Category: Self-Awareness

Self-Awareness

Pay attention to your world around you; it’s a direct reflection of what is going on inside!

Lindsey Murphy

“The only one thing I can change is myself, but sometimes that makes all of the difference.”  – Anonymous

“Just as you would not neglect seeds that you planted with the hope that they will bear vegetables and fruits and flowers, so you must attend to and nourish the garden of your becoming.”   – Jean Houston

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 Over the last few weeks I’ve started to notice some changes in myself. Things I’ve been feeling, things I’ve been doing (or not doing). Here are some examples:  I’ve been feeling anxious and stressed.  I feel busy, busy, busy. My apartment is a mess…and continues to grow messier. I have no money. I have no time. My pants are starting to feel tight. I haven’t been giving my cat his meds every night…or taking all of mine. I’ve just been feeling negative and getting frustrated more easily. Ugh.

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Self-Awareness

Choose love!

Lindsey Murphy

Love is everywhere. Love is everyone and everything. Love is who we are. When we strip everything else away, love is all that is left. It is at the core of our existence, our true self. Life happens and our egos convince us otherwise, but when it comes down to it – we all want the same thing; love.

Love Cloud

As I’ve gotten better at watching my mind, my feelings, my thoughts – I’ve really become to realize that every single moment in life is an opportunity to choose love. It took a lot of time and patience to get to this place of realization, but now I can usually pin-point the moment when my heart closes up and fear takes over.  I have been really working on consciously choosing LOVE.

Let me explain…

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Self-Awareness

Take back your power and stop making excuses!

Lindsey Murphy

“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.” – George Bernard Shaw

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Excuses.

We all make them.

We make them for everything, all the time, without even realizing it. Pointing the finger at someone or something else, anything or anyone but ourselves.

 I didn’t think I made excuses. Blaming people? Who me? No way! The truth is, once I started to take a real, hard look at my life I realized that I was FULL of excuses and blame. Excuses for why I couldn’t get up earlier, start eating healthier, be a vegetarian, work out more, do the dishes, go out friday night, make the bed, call someone back, etc. You name it. I had an excuse! Blaming everything and everyone under the sun for why I couldn’t do this or have that, why I felt a certain way, why I wasn’t fulfilled or happy, etc. Nothing was my fault or my responsibility. This was hard to see and even harder to admit. 

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Self-Awareness, Self-Care, Self-Love, Yoga

Learning to be present; how meditation changed my life!

Lindsey Murphy

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, not to anticipate the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.     – Buddha

For most of my life I’ve had a lot of issues with anxiety. My anxiety level was almost always sky high and I was worrying about something, anything, everything! It didn’t matter what it was or wasn’t. I was over-thinking, obsessing, worrying, ruminating, etc. People would say “Just don’t think about it!” , “Let it go!”, “What is worrying going to do for you?”, etc…but hearing that just made me more frustrated. More anxious. Sure, it sounds easy to let I go, but it’s not. Especially when you are the middle of it, it’s impossible to see any reason. I honestly felt kind of crazy a lot of the time.

A couple of years ago I started doing yoga regularly. I had done it before, here and there sporadically throughout my life, but I never really understood what the big deal was. My mom took me to a beginner workshop to a yoga studio by her house. The moment I walked into this building I was I knew this was somewhere special. The class was amazing and after that I started taking classes there regularly. When I was on my mat, for the time EVER, I was learned to quiet my mind. I don’t think I had ever been able to do that before. It was amazing! I was hooked. Quieting my mind off the mat though, well – that was a different story! I was still really anxious and worrying constantly.

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Self-Awareness

Self-Awareness

Lindsey Murphy
“There is no need to reach high for the stars. They are already within you. Just reach deep into yourself!” ~Unknown

It has been almost exactly a year since my life took an unexpected turn and I was forced to re-discover myself and take a look inside. I thought I knew who I was. I thought I had it all figured out. Boy, was I wrong. It’s scary to me now to think about how I always lived my life. Completely unaware. Ignorant to my surrounds, my wants, my needs. Neglecting myself, my relationships, my life. So much has changed since then and I couldn’t be more grateful. In a way I guess I was reborn. It took a huge change for me to be able to look within myself and figure all of this out. I think it happens that way for people a lot. They don’t realize this stuff or try to figure themselves out until they are basically forced to.  It obviously doesn’t always have to happen that way, but for most people I think that’s how it ends up happening.

The biggest thing for me has been realizing that I am in control of my own happiness. I thought I knew that, but when I look back I realize I was letting external circumstances, situations, people and things control my every thought, mood, relationship, want, fear, reaction…EVERYTHING. I thought I was in control of myself, but clearly…I wasn’t! No wonder I’ve had anxiety issues my entire life. Geez. Makes total sense! My entire day could be ruined by one comment someone made or one unpleasant thing that happened to me. Oof-duh. That is giving a lot of credit to a lot of things that we have NO control over.

I’d love to say that I’ve over come that stuff completely and never struggle with that anymore…but I can’t. It’s still a work in progress. It will always be a work in progress and that’s ok! The biggest thing to me though is that I am finally AWARE of it. That is the first step. Being aware of things like that makes such a difference in itself. It’s amazing. Life-changing. It’s really not that complicated,  but at the same time, it is. The complicated part is just becoming aware of it. It’s sounds easy, but that isn’t always the case. I’ve read SO many self-help books through the years. SO many. They all talk in some detail about that kind of stuff. It never clicked though. I was still looking outside of myself to find the answer, when all along it was INSIDE!

As soon as you realize that you are in control of your happiness and your life, everything changes. As soon you realize that only YOU are in control of your mood, your reactions, your thoughts…nothing will ever be the same! No one person or situation or thing can make you feel any certain way. You are in control of how you feel. You can choose to feel however you want. You can choose to react however you want. You can take responsibility for your own needs and wants. It’s liberating and life changing. Becoming aware of this for me was HUGE! I still can’t believe I never realized it before, but it is what it is. Everything happens as it should, always. I really, truly believe that with all of my heart.

Learning how to be present in this moment has always made such a difference in my life too. Get out of your head and stop letting your thoughts carry you away to crazy places. This is not at all easy to do, but again – once you start to be aware of it…everything changes!