WARNING! Following your Highest Excitement might lead to…

The lingo amongst the spiritual community is to live your passion, find your joy, follow your highest excitement! Yea, great idea, but what the hell does that even mean??  What if my passion doesn't pay the bills? What if my highest excitement is living in another country, but that isn’t feasible at this time? What if my joy is to quit my job and never get out of bed!?

The first thing I learned on my quest for joy, was to simplify these catchphrases. They don't have to be all or nothing! We often think of these statements as all or nothing scenarios, for example, either I’m living 100% in joy or not, either I’m following my passion or not. I invite you to think of these statements as opportunities for joy throughout your day. Ask yourself, what is my highest excitement at this moment? What would I rather be doing with my time right now? We all have two voices in our heads, first, and usually the loudest is the voice of "shoulds”, the one that creates the TO DO list, the one that strives to be the best! The second is usually the one that stares out the window and thinks, what a beautiful day, I wish I was out there right now… the one that appreciates the beauty around us and longs for something different. the one our society has taught us to deny or ignore completely, even to the point of non existence. This is our soul speaking, our true soul’s calling.

Now, I hear you say, but if I listen to my “soul's calling” I would never get out of bed, I would lose my job and my life would fall apart. To this I say, yep and maybe it's just in time. When you're at the place of longing for a break or stressed to the max, either you will choose to take a break or your soul will find a way to slow you down. This type of slow down usually comes in either the form of physical manifestations or like me, at the end of my design career, a complete shut down and rebuild of my life calling. In my experience, the longer you wait to listen to the message, the louder the lesson. If your soul is telling you that you need a break, please listen. Self care should be our top priority, despite what the generational programming of our society tells us. 

Once you're well-rested and ready to engage in society again, you can find joy in the little moments by reframing what brings you joy. Instead of focusing on big transformations, finding joy in flipping on the light switch or delighting in having a roof over your head will keep you on track and make you a productive member of society. For example, shall I clean the kitchen or stay in bed becomes, well, since I value ant-free countertops, I will choose to clean my kitchen. Or since I value switching on the light, I will choose to go to work and pet the cats later. This technique not only provides ample opportunities to find joy in your day, but may shed a different light on a task that would otherwise be less than fun.

Another way to use the reframe technique is noticing the story you tell yourself and the energy at which you are doing that task. For example, Compost. I love to compost, it makes me feel that I am doing something good for the planet, but I live in a apartment, so my compost goes into the bin for the city to do what it will with it. Throwing the compost into the bin is NOT my favorite thing, I dread it so much that the energy it takes to do the task has probably quadrupled because of all the negative mental mind chatter! Last week I ran an experiment. I took out the compost without that mind chatter and reframed with, because I value leaving a lighter footprint upon the earth, I choose to embrace the bin! When I focused on the positive aspect of the task and how I and the earth will benefit, I felt good about what I was doing, taking that small moment to connect with the earth in that way.

This is great but what does it have to do with Hypnosis and hypnotherapy? 

Actually everything! This is a form of self hypnosis. When we train our mind to reframe negative thoughts into positives, or focus on the benefits or lessons of a given situation, we enter into a growth mindset. Even more importantly, with continued practice of positivity, negative thoughts will no longer be able to hide in the shadows of your subconscious mind. Eventually those negative thoughts will stick out like a sore thumb. Giving you the opportunity to reframe or reprogram an old limiting belief. So you see that finding joy in the simple things in life is a practice that will eventually lead to a positive life, and isn't that your highest excitement?