We often hear so many great stories of transformation in the office. From people overcoming chronic pain, breaking free from anxiety, or even reversing illness and disease. We love all of these stories and testimonials but sometimes even little changes can have a massive impact in our quality of life.
One such story came from someone who shared, “I now know the difference between being alive and going through the motions.”
This statement is so powerful and really hit me hard. Embodying this statement can solve the majority of the issues that prevent us from living life at our full potential. We all want more fun, more experiences, more energy, more time, and more abundance. The truth is, this is all around us at every time of the day. We just need to be aware of it.
What led this person to say this was not anything extraordinary but rather a small subtle change that led to a massive shift. They simply were able to do everyday activities with more ease, grace, and energy. They had a different outlook on life and opened up to more possibilities and experiences.
Our Patterns Shape our Lives
As we age and have more and more life experiences. From these experiences our nervous system creates subconscious neurological patterns to help us navigate through life. Some of these patterns protect us like learning a stove is hot to touch. Other patterns don’t serve us so well, like scrolling on social media or gossiping when we are bored.
Our nervous system is always taking in information, processing it, adapting, and becoming more efficient by creating neurological patterns.
This is a great feature to have in theory, and served us well as we’ve grown and evolved over the years. The less we can think about what we must do, the more space and energy we have for other important things.
In our fast-paced society, however, we allow these patterns to run our life to help us stay on top. In fact, by the age of 35 we’ve created so many subconscious neurological patterns that we spend nearly 95% of our day on auto-pilot.
We don’t even have to think about what we are doing, when we are doing it, or how we do it, we just do it and fall into the trap of just going through the motions rather than truly living. We go through life the same way! Everyday we have the same experiences, and create the same future reality while missing out on all that life has to offer.
Does that statement resonate with you? How often do you go about your day without giving any thought to life around you? What if what we are looking for is right in front of us? How much are we going to miss out before making a change? Sometimes it takes a subtle change in perspective to begin to starting living life!
3 Steps to Feeling More Alive
Here are 3 things you can start doing today to change your perspective and start feeling more ALIVE.
- Gratitude~ It’s such a simple practice and can create completely different lens to view the world. The more we can recognize, and acknowledge, what we are grateful the more we will have to be grateful. We open ourselves up to more experiences and realize that we already have so much to be grateful for. Practice writing down 5 things everyday that you are grateful for. It can be anything in your life, the goal is to start strengthening the muscle to start becoming more grateful for life.
- Slow down~ In today’s world it is all about how quickly can we get results. How fast can we get one task done so we can move onto the next one. When we go so fast through life, we miss all that life has to offer. Before we know it, it’s time to get ready for bed again. Slowing down allows us to take in more of what life has to offer. It allows us to become more aware of, and enjoy, the little moments. You will also be surprised at how much MORE you can actually accomplish!
- Treat it like the first time~ This practice is so simple and has really transformed my day to day life. When we approach everything as if it is the first time we are doing it, we open ourselves up to all that experience holds. Think of the first time you rode a bike, drove a car, fell in love. There were likely so many details, feelings, and sensations that you were aware of. Things that someone on the outside would not even notice. Imagine if you took this same approach to going to the grocery store, picking the kids up from school, or working in the yard. By approaching these tasks as if it is the first time we are doing it, we open up to all the fine details in these experiences hold that make us feel ALIVE!
Life is all around us, we just need to be more aware of it. When we do, we open ourselves up to feeling more ALIVE rather than just going through the motions!