How to get out of overwhelm? (Motivation)

How to get out of overwhelm? (Motivation)

Motivation means a reason to move. A source which fuels our willingness to move forward.

We can tell that our motivation is shaky when we feel a lack of willingness to take the next steps… maybe waking up in the morning with barely an excuse to get out of bed and continue. Maybe even the smallest tasks seem arduous. These are signs of overwhelm.

If you’re encountering overwhelm, you’ve pushed too hard for too long in the past, so you need to try something else; or you’ve encountered too much all at once. In either case, it’s time to learn some new skills. Life doesn’t get easier, awareness and choices get better, which makes life easier.

So much of this “lack of motivation experience” is actually tied up in our body’s mineral status, and in our good health in general.

For example, when we eat like shit, we will feel like shit. When you feel like shit, it’s much harder to be motivated, even if you have a good reason to move.

When we consistently expose ourselves to too much toxic stimuli, this can create overwhelm in the body/mind/spirit. Overwhelm quickly leads to a lack of motivation. Examples of this include watching TV or movies of a violent or dark nature; scrolling intention-less through social media; spending time with people–in a way which is not intended specifically to be of service to them, which would be energizing–with people who have given themselves over to negativity (to be contrasted with someone who is actively turning toward their shadow in order to let it come up and out); spending too much time indoors–especially in the type of box-shaped dwellings in which most of us in the western world live, which often drain vitality; going without non-native EMF protection; drinking low-quality water; breathing low-quality air, having poor circadian hygiene (going to bed too late, or eating too close to bedtime, not getting morning sunshine), or even trying to be perfect.

It can seem like a lot, and it is a lot when you’re starting from overwhelm, however a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step forward. So if you find yourself in a place of overwhelm, just take the first step. Just choose ONE thing to change today. Choose a low hanging fruit, a freebie, like just getting outside in nature for a little while, which is so revitalizing. Then do something else tomorrow.

We must learn how to eat an elephant one bite at a time, if we are going to create and allow the life we dream of.

Often, this “first bite” can be simply lying down and feeling the body. Letting the energy and sensory information reveal itself to you. The sensations can only deliver their wisdom when you are willing to listen to (to feel) them. This step is also free!

In fact, there is so much of a backlog of unprocessed experiences in almost everyone’s bodies, that everyone needs to meditate. Meditation, as I described above, is a powerful way to begin unclogging the stuck, stagnant, heavy energies which weigh us down. The more we try to escape ourselves, the heavier this burden becomes. The more we turn toward our pain, that is to say, the more we feel it, with presence and patience, the more en-light-ened we become. Your awareness is the light, which illuminates the darkness, and this must be practiced in order to reap the benefits of the “lightness” you may be seeking. Insights come to you through your silent listening.

My daily practice of Spring Forest Qigong is, of course, one of my biggest fundamentals in balancing and upgrading my mind/body/spirit energy, as well. www.springforestqigong.com

The critical nature of serving others

I believe the most sustainable motivation comes from serving others (or serving our “other-selves,” as RA puts it in the Law of One, since we are all the same One Infinite Consciousness expressing itself through different forms).

Why else would we put ourselves through such an immensely challenging life experience here?

Why would you decide to come to Earth, this beautiful but very fucked up planet with so much violence and confusion and darkness, if not to help? For me, there could be no other reason.

I came here to help. To serve my other selves. To become ever more fully alive and to serve that same inner calling in others.

And in order to do so sustainably, I must do so in a way which doesn’t burn myself out! If something you are doing is leading you to overwhelm, then I might ask which part of you resents your existence or feels separate from the rest of Creation? It is our illusions of separation which maintain our suffering. Let that part of you come up and out. Be willing to face that pain and let it go into the light.

My spiritual and life path, my practices, my desire for understanding–these are ultimately fueled by my desire to be a light to others, a beacon of hope, and a flourishing servant-example of forgiveness, harmony, beauty, self-acceptance, prosperity, wisdom, compassion, and joy.

Serving others, whether it is helping to support my family or friends or neighbors, or strangers on the internet, IS the fulfillment I’ve been looking for.

Be Patient

There are many misleading ideas out there that forgiveness or “letting go” is a decision that you make and then you’re done. While this may be possible, there is a reason that wise sages and spiritual masters have spent decades practicing (yoga, meditation, qigong, etc). The reason is that forgiveness AKA “letting go” AKA enlightenment is a practice.

