Life feels like a lot lately, doesn’t it?!? These crazy times we’re living in are no joke! It’s tough being a human being on our planet right now with the high cost of living, busy lives and so many demands that it’s really hard to carve out time to connect with ourselves, each other and our Great Mother – Mama Gaia. Our beautiful planet that supports us despite the way we, as a society, treat her. Our loving mother, who recognizes us (our society) as the teenagers we are – making a mess, treating our world like she owes us something and thinking we’re “right” and that we’ve got it all figured out. She is holding us in love as we move through this phase of growth and transformation – as the old ways are no longer working but the new ways are not yet clear – trusting that one day we’ll “grow up” and treat her with the love and respect she’s given us all the way along.
I was thinking about what I wrote a couple of weeks ago in the Wisdom of our Bodies and then about Eggs in Sperm World last week. I realized there’s another way my body talks to me which is through anxiety and overwhelm. As I slow down and “come home” to myself, I’m realizing that my natural pace is FAR slower than I realized. I still catch myself moving way too fast and doing too much on a regular basis. It’s a deeply ingrained habit, and a hard one to break! Fortunately, I’m beginning to listen to my body and noticing when I’m feeling anxious and/or overwhelmed. When I notice this, I try to remind myself to take a few breaths, feel my feet on the ground and my bum on my seat, and imagine roots growing out of the bottom of my spine, growing down deep into the Earth, rooting me to the loving energy of Mama Gaia, who is always there waiting to hold me when I slow down enough to let her.
I’ll be honest. This has been tough lately. As I often am, I’m juggling a lot of balls and doing my best to stay present with myself, to center myself in my own energy and my connection to the Earth. To her loving supportive energy. When I do this, I always feel so much better… and yet it’s so easy to get busy, doing all of the things, for all of the people, all of the time and telling my body I’ll get to her later. But then I just end up spinning my wheels, managing my time far less effectively, and making myself even more anxious. I have this wonderful, simple tool, available to me all the time… and yet I struggle to slow down enough to use it sometimes. It really is tough living in “sperm world”, and I feel the temptation to move faster, do more, go, go, go all the time. Where am I trying to “get to”?
When I slow down long enough to actually arrive in my own life, it’s wonderful! There’s so much beauty! I’m surrounded by magic and miracles all the time! The sun on my face. The beautiful flowers. The sound of the birds. Mama Gaia bursting with life this time of year… and it’s so easy to miss it as I busy myself with my “to do” list.
They say we teach best what we most need to learn, and I am here to assure you that I am writing all these newsletters from a place of trying to figure it all out, not from a place of mastery. I’m deep in this too. Trying to find my bearings. Reminding myself to slow down, come home to myself, make aligned choices from a place of service rather than pushing so hard and giving from a place of sacrifice. Learning to listen to my body, slowing my “monkey mind” and the ways I can get caught up in busy-ness, and instead reminding myself to make my own life, my joy, my soul’s calling a priority. It isn’t easy, but the degree to which I’m able to do these things, my life is so much more joyful and I feel so much more alive. When I actually show up in my own life, in the present moment and notice all the gifts life has already given me, my life feels so full. So beautiful. So sacred.
Our brains are designed to notice what they’ve been conditioned to notice. Our minds receive 400 billion bits of sensory information per second. Of that 2000 bits of information enter our unconscious awareness, 40 pass through as a fleeting conscious thought and only about 7 bits can be held in our conscious awareness! You may have heard the saying “energy flows where attention goes”? Well, this is the science behind why that statement is true. Our minds see what we have trained them to see, and ignore everything else, so it’s easy to miss the beauty right in front of us because we’re focusing our attention elsewhere.
Here’s a great example. Last week, I was attending my Soul Sister Circle for my Priestess training and one of my mentors, who lives on Orcas Island in northern Washington, shared that she’s been working with the Nootka Rose and showed us a picture of it. I remarked that it was really pretty, and that it was really cool that she was working with this plant. That afternoon, I went for a walk around the golf course near where I live. A few minutes into my walk, I noticed the Nootka rose! I sent a photo, since I thought this was a really cool coincidence, and as I made my way around the golf course, I kept seeing this same, beautiful rose over and over! The next day, I went downtown, and there it was too! A few days later, we were over in Vancouver for the weekend, and there it was again!
I have been living in either Vancouver or on Vancouver Island for most of the past 28 years. I LOVE pink flowers and I love the smell of roses, and yet, somehow, I have been surrounded by this beautiful plant for 28 years and never noticed it until someone else brought it into my conscious awareness! I hadn’t trained my brain to see it, so I was blind to it. Once I told my brain it was something noteworthy, it’s been pointing it out to me multiple times a day! Energy flows where attention goes!
I found this such a great reminder of the ways I can be my own worst enemy by focusing my attention on how busy I am and how much I need to get done, instead of taking a few breaths, rooting into Mama Gaia with all her love and support, and noticing all the beauty and joy and aliveness and creativity and magic and miracles that are here all the time. Hidden in plain sight. Waiting for me to shift my attention and notice what’s right in front of me!
We live on a beautiful planet that’s so full of life. Full of colour and beauty. Magic and miracles. Connection, love and support. It’s all here. And yet it’s so easy to miss it when we aren’t looking.
I continue to remind myself to stop for a moment, take a few breaths, feel my connection, my grounding, my rooting to our Great Mother and use my 5 senses to bring to my awareness what’s already here. Waiting for me to notice. And it makes all the difference in the world. The waves of anxiety and overwhelm begin to settle and I feel an internal sense of calm, support, love, connection and oneness.
What about you? What is your relationship to our Great Mother? How has she been calling you back to her? What is hidden in plain sight in your life? Waiting for you to notice?
Slowing down, listening to our bodies and rooting into our Great Mother is so simple… and yet it’s not easy. We have been conditioned to do all the things, for all the people, all the time. It’s time for that to stop. As we each “come home” to ourselves and deepen our connection to our Great Mother, we help shift the collective to one that’s more balanced, more loving, more respectful. We get to help our society move out of adolescence and into adulthood by co-creating a more balanced, loving, connected, harmonious world. One where we are rooted to our Great Mother and to each other through our interconnected roots. Remembering our oneness. Our connection. Our love. We can do this. Together.
Sending you so much love sister,
Until next week,
Shana
* I understand that these newsletters and audio messages offered by Dr. Shana Johnston are designed to help me tap into my own inner wisdom and find my own answers. I understand the information presented by Dr. Johnston is based on a combination of her personal experience and current medical knowledge in a constantly evolving field where a variety of different opinions exist. I understand that the ideas and information presented should not act as a substitute for the individualized advice of my qualified and licensed healthcare practitioner. In reading/listening to the material presented, I agree to accept full responsibility for my interpretation of any content I consume, and thereby release Dr. Shana Johnston from any liability related to the information and ideas presented in any of her offerings.