Stress and our capacity to evolve.

It is in our stressful periods that the capacity exists for us to evolve and grow the most.



I know it's not what anyone wants to hear because those periods in our life often feel crap but it’s true -IF we FIERCELY commit to our core practice (whatever that is for you).



It has been a roller coaster the last couple of months here in Australia with long periods of being on alert with a constant companion of stress, punctuated with short bursts of high fear, intense danger, devastation and grief across the country. 



And while it has sucked and everyone feels exhausted and bruised, it has also brought the opportunity for a radical increase in our capacity and in particular in our energetic capacity to hold more, to lean into our power at new levels.

While I’m sharing here for me personally, it holds true no matter what is going on your own life. 



Our Summer is only 1/3 done and we are told by authorities to expect yet more!!

The first reaction in my body (and i suspect to most of us here on the front lines) is NO!! please no more.

Because it’s not pleasant, it’s not what you vision for when you plan forwards for the year. 

 While i (like everyone else) want more than anything for it all to be over, to feel safe and confident in that safety day to day, i have also seen the amazing potential for the unfolding of a whole new level of myself. 



No I have not done it perfectly, I have wobbled and been on roller coasters like everyone else but i have also lent strongly on my core practices and values, and i have had many periods of being able to watch myself as a witness during times of high stress and learn.

…. on better days i catch myself and i firmly get myself into some core practice but it hasn’t been a first reaction 😉.



and it’s not what most people do. 



Under stress, danger, overwhelm, chaos, fear, grief, anxiety or pain we are first thrown into our minds for it’s here we :


***go onto red alert and threat assessment mode. 

***It’s here our trauma rises, our wounds, our past unresolved memories, our patterns, all scream at us for attention.
***and our mind goes into overdrive doing its frantic best to move us away from pain. 



This is all core functions of the mind. It is not malfunctioning. 



But the mind is typically over stimulated by adrenaline and cortisol, the bodies natural response to the signal of stress and danger, and is acting like a ramped up druggie with a constant flow of supply being fed to it. 


Our energetic bodies are turbulent and running with a mixture of jammed up blocks in places and wild pinging speeding energy in other areas, with no regulation and at the whim of the emotions generated by the thoughts our mind is having.

If we let our mind get control and lead exclusively during these times then, 
yes life feels horrendous, 
and yes we can get stuck here longer than we need to, 
and yes we lose the opportunity to massively expand our capacity for what we can hold in our energy, hearts, and minds, and we do not grow to the level we could.

The antidote - Be fierce in committing yourself to whatever it is you believe is your core practice.
Meditation
Yoga
Lying on the earth
your daily gratitude list
self love, (as in genuinely being willing to sit with yourself and what you are feeling in a loving and kind way).

👉… whatever it is for you, THIS is the most critical time to anchor to it, to ram it up.

Of course this is not typically what any of us. 
The mind will tell you this isn’t a priority
You don’t have time
You don’t feel like it

But it is within whatever core practice is to you, that your greatest potential to both grow your capacity and your power AND navigate the storm with grace and less upheaval, exists. 

MORE not LESS is needed.

and when you do,
👉the tidal waves of emotions and chaos reduce in intensity (even if its just a little at first)
👉you find the calm at your core
👉you can reconnect to whatever higher power it is you feel called to.
👉and your own energetic capacity to hold life expands radically. 

Your ability to hold others, your clients, the world, your family all grows in both depth and strength.

👉Your trust in yourself increases and as a result so does your power.
👉You come out the other side stronger, more at peace, more confident in yourself and your higher power, 

👉You have a new perception of what you are capable of and you often come out with a stronger commitment and desire to serve a cause bigger than yourself.

Perhaps this is why dark nights of the soul and times of huge upheaval exist in our lives, to propel us into our next level of power, capacity and evolution. 



and yes, we will never long for them ;) . We will never wish our life full of them - cause they are hard, and they feel challenging and horrible and at times unbearable.

But it’s our commitment to hold to our inner work during these times that serves as our guide, our life line and our map through it, so we come out the other side transformed.

It is our dedication to our core practices that ensure our growth and evolution are the result rather than more trauma and inertia in our lives.

It is living our core practice at these times that is exponentially more powerful than working our practice during times of joy and calm.. and that our most radical transformations can occur.

👉

If life feels hard, stressful, overwhelming or even unbearable today - where can you commit to your core practice and ENACT it?

❤️
Lisa