Brain fog is a way to describe the forgetfulness nature that Ayurvedic Vata minds commonly daily express that we accept as part of us.
Brain fog accumulates in our daily lives.
In this article, you can learn all about brain fog from our daily environment and simple things we can tweak. You’ll also learn how brain fog isn’t always bad like when it’s from spiritual sources.
Brain fog is the general symptom description for not being able to think clearly.
Often this is when you want the mind to work for you.
Brain fog moments often shows up as confusion, lack of focus, or forgetfulness.
So brain fog would make sense as an explanation for simple memory blips.
But there’s more to this from a spiritual lens that I explain further below on how you can see it as a benefit and a blessing at times.
Because usually brain fog only has negative connotations in our practical culture.
And this article provides some healthy lifestyle tips to eliminate those daily negative brain fog aspects, plus presenting the balancing Vata brain fog positives (that’s a common built-in feature in our Vata mind nature).
In either positive or negative case, we don’t often sit around and analyze what’s going on with brain fog when our minds are in the clouded mist.
And what we experience is usually harmless, like forgetting eye glasses on our heads and looking everywhere for them.
While that can be comical, it’s extra minutes of distraction when the answer was sitting on you above your nose.
For daily routines and tasks, Vatas often create forgetfulness habits to set reminders and purposefully not forget.
High Vatas have active minds of worry-anxiety, more so than Pittas and Kaphas that can have other brain fog distractions.
This btw happened to me when I baked a healthy dessert for the morning and next morning. And the next morning, I forgot about all about it in my mind’s distraction.
A simple scenario like that happens to all of us at some point.
Peach biscuit. Recipe is below. 🍑
…And when I remembered the forgotten cool peach dessert, it was actually when I would appreciate the bite more after lunch so it could be an enjoyment positive experience.
In your daily life, if someone ever asks you why you didn’t do something and you answer I forgot, you often don’t get a lot of out-of-the-ordinary questioning.
Because forgetting is so normal.
Forgetting can also be healthy for us who like to control ideas. You let go of controlling your mind or the device in front of you that you’re tethered to.
This can invite in creativity inside us and help us let go of rigid ways.
But then there are also negatives such as cognitive decline brain fog instances we want to help prevent. It’s the “elephant in the room” but a diagnosis growing in our world, and that’s something we can be aware of and doing something about in our lives today.
Preventative Healthy Living Helps With Brain Fog
Brain fog can grow when we have these elements in our daily lives: high-processed foods, pesticides, phthalates, non-purified air, and mold, to name a few culprits in our modern lifestyles.
They alter our bodies and that affects our mind in the body-mind connection and in our mental health.
Processed foods for example become whole nutrient-stripped in the plant process (as in factory plant 🏭).
Organic plants 🌱 are better options where we don’t find the same trace levels of pesticides that are found in non-organic foods.
If you garden, you know what natural sprays you’ve used or not used in your care. And when you bake like I do, you know what ingredients you’ve added. You know the wholesomeness details.
In grocery stores, we see the ingredients in our carts we’ll be using to cook with or eat. And we can read labels.
But we don’t see the processes in-between, so this makes comparing foods an apples to oranges experience.
Cheese is an example. Rennet that is found in some parts of the world isn’t the pasteurized cheese process found along the shelf rows in our American grocery stores.
The goat and sheep’s cheese that the Sardinians farm and eat isn’t what we find in our guts.
And for daily coffee drinkers, switching to organic is good for preventative health as coffee is naturally high in mold.
Mold is a brain fog offender.
Organic coffee is considerably more expensive and more difficult to source, but it’s out there when you look and put your health first.
You can get resourceful and save money by buying whole roasts and then doing the grind work yourself. You can feel much more grounded like your coffee when you do. 😊
Daily clean air is also going to be healthy preventative help against the brain fog cause. Developing daily hayfever-like allergy symptoms is one common sign.
And building in more wellness habits and healthy intentions to your life is going to help you most in your sleep, health conditions, and mental fatigue. Yoga is one way to bring in more self-awareness intention.
When you calm and relax your mind and self that also brings down your stress and anxiety levels that help Vata brain fog.
Calming and Relaxing the Mind
Good answers and thoughts show up when the mind is calm and relaxed, and not anxious or worried like when running with high Vata brain fog symptoms.
When our minds are under stress, often we can’t think of the answer when put on the spot.
If we’re asked a Family Feud game show question like what is the first thing you do in the morning?, we can usually come up with an answer. And maybe one that lights up on the board.
But when someone asks us the same question in an interview where we know others will put judgment on what we say, we can’t come up with the answer under mind stress.
We could just give a safe answer.
…Or you may surprise yourself by blurting an answer that surprises you.
Those answers that pop up in memory unexpectedly often come from our spirit.
The answer that pops in our mind come from our deeper wisdom inside us.
We didn’t rack our brain for the answer. They just entered out of no where.
Those thoughts can be blessings when you connect-the-dots.
I’ve had a lot of time and spiritual experiences to teach me wisdom lessons learned to show me this.
Over time, the lessons gave me a different perspective to gain the deeper meaning behind those memory moment lapse blessings.
Once you know you can’t go back to not-knowing and wouldn’t want to as cracking the code secrets toward a happier life.
And you can notice when thought lapses land in aligned perfect timing.
That’s when it’s a spiritual miracle and blessing.
An example is we forget what we were going to say from our rational brain from losing our train of thought.
We get other thoughts that enter.
In groups I attended, we called these other thoughts: popcorn thoughts. These answers come from our heart as though we didn’t process the thought first.
If it’s a helpful suggestive thought, it’s often helpful for others to hear who need the suggestion.
If you can get over what others will think or any insecurities you have in those moments, and blurt out what you’re thinking, often it helps someone else.
You don’t necessarily know how it will help, but it does when you dare to stay vulnerable in sharing.
They are spiritual collaboration opportunities that are expressed when you speak them aloud. You can feel good about showing up.
In the same token, sometimes others blurt out something you needed that sticks with you. It’s the same when purposefully listening to a podcast or a message that you need.
So we’re giving back in a way.
We can all contribute and give back in the energy of life in this way and without much effort.
If you want more of these opportunities to show up and are willing to have your day rearranged in some way, ask quietly aloud or in self-talk: what can I do today to be helpful?
Then be prepared to be useful to others. 😊
And in daily life, these prompted thoughts and memories will show up more frequently if you pay attention (that’s an active move).
