Transform Your Life
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever been in that place in your life when you just need CHANGE? You’re not sure where you are or how you got there, but you know you don’t want to be there anymore.
I have been there–and not just once. I have fallen victim to hundreds of sleepless nights, struggling desperately to find that missing piece in my life–the part that, again and again, seems to drain until empty, no matter how many times I fill it up. I was unhappy and constantly in search of, well… I didn’t know what. Until one day, I packed my bags and headed for a month to the jungle in Costa Rica for something to change–and it most certainly did. I finally discovered the healing I had needed to start a new life, a life I was proud of and excited for.
Life is an ebb and flow and we have the power to take our lives into our own hands. In this blog post, I am sharing the ways I learned to recognize who I am and what it is that I need. Things I will be covering are:
How I’ve struggled in finding myself and how I’ve overcome it
Why learning your mind and body is nonnegotiable
4 of the best ways to learn yourself
How to create a yoga and meditation schedule that fits into your busy day
So if you’re like me, and you struggle to find the next right step in times of adversity, often hindering you on your path, chipping away at your self-confidence, and making you doubt yourself, then you’re in the right place! You’re about to change it all!
HOW I’VE STRUGGLED IN FINDING MYSELF AND HOW I’VE OVERCOME IT
I, like everyone else, have been many versions of myself in this life–and I am only 26. And I am grateful for every single one of those versions, as they have served their purpose. However, I was searching to find the version of myself that I was proud of and a version of myself that I could keep and build off of for a very long time.
Many, if not all, of the versions of myself that I had created had been survival. From a young age, I was bullied in school. This continued until I was forced to leave my high school my senior year. I moved from West Virginia to Michigan during Christmas break when I was 18 years old because the mental and physical health issues I was experiencing from this abuse was too much for me. So it’s safe to say that whatever I needed to do to survive, I had done that. But in doing that, I had lost who I was at the core of me.
For years following, I struggled endlessly with feeling lost. I was finding fleeting moments of happiness in new things, but like all the others, they would eventually blow away, leaving me in the same old empty pile of bones I was trying to get away from. Until one day, that changed. I was tired of the path I was heading down, one of searching and never finding. I knew I had everything I needed inside of me, I just had to figure out how to reach it.
I took a month and traveled to a jungle in Costa Rica in search of myself–the self I know and love. I dedicated myself to a month of training in Yoga and Meditation, of silence, and of journeying back to the center of me in search of the person I wanted to be. And now, a year later, I am building on the most authentic version of myself that I never had to create, finding happiness and peace in everything I decide to do. The things I learned in that month completely changed the trajectory of my life and I know they will do the same for you, so here I am to share them.
WHY LEARNING YOUR BODY AND MIND IS NON NEGOTIABLE
So the first thing I had to realize about myself is that I am the only ME out there! The diet, training, and routines that other people do have to be adjusted to fit what you need. Yes, it helps to follow guidelines, but until you invest time into learning yourself and making your own guidelines, you will keep ending up right back where you started.
Studies show that we all learn information in various ways. Our bodies are no different. Our bodies all function differently, from the things we need to eat, to how many hours of sleep we need, to how much alone time we need during the day. Learning to listen to our bodies and minds and learn what they need and when they need it is the difference between a life of struggle or a life of ease.
For example, I have struggled with debilitating migraines since I was a teenager. At age 23, I lucked into an old documentary on juicing and decided to give it a try. Instantly, my symptoms were cut to a fraction of what they had been before. I begged my mom to try juicing since she suffered from the same migraine disorder. Her body reacted terribly and she had one of the worst weeks she had ever had.
So no matter how many diets we try, how many plans we follow, or how many articles we read, until we learn ourselves from the inside out–we will never be able to apply anything to the effectiveness we need to sustain success.
4 OF THE BEST WAYS TO LEARN YOURSELF
Yoga
Yoga has been used for thousands of years for its health benefits. But the problem with yoga today is the way it is being used. It has become a “trend” in the western world bogged down by cute matching yoga outfits and impressive instagrammable poses often driving away masses of people who feel they can’t achieve this “yoga look”. There is nothing wrong with being into this trend; however, it is not the yoga we need to practice in order to know ourselves.
Yoga is simply a movement linked to our breath, in order to connect to ourselves and become mindful of the world around us. It should be a place you go, your own personal temple, to connect to your own mind and heart. The only requirement is that you let your body move in whatever way it wants while staying connected and aware of your breath. In doing this, you will train your mind to hear what your body is saying to you. Does your right foot need to twirl around three times? Let it! Do you need to sit back in a reclined butterfly for 10 minutes while the rest of the class finishes their sun salutations? Do it! It may feel difficult at first and you may want to listen to that little voice inside you telling you to “keep up” with the others. But what you don’t know is that may be exactly what is holding you back.
If you would like to know more about the yoga I practice every day, and how it should and can be practiced by absolutely anybody, CLICK HERE to check out my blogs where you will find “Yoga-the right way”
Meditation
Meditation may be one of the most misunderstood practices of all time! I constantly hear push-back on meditation because it’s “too boring” or “I’m no good at it” or “I don’t have time for it”. If only they knew that meditation isn’t sitting in an unbearable cross legged position while touching your fingertips and chanting ohmmm for an hour!
Meditation can be simply defined as “contemplation”. As a matter of fact, one of my favorite meditations that I do is something I practiced in Costa Rica called “tea meditation”. Tea meditation is making my favorite cup of tea and sitting with my eyes open. I simply listen to the world around me–the neighbors dog barking, the cars passing in the streets, someone rolling their trash can back up the driveway outside my door–while becoming aware of my surroundings and the sensations I am experiencing in my body.
