We ignore our brains all the time. But, we feel like we are dying when we ignore our hearts.
I recently attended a Kyle Cease event in Los Angeles. (If you aren’t following this guy. It is time.) Resulting from this transformational experience, I made a commitment to three radical changes for the next 90-days.
I’m not going to lie. I’m a little freaked out, but mostly excited. Fear and excitement are close cousins.
This year, I thought I was looking for answers to two questions “What’s next for me personally and professionally?” and “How can I be of greater service to the world?”
Being a business minded person, I went right to work designing things on paper. Programs, masterminds, coaching groups, talks, blog topics, leadership training, personal health and growth goals.
It hit me while at this event. Suddenly. And like a TON of bricks that I had not been asking myself the right questions. In fact, what I now understand is that I am looking for the question itself.
So, I went back to my brain and asked myself, “Brain, what is the right question we need to ask here? How are we going to go deeper? Serve more people?”
And my brain said, “Ask your heart.”
I cried. Not a little. A lot.
So, I asked my heart: “Heart, what are we going to do to serve more people? What do they (we) all need?” And my heart said, “If you’ll sit with me more often, I will show you.”
Don’t get me wrong. My heart and I chat often. I check in with it throughout the day. I teach my clients how to leverage their hearts at work. Show CEO’s how to tap into it in the boardroom. But, I’m clear that I still give my brain most of the airtime in my life. I live from my brain and check in with my heart. I’m ready to reverse that: live from my heart and check in with my brain. Frankly, I’m relieved to give myself this permission.
The next realization was a doozey. It came to me in an hour-long meditation that Kyle Cease assigned us as homework during the event. The truths of what I would need to do to be in my heart more are going to require some serious changes. At least for a little while and then we will see if I ever turn back!
Change #1: No alcohol for 90-days.
While I don’t get blotto, my social life includes a lot of cocktails. My downtime includes a couple of cocktails with dinner. It is blocking my heart and clouding my brain. This used to not be a “thing”, but the older I get and the more I consciously leverage both my brain and my heart, the more I can feel that alcohol is slowing and blocking me. Yes, even a couple drinks create this slowing.
Change #2: No television for 90-days.
This is going to be the hardest one for me. My TV and I have gotten WAY too close. Not only do we spend too much time together, but I’m numbing myself with it. It is hard for me to say this, but things have gotten unhealthy between us. In coming to this decision, I did some math that will blow your mind. At my current rate of TV consumption:
- I watch 1,277 hours a year
- In total, I will watch 61,296 hours of TV between now and the time I reach the average age of mortality
- That is SEVEN YEARS OF TELEVISION and that does not account for what I’ve already watched up to now!
What could I do to serve the world if I had seven years of my life back? Oh. My. Gosh.
Change #3: One hour of meditation a day.
I’m a big believer in meditation. I encourage it for my clients. I share this practice in my Masterminds. And I realized I am ready for a bigger step. My meditation sittings average 30 minutes at a time. I realized that, at this rate, I’ve only been flirting with meditation. I’m at a place where I’m just checking a box with 30 minutes. It is time to go deeper. When I did the hour-long meditation the weekend of the Kyle Cease event, more of me fell away than ever and I could truly hear my heart.
I’m elated and slightly terrified (again, those cousins) by the amount of clarity I’m creating. I’m smirking as I write this because the answers are so simple. As they often are. But, I just wasn’t ready for those answers until now.
When I shared this plan with my husband (who is happily joining me on this endeavor), he said, “Think this will be hard?” If he had asked me a week ago the answer would have been a resounding “Ummm, hell, yes!” But because this answer came from my heart, was not designed by my brain, I’m truly attached to it.
We ignore our brains all the time. But, we feel like we are dying when we ignore our hearts.
While I continue to be of service and support my amazing clients who are on their own journeys to next levelness, I await what it is my heart wants to show me. A question. An answer. An assignment. I’m game for all of it.
Enough about me. I know you were reading this and something showed up for YOU. What radical change do you know you need to make to be in greater alignment in your life? Drop me an email and let me know what it is. Let’s be in this together!