You could ignore and override those thoughts to stay on your linear agenda.
That’s how I was until I knew better.
As a planner, we don’t prefer going off course. But over the years, I grew to embrace impromptu thoughts entering, seeing this new spiritual perspective.
And maybe that would help you.
Spiritual impromptu thoughts help you align and redirect to a better way, day, and life. They lead to a life of more purpose, happiness, meaning, and fulfillment. 🎉
So you can be curious next time and openly ask yourself: why did I have ____ particular thought? And see if you get anything back as a thought.
Most likely you won’t immediately.
But that makes you consider another way of thinking and living that can be spirit-filled and coming from deeper inside of you that knows deeply what you want.
And you can stay curious and wondering until something clicks like it finally did for me.
So if we wonder about those spiritual impromptu thoughts, that opens the door to our exploring our spiritual wisdom inside us that isn’t brain fog.
This can be our new norm.
And for our daily mattering lives, we can invite in ad hoc thoughts in our mantras, meditation, and centering to help advise us on what to do next.
And as you can tell, I enjoy baking meditation where this dessert was dreamed up and you can enjoy making.✨
Vata active mind runs in high Vatas and imbalanced Vatas.
The mind overruns when we want to be done with our thoughts and the turmoil emotions that anxious, stressed, or worry thoughts can create in the mind-body connection.
This looks a bit like Pacman eating pellets that was a happy memory for me. And this low-sugar very Greek yogurt berry cheesecake recipe is one you can re-create. 🫐
This article is about how to deal with a Vata active mind that isn’t serving us.
When we’re confronted with ingested stress turmoil, we want to run from our mind especially when our ego dials up high fear trying to protect us from the world and our repeated hurt past experiences that have semblances in our current situation.
It’s not that severe, but our minds can overreact if we allow it to.
Because the ego serves us repeated warnings that can grow into anxiousness from our fearful thoughts.
The problem grows and can fester when our fear and associated negative thoughts have no where to go unless we successfully get them to take a hike and that satisfies our mind… or we get the feelings from I got this!
Otherwise we ride the trapped ego wave with our evolved human heads spinning in a brain fog cloud until exacerbated ego goes away or some other message distraction comes along to switch up what’s important.
We want to change our channel that can stubbornly stick around on its own.
The default is: we allow our ego to build drama in our lives until we exercise our right to put away the anxious thoughts.
We don’t have to delay our balance for more than a day or more than a few moments. We can practice shutting down our ego and getting better at our practice.
I didn’t start off as the poster child for this as I let repeated thoughts get to me.
But these days I recognize the offender right away and shut it down as soon as humanly possible.
You and I get to celebrate progress in us! 🤸🏻
The progress motivation can be as simple as wanting to enjoy life as much as possible.
We can do this if we know how to recognize and change the thought trajectory when an anxious triggering thought arises from a triggered situation or trauma.
Getting rid of a Vata active mind means having a new way with your new or current situation to get away from anxious thoughts and worry.
Developed fear or insecurity could have come from a past trauma situation, thoughts, or memories.
We can start practicing getting rid of unwanted emotions stirred up by an Vata active mind.
This is how it can go in a typical scenario…
A day can go by where we’re busy and caught up with those nagging thoughts as an under current theme.
We can delay doing something about it until the next day where we’ve confirmed we lost sleep because of the active mind in Vata.
We stayed up way too late in anxious-worry thoughts that’s now confirmed as stuck in our body’s energy.
So now we’re paying for it the day after feeling tired and bad in some way.
We want to get rest and sleep. We know that’s the formula to a healthy life that we want and productivity for our day.
And if we’re healthy, we can be more happy. If we’re happy, we do more in our lives that fuels more happiness. Plus, happy people live longer.
So ridding of an over active mind vs. calm mind isn’t just about feeling rested and better. It’s a protocol for a healthy well-being lifestyle.
It’s easy for us to tell others to not worry or be anxious. But when we’re confronted with our situations, we’re intimately wrapped up with our mind, the emotions, and thought implications of what if the worse happens?
This can show up in all kinds of other ego feeling-defeated flavors.
In those cases, one way I know that works is to have a backup plan so that the best happens coming from Plan A and you don’t have to resort to any backups.
Just having a backup plan shuts the ego down. (Remember: I got this!)
The best time to handle this is right now in this moment.
The tip again is coming up with a backup plan that satisfies you.
It’s not what you’re actually planning to do.
But things do happen in life, that you and your ego know from the past experiences and history that you have no control over.
So having a Plan B in your mind puts you and your (ego) mind at ease at the moment, as not putting more energy into worry, what-if, and other time sucking thoughts.
And in the rare instance that the situation outcome you don’t want to happen actually happens, you have a trampoline to fall on (your Plan B).
If you do this mental exercise for your Vata active mind, this puts your mind at rest.
And when you rest a Vata active mind, then you feel calm and can get on with your day.
You can enjoy the next moments instead of leaving worry on the table to be seen again later on in your thoughts without any real life evidence you need to be alarmed.
There’s no reason to be anxious or worried about anything not alarming, as it solves nothing and is unproductive.
Breaking this down: once you know what the anxious thought is about and determine it’s not clear and present danger, you can move into active mind management, such as having a mental Plan B.
The second thing you can do is have a specific mantra that becomes your outlook.
When anxious thoughts loom, you can refer to a mantra like: I know tomorrow will be better. It always is.
How can you convince you and your ego that’s true?
You have so many examples in the past of that truth. Find a supporting example in your past where the worry you had didn’t pan out, and you actually turned it into something better now that you have hindsight.
Remind your mind.
Because there’s 3 of you on your team: you, your mind, and your body.
When you have positive belief and conviction like “it always is” you’ve defeated ego because there’s no debating “always” in ego language. It’s like calling ego out.
That was ego’s ploy to turn “always” into a negative position such as it’s always going to be like this or it always will be raining.
But you’ve turned the always statement upside down on its head to a positive thought and belief that shuts ego up.
That’s how you fairly head wrestle with ego.
And, here’s how you can practice this:
Let’s use the weekend or your work days off as an example since you have more control over what you get to do or think on those days.
Say, today is Saturday and you’re stuck indoors with lousy weather and you had planned to relax today.
You didn’t sleep well because of anxious thoughts circling from the week before, so all that compounds and adds to your feeling deflated or defeated in some way in your day even though it’s your day off.
