5 Ways to Shift Yourself

Life is filled with things that are continually stimulating us! You are on direction and so many times you are pulled toward other things. A child, a parent, a terrible tale, a friends strife, you lose a bid, your project doesn't go smooth, so many things to get us off direction. Focus so important a skill, discernment to know what needs time now and what we must keep returning to, constantly sensations coming at us that we need tools to get back on track.

These are things that work for me that may be of use to you. Try them if they seem to call you. Life is changing always so it is important to have new tools constantly to remind you of your mission. They all are about engaging your senses. Bringing ourselves back into our physical bodies present and out of the mind, "blah, blah, blah".

1. Move! This is so important to our bodies. If things are off and you need to shift your mind from some pattern, move. Movement is quicker that thinking so it is quick. Our bodies thrive on oxygen and this is how we increase the amount in our bodies. More oxygen makes you more alert, brings you present, allows your body to function properly. We shallow breath so often and any movement will cause you to breath deeper and create relaxation. This movement can be just a few minutes. 10 jumping jacks will do the trick. Aharaj Yoga has some quick katas that are less than a minute, it floods your body with oxygen and suddenly you are clearer. It can be anything. Movement brings you to presence awareness and from there you can chose how to proceed clearly. This is why we exercise to oxygenate the body. It can be done many times a day quickly. Movement not exercise, just movement.

2. Nourish pleasurably with food.  Often when we are low or confused, we are in our mind emotion cycle. Reaching for food is a go to for many. It is the bodies way to get pleasure and try to relax. When we just grab food and stuff it in our mouth unconsciously, which I have done many times, we miss the present moment to enjoy the food and reap the reward in getting it. If I grab food, I try to really be present eating, tasting the food, stopping to chew, feeling the pleasure of it. Food is great pleasure and taste is the sense related to creativity. Just making the Mmmmm sound stimulates your throat and voice, signalling your hypothalamus that you are relaxed and enjoying, this generates the feel good hormones shifting your state. Food is an issue for so many yet if you try to be present and enjoy what you grab to eat, it will shift your way toward nourishment. You will get what you need on so many levels through pleasurable consumption of food. This is what nourishing means, yummy.

 3. You could go outside and just take a breath of fresh air, the beauty around you will clear you.There is all kinds of scientific knowledge on this. On a atomic level this helps your body. Nature is filled with negative ions, electronics filled with positive ions. We balance on a base level just being away from the technology inside our spaces. Just go out in awareness and slow walk a minute or two, see everything about, the sensual world you are part of, the skin can come alive and feel the air, the eyes fill with crisp color, the nose can smell the scents, your breath can automatically deepen. You are shifted.

4. Grab a Scent! Essential oils enliven your brain and stimulate the olfactory system. Take in 7 breathes of a healthy scent and see how it shifts you. That is why they are used, to shift you, to bring you clarity. They are tools of presence, shifters. Nature is here to heal us, we are made of nature. So flower smells, flower essences, a good cup of tea with warmth and good smell and taste. These are here to help our body. Help bring us out of the mind and into the body where we have our senses. We become present. This relaxes you and clear thinking can begin again.

5. Do something that creates joy. This is tricky because many people think that they are busy and only create joy on the weekends or need to complete things before they can relax and enjoy. The mind says this, this and this need to be completed. The way to joy is to remind your body what the feeling feels like. The above list is a way to bring yourself back to joy, in the body, grounded, alert, noticing, feeling pleasure and niceness. Doing this throughout the day trains your body to feel joy. It becomes a regular habit to your body, and then it draws on itself to do it. It can be a song, a woohoo!, a giggle, a smile, a good olive. Enjoying that quick moment, realizing you are in joy and how it feels pulsating through the body is the energy of it. Joy enlivens, creates passion and movement. Then you can direct the quick break toward becoming what expression you want.

Simple they are because we like quick fixes. These are. They are shifters of your state. They say it is all attitude so keep it flowing with energy. The energy of movement. Indeed we are moving and learning how to be in the movement and not just in the mind seems the trick to be figured out. Then we consciously ride whatever wave is coming, flexible, open, engaged, aware.