Everywhere it seems that people are working on self-improvement; some work to transform their physique, some their spiritual health and others focus on their relationships.
Self-improvement is a powerful first step towards living with greater strength, yet we may be ready for a deeper and more complete transformation of ourselves.
Some fix their weight, yet their pain is still there. Others cut ties to those that drain them, yet their anxieties remain.
Transformation is all encompassing and requires us to get real about what ails us.
In the natural world, hosts of animals undergo a metamorphosis, changing all aspects of themselves in order to better adapt to their environment. Similarly, our own metamorphosis awaits.
What is it that no longer serves you?
Research has found that people are often stuck in self-defeating behaviors such as: putting ourselves last on our list of priorities, spending money we don’t have on things that are not a priority, drinking excessively to escape our thoughts and worries, overeating to cope with stress and a paralyzing worry about what others think of us.
A clinical professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, Dr. Daniel Siegel found that lasting personal transformation happens as we change those bad habits. Transforming our thoughts, our breathing and belief in ourselves promote lasting change in our lives.
Dr. Siegel reminds us that, “the mind is like the ocean. And deep in the ocean, beneath the surface, it is calm and clear.”
When we start overeating and drinking to excess, we stop and ask why. When we overspend, pick up that dreaded phone call instead of working out and continue to put ourselves last on our list of priorities, we use our thoughts to make an immediate shift.
Tell yourself to: put the item back, set down that phone and that taking care of yourself is not a luxury but a necessity.
Our thoughts hold the power to shift our lives. Like the depths of the magnificent ocean, inside ourselves is the calm, clear guidance for which we’ve been searching all along.