This isn’t how you wanted to spend part of your day.
But you can’t plan your thoughts and feelings in advance. What you can do now is prepare your better thoughts and feelings for tomorrow with these steps:
Start re-setting today. Think and repeat: tomorrow will be a new day.
Go to bed earlier tonight so you can get a good’s night rest (as you didn’t sleep well the previous night).
Plus, going to bed early keeps you from scrolling on your devices, overeating and overdrinking, and watching shows that make you feel bad or worse the next day.
So to recap: you’re productively going to bed early and you anticipate a better day tomorrow. And the next day (or Sunday), you wake up better rested compared to the lousy night you had before or on Friday.
That’s because you put a good intention the day and night before.
On Sunday, you’ve reset yourself and your thoughts. And hopefully you got more sleep.
You keep the mantra running in your mind: it’s a brand new day.
You have a new chance to feel productive and happy.
Plus, our minds loves to compare. And fresh-in-mind-memory was that yesterday wasn’t so great. Yesterday is over. So this new day is victory in comparison. 🎉
You could enjoy a cup of tea in peace and that makes you feel much better than turmoil yesterday.
Keep focusing on re-centering yourself in the moment.
The anxious fears of yesterday are put in the dust. Re-focus on your built-up love intentions today.
When the clouds lift, celebrate with singing, dancing, humming or whatever fancies you so you create a new recent happy memory.
Bring out more of the happy, creative person within you. Remove and lower unfocused Vata tendencies.
Keep doing this even if it takes a few days. Sometimes we need more than a night. The more you practice, the shorter the time becomes to bounce back.
You can choose to get out of self-pity, feeling anxious. or sad in a healthy and graceful way faster.
We can shorten the duration of regurgitating thoughts that don’t serve us. We can put them to bed after we realize they serve no helpful purpose and rob us of time and energy.
Robbing can show up as depressed moods, procrastination, self-loathing, blaming others, self-pity, etc.
I spent way too many seasons feeling self-pity. Especially if my seasons didn’t measure up comparing myself to culture’s standards, those around me, and the high-elated feelings on the flesh level.
Those created my next season lows in the hangover effect when they didn’t measure up.
I had the wrong set of wants that weren’t aligned with what would actually make me happy… me.
People, accomplishments, or things were crutches. It was me that could make me happy.
And it’s you that can make you happy.
If that doesn’t resonate now, know it’s now in your system to digest.
Welcome in your curiosity and questions that wonder about this idea. Maybe you wrestle with this a while. But by processing this, one day, you may find yourself happy with authentic you and who you’ve become that started with practicing quieting a Vata active mind.
Baking in a healthy and happy dessert like a berry cheesecake can start your daily happy.
Potato waffles are like being born again where you can’t turn them back to the mashed potato form they were before. And they’re so much better.
It’s a spiritual reference that you don’t hear often except in churches and The Bible.
And it’s a miraculous life changing event like being born.
To do it again (as in born again) means to live a completely changed life.
Like birth, it’s only once.
And it’s by choice, if ever.
For an adult, it’s a personal decision.
It’s the profound choice that makes this life wondrous because it’s not what you set out for.
It’s what Life tells you in the whispers of the wind.
And your day-to-day living drifts toward those whispers.
Born again is usually marked by adult baptism.
The baptism you had as a baby doesn’t count because you weren’t of mature thinking mind to make the choice.
A conscious baptism personal choice is an important event, like getting married.
There’s no going back as it’s part of your past.
And like the potato waffles that are pictured above, they started out as another form of the same food. Those spuds can’t go back to being a raw potato. 🥔
You can’t take back what’s already happened in the past and you can’t go back in your mother’s womb.
And you wouldn’t want to… as life gets better.
Or in this born again case, back into your pre-born again younger self identity.
“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” – John 3:5
After you’re born again, you’re alive with the spirit living inside you.
In the Bible, it’s the same as living with the Holy Spirit.
Becoming Born Again isn’t by coincidence… and your being here is no accident.
The story of your real life birth from your birth parents may have sounded like you were an accident oops! baby, but it was no spiritual accident..
…I know this experience intimately because that’s what happened to me.
And as life is an adventure one day after another, I never set out for that mission.
I didn’t grow up religious either.
This was something I grew into gradually.
Never having been baptized before and then for the first time as a mature adult, that’s when my Born Again life began.
What It’s Like to Be Born Again
It was an ordinary day with extraordinary impact.
You never forget the baptism day.
You wonder how being submerged in a pool of warm water can be so profound.
But it is.
Every fiber of your being changes and you get the rest of your life to figure out how to apply those changes.
Because it’s not like your life has suddenly changed around you.
It the meaning you apply to what just happened in your ceremony.
You’re now living with the Spirit inside you helping to guide you.
And you look at your life and the eclipse differently.
You feel chills and something deeper emotionally happening inside you that you now know are tied to the Spirit inside you.
You’re not alone.
And you can explain where those waves of tears and emotions are coming from.
And when you see a painted sky, it reminds you of where you came from and where your future will be in heaven.
You can be less interested in culture and more interested in your personal growth.
That’s how it was for me.
I grew up in an ego-centric area outside Washington, DC.
…I had to leave those ways to keep going and growing.
And because after Born Again, life has more meaning.
You want to discover more about yourself and your potential.
You’re not just cut out to do a job and retire.
This life is so much more!
And from then on, you know you were touched by God and the Universe in love, finding out what your role and purpose is.
You seek out why you’re specifically here.
Because that’s where your BEST LIFE is.
Gaining Biblical knowledge fuels your understanding as the Word of God and love letter from God who only wants the best for you.
After being Born Again, you know there’s a spirit living inside you to comfort you, send daily messages to you when you ask, and give you favor on any ordinary day.
The Spirit is often referred to as the wind (or a dove) 🕊️
It’s the same spirit that connects us all under the sun, and that came upon Jesus after he was baptized in the Jordan River.
The connection is an energy.
It’s also the guided handed helper, comforter, and all-knowing messenger all rolled-up-in-one.y.
After The Baptism Honeymoon
After some time has passed from your baptism day, the feelings will fade as you sink back into everyday reality and this life.
It would help you to pray for higher answers, and trust that those be the ones best for you even if they don’t make logical sense.
