we can all agree he was an expert on longevity!
He said chaos happens, but to view chaos as an opportunity for beauty, and specifically the beauty of balance. Chaos doesn’t need our help. It’s going to manifest, but what does need our support and attention is finding beauty IN the chaos.
Essentially, how do we create balance within ourselves when storms continue to rage?
I’m going to teach you a simple technique you can use starting today, and at any time things feel crazy, but first I want to explain why this is so important.
I think of going to school to be a performer and how I was taught to be a great singer, dancer, choreographer and actress. I came to New York City ready to take on the world and started booking work right away, but when I would mess up, or get cut, or not book a show, I felt completely lost. I found myself riding all these roller coasters of disappointment with so many factors I couldn’t control.
I couldn’t control what the casting director thought of me or if someone bumped into me while I was auditioning. I couldn’t control if someone else sang my song much better than I did, or subways that broke down and caused me to miss appointments. And most of all, I couldn’t control whether the audience was perky and awake, or dozing off and talking with the person next to them.
I felt so chaotic. I tried everything I could to manage it, but the truth was I was building a baseline anxiety in my system that only accumulated over time. I fell into the habit of punishing myself, thinking that was the only answer. I judged myself for everything that went wrong, and thought it was my fault. I just had to “work harder” and “have it all together”. I just had to “suck it up.” Except none of that worked and my anxiety only grew.
I didn’t have a career class on how to find balance, emotionally or physically. And I believed chaos was this terrible thing that just made everything worse. Until I had the most chaotic year of my life in 2013 where I lost everything I knew. This was a level of chaos I had never experienced before in my life and it dropped me to my knees, my whole body finally crying out for help.
My body was crying out for balance.
My body was crying out for beauty.
And for the first time, I decided to become a student and learn how. It was actually because of the chaos that I decided to let go, surrender, and learn something new. Chaos had actually been my teacher for years, I just didn’t realize I had been in a classroom.
And we have all been in one of the most intense classrooms for the last two years. A global roller coaster that is never ending, which is why today, I wanted to offer a hug, offer a way for you to find beauty again. To reclaim your balance, because it never left.
And here is our opportunity, together.
I want to pass along a simple technique from the HeartMath Institute called Heart-Focused Breathing. For decades, HeartMath has been pioneering a new understanding of the human heart, discovering the heart is constantly sending messages to the brain and influencing our overall being. Heart focused breathing is believe to be a vital first step in stopping energy drains. For today, we can think of it as the first step to finding balance.
- Start by focusing on the area around your heart
- Imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your heart area, breathing a little slower and deeper than usual.
- You can try counting in for 5 and out for 5
- Continue for at least a minute, and if really stressed, give yourself 5 minutes.
- You can do this with eyes open or closed at any time of the day or night.
How do you feel?
In Chinese Medicine, they believe the heart is the “emperor” that directs everything else in the body. It goes far beyond being a physical pump.
I like to think of the heart, as our beauty in the chaos. Always there, to remind us of our power.
May this be a loving hug to your whole being today.