In the 5-10 minutes I do this, I often discover many things I didn’t know when I woke up. An example might be that my shoulders are more tense than usual, so I have yet to identify something that is stressing me out. Or maybe, all the noises outside are more irritating than usual and I realize I didn’t get enough rest last night. Or I feel a pit in my stomach and when I let myself sit on this feeling, I remember something my mom said on the phone last week that hurt my feelings and I didn’t get a chance to process it or ask her about it.
In this way, meditation can be the first 5 minutes you are in the car on the way to work, the time you take to shower, or you can even meditate while putting your shoes on! If you give yourself even 60 seconds of awareness every day, I promise you will learn more about yourself than you ever thought possible!
If you're looking for more ways to get into meditation and learn all types of techniques–from simple to intense–and stick to it, CLICK HERE to check out my blog where you will find my blog “All Things Meditation”.
Journaling
Journaling changed my life. And just like yoga and meditation, there is no right way to do it. Journaling does not mean keeping a diary. You don’t have to get hand cramps from writing page after page of things you think you should write about. Journaling can be little evil doodles that float around in your head at night. It can be a poem about the morning light shining through the window while you're drinking your coffee. Journaling can be (and has been for me many times) opening up the journal and staring blankly into it for 20 minutes just to find out you have nothing to write at the moment.
Whether it’s doodles, bubble letters, an in-depth description of the terrible day you had yesterday, a poem that doesn’t rhyme, or a blank page, what you take from that crazy brain of yours and put down on paper can tell you a lot about yourself. Journaling should be a non judgemental, no pressure, splat of nonsense on any surface you desire. Because that nonsense will make perfect sense to you and probably only you. In fact, you may see things clearly for the first time once you pull it from your mind.
Once I stopped worrying about what my journal looked like and started focusing on what it felt like, it became a wonderful tool that I could use to get to know myself. And again, once I started getting to know myself, everything began to change.
It took me years to get into journaling. I couldn’t find anything to pull from my brain and I didn’t even know what I was looking for. If you want to use journaling as the beautiful tool it is, opt in below to receive a FREE pdf of journal prompts I have learned that have been responsible for many huge leaps I have made inward on my journey.
SIMPLE JOURNAL PROMPTS
Silence
Silence is the single most important tool you can use in learning yourself. There is no quicker way back home than through silence. I know what you are thinking.
“If it's that easy, why doesn’t everyone do it?”
Well the answer to that is, because it isn’t that easy! Of all the things I have done in my life, silence has been the most difficult one. Silence is the place all of our fears, doubts, regrets, shamefulness, and mistakes come to meet up. Have you ever tried to sit in silence for more than 5 minutes? And I don’t mean with background music, while you’re eating cereal, or drawing. I mean sitting in complete silence and listening to every voice you have playing inside. It is absolutely deafening!
The scary thing about silence is, if you sit in it long enough, you will hear everything you need. Why is that scary? Because when we hear everything we need, seldom does it match up with everything we want. But that is precisely when your life will begin to change.
I had days of complete silence in my retreat in Costa Rica. I learned more in those couple days than I did in any of the lessons or classes the entire trip. I am not suggesting days of silence for you to start out, but I do challenge you to take at least 5 minutes to yourself a day and just listen. No phone, no music, no reading, no drawing. Just you and the quiet. And when thoughts come up, take a mental note and then gently encourage them away while you rest again in silence.
In this way, you will learn to get comfortable in your own company. And like a new friend, over time, you will learn to trust yourself more and open up about things you didn’t even know about yourself.
“Listen to silence. It has much to say” -Rumi
Returning home to yourself often gets put on the backburner in today’s busy society. But when you invest in yourself with these practices will be when your life starts to change, just like mine did when I committed. Clarity, peace, and success are all inside of you. You just have to be willing to find it.
HOW TO FIT A HEALHY ROUTINE INTO YOUR BUSY DAY
To fit a routine into your schedule, you have to start small and stay consistent. Start with a 3-minute meditation and 10-minute asana practice in the morning and make a promise to yourself to stick with it. Once you show yourself that you can and will invest in yourself, you’ll build trust with yourself. From there, you can continue to make investments a little at a time.
If we all had the time and means to dive deep into ourselves and find happiness we would. Well, we do! There are expensive, time-consuming courses out there like the one I took, and if you have the time and means to take them, I encourage you to do so. But now thanks to technology, there are also ways for people like me to share the things I have learned at a more affordable rate and in much less time.
Once I got back from my trip, my biggest struggle was finding how to implement everything I had learned into a busy week with a full time AND a part time job, seeing family, and finding time for my art as well. So, using what I learned in Costa Rica and from my life-experiences, I created this website to share everything I can with the world and help us all create a better and easier lifestyle. Sign up below to join the Wildflower Family and stay up to date on all my new content. Together we can change our inner and outer world.
CONCLUSION
We have all seen struggle, one way or another. But we all have the power to take back our lives. And the only way to take back our life is to return home to ourselves. I did it when I thought the best of my life was over. I couldn’t have been more wrong! I am so much more than I ever knew and I only uncovered it because I started listening to ME. No matter who you are or where you are, you can do just the same.
The first step is to believe that everything you need is inside you. Then, to find it–just like I did. Healing is done at your own pace. So, make sure to join the Wildflower Family below to get all the latest content and resources so we can continue to heal together at whatever pace you need.
