Hi there,
In this blog I want to share with you, how you can change your life by being aware. Hope you will enjoy. If you have questions after reading this. Don’t hesitate to contact me.
When I first started doing yoga, I was not on the path of changing my life. I just wanted to feel less stress when taking my exams. But when the panic attacks came and I was so afraid to come out of my house. In that moment I knew that I had to make a change, that I wanted to become a better version of myself, improve myself and let my self grow. I went to a therapist. She gave me books to read and assignments to do. After the therapy was finished, I was becoming interested in knowing more about how I could let myself grow. So I ordered my first yoga magazine. After receiving this for a couple of months, I read an amazing interview of a mindfulness safari retreat. I read the magic words: “change your life”, I was hooked. That was what I needed in order to grow. I booked the retreat and it was an amazing journey. When I got on the plane, I had a huge panic attack. One moment I was really close of telling the flight attended that I needed to get off the plane. I knew that if I got off the plane, the panic attack would stop, but would also mean that it would stop the personal growth and that I would not get out of my comfort zone. So I sat in the plane for about 6 hours having anxiety and panic attacks but it was worth it. I came back as a better version of myself. I was more calm, relaxed and I knew that step by step, I would concur it all.
After a while I got into the same pattern of feeling anxious. I thought,: “what is happening? I was doing fine”. At that time I didn’t see the pattern, I was not aware what was happening in my body and mind. So I went again in the search for different things to help me release the anxiety. I started doing more yoga, every morning meditation, reading different books,… the list goes on. Then after a while I felt more calm, relaxed, good in my mind and body. This kept on repeating different times.
So every time I felt anxious in the past, I looked for books to read with different topics, I followed teacher trainings, booked different retreats,.. All in order the help me get rid of the anxiety. I thought that it would magically cure me but it didn’t. In my search I have found one thing that changed my life. This is AWARENESS.
What is awareness?
Awareness or consciousness means that you are being in the present moment. By being aware, it gives you the possibility to look at what is happening around you, in your mind or your body. Try to observe, pay attention to all the negative thoughts or things that are happening in your mind or your body.
See the patterns
Try to see what triggers you into the negative spiral of thoughts, body illness, anxiety,… If you are aware of what triggers you, write the full thing down on an piece of paper or into your journal. Write down what you are feeling, doing in this moment and what happened before,… Maybe also stuff from the past. Write the whole damn thing down. You cannot do the exercise wrong.
Than after a while you, read all the papers from the past back. What do you see? Are there things or triggers that keep coming back? Try to analyse them. You will now see the patterns of what triggers you or what sets you of.
So the next thing you need to do is to acknowledge, recognize the negative feeling, thought,… when you are having them. This is the moment when we can break the negative cycle.
Excercise
Step 1: be aware and recognize the negative thought, feeling,.. or pattern.
Step 2: acknowledge it and be kind to yourself, thank yourself, and most of all forgive yourself. You can say the mantra: “thank you body/mind/spirit for showing this to me. I forgive myself for having this thought, feeling,…”.
Step 3: you can choose again how you want to feel, what thoughts you have. Think about it.
Keep on repeating this exercise.
If this is difficult? You can also do a breathing meditation in the section Practice: Practice | Yogista. This will also help you break the cycle. You can also do other things that will help you to feel calm.
I hope this will help you on your journey and hang in there. See you next week with a new blog.
Have a nice day and Namasté from Yogista,
