Changing of the Seasons

In nature and in our lives the seasons change. Some bring warmth while others bring chills. Others are a sign of detachment followed by the birth of something new. The commencement of a season provides the opportunity to reflect on all that you experienced and the ways in which you grew. As life transitions from one phase to another, it’s important to consider the impact of the past few months, weeks, or years had on the person you’ve become. Only with reflection could you move forward with clarity and intention to love deeper, heal old wounds, and grow stronger more resilient for the next chapter.

Aligning With Seasons

The seasons bring different feelings, lessons, purposes, and versions of the life you live. Reflection is a tool to develop insight to all that has occurred, providing you the chance to develop mental strength for whatever may lie ahead. The circumstances aren’t what you control, but the attitudes, intentions, awareness, and preparation are all in your hands.

Unpredictability will cause you to be thrown off whatever path you’re walking. Distractions will pull you into unnecessary detours without warning or remorse. People will have demands with unrealistic expectations of you. The environments you find yourself in will dictate how you’re feeling, what you’re thinking, and where your energy is going. Walking into a new season of your life without a grounding force to what truly matters will allow you to sway back and forth to other people’s agendas.

Setting an intention is the anchor keeping you rooted in the main focus. If you decide the upcoming season is one of service then you’ll anchor yourself into giving, listening, and being there for those who need you most. On the other end, you’ll release what keeps you from serving your higher self and the community that needs you. You’ll begin creating clear boundaries of what does and does not serve your main thing.

There are also seasons that hit you hard, the unexpected season of pain, turmoil and hardship. Even this season deserves an anchor, keeping you aware of what is most important at that time. Perhaps it’s an anchor of awareness, patience, forgiveness, compassion, or love for yourself. Whatever season you are in the middle of or about to enter, consider the person you are walking into it and how you wish to feel walking out the other side.

How to Set Intentions

Life will present you with struggles, seasons of suffering, challenges so deep you’ll doubt your capability of surviving. It’s not enough to bring awareness to the season you’re in or the feelings you’re experiencing as a result. It’s not enough to believe “this too shall pass”, and passively accept the roadblocks presented in your life. It’s not enough to wish for change without showing up with the tools to take action. There is a time to feel the emotions and a time to root yourself back into the vision you have for your life. There is a time for observation and time for the conscious choice to create change.

Applying any habit, thought, choice or behavior into your life is always easy when things are going well. However, it’s still just as essential, if not more so, during the challenging times. An intention is meant to align with how purposeful, conscious, and impactful you wish to be. Whether you choose to set intentions for moon phases, seasonal changes, monthly changes, or yearly changes-you can apply this process. Sit down with a piece of paper divided in half: what you wish to release and what you wish to embrace.

Practice

Write down 5 things you wish to let go of that you have been carrying for many seasons or this past one. This could be attitudes, negative habits, ways of thinking, people or environments that are not bringing out the best version of who you could be. After you’ve come up with at least 5 things, write one sentence that completely expresses all that you are leaving behind.

Next, you’ll be focusing on the 5 things you wish to embrace, add, or start doing. A good way to write this out is finding the counterpart of the 5 things you are releasing. For instance, if you are going to stop being lazy then you can embrace exercise each day. Once you’ve matched what you’re saying good-bye to with what you are welcoming, it’s time to create a phrase that embodies all of the positive changes. Express gratitude over these words, say a prayer or take time to visualize what this life looks like on you, and trust it’s already on its way.

There are two important factors to this intention setting process: showing up and trusting the other half will. Writing things down on a piece of paper makes them real, but action brings them to life. Realistically you cannot expect change without showing up to make changes for yourself. Stay focused and grounded in the words you’ve written, follow that up with trusting in divine timing. Change doesn’t happen overnight because the journey is where the lessons you need to grow are waiting. The path is overflowing with exactly what you need to experience so that you may apply it later on in your life. Learn to appreciate every step, every day, every moment of this self-improvement voyage and trust that the goal is waiting on the other end.

There will be days that you wake up ready to take on everything with a positive attitude and assertive attitude. There will be days that you wake up focused on the tasks and responsibilities you’re reluctant to show up for.

If the energy of your day is left to chance or fleeting moods, you’ll surrender your power to the environment, people, and happenings that surround you. You’ll be led by their intentions, their agendas, and you’ll be swallowed up in their world. Meanwhile, you’re feeling lethargic and misaligned, chalking it up to just another bad day. But the truth is your approach to the day is what labels it positive, negative, or indifferent.

Thought Management

Thoughts will lead the way if they are given the power. Considering the fact that most people are unaware of their thought patterns or even how to notice their thought patterns, it’s likely the thoughts are unconsciously calling the shots. Mindful awareness is a practice of bringing nonjudgmental attention to who and how you are being in this moment. Practicing mindful awareness is the bridge between the discontent you’re experiencing inside your mind and making a conscious change in your mindset.

