I usually take myself on a personal retreat in a remote canyon in New Mexico once a year. During this time I am traveling alone, and use this time to reflect on where I am in my life, what intentions I have set , and ask myself how I want to be living my life.That being said, it is my choice to look at how I do life and ask myself am I showing the world the best version of myself ? Even though I am in the canyon alone there are people around me, I do have conversations with others.
However, this time in the world due to mandatory social distancing my focus is similar to my yearly retreat with an added slant. I live alone in the woods, have not owned a television since 2013, and am pretty quiet. I have noticed these thoughts coming up that I do not usually notice. I see this as an opportunity during the very strange time we are now experiencing to really take a closer at any obsessions, any ideas, any truth that comes up. One beautiful thing that has been revealed to me is the acknowledgement for the majority of time is I really do walk my talk. I have spent much of the past 34 years doing much inner work, surrendering old beliefs and ideas that no longer worked, clearing away any old resentments, and working on forgiving myself and others. All this being said, I still know in spite of lots of inner work with being as self honest as I can be, I still have some subtle things that have raised their heads for me to look at deeply.
I have gotten the chance to see stories that I create that are scenarios of different areas of my life. The good news is because I am not going to my office, not seeing clients in person , and not doing all the things that I usually use to distract myself with I hear my stories . The reason this is good is I immediately, as soon as I hear the story, can stop..pause…and create a better version of the story: I.E. a better version of myself.
The other major awareness is each time I hear on social media or in other communication means of people blaming so many things and other people on the reason our world has come to a stop, or have seen people hoarding, being seriously selfish and self centered, I have had the opportunity to ask myself: Do I really love the person showing their behaviors and actions exactly as they are in the moment? I claim I do. I want to be that person. Yet, there have been brief periods where I am wanting others to change, to be a better version of themselves, to treat each other and the planet better. Therein lies my opportunity! When I catch myself being judge, jury, and executioner–which I have noticed more quickly in this time of social distancing from others—I can pause, send love and light to said person(s), and when I can do that….I can embrace the opportunity to accept and love myself exactly for who I am in the moment!
Shazam..what a magical, incredible time of re-learning, re-setting, and re-framing my thoughts and possible actions that have always followed my thoughts.
I am changing, I am shifting. I am loving myself and others more! This is awesome!
I cannot wait to see how these opportunities continue to unfold. I still have hope more people will take a long, hard look at how they treat themselves, the planet, and each other. My part is to keep doing my inner work, keep sending love and light to all beings, and to be grateful for this time the Universe has given each of us to choose to re-set and re-structure. Life is amazingly magical and it all came about in the blink of an eye!
Jaguarwind 