You don’t need to practice 8 hours a day to see great results, but you do need to practice at least 20-30 minutes on a regular, ideally daily basis if you want to advance with consistency.

Again, you have come to a challenging planet, planet Earth: a planet full of opportunity to grow and serve. You picked “super-duper challenge mode” for your life experience, and here you are, deep in the thick of it.

So where do you attempt to escape? Where is a single opportunity for you to turn back toward your life and to embrace the challenge? Again, maybe that’s simply lying down for 20-30 minutes and giving your body a powerful opportunity to process. Maybe you dance?! Turn on a groovy beat and MOVE that energy! 5-10 minutes. 2 songs. You’ve got this!

One step at a time, one bite at a time.

If you take a single step forward, you’ve made progress. Screw perfection entirely. Progress is the answer.

Progress, on an intentional path, is fulfilling, and this feeling of fulfillment builds momentum.

So stop trying to eat the whole damn elephant in 2 bites. Slow down. Take some full, gentle breaths, and ask yourself, what’s 1 thing that can help right now? What does my body need right now? Put one hand over your heart and the other over your belly, ask the question and wait.

The answers come much better when we patiently wait for them, instead of trying to squeeze them or force them into being.

What’s a good enough reason for you to keep going? For you to take care of yourself properly so that you can serve and support those around you better?

Why did you come here to earth anyway, and why do you wish to stay?

Love,

Aaron

Fear Is Not Your Block!

Fear Is Not Your Block!

Most people who are into self-development believe that their biggest challenge or their biggest “sticking point” on their way to success is fear.

It’s actually not the fear itself. It’s one’s resistance to fear that is the true blockage.

So in order to work with your resistance to fear, or your resistance to any emotion or feeling you’re having for that matter, what is required is to practice being present with the emotion or feeling, and to practice giving up the resistance it.

Just put your attention there. Explore its nature with your awareness. Set the intention to let go of the resistance and to feel the experience.

Rest your awareness right in the depths of the experience.

This is the practice.

Letting go is usually not something that occurs by simply deciding you’d like to let go.

When “holding on” is a subconscious process–which is what trauma is–the letting go must occur deep enough to penetrate the attachment.

It’s important to give the process of letting go, of forgiving, as much time as it needs. Trying to force it is counterproductive.

Just as there is a natural process to a baby growing up, a process which takes time, the best we can do is to nurture ourselves through the process of letting go.

The good news is that there are powerful practices that can catalyze the process–different styles of qigong and meditation, for example. I like to think of these types of practices as the nutrients needed for the process. And then we do what we can and the rest is up to the Divine.

Most of us are deeply conditioned to try to avoid our pain, to attempt to resist it, which only amplifies it and makes it worse in the long-run.

The answer is to turn toward our pain with presence and patience, and to practice in the ways of those who have the results you are looking for.

This is how to turn pain into power.

Love,

Aaron

Crying Makes You Stronger

Crying Makes You Stronger

I’ve gone through many long periods in my life when I’ve cried almost every day.

The faster I’m growing and making changes in my life, taking risks, putting myself into uncomfortable situations in the pursuit of expanding my comfort zone, the more I cry.

The more somatic meditation I do, the more I cry.

The more embodiment and healing work I do, the more I cry.

Crying is associated with growth, healing, and letting go of pain.

Vulnerability is necessary for true leadership.

It takes more courage to be with the pain than to try to run away from it.

And trying to run away can only ever work temporarily anyway.

What’s good about turning toward our pain, is that it gives us a chance to be with life as it really is, as opposed to sustaining our neuroticism, our ego-projects, trying to freeze everything in place, trying to control ourselves and everyone around us.

When we turn towards our pain, we remember that it was for us the whole time.

It is the fuel that empowers us with purpose and clarity, when we turn toward it, as a practice.

And we begin to discover more life with less effort required for the living.

We discover a life that is surrendered to something even greater than our own attempts to build and protect who we think we are.

We are so much more, so much more beautiful than any idea we could come up with.

And when we practice being with life as it really is, through embodied, somatic practices, we experience more of the beauty, ease and infinite grace of life.

Crazy, I know.

Counter-intuitive…. or, at least, counter-conditioning.

It turns out that the poison is the cure.

The pain is the medicine which, when we turn towards it, transforms us into more of whom we are really meant to be:

Infinitely, more fully ALIVE.