I wrote this piece as a way to express how I cope with the rush of feelings I could get in a day, on a challenging day.
I had to get them out of my head. I had a new awareness of self and was allowing myself to just be in my feelings, whoa….uncomfortable stuff but necessary for my growth and my health.
I’ve denied feeling my feelings in various ways that I wasn’t aware of before, it was automatic and learned very early on in life. I was always labeled ‘sensitive’ which led me to push down my feelings as not relevant or too many of them and thinking there was something wrong with me.
I am conscious to when I fall into that pattern and I’m working towards feeling them, not avoiding them. This way they move through me not stay with me.
Because that’s what we are supposed to be doing here….feeling a range of emotions in our bodies and experiencing physical, mental and emotional sensations.
This simple thing is how I coped when the going got tough with allowing these feelings to just be there.
I told myself, just breathe.
I started pausing in the chaotic moment and do this simple thing, focusing on a good breath, nice and long, deep from the belly, in through my nose and out through my mouth with a whoosh to expel any stale air in my lungs.
I felt a little better, at least calmer, and bringing myself into the moment of what was going on and how I was feeling was a big part of it.
If you’re like me, my brain has a hard time turning off, stopping to just breathe slows it down.
It’s pretty easy stuff and obviously necessary to stay alive but how often do we not do it consciously and breathe shallow, short breaths or hold our breath in times of stress without even realizing it?
The benefits to breathing are endless. Along with helping to clear uneasy feelings, deep breathing releases toxins, relieves pain, massages your organs, increases digestion, and releases tension! It’s also very helpful to ground yourself, actually that’s what you’re doing every time you take in a long, deep belly breath!
There are many more benefits to taking in some deep breaths several times a day.
Here’s a link to a comprehensive guide so you can learn some great breathing techniques to use in your daily life.
I also now do the same for moments of gratitude, just breathe in all the gratitude for those things I can easily take for granted. So I can take the moment in and embody the good feelings… because that’s how I want to feel.
With these simple changes, an interesting thing happened. Life is flowing a lot more easily than it was when I wasn’t aware of my breath. Go figure! #JustBreathe
Just Breathe.
When you have so much you want to do and you don’t know where or how to begin…just breathe.
When technology is giving you hard time and you have a deadline…just breathe.
When in your mind you are losing your shit…just breathe
When you are on social media and you fall down the rabbit hole of comparisons and your limiting beliefs kick in…just breathe.
When you feel like the day got away from you and you didn’t get half of what you planned to do done…just breathe.
When your coffee maker breaks…just breathe.
When your pet throws up on the carpet as you’re running out the door and now you are late…just breathe.
When you are bent over changing the garbage and as you stand up you hit the top of your head on the open cupboard…just breathe.
When your day is testing you and it keeps testing you…just breathe.
When the person in the car ahead of you pays for your order…just breathe.
When you share in laughter and play with a child…just breathe.
When your day flows and everyone you encounter is positive…just breathe.
When you receive a beautiful testimonial from a happy client…just breathe.
When you share a memorable evening with a close friend…just breathe.
When you just had the greatest ideas for content and you write that gold down…just breathe.
When you dance and sing with your beloved for no particular reason…just breathe.
When your friend speaks on a big stage and you get to watch her living her dream and shine…just breathe.
When you see the most beautiful sunrise, sunset, full moon or rainbow…just breathe.
At the end of the day, as boring as it may have been, and you can see and feel the gratitude in that…smile and just breathe.
~ Lorree Appleby
What are your ‘Just Breathe’ moments? Tag me on social media with the hashtag #JustBreathe or comment below!
Besides impacting the lives of others to ‘be real and love life’ the most powerful thing about the work I get to do is the reflections of the teachings that come back to me. I always receive some type of wisdom, healing or blessing from the experience, whether it’s a private, group session or a speaking event.
Whatever the message is that I’ve conveyed I am somehow reminded of how it applies to me as well and it guides me towards the next stage of my growth.
