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Indecisive Vata Traits Keeping You Stuck

Indecisive Vata is one way to describe how Vatas act often. This could be new news to you. It was new to me too up ’til 2008 when I learned about Ayurveda.

Indecisive Vata often is confronted with this or that path choices that can create anxiety. — Indecisive – which path will you take?

…That’s when it clicked and made sense as to why I had indecisive and other Vata tendencies.

You can read my back story here about when I went to go get help for my immediate Pitta mind-body symptoms. And I also came out with knowledge and awareness on why certain Vata ways were natural to me. I’m naturally a Vata with some dominant Pitta mind, but like all of us… sometimes tired Kapha kicks up.

…And whether you tend toward uneasy, annoyed, or listlessness it all ties back to your balance.

If you’re wondering if you have Vata traits, this article shares more and how you can benefit from knowing.

Growing up, I always felt hesitant about small decisions. Do I want an orange or crackers? Do I want pink or blue to wear? This could easily be chalked up to the fact that most of us like more than one food or color. …or I’m a female, so being indecisive is typical.

But in reality it’s not about the color, food, or gender. Or even about how you were raised.

It’s about our natural makeup, that’s unisex. We have Ayurvedic orientations called Vata, Pitta, and Kapha inside us. Or wind, fire, and earth if that’s easier to remember. 💨🔥🌎

Earth, Wind, and Fire is already taken. 🥁🎹🎺

And we’re more dominant in one or two of those names in body. And same goes for the mind. Putting those two parts together, you get the mind-body connection that affects so much of our lives and behaviors.

Indecisiveness is one way that’s mostly a mind situation that you can easily pinpoint from an Ayurvedic lens.

When you can do that, you can restore the healthy balance back in awareness to your calm and confident decision-making.

Being decisive all around not only saves time, but leads to better decisions and outcomes.

How Being Vata Indecisive Can Hurt

At the heart, indecision is second guessing your first decision that comes from gut instinct and clear minded processing. So in a way, being Vata indecisive is being confronted with a brain fog moment.

Indecision can lead to worry that Vatas lean into already. And that state of mind can lead to staying stuck in a cycle of unproductive thoughts playing as an undercurrent in the back of your mind. 🌊That’s added stress that doesn’t need to be there.

Feeling anxiety also can cause indecision as body symptoms make it more difficult to clearly process thoughts.

Vice versa, indecision can lead to anxiety (that’s another common Vata trait).

Depending on the body symptom severity, anxious feelings lead to poor decisions and outcomes.

It numbs awareness of what is real.

And making matters worse, that pause can linger and keep you frozen from making a decision or in “fight or flight” that can cost.

For small things like daily preferences, that’s not such a big deal… but if it’s deciding on taking a right or left or making a quick life threatening decision, that can be concern- elevated.

Vata indecisive traits can compound into feeling uncertain about other areas in your day when those moments could be better spent enjoying yourself or even better… being in the moment in peace and mindfulness.

That’s when stress melts away for whatever is in your life eating at you. Those anxious feelings are traded in for feeling calm and joyful.

That’s the ticket for your healthy and happy life. 🎟️

And that can be your norm or new norm! I know because my life did a 180-turn from stress to peace when I got rid of the triggers. I became self-employed.

And I became more clear-headed… more like a human and less walking around like a busy Bot. There are too many of those already roaming our internet spaces.

How to Get Back To Your Vata Mind Balance

And in learning from my balanced seasons where I could disconnect and detox, I’m more decisive.

I’m my balanced Vata (the way that is naturally greater and my optimal best) 🧘🏻‍♀️

I don’t teeter back and forth. I can catch myself in the act of hemming and hawing and doing what I know to do to restore any Vata imbalance that tries to creep back in.

It’s not difficult or unnatural. It’s simply being intentional daily doing the specific balanced steps that turn the tide around for a better life. 👣

No one is doomed to the “I’m just indecisive” label. That’s putting a stamp of acceptance that’s not the way it has to be or stay.

