The energy is changing. Can you feel it? I don't know if it is just the time of the year but when the sun begins to wake me up at a reasonable time in the morning (for me it is 7:00 AM) then everything shifts. My energy renews and I see the light at the end of winter's tunnel. This is when my ideas start percolating. I am actually trying to force myself not to start anything major yet. This is partially due to getting over an illness (I think my body was telling me I was doing too much for this quiet time of the year and forced me to STOP) but also because it just isn't time yet. I need to let these ideas marinate for a while so what finally comes forth will be READY. Let me know if you are feeling any of the same energies. Here are some questions to ponder at this time. If you struggle with the answers, relax, close your eyes and sit with one of your guides in meditation. You can ask them these questions or just talk them out. What change do you feel ready to make? What new feeling is growing in you? How can you refuel before these changes occur? What lesson are you revisiting? Congratulations on taking this time to plan your path instead of just letting life happen to you! If you would like more guidance check out my journals and relaxation recordings on Amazon: Click Here Enjoy these moments of transition!
With the first of February we move out of the time of
introspection. It may still be cold
where you are but this is when we start to think of the Spring. The days are noticeably getting longer in the
Northern Hemisphere.
The Spring is when we begin to plant the seeds of what we
want to have change this year.
How do you want to feel differently this year?
What steps can you take to allow you to feel this way more
often?
What can you stop doing that prevents you from feeling the
way you want to?
For further guidance this month consider the following
suggestions for each day of the month.
How can each statement or question change the way you look at that
day? How would you act differently if
this was true? Open your mind to a new
way of looking at that day.
February
1
Where do you give but not receive?
2
Acknowledge your work
3
You are not solely responsible
4
Ask for help and guidance
5
Accept the past
6
Make a conscious choice
7
Notice these opportunities
8
Tackle these challenges
9
What tools can you use?
10
Follow this guidance
11
Complete what you create
12
Face you shadow side
13
Heal with love
14
Connect to the Earth
15
Get rid of something
16
Something new is coming
17
Act on your values
18
What are you giving to the world?
19
Teach what life has taught you
20
Ground your energy
21
Watch for signs
22
Increase your awareness
23
Take a chance
24
Trust that you will be supported
25
Choose wisely
26
Accept yourself as you are
27
Are you proud of your creation?
28
Begin a transformation
I wish you all a happy February and hope you enjoy the
return of the light! If you need any
support please feel free to reach out to me at jcrosssitch@gmail.com. Take good care of yourself!
I suffered with anxiety all of my life. From a very young age I began researching and trying different relaxation techniques to try and reduce stress. This search is probably what led me to study Social Work and want to share what I had learned with others. I have tried many techniques and have always been very optimistic about their benefits. Unfortunately for most of these tools, once the placebo effect wore off, the actual changes were not enough for me to maintain the practice. Only a few have passed the test of making a significant change and being easy enough for me to maintain them for more than a year. If you read my blog or watch my YouTube channel you know the two techniques that have changed my life and that I teach: ASMR and Guided Meditation. There are a few others though that I do not teach. One is yoga. I have done yoga periodically throughout my life but it has only become a regular practice for me in the past several years. One reason this finally stuck is that I created an easy 10 minute routine that I do the first thing in the morning, often before I even get out of bed. This is a Kundalini yoga routine that keeps my back flexible and allows me to start the day off relaxed. I do not teach this routine because I am not a yoga instructor. I do show a little example of it in this silly video.
The book I used to create this routine is Kundalini Yoga by Shakta Kaur Khalsa. If you want to create your own routine, this is a good book to check out. I often suffer with low back problems and I highly recommend trying this active type of yoga. Again, I am not a yoga instructor so definitely seek some expert advice to help you create your own routine. If you want information from someone who does teach Kundalini Yoga check out Kundalini Yoga School: http://kundaliniyogaschool.org/2016/07/18/how-can-kundalini-yoga-totally-de-stress-you-in-only-33-minutes/ This is one of the relaxation tools I use daily, and in combination with ASMR, Guided Meditation and probiotics (which I will discuss in a later blog), I have reduced my anxiety to nearly non-existent. If you want to delve deeper into the techniques I teach, I hope you will join me for "Zenvigorate - a Relaxation Workshop" starting on September 17, 2016. This is a seven week online workshop with relaxation tools you will be able to use at any time and live support and videos. I hope to take this journey with you, Jessica Cross www.jessicacrossasmr.com
I’m not quite ready to come out to my friends and family about putting videos on YouTube, but I did want to talk a about why I’m making these videos.
When I was doing counseling I found that one of the main mental health problems people have are the stories that they tell themselves about themselves. What is the story that you tell yourself about what you personality is and what kind of person you are. In counseling I would often try to get people to change their narrative by having them think about alternative narratives and trying to point out examples of where their narratives did not ring true. One example I have for myself is that I always thought of myself as a sedentary and non-athletic person. I had put on weight in elementary school and was heavy through junior high and never liked group sports. When I began doing these meditations I wrote one about being active (which I will post soon). I began to realize that my narrative was not true. I lost most of the weight in high school and although I have gained and lost weight since then I have been an average weight more often than not. More importantly I have excercised at a gym for most of my adult life and now exercise 6 days a week. I also started thinking about my childhood and although I never played sports I spent sun up to sun down in a pool during the summers. I was not an inactive kid. My narrative didn’t ring true
I think often as adults our brains are very rigid and we think our narratives are fixed. It is difficult to get our brains to put aside our past beliefs as we try to change our thoughts about our self. I don’t know if you have ever tried to use affirmations to change your thoughts. I have and although I try to believe an affirmation like “I am an energetic person” part of my brain keeps yelling “That is bull.” I have found that in meditation my brain is more flexible so it’s easier to tell my brain new stories to believe. I think through visualizations you’re able to almost live through the experience, proving that your narrative is false. Actions always to speak louder than words. Our brains are not very good at distinguishing a real memory or real story from a story we have created in detail. That is why musicians can think through a piece of music and how they would play it and get almost as much out of this as an actual practice session. Athletes use the same visualization techniques to live through the perfect winning scenario.
The more often you use these visualizations the more they become integrated into your thoughts. I hope these meditations help you as much as they are helping me. Please leave me comments. I know my comments will not always be positive but the few I have received have had me on a high all day. Thanks for listening and please subscribe and send feedback. Remember meditation changes your mind.