Becoming aware of the thoughts you are constantly focusing on is a simple task. Start by noticing the first 5 thoughts you have in the morning. Sounds easy right? Actually, it is! The challenging part is bringing attention to them without judging them by placing labels like a negative, positive, or indifferent. Instead, practice choosing an approach of curiosity. Rather than allowing the feelings related to these thoughts to morph into the mood you choose for the day, practice choosing a thought that is aligned with your higher self.

Without getting too deep into spiritual teachings, your higher self is the very best version of who you already are. Each of us has innate goodness within, which is all deserving of an abundance of well-being and joy. The more life you experienced the harder those feelings of goodness came naturally, and the more they become undone and interrupted by the stimuli being consumed daily.

As you got older it seemed easier to adapt the defeated attitudes that excuse you from doing the difficult stuff, and that began taking a toll on your overall well-being. The higher self version of you is simply waiting for you to take off the layers blocking your success, but only you can take action and begin removing what no longer serves you.

The higher self is the version of you that’s in alignment with what is best for the mind, body, and spirit’s health. Every person’s higher self is essentially a more evolved and wise version. Although you are the same person, there is a path of growth and change separating you. That path begins with the awareness you choose to bring to the parts of you that are burdening your progress. The opportunities to make progress lie in your thinking, choices, in the daily habits and behaviors you choose every day.

Thought management becomes easier to understand and digest once you’ve accepted that you can absolutely control what you focus your attention on. If this concept is difficult to accept I encourage you to make a conscious effort to focus your attention on how you want to think and feel.

Managing your thoughts does not mean falsely believing the opposite of your current thought, and it’s certainly not about ignoring the emotions that surface as a result. Thought management is becoming aware of the thinking pattern that already exists within your mind, releasing judgment of it, and learning how to choose a different route of thought.

Remember the speed and intensity of your thoughts are not new, you’re just finally deciding to tune in, which is the first step toward taking back your control. After you’ve practiced noticing the patterns and the judgmental labels attached to them, it’s time to shift your attention to how you want to feel. Maybe you don’t know yet, and that’s the beauty of self-awareness, there is always more ground to cover.

Energy Management

Throughout the day the energy you experience is influenced by a multitude of factors. Nevertheless, the energy you experience is entirely your responsibility. Specifically, if you are wearing different hats throughout the day (partner, parent, boss, employee, student, friend) you have to hold yourself to a higher standard of energy.

The type of energy you bring into a work meeting is extremely different from the type of energy you bring home to your family. In order to manage the energy, you’re experiencing, as well as prepare your energy levels for an approaching task, you need to know how you want to feel.

There are a few ways to get to know more about your energy. You can start by getting in touch with the energy you are already experiencing, and get curious about how you feel and what it took to get to this point. When transitioning from one task to another, it’s essential that you check in with the energy you are bringing.

Be intentional about the energy you are expressing with yourself, with others, and emitting out into the world. Start by asking “How do I want to feel?” and “How do I want to invite others to feel?” If you’re experiencing happiness or joy ask yourself what thoughts and/or experiences brought you to this level? After you experienced something did you continue to fuel those thoughts and ignite the flames generating more intensity around the emotion?

Another way you can understand your energy better is by reverse engineering. Start by focusing on the energy, feeling, and/or emotion you want to feel. For some people, it’s easy to jump right into that state just with the thought of it, while others struggle with matching that feeling. If it’s difficult to shift break down what it would take to get you into that state, starting with effective questions such as:

How can I get closer to an elevated mood?
What thoughts will bring me to increase my energy?
When I struggle to stay in this state, what should I bring my focus to?
What word, phrase, or thought could I use as an anchor in this feeling?
It’s also important to dive deep into your answer because saying you want to feel good isn’t specific enough.

Let’s Review

Life circumstances can rarely be controlled, if ever. Your personal power lies in how you show up and the response you choose. Working to improve both your mindset and vitality is the greatest investment of your time. The reward will be a healthier mind, an energized body, and a fulfilled soul that impacts the lives of those they encounter.

Thoughts create things and energy never dies, it only transforms. Both thoughts and energy will lead the way if you surrender internal power. But if you consciously choose to make time and energy management a priority, the reward will show up in your life ten times over. Stop leaving your days to change and start preparing for the days of lower vibrations and negative emotions. Don’t wait until the building is on fire to think of an exit strategy, stay two steps ahead of the stimuli around you, and always consider what serves your higher self.

Love. Heal. Grow.

Tag: SelfAwareness

Changing Seasons and Setting Intentions