And you can start by doing these two balanced healthy steps:

1) Get self-awareness in the moment so you can be next step-intentional.

2) Then, breathe the calm back into your mind-body as soon as you can so you can feel the calm pause in the next moments.

Finding ways to have a calmer life, I believe is underrated. And not what Western culture aims for although we’ve wised up post-2020.

As mentioned, calm allows for clearer, confident decisions.

Calm is also better for your healthy outcomes.

But if you don’t have that life now because of situational triggers you can’t avoid, then restoring daily when you can with what you do have as calming resources will be the next best way.

Use your surroundings: calming activities and scents, music, yoga, and a nature walk.

Do this daily and often.

They’re not time wasters. It’s like taking care of your teeth. It’s always minutes well spent investing in your daily smile. 😁

If you feel you’re daily Vata indecisive for what to do (such as jumping from task to task), get back to your breathing awareness.

We often forget, yet another Vata common trait. Not picking on Vatas as we’re a creative, enthusiastic bunch… but in your remembering moment (or in the slight gap pause), recall there is calm balance and no anxiety.

Let the weight of the world you live in go by letting all that out in deep inhale and exhale breaths. That’s an activity you can do anywhere, anytime… and wise to do all the time.

Set a reminder if that helps. ⌚️

And when you do your breathing exercise, you’re able to work your way out slowly in the gap or one moment at a time.

And this date recipe that you can make for your daily self 😊 can help restore your Vata especially if you add the orange and cinnamon tastes.

Print Recipe

Date Cookies

You can make these ahead of time and in any oven including an apartment oven. And enjoy.

Ingredients

coconut flour and plain flour combined
a few pats of butter (or coconut oil)
chopped dates
water as needed
orange zest and cinnamon (optional)

Instructions

Prepare and chop dates filling. Tip: since dates are sticky, it's easier to use a serated chopping knife with edges. Add cinnamon and orange zest if you'd like more Vata sweetness.
Mix cookie ingredients: flour, butter or oil, and water as needed to make a cohesive cookie dough disc. You can make this in advance and freeze the dough if you like.
When dough is slightly cooler than room temperature is the ideal temperature to work with this dough. Roll out cookie dough to about 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick (doesn't have to be too thin).
Add date filling to center of dough.
Roll up and cut into small, even pieces.
Bake on 350°F for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Balanced Mind Questions To Ask For Best Outcomes

personalized mind body recipe to help get answers to balanced mind questions — Get better mind body answers with a recipe from an online personalized assessment.

Your mind life is the second part of this mind-body series that I started last week… and below are some balanced mind questions to ask yourself if you want to:

✅ Live your best abundant, joyful, and empowered life

✅ Get out of your rut patterns in life

✅ Restore and feel your peace and calm

And in calm and joy, the mind is where good moods start. And then in contast, where discouraging moods like unrest or boredom kick in. Rarely, are we in neutral-mind mode. Like, dogs who have this natural built-in feature. 🐶

As a higher-thinking creature, you want to start your day not believing everything that enters your mind so you can better influence your moods and feelings. This was a strange concept for me early on as we’re not taught this in school or growing up. …and maybe for you too?

And if so… don’t worry, you’re in good company. Most of us start out that way and you have a chance to keep growing especially if you keep the below beliefs and open attitudes in mind.

Balanced Mind – Question Your Feelings

Challenging your thoughts is a healthy habit.

An easy way to gauge your thoughts is observing how you feel from your thoughts. Is it a negative feeling-thought that you’re holding onto? Do you feel icky from the thought of the thought, and does the thought unpleasantly linger longer than needed when you’ve already moved on?

…Or, is it a positive feeling and thought where you want to hold onto the nice memory, new thought, or dream about the future?

Does the thought bring you warm fuzzy feelings and make you happy?

…Or is it a neutral thought like when you’re in work mode, busy, or just focused on the task at hand?

Determining whether it’s a neutral, good, or bad feeling is an easy first step. And these are some feeling thought types from balanced mind questions you can ask yourself.

