When connection is more than plugging in - some lessons from my 30-day Yoga challenge

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Maree Eddings

Let's get to this week - short and sharp.

I completed the challenge I had set for myself.  Yoga everyday for 30-days.  It was organized, recorded and there were many people on the journey with me. Some were on the mat beside me, others on the end of the phone and some in my heart.  Thank-you to all of you I am grateful for your presence and support.

I learned some stuff during the challenge.  Some of it, well most of it I didn't expect and the ones I did blew my mind in how they showed up. Maybe there are some here for you.

1. No-one is going to give you a Sheriffs badge or approval when you achieve something. Regardless if it is a new move, a new business, a new dress size, my life accomplishments mean something to me and only me.

2. ALL pain and I mean ALL pain that I feel in my body has a story, an emotion, a person or place that I need to let go of. When it releases it releases and I experience the true meaning of peace.

3. Sometimes you need a community to lead you and at times it is your turn to stand up and lead the community.  We all need energy to come in and we also know when to use it to inspire others.

4. Day 29 was reminiscent of my 29th birthday.  Confusing, painful and it sat me on my bum.  When you are close to change or a new era/beginning/cycle and it doesn't look like you thought it would it is only the EXPECTATIONS of what you thought it should be that is standing in your way.

5. My body holds a roadmap that connects my thoughts and my soul.  Deep perhaps but I know this is my truth.

6. Being pretty and trying to keep everything attractive, appropriate and nice to look at is one of the greatest barriers to growth.  Sometimes you need to ugly, fall over, feel like you are going to burst a valve, feel awkward and look funny before you can every truly know what it means to come from a place of grace and poise.

7. EVERYDAY IS DAY 1

Hope you are smiling.  Be kind to you and your loved ones this Easter and most of all have FUN!

LIVE well, LOVE deeply and LAUGH often.

Maree xxx

If it walks like a DUCK and quacks like a DUCK it must be a............chicken?

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Maree Eddings

Everyone puts you in the same basket. Why can't a DUCK be a chicken and why do we think DUCK's are so predictable in the first place?

When we give in to being a DUCK we are living in a form of resistance called Familiarity.

Familiarity breeds contempt.  It breeds laziness and malaze, apathy and a life of BEIGE.

Being beige is not sexy nor is it FUN.

Being familiar asserts that we no longer have a space for learning.  We have all we need and we have put up the barrier to listening, growing and contributing.  No longer giving to ourselves and to those around us.

That sounds like a sucky place to be.  Thinking we have all we need and no longer need to participate in anything.

Now I know what some of you are saying HANG ON A COTTON PICKIN MINUTE - 'Familiarity is a form of RESISTANCE.  That doesn't make sense.' OR DOES IT.

We know that RESISTANCE shows up in many forms: 

Procrastination,
Avoiding making decisions,
Overwhelm,
Conscious confusion,
Physical pain
Memory blocks
Feeling stuck

The list goes on.  

These are all the SEDUCTRESSES of resistance.  They all have different outfits with the same desire. To place resistance in your path.  

My question to you is: 

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN EXPERIENCING THE ITEMS ON THE LIST?

Do they come and go or are they always there?

Do have any specials like procrastination or overwhelm?  Or maybe your special sauce come from physical pain - I LOVE LOVE LOVE that one.

Like the seductresses of resistance that they are, they weave their magic, their unique and intoxicating self in front of us.  We sucombe to their power.  We stop.  We cry.  We look down and we feel bad that we are not all that we think we are.  The action we were doing gets sidelined and we think there must be something better, so we seek a new shiny thing to get our attention and we pour all of our heart into that.

We have stories for all of these seductresses, we invoke the required energy and emotion to make them real.  They feel real, we breathe them, and we become them.

Does any of this sound familiar?

It should.  Every person on this planet has met and been seduced at some point. 

All of these seductresses have power because they are FAMILIAR to us.  We convince ourselves that they know better than us and that their power is so strong because they are right and you are not good AT ANYTHING.

They are so familiar in fact they have their own production.  They have a specific story, outfit, laugh, cry, friend that we tell, specific wine we celebrate with and maybe it is a cheese plate or a chocolate binge that rounds out the performance.

What if, these devilish little seducers are all part of the challenge of LIFE.  The part of life that keeps us moving, keeps us pushing forward.  Without them we would not get to meet our brilliance, where we get to stand in our light and experience that LIFE we really desire. 

What if they are the opposite of what we tell ourselves?

Our first reaction is that these seductresses should be avoided and heck we have even paid people to help us stop procrastinating.  Try this on for size.  What if, they never ever go away?What if, they are part of us and a part we need to stop trying to kill?

So if they are part of us and will always be there then how do we deal with these little minxes?

Here are three actions you can take to seduce the seducer and live in your Sexy and Rich Wellness TODAY.

• Know your seducers.  Which ones have a leading role and which one play supporting and bit parts.  Know their timing and their angle.  Do they wait til you are tired, or maybe when you have indulged and your defences are down OR are they always their lurking, waiting for your thoughts to give them permission to act on your behalf?  