Pre-Born Again life, I called these gut instincts. I just thought the Universe was in my favor but I didn’t know how.
Now I know it’s the spirit that comes from our Creator source.
To keep growing, you’ll want to surround yourself with like-minded people.
I had to let go of some people in my life who weren’t helping me grow. And you’ll likely face those situations.
And what I gained in my life was people I could trust where many my Christian life, I couldn’t.
No one on earth is perfect but I didn’t have the same people problems from those I chose to surround myself with as friends.
You’ll want to learn from Christians who are motivated to love others and do the life God wants for them.
They are the ones that can help you with Bible interpretations that apply to your life today.
Because they have wisdom and discernment, they can help you navigate without giving up. They help to support your growth, such as becoming more humble and less prideful.
And as a new Born Again butterfly, they are vested to help you because they know they will see you again in the future life.
Looking back, I could see that I acted pretty foolishly when I was younger, but I thought I was invincible and smart at the time.
What to Expect With A Born Again Life
Expect to have favor in your daily Born Again walk if you maintain a deep relationship with your spirit inside you and God.
Also take chances as God is waiting for you to make a move. If you take a small “wrong” step, you’ll learn.
And the more daily, alone walks you do with the spirit, the more clear you become and make less missteps.
You walk straighter to your purpose even when you can’t see the forest through the trees.
Your season in life can look confusing or uncertain like the future is for everyone.
But inside you, you know you’re making the right moves for your purpose.
I started out my adult life mostly in the structured corporate work life as I was learning how to be a Christian.
Then in my second act (Born Again), I got to do satisfying work for myself.
But I needed the skills and know-how that I learned working for and with others.
And bam! one day after I was laid off from one of many corporate jobs… a spiritual intervention happened to me.
About two years after that incident, that’s when I got Born Again.
And that’s when life got really quiet around me. I found I was in sabbatical.
If I weren’t born again, I would’ve been lonely as people weren’t around me regularly.
But instead I felt loved and never alone.
That’s part of the inner peace that comes with being Born Again
That season, the work was easy.
I found I had time to look at personal and spiritual development areas that I didn’t delve into ever before.
I knew I would be provided for even when I didn’t know where on earth that would come from.
I knew it would come from above.
And in your life, you’d know when doors shut it’s not a coincidence or bad luck…
And the ones that open, you’re anointed so you get massive daily favor. Troubles that others face, you dodge.
Problems get miraculously fixed in the places you’re supposed to be in for your purpose.
Those bittersweet open doors aren’t permanent, but they’re nice
And in those experiences, I learned life isn’t about what you do.
…It matters most who and what you’re becoming in this life.
And on the journey, you can be proud to look in the mirror at who you are (that’s not an aged person staring back).
Life looks different than before when the goals were about what you would achieve, how long it would take to retire, and all the material things that could be acquired.
You get more and you get to make impact in the world.
Being born again, you’ve also transformed fear, anxiety, and worry that don’t have to take over and permeate life. Especially fear.
When I was a child I was afraid of everything from lightning, darkness, to boogie monsters.
And Born Again, I exchanged fear for love and feeling protected.
And never alone.
Not for one moment even when I moved to places for years where I knew no one and no one knew me.
And that’s when I could focus on the things that matter. And realize nothing in my past was wasted.
I worked in catering for a reason and it’s no coincidence that one of my passions today is food.
I can’t get enough of coming up with new recipes and enjoying brunch waffles.
And in your Born Again life (if that’s what you choose), you’ll get to do the things you love and were born and gifted to do! 🧡
Character alignment reminds me of dogs and Cesar Milan’s Better Human, Better Dog National Geographic series that evolved from The Dog Whisperer series. This article is about how to get to your best self version with character development.
For starters, bringing in more joy like this fruity joy hibiscus mocktail can help us align with our day. 🌺
A Hibiscus Berry Mocktail is good for celebrating Mother’s Day and May’s calendar full of events such as the Met Gala where this year’s theme is flowers and the garden of time. This is an easy floral and balanced tea drink you can make at home and I think is a beauty in a classic martini glass. What do you think?🍸The recipe is below. 💕💜
And on that note… let’s begin with the dog analogy.
Dogs could be the first character that pops up in your daily mind especially if you have a Fido running around where you notice whether character intervention is needed 🐾
And in both Cesar Milan dog shows,we learn that each dog’s character comes with some breed born, individual learned, and universal dog traits. We also discover that bad behaviors and characters can be retrained and it’s usually the humans that need the training. 😅
It’s up to dog owners to follow through while exerting their calm assertive energy if they want a happy and peaceful life with their dogs. And that can be you or I, or any of us.
The opposite, undesired behaviors often stems from humans carrying around negative energy like fear as a dominant trait.
Dogs pick up on the human stress and misbehave. Essentially they feel chaos in them because they aren’t being led by a dog pack that is natural in the wild.
In domestic dogs at home, the same inborn traits are there but it’s our job to lead the pack if we want order and not chaos.
Training a dog to get into a calm surrender sit with wagging tail and lay down with tongue loosely hanging is the desired outcome state for a dog owner.
Then we can enjoy, pet, and play with dogs.
Dogs are naturally loving and loyal and ready to get in this submissive state.
They don’t hold grudges for long if at all to anything (even though we can project that on them).
Those points are a couple of the universal traits of why humans love dogs as pet family members.
And as a test, when they can get along with everyone in the family either two or four-legged, then it’s a match made in dog heaven.
…So now you have the gyst of how humans and dogs can better co-exist and blend together.
Finding compatibility among humans in human relationships is not as easy. Because of the disaccords when we want peace and harmony. It gets much more complicated because of our built-in human features and intellect.
We have complex minds and many more moods than probably there are English mood description words for.
We make daily micro decisions based on cognitive reasoning for understanding what’s on the screen in front of us.
Oh, and we have opposable thumbs so we can do more than our canine friends who can barely play with toys.
Dogs can bring us to a simpler lifestyle that’s healthy and healing for us from balancing our digital world vs. real life.
Our best calm surrender defense for ourselves and dogs is letting go of fear, negative, and non-peaceful thoughts.
That keeps us out of trouble. From miles away, dogs can pick up any excessive worrying “scent.”
Character Alignment Growth In Us
When we grow in our character alignment using our moral sensibilities, we can speed up growing out of old, past ways that don’t serve us.