Do you have?:

Calm vs. worry thoughts

Peace vs. angry or irritated thoughts

Encouraging or exciting vs. withdrawn, listless, or repetitive thoughts

If thoughts are repetitive or disruptive to your day or longer, then you want to do a little detective mind work to discover where it may have come from and then end the mind drama with distraction.

Is there something you can gain or learn from this thought episode that may have shown up as a slightly different situation the last time?

…Because the sooner you figure that out in present awareness, the sooner you get to live our your optimal thought life. You’re free from mind imprisonment and you know what to do again.

Next time you connect the dots of your thoughts and life, that’s victory because then you can do something better with the thoughts… like tell it to take a hike or rewrite the thought to an aspired one that could become your dream life one day in self-fulfilling prophecy.

The opposite would be letting the ego have its way. Sadly, most of us live that way for some parts of life when we’re not fully aware.

And had I not lived that way before I was aware, I would’ve not clearly been able to see the other side. 🌈

The ego affects your feelings (and vice versa). The problem is that when the ego is stroked, it can run your thought life (or ruin parts of life leaving a regretful backlash).

The ego in your mind is like a clock in that it’s running all the time. Even if you want to shut if off, you can’t.

It’s job is to try to protect you, but in the modern world we don’t need most of its protective ways. It pulls information gathered from your past and in the present, tries to protect you from getting hurt. Doesn’t sound bad, right?

…Well, except its methods are deceivingly destructive. The ego ticks in a very twisted way, and can lead you into prideful ways or unconsciously hurting people in its wake.

You want to feel better, but not at the cost of others or yourself.

And if you want to live an abundant life through your better thoughts, then in most daily situations you want to disconnect the invisible-to-the-eye ego cord.

And if it involves people, pause and override your first reaction. Then move onto your higher intellect and power within you to trust people when they’ve earned a bit of trust.

No one is perfect, but if someone shows up consistently 90% of the time and doesn’t deliberately or intentionally take action to hurt you in some way, then your ego is wronging you by putting up a defense for this person or all people.

The ego loudly tries to influence you by reminding you to stay away from all people that do ___ or have ___ traits in certain situations.

This creates divide and me vs. you. The opposite of love.

And btw, this power struggle is what happens to unaware couples in long-term relationships where the ego in them takes over one or both of them in a few short months or sometimes years.

The effect is: you don’t recognize the person you’re staring at based on what comes out of their mouth (and what’s going on behind the face with their ego mind running their show).

So, how do you become more ego aware?

You unmask the ego and make it naked in awareness. You remove the feelings attached and you observe your thoughts. And you ask balanced mind questions.

Do a thought inventory check. Start objectively with openly asking yourself: how much of your life is ruled by ego?

Take a guess… is it 20% of your day or 80% or more of your day?

To get a better answer to balanced mind questions, do any of these describe your daily thoughts?

__ your initial entering thoughts make up most your daily small and/or larger decisions

__you have obsessive or repetitive thoughts that take up a good chunk of your day

__your thoughts go down rabbit holes and sometimes may even have unfactual endings attached that are NOT based in what’s happening in reality

Any of those descriptions could easily put you in the 80% or more category. And that’s common, so you’re not alone.

AND you can change this in you.

The solution is simple: if you want better results, then remember to frequently change your thoughts.

Staying closed minded and far away from present-moment mindfulness are some of ego’s biggest defense tricks. So keep questioning if you have balanced mind thoughts or need some tweaking love in some areas.

It’s not always easy to do if you’ve never practiced or stretched your thought mind muscles. Once you’re aware, it’s a LOT easier. And to give a nudge encouragement, just know it’s not about being a deep thinker.

It IS about getting happy, free, and the best abundant life you can have.

Just something to consider as you rewrite your habits and daily thoughts. I’m cheering you on. 🤗

Anxiety vs. Nervous – Are You Out of Balance? (Part 2)

Anxiety vs. nervous feelings can be better calmed with deep breathing but they show different body symptoms…

Wellness prescription if you’re feeling exceptionally Vata body: a comforting warm soup with calming mint for body aches 🌱

With back to school air and a new season, we can easily get out of balance. In transitions, we can have a Vata anxiety vs. nervous complex happening in our connected mind-body.

