It’s Time to Reset Your Joy Thermostat
OFF THE MAT
Weekly Thought Offering:
“Each of us has an inner thermostat setting that determines how much love, success, and creativity we allow ourselves to enjoy. When we exceed our inner thermostat setting, we will often do something to sabotage ourselves, causing us to drop back into the old, familiar zone where we feel secure. Unfortunately,”
—-
“Fear is excitement without the breath.” Here’s what this intriguing statement means: the very same mechanisms that produce excitement also produce fear, and any fear can be transformed into excitement by breathing fully with it.”
― Gay Hendricks, The Big Leap
Weekly Journal Prompts:
A time in my life I have been really really happy was….
The thing that came along to ruin it was…
If I am radically honest with myself I can see my joy thermostat is set to_____ amount of happiness
If I imagine myself getting my hearts biggest dream, and I am radically honest…
Weekly Mantra:
I deserve the fullest expression of my joy
My joy brings joy
With my light I bring light
Hello Sadhakas!
Wow guys, this one was HUGE for me when I first read it and remains a big part of my personal spiritual work today. The realization that we are often more comfortable with being unhappy and not getting what we want (or getting just a little of it) than we are with getting what we want is HUGE!!! I mean think about it, most of us were raised and programmed by our families of origin (and every commercial we ever saw) to pay attention to what was missing, what we didn’t have, and what we aren’t. So of course, we become comfortable in those spaces.
The key to flying ON AND OFF THE MAT is to become aware of those areas and re-pattern what we believe we deserve. And, let me remind you that you are a child of the divine and so just by virtue of you being alive you deserve all the joy and abundance that life has to offer.
ON THE MAT in handstand this manifests in our exploration of how we “stay” up in the pose. For many of us we might kick up for a fleeting moment with one leg or even two, but we fail to progress beyond that brief moment of flight, let alone sustaining the balance. Here is where the secret lies…physically, the body has the ability to use both the front and back side to work towards balance (just like it does when you’re standing on your feet) but the trick is you need to spend a lot of time practicing this upside down. To do so you must become comfortable being in flight. Don’t reject it or be scared just because it’s new. Learn to be comfortable in the discomfort of flight so that you can not only be alive but thrive.
We also work this week with breath. Often when we are upside down, we become afraid and we stop breathing. If we can breathe, we can turn fear into excitement!
And huge shock here (not!), we are practicing the same thing OFF THE MAT this week.
Observe where you are trying to manifest growth and abundance, ask your Self why you might be more comfortable staying in your comfort zone and then challenge yourself in some way to expand your range for joy (even just breathing counts!). And we do all this because well, you deserve more joy!!!
As always I look forward to the journey with you this week ON AND OFF THE MAT
With great respect and love,
Nicole
