Checking Out

Yesterday, I read a book that had nothing to do with self growth, inspirational blah-blah, goddesses or expansion and would not be trending amongst my friends. 
I cuddled and napped with my granddaughter.
I warmed up dinner instead of cooking it.
I took a shower and didn't shave (tmi?). 
I didn't turn on Facebook or check my phone except to read my book on it because it was lighter and less work than my iPad. 
I didn't return messages or even acknowledge that I had any.
I didn't write in my book.
I didn't schedule appointments or have deep conversations.
I watched 2 recorded episodes of S.H.I.E.L.D. and at least 1 of The Voice.

I checked out and it felt great.

I allowed myself to just be irresponsible & unresponsive, cocooning was the most restorative action I could take.

I just had a massive energy output in my business AND I have new really awesome projects emerging. And sometimes I forget to pause. To allow the full expansion to really settle into my bones. To celebrate and NOT do. I rush from one creation to the next without fully appreciating what I've done and who I had to become to be able to do it. Always in a cycle of 'NEXT' instead of appreciating a moment of 'NOW'.

That's where the breakdowns are triggered, when we don't allow the contraction to be easy, When we don't slow down enough to really notice, we suddenly wake up, look around and shock the hell out of our egos who then decide to run the stories that don't need to be replayed.

I remember my first assignment from my coach, July 2013, when we were about to hang up. He called me a tinkerer - always tinkering with something new or reworking something existing. Said it's holding me back from really truly creating something powerful. He assigned me the challenge to do nothing in my business for 2 weeks (other than serve the people who were already on my calendar). To shut down everything for 2 weeks.

The inactivity was more painful than childbirth.

AND it allowed me the space to really analyze where I was and recognize where I was out of alignment, on a path that wasn't the one I wanted to be on. I was so filled with 'next' that I was just nexting my way out of my own message. Those 2 weeks of nothing changed everything for me and opened the doors for my internal world to take over the shop. I needed space that I had never allowed myself to actually take.

Can we all allow ourselves the space to enjoy what we are so in a rush to create?

Today perhaps my clients & friends need permission not to do... more flow, less force, more being, less showing. Today perhaps is a day for profound leaning in. Expansion, contraction. Breathing in and out. Marinating under the covers and then savoring the flavors we have cooked up in our lives and in our businesses.

If we slow down enough to notice where we are it becomes so much easier to know who we are on this moment...