Choosing and being able to live out a healthy, balanced lifestyle fosters an environment to live this good way that promotes longevity and a life well lived.
The sooner we can make healthy and balanced as a priority, the faster we can work on our character growth that’s aligned with who we are because we can pay attention better.
“Where attention goes, our energy (intention) flows.” – James Redfield
Living out two lives or multiple roles are examples of alignments that are not in order.
When you have to be somewhere because someone else relies on that, then you’re living out someone else’s need. That takes us away from our personal growth, but we can get back on the trail as easily as we hopped off.
When in character alignment, we also feel overall that we’re at peace with ourselves and that extends to what we’re doing. We’re not dissatisfied with what we do because we also get to show up as ourselves.
Consider those times when you were at ease and feeling like you were meant to be where you were, and not worrying.
In those moments, you’re calm and you produce more because you’re not second guessing your moves. You just naturally are attuned in your elements.
You’re also exuding the positive character traits of yourself, the one that others are attracted to.
When you’re in stressful environments, the opposite happens.
If you saw you coming, in truth you’d wanna probably run for the hills. 😉 Most of us have been there.
But that doesn’t have to happen often as we can always choose to rewrite our thoughts and our daily outcomes from our thoughts in our situations we find ourselves in.
In the tough moments, those are opportunities to grow and not fight with ourselves or lean into the old habits.
We can learn the lesson then and not repeat next week in a different situation.
A shortcut way is to challenge our own beliefs.
Are they helping us?
Do we believe we’re an underdog or not worthy? Do we believe we’re doomed or do we flip the script?
Because something is going to happen anyway, so why lose extra sleep over something you can’t do anything else about?
And when you find something positive that could come out of the situation no matter what, then you’re in an empowered position.
And that’s the healthy feeling you want.
An example: often we come across a problem that could start off as good or a challenge. But now confronted with an issue, finding an opportunity to address the problem-at-hand is a better way. And then after a while it goes away.
And then you can be glad that you were confronted with the potential problem because otherwise you would’ve not come up with this other better way.
Or it showed you something new you would not have seen about yourself or the situation.
Gradually we grow into our better, more wise character by these subtle and micro shifts in thinking and ways of doing things.
We become more patient, less selfish, and more content as side benefits.
Without trials or some stress in our lives, we wouldn’t have picked up these growth ways that all point to our character alignment that helps align our lives.
And like with any life skills, they can be more impactful than even a vocational skill you use as they are transferrable throughout life.
What We Can Do Today To Align Sooner
We can stop being so busy. When we cram everything into the waking hours we have available, we do the opposite.
We pretty much are leaving our lives up to our tasks and chosen activities that are not always aligned with our daily spiritual walk or purpose.
We can instead prioritize our lives as the only one we get. We can’t do over years but we can start over. And if we’re not doing what we know can be more impactful in our lives when we know or when we can, then we’re not aligning ourselves fully.
That doesn’t mean quit what you’re doing today, but the tea leaves are out.
And when they are, that means it’s just a matter of time before you can confront the truth set before you or choose to ignore.
Being brave and confronting is going to get you what you want if you take that risk that’s calculated because otherwise the deeper idea wouldn’t be planted inside you.
Ignoring our inner calling prevents us from getting closer to our aligned ways and purposes because of the four letter word… B-U-S-Y. When we’re too busy to get out of our busyness funk, we can’t think clearly. What could emerge stays hidden from our view.
And when we get to slower paced life seasons either by choice or have more time because of changes that happened to our lives, then we get an opportunity to see where we can improve our lives.
And maybe restart with a fresh start in certain areas.
We don’t have to continue what wasn’t working well or no longer serves where we’re aligned to now. That’s when we can feel lost, something missing, or misaligned.
That includes: relationships, work choices, training humans around us on how to treat us, our habits, attitudes, and outlook.
And one specific area that can help us grow this season is checking in on our pride that can often be a source of misalignment.
Character Alignment Grows Healthy Pride
If we have a dose of unhealthy pride in us that’s very common in modern culture, learning to strip those outward and deeper layers helps us in our relationship communication, motivations, and our healthy blood pressure.
We are healthier and happier as the cure to heavy pride is humility, that gives us the warm and fuzzy feelings inside us.
We feel good quietly in our soul, we’re building up our character, and people remember and respect us in a good way for that.
Compare that to the high pride that we air and we get claps and cheers, but those are short lived and forgotten in our digital era.
Pride is healthy when we’re proud of ourselves for making the finish line or achieving our accomplishments big or small. It’s a good thing we have goals! 🎉
And at the root of unhealthy pride are wrong motivations such as feeling superior over others that an unhealthy fed ego loves.
Pride can swallow us up when situations can tear us down. We want to build a stable environment inside us that’s content whether situations are good or not-so-great.
…What happens next doesn’t make or break you is the empowered feeling.
And then others recognize the humility energy and also give you the accomplishment credit.
You’ll enjoy your life the most that way and avoid the up and down roller coaster life that’s like Monday morning hangover dread after Friday afternoon joy and a weekend of eventful and relaxed bliss.
Dogs and Pride Analogy
…So back to our dogs that we can learn from. Dogs don’t act prideful as they don’t have that gene, but they can act dominant, as in trying to protect their owner and territory.
So in pride and dog analogies, if we build up humility in our dogs for their loving personality traits to come out then they show us their calm side that lets others get close and pet them.
And they respect us as the leader. That’s what we want in ourselves… to be a leader in our lives.
Even when we think we’re humble, there are still traces of unhealthy pride that can be lingering layers deep.
I discovered this in my life when I used to speed past a pedestrian crossway on a major road fare. No one in their right mind who didn’t have to, would cross walk at that dangerous intersection.
I had never seen anyone in my daily drive do so.
But one day, the flashing light beside the walkway suddenly came on without warning just before I drove up there. I had to slam my foot on the breaks. And while that wasn’t an unusual step to do and for the cars behind me, that was a wake up call for me.
In awareness, I realized I still had unhealthy pride in me that I thought I had worked hard to try to successfully rip out.
How was that incident related to character alignment?
Deeply rooted, I realized I hadn’t taken seriously enough the idea that you can’t be too thoughtful when it comes to signs and other people showing up suddenly out of the blue.
While I know that sounds a little silly and we can all act similarly in that way in our busy lives, when you are getting closer to character alignment in certain areas you’re introspective and observe small details in your life.
