We can’t control anything or anyone outside of ourselves.  We can only control how we react or how we respond to what is going on outside of ourselves.  When something happens we can either contract or expand.  It’s a choice.  We might not be aware that there is a choice, but if you are watchful you can catch yourself choosing to expand or contract.  If you are contracting your jaw will get tense, you’ll bite down on your teeth, you’ll start holding our breath, your pupils will dilate, and your mind will start racing.  You’ll feel stressed.  You’ll feel anxious.  On the other hand, if you choose to expand your heart rate slows down, your breath smoothes out, your mind relaxes and expands, other perspectives show up and often a resolution may presents itself.  Learning and growth occur as a new way of being emerges.  You move from being stuck and frustrated to being excited with another opportunity for growth.  Life becomes an adventure and an exploration.  Wonder becomes a new habitual state of being.

The key here is to be aware of how you are reacting in the moment.  By learning to expand at the moment of contraction you can begin to take control of how you are dealing with your every day life.  You move away from being a victim where terrible things happen to you, to being a person who is choosing to respond to life’s challenges.  I’m not suggesting that this is an easy process, if it was no one would be experiencing stress and fear.  However, it’s a choice and it can become a habitual way of being.  My challenge to you is to be watchful.  Notice when you are contracting.  Notice what you are saying to yourself.  Notice the pictures you are holding in your mind.  Notice the solutions or lack of solutions that seem to be present.  At that moment of awareness, take a breath and expand.  Spread your arms out and breathe deeply.  Don’t think.  Just breathe.  Keep taking deep breaths until your relax.  Once you start to relax, allow yourself to expand.  Keep expanding your awareness until you are about 30 feet in the air looking down.  Then expand until you see your entire community.  Keep expanding until you see your entire country.  Expand until you see the entire planet in your mind’s eye.  Take another breath and expand until you see the entire solar system.  Once you are at this level, ask for a resolution to the situation that’s disturbing you to be presented.  Allow yourself to stay in this expanded state until you are in a place of understanding.

Expand at the moment of contraction.  Joy will be there waiting for you.

We can’t control anything or anyone outside of ourselves.  We can only control how we react or how we respond to what is going on outside of ourselves.  When something happens we can either contract or expand.  It’s a choice.  We might not be aware that there is a choice, but if you are watchful you can catch yourself choosing to expand or contract.  If you are contracting your jaw will get tense, you’ll bite down on your teeth, you’ll start holding our breath, your pupils will dilate, and your mind will start racing.  You’ll feel stressed.  You’ll feel anxious.  On the other hand, if you choose to expand your heart rate slows down, your breath smoothes out, your mind relaxes and expands, other perspectives show up and often a resolution may presents itself.  Learning and growth occur as a new way of being emerges.  You move from being stuck and frustrated to being excited with another opportunity for growth.  Life becomes an adventure and an exploration.  Wonder becomes a new habitual state of being.
The key here is to be aware of how you are reacting in the moment.  By learning to expand at the moment of contraction you can begin to take control of how you are dealing with your every day life.  You move away from being a victim where terrible things happen to you, to being a person who is choosing to respond to life’s challenges.  I’m not suggesting that this is an easy process, if it was no one would be experiencing stress and fear.  However, it’s a choice and it can become a habitual way of being.  My challenge to you is to be watchful.  Notice when you are contracting.  Notice what you are saying to yourself.  Notice the pictures you are holding in your mind.  Notice the solutions or lack of solutions that seem to be present.  At that moment of awareness, take a breath and expand.  Spread your arms out and breathe deeply.  Don’t think.  Just breathe.  Keep taking deep breaths until your relax.  Once you start to relax, allow yourself to expand.  Keep expanding your awareness until you are about 30 feet in the air looking down.  Then expand until you see your entire community.  Keep expanding until you see your entire country.  Expand until you see the entire planet in your mind’s eye.  Take another breath and expand until you see the entire solar system.  Once you are at this level, ask for a resolution to the situation that’s disturbing you to be presented.  Allow yourself to stay in this expanded state until you are in a place of understanding.
Expand at the moment of contraction.  Joy will be there waiting for you.