Peace and ease, baby.
Peace and ease.
When I wanted to change my life for the better, I asked for one thing: to feel a sense of peace and ease.
And you know what? That’s actually what I got.
But I’m going to bring you in on a little secret: Peace and ease are NOT dependent on your external circumstances.
As much as we might think that peace and ease will come our way once this world pandemic comes to an end or the kiddos go back to school or we stop wearing our face masks and feeling like we’re in some wild sci-fi movie – unfortunately that’s just not the case.
Because you are still you. You are an amazing being, don’t get me wrong, I see you. But if your sense of peace and ease is based entirely on external circumstances, you will forever be stuck in the pursuit of happiness. You can change the container you’re in hoping that you’ll feel differently on the inside – and you will feel better temporarily!
But if you’re tired of constantly being in the pursuit of happiness, tired of the chase – then it’s time to take back your power and learn to embody a sense of peace and ease that you can carry with you no matter what your life throws at you.
The good news? It literally doesn’t matter how chaotic or dramatic the world or your life is right now; if what you desire to feel inside is a deep + lasting sense of peace and ease, then you have that option available to you right now.
Let me bring you back a few years to a time in my life when I was NOT experiencing peace and ease…
When we think back on our stories, there are probably certain moments that stand out, forever etched in our brains. Those pivotal moments that alter the course of our destiny, however insignificant they may seem at the time.
I remember this particular scene so vividly. I was 29 years old, standing at my kitchen sink, washing my juicer for the umpteenth time since I was trying to cure myself of my disease by exclusively consuming fresh juice (spoiler alert, it didn’t work – I’ve heard that it CAN work, but it sure didn’t work for ME).
I had the distinct feeling that life had become heavy and difficult and not very fun. I wondered when this had happened.
When you’re a little kid you can’t wait to become a grown-up and do whatever you want all the time!
But somewhere along the way, life had instead become an endless to-do list and a myriad of health issues.
I refer to this rather mundane moment as ‘pivotal’ for this single reason: I realized with certainty that something was wrong and I knew that it had to change.
We can go for days, weeks, decades pretending that everything is fine on the surface. Maybe we’re not even pretending – maybe we’re simply asleep. Asleep to the possibility that our life could be different, that we deserve for it to be different, that there are other possible realities available to us aside from the one we’re currently “living.”
Asleep, because to wake up and look around at the reality we find ourselves in is painful.
But nothing changes if we stay asleep. We end up choosing an entire lifetime of mediocrity in order to avoid one painful moment of waking up to our reality, and realizing with utmost certainty – my god, something needs to change.
In that moment, I realized with certainty that I was not okay carrying on in this way, slowly being crushed by the weight of the world.
I craved peace and ease and I was determined to find it.
That moment was seven years ago and I continue on in my ever-deepening journey of getting out of my own way, living in alignment with my true self, awakening to the fullest and most empowered expression of who I am – so that my life feels lighter, flows easier, and keeps the flame lit on that once-missing spark of childhood wonder + magic.
The first few steps I took after that moment were HUGE in changing the way I felt about my life. My life itself remained the same – the Crohn’s disease was still in and out of remission, I worked a job I didn’t really care about, I spent more time borrowing travel guides on Hawaii from the library than I did actually traveling anywhere.
But I kid you not, it was during this very time that I finally tasted my peace and ease.
These are the exact steps I took:
1. I signed up for an 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course. This was amazing. I learned Mindfulness Meditation (which I still teach today during my yin yoga classes – sign up for one below!) It was during this course that my disease symptoms would often cease completely.
2. I hired a Life Coach. I wasn’t actually looking for a life coach, I was looking for a business coach because I figured what better time to start a business than in the middle of your health falling apart? Haa. Good thing I hired a Life Coach that was willing to work on business stuff with me, and good thing we never actually got around to working on the business stuff. Surprisingly…there was plenty of life stuff to work on first! Hiring a Life Coach was a big decision and a large investment of time and money, but I am not lying to you when I say that it was one of the BEST decisions I’ve made in my entire life.
3. I started practicing Yin Yoga and Mindfulness Meditation daily. I am not naturally a morning person at all, I consider it a success when I get my day started by 10am. Getting it started by 9:30 is basically an Olympic feat. But during this time I had a job that made me get up grossly early and yet I would still set my alarm to get up 15 minutes EARLIER just so I could drag myself into my yoga room at 7am, practice 15 minutes of yin yoga and five minutes of meditation – it was THAT worth it.
4. I started keeping a Celebration/Gratitude Journal. This was prompted by my Life Coach. Being excellent at doing my homework, I diligently did this almost every single night.
I realize that all of this sounds really regimented – but I’m not a highly regimented person so all of this was done based on the fact that it actually FELT GOOD. If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that you’re not going to heal if you hate your healing plan, so make sure it feels good and doesn’t become an added source of stress (been there)!
It is actually insane to me how much these practices changed my outlook on life. I went through some of the WORST and most trying times with my health shortly after instituting these rituals and when I read back over my Gratitude Journal from those times, I’m like, who is this wise person and why is she so calm?
That’s actually what people asked me all the time because I was sooo content and calm in the midst of a very giant shit storm.
So what does this all come down to? Knowing where to start.
Being brave enough to say, this is not the way I want to live my life.
Being awake enough to realize it’s not actually my job to carry the weight of the whole entire world on my two small shoulders and if I don’t do something about it, it will in fact, crush me, and that will in fact, help no one.
Being courageous enough to say, I deserve to feel so much better.
Close your eyes, take a deep breath. Check in with your heart, check in with your mind, check in with your body, check in with your soulful inner knowing. Is there anything you would change if you could?
The world pandemic and life chaos can go ahead and continue – just giving you all the more reason to seek peace and ease now. If you’re waiting for some perfect moment in the future when life will be calm enough to bestow peace and ease upon your life, I’m afraid you might never get there (been there, too).
A wise person once told me, “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” -Martin Luther King Jr. (so MLK didn’t actually tell me this, but my Life Coach sure did!)
I promise you that peace and ease are just around the corner.
Want to follow the same healing steps I took?
⭐️ Sign up for Virtual Yin Yoga + Mindfulness Meditation – Thursdays @7pm central! (Details HERE!)
⭐️ Set up a call to chat w/me about Coaching! Our first chat is always free 🙂 (Details HERE!)
⭐️ Start your Gratitude Journal right now – an easy first step you can take all by yourself + one with guaranteed benefits for your health!
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awakening to the fullest and most empowered expression of YOU –
so that life feels lighter,
flows easier,
and reignites that missing spark of wonder + magic.