Let’s talk about how to stop trying to be healthy and allow yourself to be.
Lao-tzu wrote “When allowing informs our thoughts and actions, we walk in harmony and peace.”
What gets in the way of that allowing and, therefore, causes a stress response in your body?
We live in a noisy world. Have you ever noticed that? Everywhere you go there is noise assaulting your nervous system. At home, driving in traffic, out shopping, the music in the malls, elevators, at work, walking the street. Even on a sunny summer day you hear the sounds of lawn mowers and blowers. Go to a spa to relax and there is music. Have you ever tried to find a quiet place without noise?
Being constantly bombarded with noise is jarring to the nervous system.
A noisy environment, especially one in which you cannot escape, affects your nervous system—keeping your innate fight/flight/freeze stuck in high gear.
Not all noise is jarring to the nervous system however. There are the soothing sounds of nature---gentle rainfall, ocean waves, birds, animals in the forest; even the trees in a forest make sounds. But these are sounds that soothe the system, instead of stressing it.
Now today’s topic is about learning to allow yourself to be healthy—or allow yourself to have whatever it is you desire to have.
There are 2 energies that we discuss today. Allowing and Trying. We are taught from an early age to ‘try’. Try, try again. We become so focused on trying that we forget to allow the time and space for what we want to arrive.
Close your eyes for a moment. Ask yourself:
-What is your definition of trying? What behaviors do you do that result from trying? When you think about trying, what come up for you?
Just notice your answers; maybe jot them down to look at later.
-What is your definition of allowing? What behaviors do you do that result from allowing? When you think about allowing, how does that feel?
Notice your answers to these questions as well. Did you find an Aha! or maybe an Oh no! or even a Whoa!
A person who always tries must keep doing, keep busy, keep ahead of the game, keep striving to achieve. Like a shark that must keep swimming to stay alive, people who are stuck in the ‘trying game’ must always be busy, and
can never truly relax and allow.
It is a myth that trying will ever get you where you want to be. Trying
creates stress, because there is no end, no brass ring. When you think
about all the things you’ve tried---the new diet, another class, a new job,
a new relationship, new clothes, new whatever…..when you think about
trying—what do you feel?
What is the belief driving your trying?
Let me define trying according to my world. Trying is taking an action over
and over again with no success. Taking action is different. To have what we want we must be willing to take action steps, make a commitment to having it, even persistence—and allowing. These create different energies and responses in our bodies.
Trying is the energy of searching but never finding. I had a student in a class years ago that said she’d been trying to find healing for 13 years and had tried every class, every healing modality that she found, but nothing ever worked. She was hoping that ‘trying’ this class would help.
It was no surprise when she didn’t come back the next day….because the search was more important to her than the finding.
Trying is the realm of the conscious mind. It contributes to stress, unhappiness, even ill health. As long as you focus your efforts on trying, you prevent yourself from having.
So what is the alternative?
Allowing. Allowing is the realm of Source mind, our greater capacity. Allowing is the energy of having, of achieving, of succeeding. It is taking the inspired action and being open to receiving. It is committing to yourself, for yourself, and about yourself to receive what you desire.
Allowing is not passive. It is actually an active state. Take some time to
sit in the energy of allowing something in your life to see that it is an active way of being in the world that allows time to relax, let go, trust, receive,
enjoy, smile, laugh.
Allowing provides tools for self-realization, self-empowerment, greater healing. It is getting out of your own way and letting your greater capacity, your Source mind to bring to you what you’ve asked for. It is a state of trust.
Sometimes you can get so wrapped up in trying to heal or be healthy, that you don’t ALLOW yourself to be healthy and healed. Allowing is consciously choosing a different way of being in the world.
So you know that you get caught up in trying. What do you do to break out of that?
When you find yourself wrapped up in the struggle of trying—cut yourself some slack. Take a break—close your eyes and breathe, go for a walk, do something you enjoy. Take a 1 minute vacation in your mind—go to your Sacred place in your mind. Allow your focus to shift.
