What does it mean to be depressed? Is it okay?
I'll be honest, my heart has been raked open by the hurt and depression that I've encountered this holiday season. Never before have I felt the rawness that is all around me in such an overwhelming way. It doesn’t seem to matter which direction I face, depression is looking back at me from the eyes of my friends, clients, and even my own family.
There is a cycle that many of us fall into that I believe is officially called Repress-Express, but that I affectionately refer to as Repress-Explode, or Doormat-Raging Queen.
In Doormat mode, we take it, we don’t say ‘Boo!’ to anyone about anything and we just ‘take it’. When people irritate us, we are polite. When our boundaries are crossed, we are polite. When our dreams are disrespected, we are polite.
Social media is a weird and wild place and I find it all too easy to slump into what I call 'Facebook-itis' where I am comparing my life to the 'lives' of the fantabulous many that I follow and am friends with. What can be all too easy for me to forget is that I am comparing my real life to their highlight reel.
What pulls at the strings of your heart? What longing are you holding on to that is calling our for release. To be thrown into the wind with as much passion and volume as you can muster from deep within in yourself? To allow it to be carried away on that wind to become part of the Divine plan?
For most of us, and especially for women business owners, we spend the vast majority of our time in the Important and Urgent category. This is known as 'fighting fires'. Every day we are scrambling to get done what NEEDS to get done NOW in our life and in our business.
We deal with client situations, we take care of the bills, we handle the kids and the parents and our friends and our spouse and... EVERYTHING!
And, if you're like me and my people, you're really REALLY good at it.
Maybe you even THRIVE on it. It can be a rush. It can be addictive.
Sometimes it is easier to escape into someone else's life than it is to deal with the reality of our own life. When we are hurting. When we are scared. When we are lost.
There is so much waiting for you. There is beauty and joy and rest. A deep rest so profound that every cell in your body will take a deep breath and slowly exhale in peace.
We're going to have some fun as we de-bunk some of the most popular myths about meditation and then figure out how to build it into our lives in a way that works.
Meditation can help you improve your health, reduce your stress, and even help you make more money...but it can't do ANY of that if you don't do it.
Now don't get me wrong: I love my sleep. (And, yes, I do work with clients who have chronic sleep loss issues to get them a good night's sleep.)
But at this time of year my body is so excited to get out of bed and get going that I can't say no.
Many of us spend our lives popping in and out of our bodies. Whenever there is an uncomfortable feeling we 'POP!' out and watch our body being uncomfortable. This has the benefit of consciously removing us from the discomfort - even if we aren't aware of doing it consciously.
It also has the very big disadvantage of abandoning our unconscious mind and body. This means we lose our access to what is actually happening inside of ourselves and in the world around us.