When I took that lesson to heart and how my initial reaction and outward layer disregarded other possibilities, I learned to humble myself more deeply in future situations by being more thoughtful and slowing down automatically before the intersection. That was a good alignment test.
And that gave me the peace, calm surrender, and self-control I needed for better humility growth and character alignment.
There are many other traits that similar lessons can apply to, but humility is one healthy trait can help your life out in so many ways.
As much as rescue dogs can be trained to become a new healthy dog, we have the ability too.
We can always make up for lost time in development areas we didn’t gain or need to re-learn.
Sometimes when we don’t have much or live simply, we see this better. And we turn inward and dig deep for help and answers.
This type of growth comes from the inside out that speeds up our progress. We’re each in our own marathon.
Starting with a desire to make specific changes marks the starting point.
After we’re aware, it’s in us and we have a high chance of succeeding as we aspire to make the change.
And then one day that’s usually after many tries, we are transformed into this new better way.
We can’t go back to the old way as it no longer fits us in character alignment.
Along those lines and in your journey, you can pick up good character alignment traits that help you in more ways than one and for the rest of your life.
That’s something to celebrate and look forward to in your bright future!
Shout out to the mom’s for Mother’s Day. This is a Hibiscus Berry Mocktail you can make that the moms and ladies can enjoy! 🌺
This is a pink and lavender celebratory and festive mocktail with healthy notes that any mom would love! The drink checks the boxes for the service and quality time love language mom as she kicks up her feet to sip on this special mocktail that can be made into a cocktail.
Course beverage
Cuisine American
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Equipment
martini strainer or other strainer
Ingredients
blueberry tea
hibiscus tea
can of coconut cream (or heavy cream)
blueberries and strawberries
lavender tea bag
Instructions
Reserve the thickest part of the coconut cream. Then mix the thinner part of the cream to make a milk consistency that will be used for blending.
Combine brewed blueberry tea and hibiscus tea and milk consistency cream. Shake up and strain to create the lavender purple color layer. Optional: add berries to this layer if you wish.
Freeze the first layer.
Repeat the second step but omit the blueberry tea to make the pink color layer as red and white make pink. Optional: add berries to this layer if you wish.
Freeze the second layer.
Add the thick coconut cream to the top. Add a little of the milk consistency cream to make the thickness of choice.
Decorate with dried hibiscus and lavender tea leaves, and/or fresh fruit.
Enjoy and watch the drink change colors!
Happy Mother’s Day!
Btw, my mom was a dressmaker for most of her working career, so this pink and purple color celebrates her life well and fits into the Met Gala’s Garden of Time dress theme she would’ve liked.
Shadow work helps dig out the deeper things holding you back that may be hidden from view and you may not be aware of today.
Artwork is one metaphor for our lives. This spiral art piece brings out the light and shadows where you’re seeing only a partial angle. This can be what’s it like when we look in the mirror at ourselves, where we don’t see the light in our inner selves.This is a full view of the same art piece by Ellsworth Kelly that shows many more lines and color dimensions that can shine like us in our discoverable selves in shadow work therapy.
It’s work and discovery you do on yourself that pays off as you learn more about your inner self so you can better shine in your authentic and best you you’re meant to be.
And you can find your loving self and steer away from your darker sides that cast shadows in your life.
I know this from my own journey. I was a late bloomer for many years and areas of life. And just when things were coming together nicely, then all of the sudden around 35, I went into a now what do I do? season.
I was hit with a spiritual intervention and no roadmap life manual to help me along that season.
Life springs things on you where you have no concrete guide to follow. No one teaches you that a spiritual intervention can happen at any time in your life journey on your life blueprint that you don’t have access to.
A spiritual intervention is not commonly heard of but it does happen in this miracle we call Life.
And yeah, that’s what happened to me.
Before I get into the details, the reality is we’re not in as much control of our planned future as we want to think.
We get to choose to believe in faith over what we think is our future based on our past and what we’re currently working on.
And believe that a greater force above has our back and a better plan than we (or I ) can come up with.
That was the journey I was on…
And in what appeared to be my spun out-of-my control season, I ended up relocating back to where I came from when I had no plans or thoughts to do so.
…I was blind-sided by my own moves.
It was more shocking to me than to my friends and family who were happy to hear I was moving closer back to the area.
It was a healthy, spiritual purpose-driven move, even though it was unconventional as spiritual changes and growth often are.
The days leading up to my move, the healthy marriage I was in fell apart because of the intervention reveals that made the step-to-step moves easier.
There was sadness leaving, but no drama… almost as though life is meant to be a surprise from day-to-day.
Let me backtrack for a second…
Because the life changing event was that I ended up in a hospital with no physical health diagnosis.
There was nothing wrong with me.
What appeared as a mental breakdown, I knew as a spiritual awakening.
Is that how you diagnose inner voices?
Apparently in our earthly dimensional world.
…The immediate trauma reality I felt when I was released was the sting of the hospital bill.
…Ouch and oh btw, I would have to pack my life up today and start all over with new work, step back, and build a new adult life while the world around me kept going.
I couldn’t even tell you the songs playing on the radio waves then or what the major news headlines were going on.
Those few final days and weeks before were a total blur.
I must’ve thrown out many scrapbook album memories in the preparation for my move.
Discarding my past was a metaphor representation of how I felt with this new life ahead of me.
It was nothing less than an invisible higher force that took over and moved me one step at a time.
I got closer to my spirit than I’d ever been in my life.
Up to that point, I didn’t know that I had a Holy Spirit inside me.
And I knew this as God co-creating and ordering my footsteps for my good (it’s always FOR good), who got in the car with me and drove me back to the area I had left where my GPS didn’t work.
It was a bit surreal.
My hand was on the wheel, so I felt safe even though I was confused. Jesus Take the Wheel was a very accurate way to describe what was going on as I felt safe.
…So then there I was back to the area where I grew up and lived most my life, except now with a higher plan that I expected would unfold.
An old church friend, God-wink coincidentally had a room available as her last roommate had just moved out. she and I had been on a missions trip together years before and we felt chills up our spines volunteering in the soup kitchen.
I’d felt those tingly feelings before and never knew what that was.
Connecting the dots in shadow work, that was the spirit in me that clear as day was with me from the moment I woke to the moment I fell asleep whispering to me truths before and after hospital experience.
Hundreds of miles away, even though I was in the same familiar area I grew up in, it seemed miles away from where I grew up.
