You are not here to just function. You are here to shine!
I feel like for many of us this past year has required us to go into survival mode. Quite literally, life has been in the balance. From leaving our homes, knowing there is a threatening virus, to worrying about someone who is vulnerable, to keeping our businesses afloat. There has been a need to strip life back and focus on what's essential and what keeps us safe.
Whilst this is necessary and super helpful in threatening situations, long term it is damaging, soul destroying and not how humans are meant to live.
It also a profound effect on how our body and mind responds to life going forward.
When we are in survival mode, our nervous system is in fight/flight or freeze response. It is concerned with keeping us safe and is not interested in being open to connection, creativity or joy. Our perception of the world becomes narrow and closed and we stop noticing the good around us.
So many of us are stuck in survival mode, even when the threat has gone away. It becomes a normal way of functioning, and we can actually function pretty well in this state.
A perfect example of this was something a friend said to me recently...
She said that there had been so much crisis in her life in recent years, that she actually functions really well when things go wrong. She actually feels more anxious and uncomfortable when things are calm and ticking along ok.
I felt so sad when I heard her say that, and at the same time I completely understood what she meant.
When our system is stuck in survival mode, it becomes our norm, our baseline. We learn how to operate in that state because we have forgotten what's it like to be any other way.
But there is another way....
We are not here to just survive. We are here to thrive and shine.
We are here to feel safety, connection, joy and freedom.
We are here to rest, relax without worry or guilt.
That is who we are outside of survival mode.
It is possible for you to reconnect to those parts of you, not matter how long you've been stuck.