Stop.
Sit still for just a minute and allow yourself a small slice of silence.
Use the space in this silence to ask yourself this question: ‘Is how I am living my life working for me?’
Are you squirming? Did your intuition tell you ‘No!’ and almost immediately your mind kicked in with all the reasons why it’s OK for your life to be the way it is?
Stop.
Before you let overwhelm take over your thoughts … I want you to know that it is perfectly OK for your intuition to tell you that your life isn’t working for you.
According to Francis P. Cholle, ‘… intuition is a process that gives us the ability to know something directly without analytic reasoning, bridging the gap between the conscious and non-conscious parts of our mind, and also between instinct and reason …’.
Our intuition can tell us a lot of things – if only we stop to listen.
Our lives are so busy now. Technology connects us 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. With this comes an accelerated sense of pressure that is compounded by our lives being visible on a global scale, in real time.
The way we live our lives has also changed as a direct result of our global connection. Barriers to entry in the marketing and advertising space are now almost non-existent, thanks to the power of the technology we carry in our hands. It is now easier, more efficient and more effective to market via social media, email and text messages than through traditional television and print media. It is instantaneous, direct to market and cost efficient.
The sheer speed that we live our lives at – and all the things that we try to squash into each and every day – leaves us feeling exhausted and with our heads spinning. Most of our day is spent on auto-pilot, where we lurch from one ‘crisis’ to the next. Because we communicate through a virtual world, we are surrounded by ‘evidence’ of everyone else’s success. We compare their success with our own life and find ourselves sadly lacking.
Who do you become in this environment?
We do our best to be ‘good people’. We slog our way through every day, desperately – but almost always unconsciously – trying to find our ‘golden nugget’ that will catapult us to success. When we live this way, in an unconscious state, we are vulnerable to suggestion; we are vulnerable to manipulation.
The immediacy of our lives – and the demands on them – leave us susceptible to thinking on the run. Now add in that overlay of the ‘auto-pilot’ syndrome. When you think about it objectively, it is easy to see how this state of being puts us in a position to be significantly influenced by what we see and hear. We can be fed information in snippets that are designed to elicit a response from us.
Before we know it, our buttons are pushed, we jump in. We become appropriately outraged and we have our say. We contribute to a cause. But whose cause is it – is it actually your cause? We don’t notice that we’re being driven by a mob mentality, ‘herded’, if you will, by a group energy … because there aren’t people physically around us. We get lost in the virtual ‘movement’ that is propelled by feelings and sentiments and ideals and values that, bluntly, are not necessarily our own.
Stop.
Become conscious of the things that grab your attention.
More importantly, become aware of where your thoughts go first in response to the information you’ve received. Are your first thoughts negative, critical or harsh? If the answer is yes, then perhaps it’s time to question whether you’re been conditioned – triggered, even – to respond that way.
The more we can consciously make a decision to make love the first filter we use – in every situation – the more we will take back our control over the way we behave in our lives.
Invest your time and energy in empathy rather than hate. Acknowledge the things that create a common bond, rather than becoming a voice of hate for someone else’s crusade.
Stop.
Reach for relief.
Remember who you are.
Loosen the grip of auto-pilot on your life.
Stand true to who you are, whether you are communicating in person or through a virtual conversation.
#LOVETAKESACTION
Want more info? You can find free resources and heaps more information at my website www.sheiqlife.com and there are loads of tips and tricks on living and thinking differently in my book ‘Keep It Super Simple’ – you can buy a copy from www.sheiqlife.com/shop.
Want to chat? Email me on info@sheiqlife.com or call me on +61 438 624 868 and we’ll set up a time!
Bronwen Sciortino is a Simplicity Expert, Professional Speaker and the author of ‘Keep It Super Simple – Tips from a Recovering Perfectionist’. Join the conversation by subscribing to the tribe at www.sheiqlife.com; Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.