Four Shifts For Authentic Living

I still remember my first day in the US vividly. I landed late at night. My heart was beating so fast. My mind couldn’t catch up to my body’s reaction to what was happening. I wanted to close my eyes and return to my mother’s arms. I wanted to stay in my familiar world. The world I knew that is safe, predictable, and full of love. I knew the time to let it go was up, and I didn’t want to accept that. It was time for me to surrender to my path and to all the experiences and growth that lies ahead. It felt too soon to embark on such a big change and leave my homeland at the age of 19. I wasn’t ready, but are we ever ready? We don’t always choose the timing of our experiences. Yet, we must always be ready to gather the strength to face what is in front of us. My family encouraged my move to the US in search of a better life. My mother never had the chance to go to school, so she had big dreams for my higher education. I shared her dream for me. Education has been my first love. My mother always told me that she wouldn’t have struggled as much in her life if she had had an education. I never wanted to struggle like my mom, so I invested all of myself in pursuing education. It made me feel I could create a different life than mom’s. A life full of power. A life where I feel equipped with the tools to face life’s challenges and live powerfully. But what makes up an empowered life?

The challenge is multifaceted. When we don’t realize the interconnectedness between our mind, body, heart, and soul, it becomes difficult to reach empowerment. When I didn’t care for my body, I lacked the energy to achieve my goals and think clearly. When I didn’t listen to my heart, I missed the faith and wisdom to guide and protect me. When I didn’t allow time and space for my emotions to emerge, I couldn’t witness life as is and learn from it. I realized that to feel empowered truly; I need to leverage all parts of my being. Mind alone is not enough as it is influenced by conditioning; the body alone is not enough because it won’t have clarity and meaning. We need the mind and body to create a solid connection so that together they can open up to listening to the heart and experiencing the soul. When we wake up to the connection with our soul, we tap into a limitless well of love, support, and all we need. We open up to our gifts and offer them confidently to the world. We become limitless. When we consider all our parts, small shifts in all of them create exponential impacts. What are some of the necessary shifts to start embodying this empowerment?

Mindset shifts

Our thoughts create our feelings, and our feelings create our actions. Our actions define our reality. So if we want a different reality, we need to adopt new thoughts. Suppose our mindset is rooted in prioritizing and pleasing others. In that case, we will be run by our fear of abandonment, which leads us to adopt other people’s beliefs instead of our own, leading to a life of disconnection and dissociation. We need to be made aware of the programming that runs our life. To start, could you take a moment to reflect on these questions: What do you think about yourself? What do you believe about others? What do you believe about life? Once you have answered those, reflect on what is bound to happen for someone who believes those beliefs. What do you notice needs to change to achieve a different outcome?

Body Shifts

As a society, we are trained to force the body to feel a certain way. We power it with coffee and numb it with drugs. We are not trained to listen and respond to our body’s needs. We are not trained to witness our bodies. Our body constantly sends signals, but we don’t understand its language. Our dissociation from our body leaves us disconnected from our emotions and so much wisdom within. When we buy a car, we are asked to go for a regular oil change and follow certain processes to care for it if we want it to last. When we don’t follow the instructions manual, the worst that could happen is that the car breaks and we buy a second car. The challenge with the vehicle we are born with is that we have only one chance to get it right. We can not buy a second body if ours fail to operate. The cost is detrimental. The cost is our life. I don’t think many of us wake up to the danger of not caring for our bodies till we are forced to. How might we wake up before it is too late? Our body is a miracle with many innate healing mechanisms, but it also demands that we activate those mechanisms. Our body needs nutrition, movement, and rest. What is one small shift you have been meaning to take to care for your body but have yet to make a priority? Is it drinking enough water per day or scheduling a few breaks for movement, or trying to go to bed a little earlier at night? What is one small step that you can commit to taking that would help you treat your body with the importance that it deserves? Take a moment to define your small shift today. Your body deserves it.

Emotional Shifts

What makes it hard to connect with our emotions? I am not talking about just joy and happiness. I am talking about being a friend to our pain and sorrow as well as to our joy and ecstasy. The feelings that make us feel vulnerable. The ones that society labels as not strong or courageous or simply not good enough. The ones that we ignore as we feel not equipped to handle. The feelings that don’t have a clear justification simply ask to be witnessed. We often label feelings as good or bad, but what if we shift how we view emotions and label them as what we feel is seeking our attention? Once we remove the judgment, we can open ourselves to experiencing our feelings as they are, and the door to our freedom and ability to live fully starts to open. When we don’t choose the emotions and experience them all, we learn to love joy and pain to ultimately love all. Love encompasses all. Take a moment now to simply connect with your feelings and give yourself time to be a witness to them. Close your eyes and take a moment to be present for all that is. What do you witness?

Heart & Soul Shifts

We are all born with a voice within that is begging to get our attention to guide us toward our dreams and unique path, but we excel at shoving it off and staying on course. We are so easily brainwashed by societal expectations and perceived obligations that we don’t know how to live otherwise. Every step feels scary because it is not anchored deep within us. When we are so detached from our inner voice, we don’t leverage the best innate gift we are born with. We need to get into the habit of constantly connecting with our yearnings. When we give space and time to our inner voice to emerge without expectations, we will discover that we are born with an innate support system that is always with us. The guidance we need is always within us; we need to open up to it. What is a calling that you feel inside that you haven’t given time and space for to emerge? What is one step you can do today to honor that calling?

If you feel called to pursue an embodiment journey to integrate and honor your heart, mind, body, and soul, I invite you to join our six months Authentic Living program. You can join the waitlist to learn more below.