This time around I was closer to the city and further away from the towns where many of my first memories of childhood and early adulthood were formed.
Some memories were accumulated past trauma from childhood and early adulthood that I needed shadow work for to help me discover forgiveness.
And others were happy memories from friendships and past experiences made.
It was a bittersweet come back.
I was then recently laid off from a career job I had been at for years, so I had to lean on trust that I would be provided for during those recession years that wiped out businesses and the corporate tech industry I had just come from.
But this life altering event wasn’t about just a move, a job change, or a season transition.
…This was a life transformation.
I was entering a new way of life on earth that was foreign to me with the spirit leading where the cascade of events leading up were so bizarre.
Even though I felt secure under the Universe’s wing, I didn’t know how to start this new shaken up chapter of life.
Now what? kept coming up in my thoughts.
One of my first set of tests was letting go.
I didn’t know how to surrender my old thinking ways.
And that’s when I got really deep into introspection and shadow work and trying to figure out what happened.
Miraculously, planted in me was the awareness of harmful ego ways and that surfaced and became a theme.
With a little freed up headspace from not being so work busy, I became aware that I had healing work to do on myself.
I had never paused before from work to successfully get to know the real me. And I worked in professional environments where at work you were “on” and guarded, so the real personal didn’t show up.
On my off time, I went to church healing rooms to see if I could gain a little insight and closure about what happened to me.
I got some comfort and was able to purge some past trauma that had to do with childhood.
This was as close to learning about myself and my life now as I would get.
Life Before The Spiritual Intervention
I was always choosing to be busy and that was ingrained in me in the DC metro area culture I grew up in and was now back in.
But this time around, my surroundings were quiet as my friends were grown up too.
They were busy with their family and lives.
I had to figure mine out.
My life looked nothing like most those I went to college with where they moved up the corporate ladder, settled down, and had a family.
They lived close by but our world’s were far apart.
I felt alone in navigating what next, but I also felt optimistic that my life would take off because of the spiritual intervention experience I had lived out in the hospital that showed me some prophecies about work and relationships in my distance-off future.
I knew there was a plan but I just didn’t know when, how, and what the real life specifics were.
And when some life pieces came to life like people I would meet, I recognized them later on as shown to me in prophecies.
Those were miracles, and it all sounded bizarre on paper and yet made sense.
That’s how it felt… beautiful and bizarre.
And at the end of the day, none of us know the uncertain future so nothing looked that unusual about me or my life from an outside onlooker.
One area I knew I could focus on building was my deeper spiritual self and building traits I would need (and may have missed developing along the way).
Ego work was just the tip of the iceberg for my shadow work.
As mentioned, I was in and grew up around America’s capital.
This is an area filled with cultured, affluent people where pride and ego are waved as invisible badges of honor.
You become self-absorbed at the least and selfish at the worst. Neither lead to happy lives that I’d always wanted.
So now I was ready to get rid of those non-serving ways.
People living there in short transition or temporary assignments don’t realize how strong the political daily air is there outside the news until they arrive.
And I didn’t know until I left and then came back.
DC lives in a unique invisible bubble that rarely gets talked about as ego is not usually a subject matter of discussion.
And I’m sure growing up in the L.A. area would be a different bubble than the DC or New York City area…
But D.C. metro was what I knew.
So, now you know the situation better.
And a year before this new season’s reveal, I was made aware I was holding onto past trauma from childhood and an adult situation that created PTSD I had blindly been holding onto.
I didn’t go to any therapy. It was self-therapy supplied my spirit. It was an inside job and that’s the only kind I can recommend.
That’s what a spiritual intervention, journaling, and shadow work can help reveal.
To provide more color, I grew up under the house of an immigrant parent who had a dominant ego disorder that grew worse over time.
And after I moved off to be on my own, I fell victim to a dangerous work situation in a brick and mortar business.
This all came to light in this revealing spiritual intervention season years later.
I realized my past situations grew my victim mentality.
And that fed my ego that loves to hang onto woes me for my situations.
It’s the same ego that thrives on protecting our pride and does so much damage in all of us, showing up in all kinds of daily, harmful non-serving ways…
If you’ve worked around people long enough, you will have seen this and not necessarily known that it was their ego that created their undesirable perceptions and behaviors that they were blind to and you were affected on their blindsided path.
Our ego is our shadow until we become aware.
It’s under our conscious (sub-conscious).
Bringing out your shadow into the light is the shadow work that can align you to your whole self where your life begins to unfold more purpose and meaning.
I became ego conscious-aware that my ego played me in my subconscious insecurities (as it does for most unaware people and situations).
In my earlier adult years, I could be emotionally triggered and all of the sudden be stricken with an ugly cry in relationships.
Clingy wasn’t my manifestation but power struggles was. My ego reared its ugly head wanting me to be right and win in partner conflicts.
In my emotional state, instead I lost the debate and all conscious streams of thinking that came from allowing the ego game to be played in me.
…I didn’t know how to shake off or walk away from my turmoil feelings that started out as harmless thoughts.
That was inner work I needed to do.
A real life mirror (partner) had reflected back to me what I needed to work on.
I ignored those prompts until I was aware of the ego as separate from me years later.
Today’s Lessons
Your old brain is still a part of you that you carry along wherever you go.
When you’ve moved on, your past memories and old lessons learned never die.
You can’t escape them.
They travel with you and show up on your vacations when you least expect.
If you’ve ever seen couples or friends fighting on vacation and you wonder, what’s there to fight about on this dreamy once-in-a-lifetime beautiful serene blue ocean or castle fantasy backdrop?… it’s the ego rearing its ugly head into the situation as they’re like two lions fighting for life.
At any time, your ego can take old information filed in the brain and create fear and exacerbate worry in your situations today…
If you bring out love from your past situations to your present, it shows up in your calm emotions today and also in your healthy body.
Ego situations and how they play out look different for everyone. If we could pinpoint one situation for everyone we would have figured this out collectively. But ego is a trickster.
Some even refer to their ego as an imposter that shows up.
The outward sign is that it’s not reality happening even though it feels like it is to you or the person. You’re not being chased by a tiger, but it can feel that way with modern digital message triggers.
Unknowingly, you undetect where the havoc source is coming from as it’s subconscious.
You can’t see through those thick clouds and insecurities. And that can lead to knee-jerk reactions.