But we can lean into restoring our natural balance whether we’re naturally and mostly Vata mind-body. And below I share some valuable tips for your work, school, arising family situations, and other transitions you may be facing.

When we prepare for Vata season, our Vata runs the ship if we’re naturally mostly Vata or if Vata is our dosha balance we need to restore.

Naturally Vata bodies feel at home with outdoor cooler temps and leaves changing and falling. But external situations and transitions in a new season can especially cause anxiety and wreak stress havoc on our bodies keeping score.

And that can add to a strong Vata worry mind to stir up the Vata complex situation. If you’re naturally a Vata mind-body (that is, mind and body), all things equal, you’re naturally better with change than a Kapha mind-body who resists change.

But any of us can get the wind knocked out of our sails in life’s complex situations that shows us and our ever changing bodies what we’re made of.

And life has shown us young and old if we’re naturally Vata, by how we react with uncontrollable symptoms of panic or anxiety. These are classic signs of high Vata.

And if we keep that internal to us, then we can be high functioning but still Vata is our natural way.

And since this Part 2 week of the Ayurvedic series is about Vata, being aware of the obvious problematic anxiety characteristics below can save your from a season of aches and unenjoyment.

Some are more subtle. For example, one that can happen to any of us humans (with any dosha profile), is getting a headache even if it’s harmless and temporary.

One friend I was recently talking to said she had a specific headache feeling that she had experienced before. My first reaction thought was, did you drink enough water today? I know Vatas are on the dry side, and I know this person is a Vata.

…which by the way, I know everyone’s Vata, Kapha, Pitta (dosha) natural and imbalanced dosha current profiles based on a few simple answers, that’s 100% much easier to diagnose than a headache.

…unless it’s just lack of drinking water, which is what we discovered in this friend’s case that was immediately solved.

But some people won’t research these small body signs or they just pop a pill without thinking twice…

To me, as a health nut 🤪 in a sensitive body, knowing a snapshot dosha profile (balance and imbalance) is a lifesaver because some things are easily restored from that perspective that need no pills or medical intervention. But most Western world people aren’t daily Ayurvedic aware, and certainly not at a preventative level.

And in our lives, if we choose healthy and happy ways for our primary doshas, then we prevent less than optimal daily living. Joy could be ours sooner and everyday with an awareness in our lifestyle choices as culprits.

We’re creatures of habit programmed to do the same even if it’s to our detriment, unless and until we’re aware there’s a better proven formula or something worth making the change for.

And when we’re aware in this moment (and every waking moment), we get to feel sensitized and as best we can. And that takes us to a creative place! We ‘re running on a higher, conscious energy frequency. And that just makes me want to sing 🎶

I’ve grown in deeper spirituality, but I couldn’t tap into these higher places until I got out of the daily, imbalanced culture and corporate work lifestyles I was repeating in my life, that didn’t agree with me.

…It was like, I was air and earth mingling with oil and fire. It was only after I took some life risks that I could see I needed to run to fresh air to thrive. I had to step out from some of the proven ways and do things my way that didn’t have a guide.

And before that I saw signs that showed up as stress, anxiety, and worry. And if I didn’t remind myself of how those feelings felt when I had a good season, I would easily get roped back into those incompatible situations staring me in the face as my surrounding opportunities.

And I’m sharing this because I know that’s how it is for many of us who don’t want to turn down opportunities or fight what culture teaches us is respected (and sounds good on paper), or disappoint people who have influence in our lives.

Our feelings toward letting down is temporary, but our regrets in unhappy life choices is permanent. Maybe that’s just the encouragement you need to make a leap.

If we listen and say yes! to ourselves to taking higher risks, then we’re fulfilling our highest calling. And I don’t know what’s higher than highest… where if these were our last days on earth, we would still be showing up in those fulfilling areas that ease stress.

