What do you want more of in your life? How ‘bout more happiness or good God, how about greater ease in relationships? What about clarity and confidence in your choices? Belief in yourself and in the world? The answer to all of this is kind of simple. Just tweak what you’re feeding yourself on a daily basis. Eliminate some things and add others. Mix it up.

• You have a creative self. What are you feeding it?
• You have a spiritual self. What are you feeding it?
• You have an emotionally intelligent self. What are you feeding it?
• Many people believe that God, Spirit, the Higher Self dwells within. Do you connect to it?

We’re all used to the concept of how what we eat impacts our physical and mental health, right? In this diet loving culture we live in, you can’t hardly go 22 seconds without a new study or perspective on the relationship between our diet and our wellbeing. On the one hand all this focus and attention can be maddening. On the other, maybe all this attention speaks to something much deeper. Maybe, it’s not really just about food and drink and exercise. Maybe the conversation takes center stage because as a culture, we’re waking up to the bigger conversation which is about how we’re feeding ourselves in all areas of our life. Maybe as each of us grapples with the undeniable facts regarding our food diet we will make the leap to consider how we feed ourselves mentally, emotionally and spiritually. If we can accept that a diet based solely on processed food leads to all sorts of yucky things, can’t we then see that a life lived in front of the television or on a steady diet of newspapers and entertainment magazines might result in some equally nasty things (actually, do an internet search on the connection between TV and depression – yikes)?

Can we become emotionally and spiritually anemic?

In the work I do as a coach, at its foundation, is always the question: “What are you feeding yourself?” The fact is, many of us are starving ourselves. The idea is simple, if we want to experience greater happiness, fewer struggles and less suffering then we need to be conscious of what we’re putting into our minds and hearts. Feeling stuck? Depressed? Anxious? Bored? What are you feeding yourself? Feeling elated? Connected? Inspired? In your groove? What are you feeding yourself? Look, we’re born knowing we have to feed ourselves. It’s what has us reach for our mother’s breast (or the baby formula bottle) and it’s also what has us sit at our parent’s feet and listen to how they form words out of sounds. But without awareness, we’re saddled with a tendency to reach for the easiest most accessible forms of food whether it’s for our bodies or our hearts and minds. Until we understand the connection, we will feed ourselves a diet of processed thinking and living devoid of the essential nutrients our emotional self is craving. We will reach for what our culture gives us and we will convince ourselves it’s all we need to survive. And then one day, we’ll wake up and wonder why we feel so empty and lost.

Here’s what I know: we each have inside of us deep, deep wisdom. We have inside of us, a profoundly enlightened self. We have access to truth, intelligence and the capacity for complete and total love. As you read this, your highest self complete with all of its beauty and strength is available to you. It is right there inside of you in this moment, reading this post through your eyes. The question is, are you connecting to it? Because, we too have other qualities, other selves, other voices inside of us. We have voices of fear and doubt and arrogance and they too can be fed and cultivated and connected to. And unfortunately, unless we’re actually choosing the higher road, we will by default end up on the lower one cultivating the very things that keep us up and night and drive us crazy during the day.

Getting Off the Grid

I’ll promise you something. Feeling better about yourself and your life is actually kind of easy and it starts with giving yourself time each day to connect, to plug in or open to higher thinking. Many of us wake up each day and immediately plug into the grid. We go right to our phone or the internet or we turn on the television or sit with a cup of coffee and the paper. How do you begin each day? Do you get up to go to work? Do you get up to corral the kids into their day? What’s the first thing you read or listen to each morning? Is it the newspaper or CNN? What if the first thing you did each day was give yourself something that made you happier, helped you understand truth in a deeper way? What if instead of waking up to go to work, you woke up with the intent to feed your creative or spiritual selves? How would you live your day differently? How do you think you’d be with your children? Your partner? Your boss? What if each day, first thing, you plugged into wisdom, clarity, kindness and serenity instead of danger, fear, doubt and gossip? What if you did this consistently over a long period of time … say 90 days? What do you think would change in your life?  I dare you to. I triple dog dare you to.

Try this: for the next 90 days, begin your day with a simple morning practice called 5/5/5 (thank you August Gold). Doing this in the morning though not essential is ideal. It frames your perspective and outlook for the day and sends a signal that cultivating yourself in this way is your first priority.

• Five minutes of writing what’s in your heart. Get a notebook or a pad of paper or dust off that journal and as yourself the question “What is in my heart this morning?” Then simply write for five minutes. Work to not edit or judge what comes out. The idea is to simply allow what is there to speak; good, bad or indifferent.
• Five minutes of reading something that inspires or connects you to truth or wisdom.
• Five minutes of sitting in silence. This can be mediation or simply silent listening.

Want to take it to the next level? Try infusing your whole day with different ways to connect. You know how some nutritionists suggest 5 to 6 small meals a day to help maintain your metabolism? Same thing. Connecting throughout your day helps you maintain your well, emotional and spiritual metabolism. Give it a shot and see what happens. Here are some simple ideas:

• Create mobile practices that you can take with you:
  • Use “pushbacks” throughout your day.  A pushback is simply a break from your work and is used most effectively if you sit as a desk. At regular intervals during the day push back from your desk, computer and phone (unplug from the grid!).
  • Carry and inspiring book with you so you can pick it up as you’re called.
  • Carry a small, pocket sized journal with you to capture ideas, moments of gratitude or reflection (this is a personal favorite).
  • Invest in CD’s for the drive to and from work that explore new ideas and bigger thinking.
  • Create a breathing practice to use before or after challenging conversations or encounters.
• Give up all together or limit the number of hours of television you watch during the week. (I’ve done this and WOW! The impact on the amount of time and energy I have is huge. I’ve also begun to discover just how many people are doing this – it’s like there is a secret club of folks who have unplugged their TVs).
• Stop watching/reading the news for 90 days. Ok, this one is tough for many but give it a shot. The first few days are tough but very shortly, you’ll start to feel lighter and stronger. After a while you can begin to integrate it back in but at your discretion making it less of a habit and more of a choice.

OK, folks. I promise you if you take these ideas into your life you will see lots of change. If I can help in any way, reach out to me. And if you want more on this topic? Click here to access my April call.

Be Sociable, Share!

•