So last month’s blog was all about BEEing
happiness as opposed to doing happiness and I gave you 3 simple techniques in
order to move towards BEEing happy. These were; Breathing, Gratitude and
Smiling. I hope you all had fun with implementing these techniques and they
brought more happiness into your awareness...I'm buzzing to hear some of your
comments...
This month I'll be demonstrating how life is easier when we 'Let It Bee....'
Do you ever find yourself resisting life? Pushing against it, causing a knot in your tummy and unpleasant emotions? This month I've been reminded of the importance of letting things BEE and the wonderful opportunity that this opens up for us when we do this. In a very real sense we give ourselves permission to fly above our circumstances, so that life carries us. Rather than getting caught up in the current and whisked down the river.
You see when we resist what is happening, it causes us dis-ease in our bodies. That can play out as stress, physical pain, lowering in our mood, expression of anger, issues in our relationships and this impacts our experience of life in a negative way. By resisting, we lose the ability to respond to situations as they arise in an intelligent and human way. We revert back to child-like behaviour which is based on feelings and not fact and which leads to more pain than if we just 'Let It Bee'.
I believe every one of us is given opportunities to 'Let It Bee', on a daily basis and when we do this magic begins to happen...
I'll give you an example; last Friday I set off for my flight for a weekend in London at 5.45am. There was a massive queue when I arrived at the airport, so I decided to go to the ladies room and put some make-up on whilst the queue was going down. When I came out the queue was gone and I had missed the check-in by less than 5 minutes. The airline would not let me check in and I had to pay for 2 extra flights, one to Manchester and another one to from Manchester to London, this was not cheap and caused a lot of upheaval to both mine and my Mum's day. Anyway, after the initial shock and emotional response I relaxed and got into the experience.
When I arrived in Manchester and had checked in and gone through to departures, where I was awaiting my gate number to show up on the screen. I sat down with my iced coffee and an elderly gentleman commented that my drink looked tasty. We got into a conversation that lasted over 30 mins and I will never forget Arthur, the 90 year old ex-paratrooper and Commander. He was off to see his lover and told me his life story. I was completely enlightened by him and his approach to life. He told me that his late wife had passed 20 years previous and he had been with his current partner for 15 years. She was a linguist and lived in Europe, they had a long distance relationship which worked for them and saw each other at least once a month. Arthur told me that he had asked his partner how long they would be together 5 years ago on their 10th anniversary. She had told him 8 years. I was taken aback by this, as 8 is my favourite number. It signifies infinity and by saying this, his partner had meant they would be together forever, no matter what. Arthur confirmed the meaning to me and I was just so delighted to meet a man who had such love in his life at 90 and also spoke with such truth to me, a stranger he had met in the airport. I left by shaking his hand and letting him know what a positive impact meeting him had, had on my day. People surrounding us were smiling at our connection and it really was a beautiful moment after a stressful start to the day.
So here are my tips on how to 'Let It Bee' when life gets stressful:
1) Take a step back...
When things happen that cause you stress and pain, try to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Rather than running with the stress of the situation and thinking about all the negative aspects of it and ultimately resisting the situation, try looking at it from a different perspective. For example ask yourself these questions; 'How can I grow and evolve through this situation?', 'Maybe this is happening to help me become greater than I was yesterday...', 'What can I learn from this and bring forth to create more positivity in my life?', 'How can I use this experience to help me connect with others?'.
2) Share your vulnerability...
Vulnerability is beautiful...by this I don't mean default into an emotional wreck and cry on a passerby's shoulder, however tempting this may be....I mean share your experience with others, you loved ones especially. Talk about how it made you feel and what impact it had on you. Chances are they will show compassion. By Arthur connecting with me, I was able to share my morning's experience with him and I was able to thank him for lifting me up. By showing your vulnerability you give others the opportunity to lift you up, for an authentic connection to be created and ultimately for you to heal from the upheaval of the experience. Vulnerability leads to healing. I find this fascinating because I used to believe I had to be strong in order to get through life's challenges. In actual fact having the courage to be vulnerable shows more strength and offers more healing. This is because rather than resisting the experience and the impact that the experience has had on you, you are allowing your emotions to flow and you are able to 'Let it bee'. Letting it bee, means that there is a flow within you, rather than a knot, which leads me to the next tip...
3) Acceptance
Acceptance is an amazing thing. When we truly accept our life's circumstances we can bee joyful. We are no longer a prisoner or a victim. Life is no longer something that happens to us. Life becomes something we respond to humanly to and intelligently to. Something which enriches us, through the challenges it offers us on a daily basis. By accepting the challenges we have to endure, we offer something to the world. We can share from a place of wisdom the journey of our challenges and by doing so we give others the permission to accept theirs. I have felt a tremendous amount of freedom from accepting my challenges. It's helped me to fly and soar above my circumstances, so that I use my challenges as a sort of spring board to propel me forward in life.
So after I left Arthur I reflected, I was meant to miss my flight, even though it caused challenges...I had a purpose to meet Arthur, he has enriched my life and I will remember the love he shared with me and the meaning of meeting him at the airport was so I could share with you, practical ways on how to 'Let It Bee...' You can apply the 'Let It Bee' approach to enable you to cope in a more effective way to any of life's challenges. From your 'typical bad day' to, family arguments/relationship difficulties, dealing with bereavement, work stress, the list goes on...