Occasionally feeling stress and nervous is healthy and means you’re trying in life. If you had no stress or life hurdles, that means you’re leading a life where there are no challenges or growth. And that would eventually become a dull life, leaving so much purpose-filling potential on the table.

Our goal is to have joy and not to have everyday stress (or in every fiber cell of being).

If it’s a season of anxiety vs. nervous situations, then finding an exit would be your better bet.

The difference I like to describe between anxiety and nervousness is that with nervousness you have a new opportunity ahead of you.

Many go into an interview with sweaty palms or a presentation with butterflies or summersaults in the stomach.

Those nervous feelings often disappear in the first few minutes after breaking the ice or at the start of the event, and then your body gets back to its normal rhythm.

Nervous situations get you one step closer to something bigger. You grow because you’re putting yourself in situations that looking back become your memorable lessons learned experiences. It gets easier over practice.

With anxiety, your anxiety doesn’t improve each time you are encountered with a similar situation. You aren’t meant to be in that situation and your body is screaming to get out, as though a bear were chasing you. 🐻 Sometimes your body is reacting to your old brain signals, and when aware you can rewrite those thoughts.

Your anxiety vs. nervous feelings are a good way to remind yourself next time you’re put in those decision moments of do I do this again or do I change course?

And here are some more characteristics to consider…

Vata Anxiety vs. Nervous Feelings

Anxiety intensity and duration: anxiety takes over (e.g. anxiety or panic attack). It can last for minutes, hours, or days, and settle in longer if no measures are taken to improve the situation. For example, if you’re in a new social situation, often the nervousness goes away after you find someone comfortable to talk to that’s different than high-functioning social anxiety feelings where you can’t wait to exit.

Anxiety feelings: there’s nothing good in anxiety except seeing that it’s a warning. The healthy goal is to get away from what’s triggering the anxiety, and not trying to overcome anxious feelings that are naturally pointing you in another direction.

Anxiety lingers uncomfortably in the foreground or background of the mind-body until the threat is completely gone.

Unlike a threat, a nervous response often turns into obvious relief and/or joy for putting yourself in the situation after it’s over. And leads to excitement or thriving on another favorable opportunity level.

Anxiety and Worry

If you have anxiety and worry running at the same, then that can be debilitating in daily functioning, like a physical symptom can.

Awareness is the first step to get you out so you don’t suffer a season. Re-shuffle your life, change route, or take bold risks.

But if you can’t get out of your situation, think of what you could gain out of the situation when you’re on the other side. Use your past situations as a reminder to what positively can come out of an anxiety vs. nervous or worrisome situation after the fact. 🌈 And use your anxious situations to victoriously learn how to be calm and get joy in any season.

✅If you want to see what your body is trying to tell you this season, take the 2-minute Body Balance Quiz. And if you recently did that or need more, a next easy 10-minute step you could do, is to get your personalized mind-body calm recipe.

Print Recipe

One-Bowl Orange Date Muffin For Calming Anxiety

If you're feeling anxious, the orange zest and dates will be great for you.

Course desserts

Cuisine American

Ingredients

3 finely chopped dates
3/4 cup flour (can combine with gluten-free flours) + 2 tbsp flour
1 egg
1/4 cup milk (or almond milk)
orange zest from an orange

Instructions

Combine ingredients. Bake on 325°F for about 25 minutes or until set.
Add orange zest for zhugh.

Hyper-Vata Mind Imbalance (vs. Balance)

Poached eggs are a great way to start the morning… like this spiced-up egg 🍳

For a natural Vata, it’s typical for the mind to be darting from task to task instead of laser focus, as a symptom diagnosis in the mind-body connection. But when your mind causes unfocus or worry-anxiety, that’s when you want to restore your hyper-Vata mind imbalance.

That’s completely in your healthy power. As is, the choice to make healthy meals.

…Or In a healthy way, multi-task. But when it’s distracting, unproductive, and leaning toward unfocused, that’s when the restoring balance is called for.