Another sign for everyone is an unhealthy ego acting up is rooted in negative thoughts about yourself or others like self-pity, self-loathing, or blaming others.
It’s Edging God Out. The opposite is love and being conscious.
An unhealthy ego moment is a twisted form of overprotection for your best interest where you lose, lose control, and those around you lose if they get intertwined.
Bottom line: it doesn’t come from love.
Everyone is best to walk away in peace rather than play the counterproductive ego games.
Becoming aware of ego’s ability to harm you and relationships today and healing your past with new rewritten loving narrative thought memories are two of the healthiest shadow work moves you can make.
On a larger scale, you can rid of victim mentality so you can live fully whole and healthy in the now. You can be happy for others and their progress as you are for your own.
The ego will try to make these darker sides invisible to you so you continue as is, but if your desire is to grow and be happy, you can outwit your ego and not play the games.
We all are damaged goods in some way because of this built-in ego feature that we have a choice to change. It’s no one’s fault.
And that’s why when you’ve been aware long enough you can forgive others for their unconsciousness and behaviors… and hope they will try to get informed, grow, become conscious, and be accountable for their behaviors.
The Healthy Shadow Work You Can Do Today
So many of us would benefit from shadow work.
For one, you could discover and change negative moods coming from inside you. You could learn more about what triggers you.
You can replace these non-serving moments with higher and loving words such as those found in the New Testament Scripture.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
A daily reminder verse to call out your ego thoughts front and center daily helps.
You can build lasting character traits such as those in Galatians 5: patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, peace, joy, and love. These are the higher living ways.
They can take deep inner work and the first step can be shadow work discovery.
Becoming self-aware is timeless and absolutely necessary for growth.
And knowing the ego never shuts off and can show up in many ways in our mind roles such as:
critic
judge
competitor
fighter
dictator
imposter
One role ego doesn’t play is peacemaker. When ego is behaving and healthy, it helps you to strive for healthy goals.
We need some healthy pride to push us along. Or if you’re in real danger, ego can help motivate you to protect you.
But the undealt with unhealthy daily ego critic sitting on one shoulder shouts loud thoughts that appear logical to you (or the person), while the whispering angel spirit in you is gentle and loving preferring humility over pride.
The more you practice the softer humility sides, the more you can see the harmful pride.
Ego is subtle to you…
If you have a balanced way or a sense of making good decisions usually, logic can appear as harmless as “everyone is doing that.”
In those thought moments, you have a choice to not be everyone and do what you know is best or loving when you know better. We all have a choice.
If your ego is fighting you, you can be prepared with spiritual weapons like the armor of God spelled out in Ephesians, and in renewing your mind.
The more preparation and practice you have, your discernment increases the next time and you grow.
Still wondering how the ego shows up?…
So, I used to let the ego run the show. The daily mind show that is where I accepted all thoughts to enter as mine.
Some days a whole day would go by with the same repeated past memories. That’s classic ego.
I didn’t know I could exercise changing my thoughts. That was revelation when I learned and how to replace the thoughts.
Even if you had a great childhood or life so far, your ego will at some point take something from your past and spin it to a negative thought even if others would see it as a healthy and happy moment. It’s in your control to change the narrative fed to you.
Being the observer of thoughts and not letting the thoughts play out after the thought movie reel has been played once is a good strategy, so you don’t lose a whole day of productivity and peace.
And then stay aware the next time. You can make a decision that there’s no room for the two of us as it’s cramping growth, and simply kick out your unhealthy ego. Don’t play the games.
Sometimes it take mental wresting strength to let the thoughts pass through without energizing them to replay. Be determined to do what you know will eventually work for you.
And as part of my light bulb moment discovery, I found that ego was not just once in a while playing havoc in our lives, it’s the source of most problems in our day.
Because the ego is a feature in all of us in this world. Behaviors are trickled down among other people involved and their operating egos.
Imagine if the leader of a group or business had ego issues that showed up. You could only imagine (or have experienced before) the tricked down dysfunctional effect in the management hierarchy.
This observation becomes more obvious when you know (or have been made aware like I may be stirring in you today).
You witness in your daily interactions with people… one minute they are agreeable and friendly and then one day the season ends and they turn out to be something else. They’re unaware they’re being played by their ego.
This happens in relationships all the time and is at the crux of partner power struggles.
Without the harmful ego aspects, our world would be a better place because we would be better acting humans, heal ourselves, and those around us.
But until my hospital incident, I didn’t know how destructive the subconscious and invisible ego is on our planet, in our lives, and in me.
Shadow work examples such as going to therapy or light journaling tools can help open the doors to discover more of your deeper and hidden self.
The answers are inside you so deeper spiritual self-help may help you like healing rooms did for me.
And in my spiritual intervention rebirth.
Leading up to that point, these shadow work resources helped and can help to open the awareness…
What Did Help and Can Help You in Shadow Work Discovery
Turning to some self-help books opened my eyes. One in particular, Eckart Tolle’s The Power of Now is one of those books that comes alive in your when you’re ready for the message because your spirit lights it up.
It’s a deep book that you’re either ready for or not. You’ll know if you are because your eyes won’t glaze over the sentences. And when it’s an easy flow read, the chains have been released and the pain-body is exposed. The book is an experience. It can be so powerful that you may only need to read it once to gain the knowledge, and it’s forever in you.
That opened the spirit inside me like a lotus flower to make more room for awareness when my spiritual intervention season entered years later. 🪷
The Bible was another spiritual book I had as a tool. I had let the contents and words of Scripture occupy space and spill over inside me. 📖
You can re-read Scripture over and over again and find new tidbits of wisdom and helpful Biblical truth. You don’t get the same experience each time.
New words can jump off the page with meaning to you when you’re ready. Like my eyes skipped over the mysterious “spirit” word on the pages until I was ready.
The Bible is an instructional self-help life manual and is the only book that’s still being translated in so many languages.
Letting the higher words permeate to brain wash out all the muck that occupies the day for things that won’t matter in the years to come, is life giving.
Those are good starters.
And then be open and let your life’s journey unfold.
There’s so much more to this world and it’s inside you. As Deepak Chopra says, “the world is in you.”
“I am not in the world. The world is in me.” – Deepak Chopra
Doing deeper shadow work is underrated and will produce so much more in you and out of you as you impact the world with your greatness you were born with and can be born again with. 🎉