This month I'll be demonstrating how life is easier when we 'Let It Bee....'
Do you ever find yourself resisting life? Pushing against it, causing a knot in your tummy and unpleasant emotions? This month I've been reminded of the importance of letting things BEE and the wonderful opportunity that this opens up for us when we do this. In a very real sense we give ourselves permission to fly above our circumstances, so that life carries us. Rather than getting caught up in the current and whisked down the river.
You see when we resist what is happening, it causes us dis-ease in our bodies. That can play out as stress, physical pain, lowering in our mood, expression of anger, issues in our relationships and this impacts our experience of life in a negative way. By resisting, we lose the ability to respond to situations as they arise in an intelligent and human way. We revert back to child-like behaviour which is based on feelings and not fact and which leads to more pain than if we just 'Let It Bee'.
I believe every one of us is given opportunities to 'Let It Bee', on a daily basis and when we do this magic begins to happen...
I'll give you an example; last Friday I set off for my flight for a weekend in London at 5.45am. There was a massive queue when I arrived at the airport, so I decided to go to the ladies room and put some make-up on whilst the queue was going down. When I came out the queue was gone and I had missed the check-in by less than 5 minutes. The airline would not let me check in and I had to pay for 2 extra flights, one to Manchester and another one to from Manchester to London, this was not cheap and caused a lot of upheaval to both mine and my Mum's day. Anyway, after the initial shock and emotional response I relaxed and got into the experience.
When I arrived in Manchester and had checked in and gone through to departures, where I was awaiting my gate number to show up on the screen. I sat down with my iced coffee and an elderly gentleman commented that my drink looked tasty. We got into a conversation that lasted over 30 mins and I will never forget Arthur, the 90 year old ex-paratrooper and Commander. He was off to see his lover and told me his life story. I was completely enlightened by him and his approach to life. He told me that his late wife had passed 20 years previous and he had been with his current partner for 15 years. She was a linguist and lived in Europe, they had a long distance relationship which worked for them and saw each other at least once a month. Arthur told me that he had asked his partner how long they would be together 5 years ago on their 10th anniversary. She had told him 8 years. I was taken aback by this, as 8 is my favourite number. It signifies infinity and by saying this, his partner had meant they would be together forever, no matter what. Arthur confirmed the meaning to me and I was just so delighted to meet a man who had such love in his life at 90 and also spoke with such truth to me, a stranger he had met in the airport. I left by shaking his hand and letting him know what a positive impact meeting him had, had on my day. People surrounding us were smiling at our connection and it really was a beautiful moment after a stressful start to the day.
So here are my tips on how to 'Let It Bee' when life gets stressful:
1) Take a step back...
When things happen that cause you stress and pain, try to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Rather than running with the stress of the situation and thinking about all the negative aspects of it and ultimately resisting the situation, try looking at it from a different perspective. For example ask yourself these questions; 'How can I grow and evolve through this situation?', 'Maybe this is happening to help me become greater than I was yesterday...', 'What can I learn from this and bring forth to create more positivity in my life?', 'How can I use this experience to help me connect with others?'.
2) Share your vulnerability...
Vulnerability is beautiful...by this I don't mean default into an emotional wreck and cry on a passerby's shoulder, however tempting this may be....I mean share your experience with others, you loved ones especially. Talk about how it made you feel and what impact it had on you. Chances are they will show compassion. By Arthur connecting with me, I was able to share my morning's experience with him and I was able to thank him for lifting me up. By showing your vulnerability you give others the opportunity to lift you up, for an authentic connection to be created and ultimately for you to heal from the upheaval of the experience. Vulnerability leads to healing. I find this fascinating because I used to believe I had to be strong in order to get through life's challenges. In actual fact having the courage to be vulnerable shows more strength and offers more healing. This is because rather than resisting the experience and the impact that the experience has had on you, you are allowing your emotions to flow and you are able to 'Let it bee'. Letting it bee, means that there is a flow within you, rather than a knot, which leads me to the next tip...
3) Acceptance
Acceptance is an amazing thing. When we truly accept our life's circumstances we can bee joyful. We are no longer a prisoner or a victim. Life is no longer something that happens to us. Life becomes something we respond to humanly to and intelligently to. Something which enriches us, through the challenges it offers us on a daily basis. By accepting the challenges we have to endure, we offer something to the world. We can share from a place of wisdom the journey of our challenges and by doing so we give others the permission to accept theirs. I have felt a tremendous amount of freedom from accepting my challenges. It's helped me to fly and soar above my circumstances, so that I use my challenges as a sort of spring board to propel me forward in life.
So after I left Arthur I reflected, I was meant to miss my flight, even though it caused challenges...I had a purpose to meet Arthur, he has enriched my life and I will remember the love he shared with me and the meaning of meeting him at the airport was so I could share with you, practical ways on how to 'Let It Bee...' You can apply the 'Let It Bee' approach to enable you to cope in a more effective way to any of life's challenges. From your 'typical bad day' to, family arguments/relationship difficulties, dealing with bereavement, work stress, the list goes on...