And if that’s tricky to pinpoint, you can make a tally sheet of how many times you switched tasks when your brain prompted you to in the moment (from what you had already planned to do in advance).

Sometimes you can observe the impulsive nature that the subconscious mind feeds.

Let that moment pass and help to give peace to the mind by writing down the thoughts or creating a list.

Or if it makes sense as a 5-minute task, just take care of it quickly, but don’t re-route your day over the impulses if you want to live a consistent calming life that you’re in charge of. …Because there’s enough chaos in the world that’ll shake off that piece and peace ✌️soon enough.

When we were kids, we didn’t have wisdom. Our moody feelings fed us and drove us to what we wanted to do. And while there’s still a time and place for that, as adults, you don’t want your emotions to steer and get the better of you.

You want to drive the bus.

If you feel strong feelings, they serve a purpose to bring joy or cleanse sadness. Or… to show you something bigger about your life where you can make a change — but you don’t want the feelings to turn into daily, unproductive moody symptoms such as anxiety, anger, and lethargy that each represent a dominant dosha.

Another form of Vata-hyper mind symptom is when it’s difficult to make decisions.

Because at the root of decision-making are your thoughts that drive what you do.

You don’t have control over your thoughts from entering, but you do have control over what you do with your thoughts.

The usual, natural Pitta and Kapha profile doesn’t have this symptom description UNLESS they have a Vata imbalance which can happen in any of us.

We all possess the 3 doshas to varying degrees even if it’s just a crumb.

For any of us, our imbalance is our Achilles Heel. Restoring our imbalances is in our power and sometimes is an easy fix.

Pittas have more hard-charging personalities like the hare on a competitive mission. Kaphas are more the slow and steady turtles that finish the race. But when you’re overrun with Vata, you can miss the goal entirely in distractions.

So something you can do if you’re hyper-Vata is to nail down a daily routine, so you can get back to being grounded and focused.

At least one or two healthy time slots that are non-negotiable, e.g. yoga or office hours during certain hours. You have boundaries with people about these non-negotiables.

I watch people on the sidelines who don’t have this in place. They schedule anything, anytime that seems urgent without consistency. And then wonder where the time went OR why they’re not happy.

And if you’re a hyper-Vata by nature with those emotions, this only makes your life more chaotic like the wind, where you get tossed to-and-from.

And not just Vatas or hyper-Vatas, most of us people-please too much when all we needed were the proper kind words to say. And this can be to our families and bosses that put the most pressure on us.

And they’re the ones you need to strike boundaries with the most to balance the relationships so you don’t burn out or feel guilt.

But that starts with knowing in advance what your non-negotiables are and what you will say if someone wants to encroach on those areas.

Often, this comes from those who live in chaos and impose their unstructured life on you. And when you’re with routine, they can’t spill over onto you.

And when you can learn the right skill, then you can actually spend more time in this short-lived life doing the things that really matter to you!

You can be in your sweet spot boost of daily energy, and stick with your ideas. And find a routine that you stay competitive with as things in life change. That will help tone down worry with purpose. And help wipe away the anxious bits that hyper-Vata often feel.

And when you’ve grounded your Vata with routine, you don’t have to stick to only boring routines.

I know how that can be, having worked over a couple decades in-and-out of corporate environments where it’s all about routine tasks, maintenance, performance, and people management.

And if you think about it, none of those areas have anything to do with expressing creativity in case that’s an area you want to explore and develop…

Vatas are naturally energetic and eager. Having an idea and then having to wait for management to approve if ever, is anything but encouraging. And then having people and all the chaos along the way change the dynamics. Well… all that can zap creativity.

And if you’re in flow or with daily creativity, then you’re in alignment with yourself.

And that means toward your life purpose and your authentic identity.

And if you want to get to (or closer to) your creative self, sign-up to get your personalized recipe based on a simple 5-10 minute online assessment revealing your intuitive mind-body wants.

