Connect with yourself
Table of contents
We are sensitive beings who need quiet and connection. Unfortunately, our fast-paced lives rarely allow us to take the time to ask ourselves what we need and how we could meet those needs. That’s why nowadays we keep hearing things such as “how to reconnect with yourself,” “refocus on yourself,” or “connect to your body”.
Over time, we’ve lost the ability to listen to our intuition, yet, that’s where all our answers lie! We know that the practice of meditation is an excellent way to reconnect with ourselves. So today, I’d like to suggest other ways to start feeling a deeper connection with yourself that complement meditation.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at how we can, step by step, relearn connecting with ourselves, living in balance with who we are, those around us, and our environment.
Work-Life Balance
Does your work-life balance seems somehow deviated? Maybe you check your emails at night so you can start your next day with a clear mind, or you need to work after hours to keep up with high deadlines.
When you equally prioritize the demands of your career and your personal life, you can reach a state of equilibrium, and that’s called “work-life balance.” So, let’s discover how you can create this balance by connecting with yourself!
Slow Down
When we decide it’s time to reconnect with ourselves — because we feel tired, because we don’t know what we want, and what we don’t want, because we have decisions to make, etc. — the very first step is to slow down.
Of course, we’re so used to running around that for many of us this step can be scary. And yet, it’s essential.
Slowing down can take many forms. It’s not necessarily about doing fewer things during our day, but rather actually paying attention to what we’re doing. Slowing down, in this case, means coming back to the here and now.
It’s time to get out of “autopilot” mode and become aware of our simplest actions. Interestingly, the actions we think about the least — because they are second nature — are the ones that either keep us alive (like breathing), or are extremely important and help us achieve a lot of other things (like moving our bodies, for example).
When we slow down, we allow our body and mind the time to recognize one another and can thereby more clearly identify and understand our own needs. Maybe that means you’re taking more time to do a body scan before you go to sleep or maybe you spend an extra minute brushing your teeth in the morning. Slowing down gives us space to be noticers of ourselves while also extending that attention to others around us.
Reconnect With Your Body
We tend to believe that the body and the mind are two separate entities. Even though we are becoming more and more aware that what happens in the mind translates to the body and vice versa, in our daily lives we act as if they are two separate worlds.
Our bodies and minds function in a way that they both affect each other. Think about it, when we’re stressed because there’s a deadline we need to catch up with, our bodies feel that tension. And this is only one example of many.
This means that if we want to reconnect to ourselves, we must begin by reconnecting to our bodies. Obviously, there are many ways to connect with your body. But today, let’s look at simple and self-administered ways.
Self-massage
Self-massage is an intuitive and pleasant way to reconnect with ourselves. Whether it’s in the morning to wake up, during the day to relieve tension, or in the evening after a long day, taking five minutes to self-massage can make a huge difference in our relationship with ourselves.
Self-massage can be as simple as sitting quietly or even lying down, breathing deeply, and asking your body “what do you need?”.
By relaxing the body, one can feel where the tension is (often present in the shoulders, neck, lower back, and feet, among others.) Once you’ve identified a part of the body that needs attention, gently place your hands upon it, making circular movements with your fingers following your intuition.
For a more in-depth session, it can be a good idea to use oil (such as sweet almond oil, coconut oil, or whatever oil you have on hand) to make the movements more fluid. Be careful not to massage too hard at the beginning, especially when you start the self-massage and when you’re just getting used to this technique.
Stretches
Stretching your body is an essential self-care technique for everyday life. We often associate stretching with sports, when in fact we all need to stretch our muscles every day to promote the proper function of our joints.
Here again, there are no rules to follow, rather it’s time to follow your feelings. In the morning, to wake up, don’t hesitate to stretch your arms and legs and feel the effect it has on your limbs. In the evening, before going to bed, you can do the same thing to relieve your muscles from the day’s activity.
Of course, you can follow stretching videos to learn how to do this. But in order to reconnect with yourself, I suggest you start by listening to your body and gently stretching where you feel it’s most comfortable.
Write Down Your Deepest Desires
What about our connection to our deepest desires? The ones we sometimes don’t even dare to talk about, because we believe they’ll never be realized?
Well, these desires say a lot about who we are and what’s really important to us. And yet we’ve often learned since childhood to aim for realistic goals that allow us to reach a certain material comfort or place in society. But isn’t life much bigger and more magical than that? And who said that dreams can’t come true, anyway?
So, in closing, here’s the exercise I suggest:
To reconnect with the bright flame that burns within you, visualize it and ask it what it REALLY wants. You can imagine it in your solar plexus, which is just below your chest, in the center. If this image doesn’t speak to you, ask yourself what you’ve always wanted deep inside. What images come to you spontaneously when you ask yourself this question?
Then write those desires down somewhere, whatever they are… and imagine sending them out to the universe. Who knows what will happen?
On that note, I wish you an excellent reconnection to yourself! As usual, don’t hesitate to share your comments with us, right below. See you soon!