Fitness isn’t just about body it’s about spirit and soul, too.
What if you were able to hear the inspired insight of your own quiet voice, above all others? The voice that is sure of your next bold move. The voice with answers to the questions of what to be, or do, or create; with insight into what would bring the financial wealth you desire, the relationship you long for, health and wellness at levels you have only dreamt about, an unbridled joy that constantly bubbles up from deep within.
What if you knew that these things were waiting for you? Not outside of you but within. If you knew that the next idea that would catapult your work, your art, your creative expression to new heights were right here, right now, would you pause? Would you take the time to be with you?
You are the smartest person you know. No one knows of the wonders that await more than your spirit, your eternal self. No one can. You have access to this wisdom in every moment.
Trust yourself. Take the time to hear you, apart from the stress of the outer world, which can hold us in patterns that we are not aware of. Patterns that can drown out our true voice.
Retreat within long enough to see, enhance, release, or repattern what is not of service. The book Long Weekend is about that retreat. The “why” of it and the “how.” This is important because it is about reclaiming our lives.
Spirit is always saying yes. She is our most intimate lover, who knows us better than we know ourselves. She sees things we are not yet able to comprehend.
She is truth, trustworthy and infinite in her nature. And because of that trust, that willingness to step off before actually seeing the whole bridge, magnificence happens.
Out of that stepping off, Long Weekend came to be. A year before it was published, I knew that I would write a book. I had no idea how, yet I stood in the knowing.
I took the steps that I could. I wrote daily, calling myself an author. Then I received an email asking me to be part of a book project that explored ideas of self-care, spirit, and vision.
A year later, the book is out in the world. I could not make that happen, but I could and did make it welcome. I cowrote this book from a place of listening. I retreated within, to places that knew the truth of my being. I retreated from the voices of doubt and reason.
Long Weekend is about rest and reset, renewal and recovery. It’s about getting still for moments or days, so that we can hear ourselves beyond all the external chatter. As a life coach, I guide my clients to listen to that still, small voice: the part of us that is asking ourselves to take care of this gift, this exquisite body, through which we experience everything.
I believe that we are spirit having a human experience. Spirituality is our wisdom, our wise self; it’s our innate knowing, our connection to all things. It isn’t something we have to chase down, run after, squeeze out, or make happen. We are experiencing it all the time.
It’s that indescribable feeling of connection—and disconnection—for how could we know that we feel disconnected unless we have known connection? In every moment, we are being shown the way to be connected. If we slow down enough, we will notice the lessons of this practice all around us: The sun doesn’t rush to rise, nor does the moon try hard to get to its fullness, or mourn when it is waning.
There is beauty and perfection in every stage. We are too often trying to get to peace, to get to ease, when it is right there in the journey.
Pause, right now, and listen to your breathing for three full cycles. Feel yourself become more present.
I wanted to write a book that someone could open and on any page find something that would heal the part of the self that doesn’t know how beautiful it is, how easy it can be, how loved it is, and how perfect and powerful you are right now. You don’t need to learn that next yoga pose, or complete that course, or gain the approval of anyone to claim this knowledge.
The opportunity that is this life is about one thing, remembering who you are. You are a powerful creator. There are many roads that lead to self-knowing.
We may or may not be able to go to ashrams, or centers, or find our way to nature. But we can always find a home right where we are.
All it takes is our willingness to pause and maybe even invite a few friends along. You have only to decide. The word “decide” comes from the Latin decidere, which means “to cut away.” If you want to cut away the mental noise and escape from all the busy-ness, what would you need? The first step is committing to caring for yourself, knowing yourself.
As you’ll discover in Long Weekend, “We can often keep time for rest, slowing, and quiet out there somewhere, in someday, when we have time (or space), in the land of wouldn’t that be nice, or if only…It’s a place we rarely find our way back to actualizing.”
Ask yourself, What would I LOVE. What is one thing that I can DO? Then do that.
Breathe and listen.
Rest deeper, longer, more frequently. It is not a luxury, it is a necessity. You are enough, you have all that you require to build an extraordinary life filled with all you desire. The answers, the calling, the knowing are within. Whether it’s for a moment a day or a Long Weekend. Your beautiful self lies within. Go there and roam.