If you’re a hyper-Vata, there’s definitely hope to change your unfocused or indecisive nature. It’s not a life sentence or identity you have to stick with.

The solution is finding calm and daily joy. Then, you’ll be on top of your moods and emotions.

If you’re curious about what your imbalances are in this season, take the free Body Balance Quiz.

Your Mindfulness Is A Better Way to Handle Anxious Situations

Good morning breathing mindfulness reminders ☀️

These days, we’re open to expressing our burnout feelings. And that’s a healthy restoring move. But the cure to anxious situations and moods is in your mindfulness.

We all know what mindfulness means… being present in this moment.

But do we practice often?…

Usually not, unless we’re in an engaging activity we’re all into.

Mindfulness isn’t the natural path. Our minds tend to naturally wander to dreaming about the future and drift back to worries from the past even if that was earlier the same day.

Mindfulness is an open-door opportunity in every moment. It’s less exciting and also less dramatic.

It’s where your peace is at, in any moment.

If you’re solving a problem, you’re finding a way to have peace of mind, and that’s what satisfies your mind, your loudest critic.

In mindful peaceful moments, you can be the heroine in your life, and the solution to rising above your situations…

So below, I share some tips and lessons learned on how to connect the dots to this valuable life skill of getting mind freedom.

If you already know how to stay in constant mindfulness, kudos to you because you’re far and ahead of the pack. It takes work in a noisy world, but it gets easier when you know what to do and look for…

And if you can break through the noise and find your mindfulness, that can help unleash bottled-up inside thoughts and emotions that cause unhealthy stress.

That describes me in my early 20’s when I suffered a panic attack at work.

…That was the symptom. But, the deeper message was I had a lot to learn and process with emotional trauma buildup from those earlier adult years and childhood.

All that kept me playing small, stuck in life, and stunted my growth in fulfilling my identity potential, even though everything looked fine on paper.

And that kept thoughts and feelings pushed down so they couldn’t ripen (and I couldn’t bloom) sooner. When those thought-feelings re-surfaced, they disappeared when ignored in life’s busyness.

But then would rear its ugly head again later on down the road in the unconscious mind that caused inner strife, and was the lens I looked out from to make small decisions.

The better way all along would have been to process and purge the emotional thoughts at the moment in time it happened (or asap), so that healthy information was recorded as plain as black-and-white, and not left in the dangerous gray zone.

That sounds obvious when pointed out, but we don’t usually process difficult and subtle situations right away. Delaying is a missed opportunity.

Instead, we process and make choices that are easy and light for us, like what to eat and what to do later in the day.

But in life’s design, we don’t get to choose everything, good or bad, that happens to us in our day.

We do get to choose how we react. And if we healed the damage done by some situations better and quicker, our lives would be better off and we wouldn’t carry around invisible baggage that shows up later.

…Like, if we brush off feeling anxious energy as a natural body reaction, that can interrupt the entire day. That’s a message we shouldn’t ignore.

With anxiety, the body is alerting you that the mind has detected a threat based on a harmful situation or one that is deemed as “dangerous” based on context and past experiences you’ve had.

Your mind sends panic signals to your body that are very similar whether you’re being chased by a bear or in a non-life threatening verbal attack made by a person. Attack is attack.

And another person’s attack can be even worse to a mind if it’s personal. Because then the receiver has to deal with all the emotional thought drama that the ego loves to spin. At least with a bear you know it’s innocent. 🧸

And either way, if anxiety is something you feel often, then this might help get your body calm and relaxed quicker…

When the body alarm bells have gone off, a list of restoring drills can be performed, like drinking a lot of water.

…And 4-7-8 breathing to reset a calm mind and heart. And while calming the body, changing negative and fearful thoughts (where the anxiety started) helps restore the mind-body fastest.

And this is where most people stop… once they’ve gotten out of the woods and the bear out of the picture, they forget to practice changing their thought process as part of the drills so that next time they can shorten the anxiety episodes and restore in minutes (vs. not easily recovering).

You can do yourself a favor with a reminder prompt like: “I don’t have time for that!”