• Like all resistance we need to see it for what it really is - no drama, no catastrophe, no sky falling in - it is a boundary.  A condition that you have hit against. Like the elevator DO YOU REALLY WANT TO GO TO THAT FLOOR - is the first test. So relax and identify what it is and see if for what it is A GIFT. Observation is your power.

• Invite it in. When we see it for what it is we can invite it in and you can sit with it. When we move out of the drama we can learn from it. What is it that it really wants me to know and then we simply move on with thanks and gratitude.

Enjoy your seducers they can be fun if we learn to play with them.  

Remember each time we allow them to have their way with us they leave a a brick with us. Before we know those bricks have built a brick wall in front of us or maybe even all around us. Keep the wall at a level that we can always step over with ease.

Play with your seducers and learn to seduce them back.  Never give up on your dreams, your desires and let your SEXY and RICH wellness roam free!!

If you know someone that is struggling with resistance and you think this may give them a hand please SHARE IT with your friends.

ENJOY!

LIVE well, LOVE deeply and LAUGH often.

Maree xxx

To Resistance with LOVE

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Maree Eddings

You have taken Autumn by the horns, you are determined to TRANSFORM.

Old habits, patterns from all areas of your life.  Eating, exercise, thinking, your business, friends the works. You have said enough is enough.  I am over being in this place.  This place that makes you feel stuck, and heavy.  You even at times wonder what the heck is going on!

So you commence with gutso.  You know where you need to focus your energy.  You have a well oiled plan that you have carefully thought through.  It includes rational and logic. You know what, when and why you are going to make some adjustments to this time in your life.  You feel invigorated, empowered and full of YES GIVE IT TO ME NOW energy.

I love it!

Then like a brick wall or maybe a MAC TRUCK you are stopped in your tracks.  You literally are placed on your behind.  All the energy you had that was propelling you forward has been replaced with energy that feel like an anchor. You feel smaller somehow, less powerful and you are not sure what to do next.  OR maybe you have simply lost interest. You didn't seem to make a decision, there was no meeting with yourself to discuss this topic at all - you simply started focussing somewhere else.

This the first stage of resistance.

When this first stage turns up - and it does for everyone - it is like a test.  Generally it is your EGO mind that has set the test. It is saying DO YOU REALLY WANT THIS?  

I call it the elevator approach. You know when you are in an elevator and you have to press the button three or four times before the light comes on - do you really want to go to that floor (well that is what I say when it happens to me in elevators - is that just me??)

Now the EGO mind has a lot invested in your not wanting this doesn't it.  It's entire existence is based on you living in doubt even fear. It gets it biggest audience and most reviews when you fight the resistance.  When you start telling yourself that you need to do better, work harder, give more and of course be more committed.  

You begin those conversations with yourself - you have no will power, you are crap at this stuff, you are a bad person or this transformation stuff is for other people.  The EGO mind loves that sh*t.

Then you have a glimmer so you decide to fight.  Your energy picks up, maybe not with as much gusto as you started, the EGO mind has battered you a bit.  You have some doubts that this will actually make a difference, so you move slower.  You don't talk about this as much and you give yourself permission to be okay if it doesn't really work.  Resistance is beginning to win the battle.

So you decide that maybe you have set the bar to high and you should do smaller bits of transformation and see what happens.  You settle on one area and FIGHT for it.  You pull out all the stops because you can do ONE THING.

Resistance has won round two.

Here is the inside scoop.  

Resistance feeds on resistance.  The harder you fight, it harder it fights back, the more you doubt, it harder it doubts back, the more you focus on what resistance throws at you the more you feed its fury.

If you have hit the wall of resistance then here are the first three actions you can take to soften and resolve the fury and the fight of resistance.

• Acknowledge it.  How has it turned up?  Is it a pain or stiffness in your body (usual if exercise is what you are focussing on), inappropriate food binging after days/weeks or aligning your food habits, procrastination in moving your business forward?  An old playing story about what you can cope with or handle? Whatever form it has turn up in acknowledge it for what it is.  A natural reaction that is all this is. There is no tall story or person to blame it is simply resistance.

• Thank it. Yes, that is correct say a big old THANK-YOU.  Now you know what it is you want to appreciate it's prescence.  It not something to be feared or to fight against it is a place from where you can begin. This resistance has shown up to assist you move forward not hinder.  YOU have to stop resisting the resistance and say thanks.

Send it LOVE and see what happens.

So over to you - what is the one thing in your life that you know you are resisting big time.  Is it a person, a conversation, an action, a decision, whatever it is sit down with it and take the actions above and see how quickly you TRANSFORM this resistance into something else.

I would love to hear how you go so leave a comment below on how you have sent your resistance some LOVE.

If you know someone that is struggling with resistance and you think this may give them a hand please SHARE IT with your friends.

ENJOY!

LOVE LAUGH LIVE

Maree xxx