Advice from my 100-year old grandmother
As a young child, my sister and I would spend nights at our Michigan “grandmother’s” house.
During one of these visits, I didn’t sleep well because I heard a noise in the middle of the night and didn’t know what it was so couldn't go back to sleep.
The next morning when I told my grandmother, she offered this advice, “when I hear something and I don’t know what it is, I take time to try and figure out what it might be and if I hear it again I listen harder to see if I recognize it”.
As a child, I really didn’t like this advice.
Wouldn’t it just be better if it went away!?
In my mind, focusing on something that frightened me seemed like a big and scary thing to do. And I believed it would only make my fears worse.
But this advice has stuck with me and I’ve used it many times over the years when I’ve heard various bumps in the night.
And I’ve also realized the wisdom of it.
When a noise (or emotion, conversation, event, or ANYTHING.) triggers our stress response it then alerts out survival brain to a potential threat.
Left unchecked, our survival brain will spiral out of control at great speeds coming up with every possible and often terrifying scenario of what could be or go wrong in attempts to prepare us for those possibilities.
If we choose to ignore the trigger it actually only leaves us more afraid and stuck ruminating about a lot of scenarios that most likely aren’t true. Not to mention focusing on the one thing we were trying to ignore.
What you resist persists.
When we instead consciously choose to use all of our other senses and the logical, advanced cognitive parts of our brain, it allows us to discern more accurately what’s going on and gives us the power to choose how we want to handle it.
Energy goes where attention flows.
As we enter into this second month of the year, reflect back on the year so far.
Are you consciously choosing where your attention goes?
How is your mental well-being?
Do you like the thoughts you’re feeding?
How is your internal cup?
Are you content with the activities that are filling your day and the way you’re utilizing your time?
Setting your intentions is the first step to feeling empowered and being the creator of your life. And we'll be doing just that in my LIVE Vision Board + Intention Setting Masterclass next Thursday, February 8th. Sign up now to join or get the replay!
To the power of your intention and your innate ability to create.