And that gets you to do better the next time. Quoting the late Maya Angelou, “when you know better, you do better.” But if I take a page from my young history book, I didn’t know better…

I stayed inside my mind drama for so long, like most do until they learn a better way. Then I woke up one day from years of unaware less-than thinking that I didn’t recognize as misery being a prisoner in the mind at the time. …Not knowing there’s a much better way than misery existence! 😉

…And that’s the higher way of living and thriving. It’s not choosing fruit from fallen apples on the ground. It’s growing orchards that you and others enjoy for years to come.

Until you know and experience a higher way, you can stay in a fuzzy caterpillar existence. And then when you’re ready, you can be a uniquely patterned butterfly fluttering around in the air tasting honey… and being useful to the world by visiting all the colorful flowers.

With new higher perspectives comes a new mind-body and a new identity.

So with a new thought life, you can have a much better life.

But how you will stay that way is in maintenance, practice, and creating habits that help you to refer back to mindfulness.

Why Mindfulness Works As a Better Way:

Mindfulness bypasses fears.

Because in mindfulness, you let go of fears that are rooted in the future (aka worry), and you stop losing time thinking of sad memories from the past.

Hanging on is ego’s trick. And in design, will keep playing with you until you disengage or can snap out quicker in mindfulness.

In lessons learned, dodging daily ego-mind tricks is like passing a grade and earning a butterfly wing.

And, using daily mindfulness skills is like graduating with both wings intact because then you have the practical mindful way to dodge the ego.

I think it’s sad we learn all these useless things in our school years that 99% of our life will never use, and the daily life-giving skills we need, are never taught! …Or work we don’t enjoy and will never do again as part of our life’s process of moving us along.

Thankfully with mindfulness, you don’t have to revisit any of those places again, or even feel pain.

Because in this moment, you’re fine… you’re breathing… and well, you’re more than fine. You’re growing, and feeling neutral at worst and joyful at best.

That’s something to be happy and satisfied about.

And when you focus on what this moment has to offer, and not the future that hasn’t happened or the past where ego lives, life is pretty darn good.

Numbing pain is the opposite and only delays pain. Time doesn’t heal, but changes can heal over time.

In delaying hurts, the thoughts resurface like described in my example above. And you want them to, so you can change and re-write them, and practice the new script that helps you evolve.

…And maybe can even laugh now at how far you’ve come. That’s a joy worth recording.

…Or maybe you help others who have the same struggles you once did. In mindfulness, your attention changes as you can be present and focused on what others are going through and what they’re saying to you.

That’s what getting on the other side can do.

And finally, your mindfulness breeds productivity since you have freed up headspace from noisy thoughts.

So if that’s something of interest, here’s how to build up your mindfulness skills…

Building Up Your Mindfulness Skill

Imagine stepping out of your body and observing the entering thoughts from an outsider’s perspective. The person you see in the mirror is someone different than what’s coming out of the mind.

And while that can sound complicated (an outer body experience?), awareness produces great results… and dare I add role models too!

Mindfulness is hyper-focus and can be the cure to any A.D.D. labels.

Like most skills, it can be learned with regular practice and habit.

If it’s one you want to build, you can proactively think of a weaker area you want to improve today that you can apply mindfulness to.

By choosing a weaker area, you’ll see a larger difference in your progress vs. marginally improving a skill you already know.

This can be for work or personal areas where unpredictable situations arise weekly. You could write down right now a few practical areas where you can apply this so you don’t forget. Then start practicing mindfulness in that area.

And in making progress, you get to pat yourself on the back and you never know, you could turn your weakness into a new interest.

…and that could be a byproduct game-changer for you this season (in addition to mindfulness mind freedom)!

That’s the high note I wanted to leave you at… and hopefully, this helps you or someone you know (and wasn’t too much like heavy pillow talk 😊). Brain health talk gets my wheels turning.

Next time I’ll bring my energy to a lighter body health diet topic, as it’s hot on many minds.

Talk to you again soon! 🧡