Clearing the Way for Change: Friends and foes on your journey to personal transformation.

Be clear.

If you’d like to make some positive changes in your life but you don’t know where to begin, let me get right to the first and most important step: It all starts with being clear. Whether you want to get into better shape, have a more fulfilling career, improve your relationships or just feel like you have enough energy to be creative and inspired again, then you have to be clear about what your goals are. This is where your journey to personal transformation starts.

Set your goals to know your path.

If you haven’t taken the time to self-reflect lately, then give yourself a few minutes right now. Ask yourself, “What do I want? What do I need? Where can I find it?” If this brings up more questions, that’s OK…it means you might be setting off on an adventure soon! But before you do, go deeper and answer these questions: “Who are you now? Who do you want to be? What is the distance you have to travel to get there?”

Transformation is possible.

No matter the distance, you have the potential to achieve your goals if you keep them as your focal point. Energy flows where attention goes, and if your energy and intention are focused you can be very effective. A lightbulb and a laser beam have the same amount of light energy…it’s just that the lightbulb scatters the light and the laser pinpoints it. You know which one is more powerful. Still, to light your path and make the personal transformation journey clearer, you may also need some friends to help you along the way.

Your personal mantra is a wise and powerful friend.

Have you ever been lucky enough to have a really great friend who always has your back? A person who always listens to you without judgement. Someone who knows just what to say to make you feel better and to help you see things clearly. That friend or family member who makes time for you and is there for you through thick and thin. Someone who lifts you up, helps you to focus on what is important and motivates you to be your best self. This is a relationship to be cherished.

A personal mantra acts in a similar way to this…except the loving and supportive wisdom doesn’t come from another person, it comes from within.

The meaning of a mantra.

A mantra is sounds or words that you repeat during a meditative practice to help you concentrate. It keeps your wandering mind busy and anchors it to the present moment. The most well-known mantra is OM. In Sanskrit, each mantra has a certain vibrational frequency so when you repeat it, you are sending a message out into the cosmos, both with the meaning of words you’re saying and with the syllables that you use.

Can I get a witness!?

A personal mantra or shankalpa, is a wonderful tool for being able to stay focused and to broadcast your intentions outward, but know, you’re always filtering that message through you and receiving it inwardly. You’ve likely heard the expression, Wherever you go…there you are. We are the witness to our every move, every word, every thought, every emotion and every breath. (Check out my latest reel at the end of this post to see me putting this thought into action!)

Beware of the inner critic.

Finding your best self.

You are receiving what you are transmitting and that is why, to manifest your best self, you have to communicate with yourself in a way that is in line with your intentions and that is clear. Our self-talk needs to be supportive of our goals and core values, much like a conversation with a good friend would be. 

We can use a personal mantra to override the inner critic and transmit the frequency that is aligned with our best self out into the universe, then see what comes back to us. In his book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One, Dr. Joe Dispenza says,
“The quantum field responds not to what we want; it responds to who we are being.”

Turning the tide on your shadow side.

All too often, however, we fall into the trap of our survival mechanisms. Have you ever noticed how you could receive many nice comments from people during a day and be feeling great, but if one person makes one negative comment, it can turn your day upside down and you’ll still be thinking about it long afterwards? That is because we are wired to remember stressful or dangerous events in order to survive. 

The negative experience imprints us so we will remember to avoid it. It goes against our instinct to focus primarily on positive experiences. That is why conscious awareness of these negativity patterns is an important step in turning the tide towards manifesting what you want in your life, rather than want you don’t want. Developing a relationship with your shadow side can often make the road to personal transformation smoother in the long run.

The Yoga Nidra companion.

A technique that helps us to recognize and disidentify from limiting, negative core beliefs is Yoga Nidra or yogic sleep. During this practice, we couple the repetition of a personal mantra with an ancient method of deep relaxation that is very effective in relieving stress and anxiety and encourages personal transformation. Planting the seed of your intention into the fertile terrain of your relaxed but highly focused state of mind and body increases your ability to heal and to move away from unhealthy habits in a way that is natural and that can occur with greater ease. 

Yoga Nidra is a journey into the many layers of our being and allows us to repattern our nervous system while cultivating awareness of self. It helps us to get out of our own way…to just be and to reconnect with our innate sense of belonging and purpose. It brings us closer to our natural state of joy.

Befriend yourself.

Prioritize self-care and give back to yourself. Make some time for self-reflection. Listen to what your mind and body are telling you. Hear the call of your soul’s voice and see where it takes you.  Rekindle your relationship with your true nature and find ways to consistently nourish that connection. 

Take the first step.

If you are ready to get clear and make positive change a reality, then I would love to help you do that! You can book a FREE 30-minute Discovery Call with me to discuss which yoga and/or transformational coaching programs would be a good fit for you. Please visit my website to book your one-on-one Zoom call with me or to learn more about my services.

If you’d like to experience the benefits of the Yoga Nidra practice, please attend my Yoga Nidra Online Workshop.

This is an edited replay of the LIVE workshop given October 17, 2022 that you can watch at any time and practice as many times as you like. The content is broken down into segments in your course platform to make it easier to access the parts you want to go back to.

The complete workshop includes:

• Introduction to Yoga Nidra practice and its benefits
• Explanation of the different stages of relaxation through the subtle bodies
• Creating a personal mantra or resolution to set intention and manifest positive change
• 30-minute Yoga Nidra practice
• 20-minute Gentle Yoga practice
• Q&A section in the course to contact me with any questions or comments you may have.

As an additional resource, you could also check out the Practical Guide to Yoga Nidra by Richard Miller, PhD.

AND… you can also learn how to create your personal mantra to start manifesting the best version of you, on Day 6 of my 21 Day Starter Challenge 4 Embodied Joy! This is a 21-day challenge that will get you into the habit of making self-care a priority in less than 10 minutes a day. Reach out if this speaks to you! Leave a comment in the post or send me a message directly.

Click here to watch the video I promised you! Enjoy