Being aware of the subtle messages that are being sent to guide us forward is very empowering.
Last weekend at the Soul Full Day conference, I guided a group of 70 women through a visualization meditation to identify and let go of a fear story holding them back from what they truly wanted for their life, freedom to live their love story.
It was remarkable to witness them releasing the fear and claiming their love stories, seeing and feeling themselves living in the higher potential of their dreams.
This week I’ve been deeply reminded of the fear story that I’ve been carrying, ‘not being well enough to live a fulfilling life because my digestive health is failing’.
This is the same story my grandmother carried, and she died in fear with this story in her which was unconsciously passed on to me, and I accepted it.
For 8 years now I’ve been having various challenges with my digestive health. I’ve seen many different professionals and tried many different remedies and lifestyle changes. Some have worked and some haven’t. Over time things seemed to have mostly settled, then just a month ago the issues flared up again in a bigger way.
This brought up the old fear story for me as I prepare for a trip of a lifetime. I’m going to Egypt on a sacred pilgrimage to the visit the lands and ancient sites with 13 other women. This will be my first trip overseas and I’ve always been fascinated with Egyptian history, never thinking I would get the opportunity to visit until it showed up to me. I was very drawn to go, and decided I was going, even though it felt way outside my ability to be able to take such a trip.
Worries and a wide range of emotions have been coming up for me since these flare ups have been happening. My mind races and makes up stories based in old fears.
What if I am not well enough to fully experience this trip? What if I am stuck in my room and miss the tours, or what if I am not able to digest the food there? All that disappointment and money spent if I might not be able to full experience it.
These stories are very similar to what my grandmother used to tell herself. She was afraid to go far from home, let alone on a plane to another country. Everything centred around her digestive limitations and she was petrified of having an ‘accident’ while out in public. These fear stories debilitated her and she became a hermit and was very lonely in her later years.
I will never forget seeing her in the final days of her life living in fear. I visited her almost every day and seeing her like that was very sad because there wasn’t much I could do other than comfort and reassure her that she would be ok.
What it did do was motivate me to face my own fears and not go down the same path as she did. In this regard, she was a great teacher to me and not long after she transitioned I was divinely guided to take the Radical Forgiveness Master Coach 10 day training in Atlanta.
It was a huge step for me, and again way outside my comfort zone, but in the end it was one of the best things I could have done for myself because it set me on the trajectory of facing my fears, and the journey of living my love story.
I am eternally grateful to be on this path of self-forgiveness and self-acceptance just as I am, and in time I have learned to love myself. I’m still on this healing journey however this year I’ve had some major shifts in this area of my life and feel truly worthy and deserving of this love for myself because I have freedom from the fears.
This is where the synchronicity comes in again.
It just so happens that this Friday, the day I fly to Egypt, is the 9 year anniversary of my grandmother’s passing, and it’s a full moon! You just can’t make these things up. I didn’t realize the mysterious alignment of these dates until just a few weeks ago.
In numerology the number 9 represents endings and completions and I have a strong intuitive feeling that this trip is going to be transformational for me as a new beginning.
The other day when I was dancing my grandmother came to my mind, she was dancing with me, and I know she is leaving me these breadcrumb signs to follow to complete this stage of my journey. I made a promise to her that I was going to end the cycle of fear she carried and commit myself to healing into wholeness.
I have no doubt that this is all happening for me, rather than to me. And unlike my grandmother, I will face my fears and take this trip and I will trust in the divine unfoldment of it all.
I am reminded that everything is always working out for me, even if it doesn’t seem that way and she is cheering me on all along the way.
These are the same phrases I spoke to the women when I was on stage just a few days ago and they echo loudly in my mind as the beautiful blessings of having the freedom to live my love story.
If you would like to experience the guided visualization for yourself listen to the audio recording so you too can be free from your fear story and claim your love story.
In my next blog I will share about my travel adventures so stay tuned, and if you would like to be notified when I share it you can join my email Love Letter list at the bottom of this page.
Until next time… thank you for being here.
Just Breathe.
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