Whenever I can feel the next version and vision of my work start to flow though, the excitement can take over and my thoughts start to race

I try to consciously bring it all together into a neat bow when really,there’s often nothing neat about bringing something new into form.

It’s messy and overflowing and non-linear and gorgeously creatively chaotic, and that’s part of the beauty of the creative cycle.

I also know the remedy: that to stem the racing thoughts, we have to come back to our body, and our breath. To switch off the mind. To trust the process. To know that we’re so worthy, ready, willing and able to go where we want to go (or somewhere better).

Recently in Pilates, my teacher said “If you don’t breathe, you won’t get to where you want to be.” I feel like she spoke directly to my soul, and not just my glutes.

How often do we try to race and rush through *everything*, especially when it relates to a big dream or stretchy goals that we’re working towards?

Sometimes when we can see what we’re working towards, but we can’t see the details, or the exact timeline, we can feel anxious about it. Unsteady, ungrounded, misaligned.

It’s the opposite of how we want to feel when we’re calling in what’s next for ourselves; for the life we want to build, the joy we want to feel, and the energy we want to embody and beam back out into the world.

Feeling stressed out and drained on the path to a deeply purposeful life?

No thanks.

Instead, choose your breath over your stress.⁠⠀
⁠⠀
Choose your body over your ego.⁠⠀
⁠⠀
Choose your power over your panic.⁠⠀

 

Stepping into the new

I went for coffee with a dear friend the other day, and she gave me this incredible insight, offered up by her yoga teacher: anxiety about the future isn’t always about a fear of the unknown, but a fear of the loss of what we do know.

Take that in for a moment. Our worrying about what’s to come—how well we’ll manage what’s next on our path—isn’t always about an uncertainty of the future. It can also be a fear of the loss of what we know (or perhaps a bit of both), even if we feel certain that we want to move forwards in life. ⠀

We have to be okay to lose what we know, in order to step into the new.

With the racey, rushy thoughts that often accompany inner growth, also comes a reminder: to trust that when we get to *there* (to the next step, the next level, the next iteration), we’ll be able to manage it as beautifully as we managed the last upgrade and uplevelling.

We might feel like we’re losing what we know, but we’re gaining an even more aligned, expansive version of it; a version of life that our future self is already so grateful for.

All of this inner work required to stay present and steady while leveling up, reminds me of one of my favourite lines in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations:

‘Dig inside yourself. Inside there is a spring of goodness ready to gush at any moment, if you keep digging.’

(That quote is actually the opening lines in Aligned & Unstoppable.)

If you keep digging, you’ll find the inner peace that reminds you not to rush, the deep ease that reminds you of your own flow and magic, and the ecstatic joy that connects you to what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and importantly, how you want to get to where you’re going (or somewhere better).

If you dig inside yourself, you’ll see that you’ve done this before… and you can do it again.

If you dig inside yourself, you’ll tap into the most abundant, expansive, aligned and unstoppable version of yourself.

If you dig inside yourself, you’ll remember to breathe on the way up.

And remember, there’s always room at the top.

 

Love,