I sink onto my soft, grey cushion for my treasured daily morning meditation ritual. As I close my eyes and tune into how I’m feeling, I’m breathing fast and short, and my muscles are rigid. My monkey mind starts running a million miles an hour. This is the old, familiar feeling of anxiety, and I welcome what it has to say because I know that if I try to push it away or distract myself from feeling it, anxiety will just get stronger.
“Hey there, anxiety. What is causing this distress you’re trying to warn me about?”
With curiosity, I pause to receive more info. Turbulence is the message that comes forward.
I acknowledge the unsteady feeling of uncertain life changes and reflect on how it’s present in my life right now. I’m experiencing significant transitions after the deaths of my only child and mother, an upcoming home move, and recovering from surgery as I venture into the unknown.
I remind myself that I am the best person I know who can navigate turbulent times and that I have the tools I need. Change is a life theme that has led me to be a spiritual healer and success coach, helping people transform the turbulence of their lives and businesses into magic and meaning.
Here are five steps my clients and I utilize to transform fear and anxiety into courage and confidence:
1. Recognize: During turbulent times, lower states of emotion like anxiety, fear, grief, shame, blame, or anger become prominent. If you don’t recognize and work through them in empowering ways, they can run the show in an attempt to control a situation that often can’t be controlled. These emotions actually fuel turbulence, and the first step to transform them is to tune into how you’re feeling so you can recognize them and elevate your emotions into a more positive state. Negative emotions don’t create positive results. The lower states of emotions cause the fight or flight response of the sympathetic nervous system and the infamous, never-ending chatter of the monkey mind to kick on, releasing adrenaline. Muscles tense up, breathing slows, and the brain looks for potential threats in the environment.
Here’s a process I use:
- Find a quiet space
- Tune into your body and notice where it feels tight
- Ask that part of your body what it’s holding on to. What is it feeling? Name it.
- Acknowledge the feeling and thank your body for alerting you
- Explore the feeling from an observant (non-attached) place of curiosity.
What are some of your favorite ways to recognize when something is disturbing you?
2. Release: After you’ve practiced the exercise in step one, you can begin releasing the emotion(s) from your body. If you don’t release these lower emotional states, they can become stored in your body, affecting your health and/or running the show in your mind, which can affect your behavior (including self-sabotage and addiction). Here are some of my favorite ways to release:
- Deep breathing: take several deep, belly-expanding breaths. As you breathe in, have the intention of breathing in peace and relaxation. As you breathe out, have the intention of releasing stress and tension.
- Journaling: Ask yourself, “If I were completely honest with myself,…”. You can fill in the blank with prompts like (what’s not working is, how I’m feeling is, what I’m really wanting is, etc.). Write what comes to you without judging or censoring.
- Speak it: talk to someone who can compassionately listen and help you shift into a higher state of emotion, such as a counselor or coach. Speaking your truth has great power.
- Move! Walking, running, biking, dancing, or other forms of exercise also help release emotional energy.
What are some of your favorite ways to release emotional energy?
3. Receive: It’s important to receive the right kind of help when you’re going through turbulent times. You can utilize spiritual practices if you’re spiritual. You may also have beloved family and friends who can provide support. Depending on the situation, you may want to work with a professional advisor, counselor, or healer. You don’t have to go it alone! You can also support yourself in kind and compassionate ways. Recharging and rebalancing your energy, especially during stressful times, is vital. Here are some of my favorite ways to receive and recharge:
- Spend time in nature
- Prayer
- Meditation
- Getting lost in creative activities that aren’t work-related
- Massages
- Reading
What are some of your favorite ways to receive and recharge?
4. Recite: Saying powerful affirmations, mantras, and/or prayers can be very helpful in transforming negative emotional states into positive ones. I believe that your soul knows exactly why things are happening the way that they are, and your soul will use the experience to grow. Here is one of my favorite and most often used mantras:
“Everything is happening in divine, perfect order and timing for my highest good, even if my mind doesn’t understand it yet”. – author unknown
5. Re-Envision: change often comes with turbulent situations. Humans have a natural tendency to resort to the lower states of emotions to maintain a perceived sense of safety, security, and control. This leads to imagining the worst, or what you DON’T want. Depending on the situation, you may spend significant time in the first four steps (like I did after my daughter died) before you’re ready to begin re-envisioning what life after the change looks like.
- Be compassionate with yourself and give yourself time and space to reflect on what you want to learn, create, and experience in the next chapter of your life.
- Focus on what you DO want. Write out the words that describe the feelings of what you want, such as love, gratitude, prosperity, healing, courage, abundance, etc.
- Embody the essence of those words.
- Take inspired action.
- Have patience and remember that everything may not happen the way you want or think it should, but if you embody the essence of what you want, the Universe will support you in manifesting it for your highest good.
If you are experiencing turbulence in your life or business, know that you have everything you need to get through it, even if it doesn’t feel that way now. As you learn to turn your wounds into wisdom, you’ll notice that the tragedy of turbulence transforms into greater magic and meaning in life than you ever could have imagined possible.
