This month I want to talk about listening to yourself and getting in the flow of your life, specifically in the area of career and daily fulfillment.   Learning to listen can yield balance between self-care and nurture that includes restoration and creativity and productivity. Listening to your bodily sensations that communicate affirmation or resistance to a next step or direction can help you discover and stay with what brings you passion and interest, excitement and purpose.  Expending effort and energy is equally important with rest and restoring energy in achieving life health and wellness.  I want to honor the powerful nurture and feeding that can come from diligence and effort outward toward care of others in your journey as a student and professional.  Productivity can be deeply fulfilling and central to mind-body-spirit health.  

As human beings, we are designed to find fulfillment in initiating, creating, and generating.  Part of self-care is finding those projects, tasks, positions, relationships, and careers that feed us and give us an outlet to create and express what turns us on and motivates us intrinsically.  Part of self-care is seeing to it that we are compensated for those efforts both financially and with respect and validation from others in our field whom we respect.  However, ultimately what feeds, nurtures, and sustains us is the inner peace and joy that we derive from the tasks we put our hand to, the vision we imagine and fulfill, and the dreams we realize.  True balance incorporates all of the above:  Rest, Productivity, Physical Nutrition/Exercise, Spiritual Growth,  Internal Satisfaction, External Compensation, Acknowledgement from others, Meaningful relationships, and a Steady Sense of Personal Knowing that yields confidence, peace, and joy. 

Ultimately I believe each of the above aspects of the balance of efforting and resting with energy output and restoration can be found in a state of Flow. A few years ago I went whitewater rafting with my family and gained a deeper understanding of the concept of flow.  I discovered that we could paddle vigorously and become exhausted and get not very far down stream or even in the direction we desired if we were paddling the raft down the river but not within the current!  Once we found the current, the flow of the river, we could paddle less frequently, expend much less effort, and go much faster, even navigate directions within the river with much more agility, while experiencing natural intermittent rest and having fun!  I found this a fascinating discovery and have applied it as a metaphor to my life and career development since.  

I seek finding the flow current in each aspect of my personal and professional life.  I am still a learner on this path and approach to my life.  But I have discovered that when I purposefully attune my mind, body, spirit, and relational functioning mindfully toward the easy flow of energy with its own seeming power versus my own forced controlled efforts, I am more productive, less tired, more fulfilled, and have an easier return to balance when needed.  I have also discovered that secondary external rewards often follow when I am focused internally in the flow of self-motivation and fulfillment. 

I invite you and challenge you to listen to yourself, to become mindful of your motivations, your energy, and your body's response to your efforts.  I invite you to get in the flow of your inner passion.  Discover or remember what feeds you, what turns you on, what fulfills you even as it tires you.  What do you hunger for?  What are you willing to strive for?  These aspects of being human are equally part of self-care and nurture.  We are creative and generative creatures...let us honor and celebrate that in ourselves and each other.  Being a healer can be quite active and even tiring - in a good way. 

Finding and moving in balance is the key to health.  Listen to yourself mindfully.  Rest when you are tired.  Refuel physically, spiritually, psychologically before returning to action. Listen to your inner YES and inner NO and honor those for yourself.  Practice listening for what your mind, body, spirit, and relationships have to say in relation to your personal and professional life choices.  

Like an inhale and an exhale, we need both effort and rest.  And we thrive in the flow of energy between both.

So Listen!  And have fun, work hard, rest deeply, love fully, and play freely!

Peace, Gratitude, OM,

Elisabeth and the Moonstone Center Team