I’ve learned to welcome upheaval. When things change there is room for a fresh start, a blank page, and a reboot. It doesn’t mean it’s not scary or frustrating, but it’s all about perspective. I’ve been a writer my whole life. I kept a diary growing up, I secretly hate/loved pulling pre-final exam all-nighters writing the assignments I’d neglected throughout my college semesters (still a regular procrastinator), I love writing letters and notes and slant rhymes and jokes that aren’t that funny. Recently, while shifting and changing my website I realized that I lost all blog entries from the past five years. It was partially my own fault, but partially a conglomeration of random events. I was definitely disappointed (mad thanks to Justin from GoDaddy who talked me off of a metaphorical cliff, and Kathy from SquareSpace who offered to send me her childhood diary entries page by page to soothe my nostalgic soul) but was quickly reminded that I was grossly in need of a reset. I was itching to write new words and let go of old ideas and put the final punctuation on a few obsolescent stories. It’s time to begin again, friends.
Our beliefs are the stories we tell ourselves. How many times do you find yourself blindly doing something a certain way only because someone taught you to do it as such? Or believe something that was drilled into you by someone of authority without thinking if if makes sense for YOU in YOUR life? We all do it. Each of us has many stories we tell ourselves on the daily about who we are. Maybe it’s that you’re always late or you’re bad at relationships or your genetics prove a gloomy future regarding health. If you tell yourself these things repeatedly you’ll believe them to be true and end up self prophesying your way into an endless cycle of same old, same old. Changing your mindset and beliefs is one way to take your life to the next level. If we tell ourselves we are always late we are always going to be late because we’ve given ourselves permission. If we shift our belief and tell ourselves we are always on time we will start acting more like someone who is on time. Say and believe who you want to be.
Change is an excellent time to shake things up. You get to decide how to rewrite your story once a page gets torn out. You get to rewrite everything your previously knew when your blog is sucked into a cyber black hole. So often we fear change, but if we look at it as a chance to begin again it can be quite exciting. There have been so many times in my life where I knew that I was due for a change, I felt it in my bones but I put it off because I was comfortable right where I was sipping my Bulletproof coffee under my purple blanket. Because I didn’t create change on my own the universe decided to flip me upside down, spin me around, and put me back down forcing the change that I’d already known I needed to make. What is fear anyway? It’s completely self imposed and (mostly) made up. When I start to feel fear or fear in disguise (perfectionism, procrastination, indecision, cynicism) I ask myself what the worst possible outcome could be… and it’s usually not that bad. Change is what you make of it and perhaps it’s time to create new content!
High vibes only please! Everything in the universe is made up of energy that vibrates at different frequencies. You, your food, and your coffee table are all made of atoms and all of these atoms are moving and shaking at different rates. A vibration is measured by a combination of regularity, speed, height, smoothness, and power. We can actually measure that when people are experiencing feelings of joy and happiness they are vibrating at a higher rate than when they are experiencing feelings of depression and the drudgery that follows along. So if we can uplevel our vibration by doing things that will make us happy we are emitting a higher frequency. Compare the vibrational energy of a beautiful tomato or head of lettuce that was grown with soil and sunlight to that of Cheezits or a fast food burger - which are likely to have a higher vibration and which are likely to give you the energy that make you want to shoot sunbeams out of your eyeballs (RIP Roald Dahl)? And we know that like energy attracts like energy sooooo the more we ride high on those vibes the more we attract those things back. Just think of those times where someone smiles or gives you a compliment and it instantly puts you in a great mood. Boom! Keep those thoughts at peak performance and share them over and over.
Losing my writing definitely sent me into some low vibrational moments. But I vented to some friends, took a few weeks off from writing, and allowed myself to embrace and get excited about some changes just in time for a new year. I encourage everyone to go shake something up in your life. Take that which feels stale or trite and set that shit on fire so you can make yourself a s’more and create space to build something new, something that better suites who you are in this moment which is new and ever changing.