FEATURE - January 2018

The Inner Work of Consciously Creating Your Life

by Maya Zahira

 

Evaluate Your Life

Take a moment right now to think about how you've been feeling lately. If you've been feeling a little (or a lot) depressed, apathetic, anxious, antsy, irritable, exhausted, over-extended or overwhelmed, this could be a sign from your inner guidance system that your life is out of alignment with what you truly desire. 

 

So many of us were raised to believe that we cannot have the life we truly desire that if we‘re going to be ‘responsible adults, we must maintain relationships (even unhealthy ones) no matter what, live someplace we don’t like and work at jobs we hate just to pay the bills. We’re running endlessly on a soul-sucking gerbil wheel. I know this might sound extreme, but if you take an honest look at your life right now, it’s likely you’ll recognize at least some of that disempowered mainstream conditioning showing up for you, which is at least partially running the show.

 

Despite your conditioning growing up (and what the world at large may be telling you), I’m here to tell you that you certainly can live a life that truly makes your heart sing. Now, it might not happen overnight, it might take a lot of focus, work and commitment to get there, but you can get there! Creating the life that you love often takes ongoing, incremental steps. As you take each step, you'll gain more clarity on the next step and the next step. As you do so, your vision for your life will continue to evolve into an even greater dream that you are bringing into reality.

 

Assessment and Action

An important thing I recommend is to check in with your life at least once a month and do the work. Take a minimum of one hour, or even an afternoon, to sit down with a pen and paper or your journal. Ask yourself these six questions:

 

1. What's working well for me in my life right now? What's flowing? What's feeling good? (Write about this for at least ten minutes. Even if you're going through a rough patch, take the time to notice even the small things that are going well for you.)

2. What's not going well? Where would I most like to see improvement? What's feeling out of balance? What needs attention or change? What is making me feel irritable, angry, depressed, of any other emotion indicating I'm out of alignment? (Write about this for at least ten minutes.) According to author Jerry Hicks, “emotions are accurate indicators of the vibrational relativity between where you want to be and where you are right now, and your ‘Emotional Guidance System’ is always accurate and available to you at all times." 

3. Keep in mind what's not going well for you, and face these questions head on. What is it that I really want, and what do I want to improve? (Be specific. Don't let anyone tell you what you can or cannot have in your life. Dream big! What do you really want? Where do you want to live, work, play? What people do you want in your life? What do you want your daily life to be like?)

4. On a scale of one-10, 10 being the strongest desire, how strongly do I want these improvements in my life?

5. What's been holding me back from achieving this desire? (Be honest, and do your best to not blame others. Look for possible ways that you may have been blocking yourself.)  

6. What are three action steps I can take this week to get me closer to my goal? (List them now.)

 

Let's dive a little deeper into action steps. Clear, concise action steps with specific timeframes are truly necessary in order to achieve your goals. Be specific-broad action steps are really easy to avoid! An example would be someone who is unhappy with their job, and writes a step that says, “look for another job." Because this step is quite broad and actually includes many smaller steps within it, a person will likely feel overwhelmed and never actually get around to completing this step at all. It’s better to write smaller steps with a time frame. (Example: submit two online job applications each week, starting this Friday).  

 

If you don’t include a timeframe, it is really easy to avoid doing the step altogether, or to keep putting it off. Decide how long you’ll work on a task, and set a deadline for completion. If you really want to reach your goal, this is crucial. "Whether you think you can or you can't, either way, you are right." Henry Ford

 

I recently manifested my goal of a perfect place to live in nature, despite some big road blocks! Diligence, persistence, and daily action resulted in achieving my goal of living in a sweet little cottage on the Kansas prairie! One of my favorite quotes is "You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes each day, unless you're too busy, then you should sit for an hour." Old Zen Saying. And how true it is!

 

But let's say your personal goal is less concrete. Perhaps you want to feel more peace in your life. In that instance, think about concrete activities that help cultivate this feeling within you. Perhaps meditation helps you feel more peace. Or, perhaps being in nature does it. Your goal will then be to meditate for x number of minutes each day, starting today. Or, you will walk out in nature three times per week for thirty minutes starting tomorrow.

 

Make it Happen

Throughout the month, you'll work on creating and implementing three or more action steps, and then follow through on these steps on a regular basis. Then, every month, set aside time again to go through these questions, set new goals, choose new action steps, or keep doing the already-established action steps. Follow this process regularly. Have fun with it and be creative, as you artfully design the masterpiece of your own life! 

Kansas City

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