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Stressed Out? Purposefully & Playfully Pivot through the Holidays

Guest post by: Brad Swift

Article Overview: “Deck the halls with boughs of holly-- Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la. 'Tis the season to be....stressed and overwhelmed - What? That’s not how the song goes. Maybe not, but it sure is how the season seems to go for so many folks. Do you become stressed and overwhelmed during the holidays? Maybe you become confused and befuddled, perhaps to the point you’re frozen in your life - like a deer in the headlights. If so, here's a simple and effective tool that will help -- the Interim Purpose Pivot. You can use it every day, even several times a day whenever you’re feeling off purpose, or as to use a technical coaching term, feeling icky.

Stressed Out? Purposefully & Playfully Pivot through the Holidays

“Deck the halls with boughs of holly-- Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la. 'Tis the season to be....stressed and overwhelmed - What? That’s not how the song goes. Maybe not, but it sure is how the season seems to go for so many folks. Do you become stressed and overwhelmed during the holidays? Maybe you become confused and befuddled, perhaps to the point you’re frozen in your life - like a deer in the headlights. If so, here's a simple and effective tool that will help -- the Interim Purpose Pivot. You can use it every day, even several times a day whenever you’re feeling off purpose, or as to use a technical coaching term, feeling icky. Noticing you’re feeling icky is exactly where to start. It’s like when you notice some of the nails on your deck have loosened and aren’t flushed with the surface (usually be stepping barefooted on one of the culprits) you know it’s time to get out your hammer. The next step is to ask yourself this question: “In this moment, is my life being shaped by love or fear?” Now, when you hear the word, “love” remind yourself that stands for Universal Love / Divine Source, as well as an experience of abundance and a willingness to flow with life. Also, when you hear the word, “fear”, remember that also stands for an experience of lack and struggling and/or suffering. Since you’ve asked this question of yourself at a time of feeling icky, the answer will probably be - fear. It’s still important to ask the question because it helps you to pause and be present to the moment and to what is shaping your experience of the moment. In fact, the next step is to pause a little longer and identify more specifically what are the thoughts and feelings that are present that has you feeling icky. Practice being as specific and accurate as you can. Not just, “I feel upset and and I’m worrying about money.” What are the specific feelings that you’re describing as upset. Anger, frustration, anxiety? And what are the specific thoughts you’re having that your grouping together under the general heading of ‘worrying about money.” Could be something like “I wonder where in the world the money is going to come for this year’s presents?” Or, “My credit cards are already maxed out, but my dears really do deserve that Wii they’ve been begging for.” Being Present to the Morass Without Marinating in It There’s a fine like between pausing long enough to be present to the thoughts and feelings that are shaping your life and ending up marinating in the morass of it all. How long this step should take will depend on the person and the degree of ‘offness’ you are experiencing. If you tend to avoid being with your inner nature because it’s too uncomfortable so instead you tend to cover those icky thoughts and feelings over with a layer of sweet, gooey positive thinking icing, then I encourage you to try going a little deeper with yourself. If on the other hand, you tend to obsess about your thoughts and feelings, you may want to spend a bit less time obsessing and more time just distinguishing them clearly and moving on to the next step. Also, if you in the midst of a minor upset, the purpose pivot can be performed much more quickly because you have drifted that far off course. But if you discover that you’ve actually been off for hours, days or even weeks...well, you probably have a fair amount of pivoting to do. The next step after this purposeful pause is to ask yourself this next question: “If in this next moment I were to purposefully pivot and allow my life to be shaped by love (abundance and flow), what would be different and what could I create?” In other words, what new thoughts and emotions might be different if they were being sourced from Universal Love?What I’m specifically referring to with the questions of “what could I create” is what new way of being could you create? Each time you ask this question, some new response may come up. Remember, the new way of being is coming from and being inspired by Universal Love / Divine Source, so some examples of what may come up are: * Peace * Trust and faith * Joy * Playfulness * A calm presence You see, the purposeful pivoting gives you the opportunity to consciously create who you are and your experience of life. Truth be told, you also “created” in a fashion the icky experience as well but that most often is an unconscious creation. The last step is to ‘lock in’ this new way of being in one or more of the following ways: * Create an affirmation that you can use to help you stay present to the new way of being. Maybe something like -- “All is in Divine Order even when (and perhaps especially when) it doesn’t look or feel that way.” * Take some action that is consistent with the new way of being. Perhaps taking a longer pause and meditate for 10-15 minutes, or go outside and play with your children or pet. * Open up your journal and write about your experience with purposefully pivoting. (then share about it on the Living and Working On Purpose Blog. ) So, “Deck the halls with boughs of holly -- Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la 'Tis the season to be jolly” as you purposefully pivot your way to a joyful experience of love, abundance and flow. Your Call to Action Assignment: Practice Purposefully Pivoting this week. See how this simple tool can enhance your life. Look at: * what bumped you off course, * when you recognized you were off, * how you used Purposefully Pivoting to bring you back on course, and * what difference you found it made in your life.

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Article Tags: holiday blues, holidays, overcoming upsets, overwhelm, pivot, stress, stressed out



Related Forum Posts
Re: What is your worst / best month? - Best months for my business are historically March/April/May & August/Sept/Oct Worst months: December/January (Holidays) & June/July (Vacations) I see our traffic go way up during the good months and way down during the bad months. Very cyclic. Keep in mind, my clients buy businesses and no one thinks of doing that during the holiday or during vacation.


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