Unconsciously Over-Reacting

Last week, in part 1 of this series of how to develop a connection to your heart/Soul, I brought up the story of the family who was applauded off the airplane. I ended the blog with this statement: “Your free will is that you have the choice – you can choose to remain in the me-me-me game and 'clap away' or you can get out of your head and come from your heart with love and compassion – recognizing the true essence of who you really are.” The first key is knowing that you have the choice of coming from your head or from your heart. Today, in part 2 of this series, you will learn why the second key is awareness.

We tend to spend most of our lives reacting to whatever is going on around us. Someone nearly hits us because they’re too busy texting instead of driving and we may react by cursing them or going as far as road rage.  Someone gossips about us at work and we react by doing the same about them, or crying over it, or punching them out. Our significant other says or does something that upsets us and we react in any number of ways. Someone makes a political post on Facebook and we react with negative comments, we attack them or even de-friend them. Someone makes a comment and we just have to add our two cents. Are you beginning to see how we constantly tend to react? In fact, we over-react, meaning we spend most of our time in reaction mode. The irony here, is we don't even realize it. To really understand what I'm talking about, try the following exercise:  for one day, try to be aware of every situation that causes an emotional response. See what happens. See what you do. Just lovingly observe yourself and your behavior. Keep a record of how many times you catch yourself reacting to something and by the end of the day, take a look at your tally.  This exercise can be quite eye opening and is a great way to become more present, conscious and aware. Doing this exercise for a week to 10 days is a fantastic way to begin to train yourself on being more aware.

Which brings me to the next part, we tend to live most of our lives from the unconscious. We are living out lives based on past experiences and beliefs. If you think of your mind like an operating system, any time a situation arises, your O.S. will check all of your memory files for similar experiences and will bring forth any associated beliefs and emotions. These can be from when you were a toddler, from past lives or from ancestral files. Needless to say, a lot of the belief systems, from when we were children and from when our ancestors were struggling to survive, are no longer true or relevant to our present situation – but they sure do dictate it as long as we allow the unconscious to run our lives. In order to no longer allow the unconscious to run our lives, we must become conscious - we must become aware - as much and as often as possible.

It’s really hard to be from our hearts if we’re always from our heads. To be from your heart, you need to be present and aware. The mind lives in the past and the future, the heart is in the NOW. The mind reacts. The heart just is – Love. What keeps us from being from our heart is remaining on autopilot, stuck in our heads and letting our unconscious dictate everything. The first step to getting out of your head is becoming aware. Be in the present moment as often as possible. Focusing on your breathing is one way to bring you back to the now. Becoming more aware and present allows us more access to our hearts and helps connect us back to who we really are.

Love, Adrienne :)