Natural vs Normal

Natural is already established.

It is the Universal flow of things.

Normalized or the “new normal” is natural flow altered.

What has been “normalized” in your consciousness and how far away do you feel from life’s natural flow?

“New normal” is an expression that describes this perfectly. The “new normal” is Universal laws being silently re-written by an establishment of ego-minded human beings and honestly, in my opinion there are way too many new normals that do not serve our current state of being.

Let’s look at what is natural and what has become normalized.

1. Love is natural. Fear (and even hate) has become normalized.
2. Gratitude is a natural state. Complaining has become normalized.
3. Stillness & silence is natural. Busyness, over-thinking & over-doing has become normalized.
4. Rest, digest & full deep breathing is natural. Stress and fight, flight & freeze has become a normalized state.
5. Accepting others as they are is natural. Judging has become normalized.
6. Cheering on & supporting your peers is natural. Bullying has become normalized.
7. Feeling emotions is natural. Masking, denying, ignoring and numbing emotions has become normalized.
8. Miracles are natural occurrences. Holding onto grievances has become normalized.

I could go on…but you get the idea. Let’s stop normalizing dysfunction coming from fear and start getting back to a natural state of being.

This begins with intentionally becoming aware of the choices you make every day. How do you start your day? Unaware of how the new normal of anxiety can consume your day?

I woke up in this “new normal” for far too many years. It was literally killing me. Fear and anxiety had so much control over me and dictated so many of my decisions.

Until I decided to take back this control my debilitating migraines, serious digestive issues, back pain, anxiety attacks and anger issues were going to destroy my life. I had 3 children to take care of and not only was my physical health suffering but my daily mental state was what my 3 girls were witnessing on a daily basis – they couldn’t possibly understanding it – I couldn’t make sense of it.

Something needed to change. Blaming my circumstances around me wasn’t helping.

I needed to change

There is way more to this journey and it has many ups and downs, bumps in the road, obstacles and wrong turns along the way – I’ll explain it all in a book one day 😉 but basically fitness, yoga, meditation, tapping and energy work not only saved my life but increased the quality of my life. I am forever grateful for these practices.

Thank goodness I loved to exercise and was lead on a path of being a group fitness leader – which ultimately lead me towards teaching yoga and meditation.

About 15 years ago, a few years after yoga and meditation was impacting my life in a very positive way, I stumbled across 2 healing modalities that literally changed my life;

1. One being tapping – more specifically EFT with Nick & Jessica Ortner of the Tapping Solution.
2. The other being Eden Energy Medicine with Donna Eden (she was one of the presenters at the Tapping Solution Summit that I had purchased)

This began a lifelong passionate journey of courses with Donna Eden and following Nick & Jessica Ortner and their annual tapping summits – which of course have led me to many other healing modalities and ultimately lead me to become a reiki practitioner.

It is through these many years of courses and also my knowledge of the body and mind through my fitness, personal training, yoga, meditation, chakras, Ayurveda, and life coaching certifications that led me to want to offer these “Tap in” videos (free) for anyone visiting my website or following me on Facebook or Instagram.

I myself, begin every single day with an intention for myself and some form of tapping and energy work. There is never a day I do not do it. Some days I do a minimal amount and other days when time permits I do more. I teach a 75 minute on-line energy class every Wednesday morning – so I am physically and mentally benefiting from these practices on a regular basis.

One could say these benefits came from my years of teaching fitness and yoga and that would be partly true – however I had been teaching fitness for years and although I had been doing my best to take care of my body – my mind was a mess. My daily decisions were terrible and as I mentioned earlier it was affecting my overall health and the minds of my 3 girls as well.

Once I started teaching yoga and meditation many things in my life started to get better – my physical health for sure and I could definitely get a better grip on my mental mind. However, over-thinking, worrying and over-doing everything in my life often led to much internal mental chatter and negative self-talk.

I’ve added some qi-gong in over the years, Ayurveda and other interesting mind-body courses but Tapping and energy medicine have been the best way I can put all these awesome tools into a 15 minute video once a week to offer to those who follow me.

There is a theme to each Monday morning Tap in and an intention that follows in alignment with the personal development membership teachings – add some daily e-mails that typically support the theme as well and you have a good start to getting into alignment with your natural flow.

We “Tap in” the theme/intention so the physical body and mental mind can metabolize the topic of the week and integrate it into our day.

Doing this Tap in on a regular daily basis (15 mins!) can have a powerful, positive affect on your body, your mind and enable you to think in a different way, see things differently, make different choices and ultimately find your way back to a natural flow with the Universe instead of falling into habit and patterns of new normals that do not serve your over-all health and wellness.

Here are the many benefits gained when the simple routine we did in the video above is done regularly;

• Increased energy
• Stronger immune system.
• Increased endurance
• Whatever you’re doing in your day, you’ll do it more effectively & with more focus and awareness.
• Eases ache and pains and is especially effective with chronic pain.
• Mind-body connection – gets the body in sync with its natural healing intelligence and the mind into a positive mindset of healing vs suffering.

I can attest to each of these benefits… and it is worth noting; consistency is the key to long term benefits. When I used to talk myself out of doing them every day or forget to do them – I would feel it. I would wonder why I felt so “off” had no energy or was so achy and then I’d realize I didn’t do my energy routine – which is why I never miss a day now.

Here’s what we did in the video above and why we want to do this every day…

1. Bounce & shake (and sometime we tap with this – we didn’t today though); this is a sequence that wakes up the body and particularly wakes up the fascia in the body – fascia is the connective tissue that keeps all your insides together. (think of peeling the skin of an orange – the part of the orange that keeps the juice from running everywhere is the same thing your fascia does – peel your skin back and the fascia keeps all your muscles, ligaments, tendons and organs in place) So basically if you have an injury of any kind or experience chronic pain – you want to do this bounce, shake and tap sequence to take care of your fascia. Serious injuries of course would need some physio (which works with fascia) but this is a really good place to start or to add value to your physio appointments. Not injured? Lucky you! Do this “bounce & shake” to help keep it that way!
2. Cross-crawl and cross-over shoulder pull; you want your brain and body to communicate and doing these crossover patterns – enables the right hemisphere of your brain to communicate with the left side of your body and vice versus. When you consciously do this when you wake up (or any time of the day) you set this natural pattern flowing in your body. This means you can clear the mind-fog away and think with more clarity. This will also contribute to better co-ordination and if you are sick, getting sick or having a hard time recovering from a sickness – these cross-over patterns will be your best friend. (also fabulous for easing chronic pain when done often and regularly) Stress throws these natural crossing patterns off – which is why it is important to do this often – because stress has become so normalized in our world!
3. Donna Eden’s 4 Thumps;

• Tap under the eyes to ground your energy, come into your body and out of worry.
• Tap under and along your collarbone to get your energy (and meridians) moving in the right direction.
• Tap at the Thymus (center of chest) for a boost of energy and to boost your immune system.
• Tap just under and along the rib cage – spleen points are on the outside of the ribs which help to metabolize your food, medication and the thoughts that you think.

There are many benefits to all these points & movements – this really is a brief summary – the point is they are simple yet powerful points and they can get you in alignment with the natural flow of your body’s innate and naturally intelligent healing system.

Every Wednesday at 10:30-11:45am is a live on-line energy class using all these modalities and tips and tools. If you are not a member sign up here for this free week May 6^th-12^th and try out Wednesday’s class or check out the 6 other recorded energy classes in the archives.

Your body really can heal itself – you just need to release many of those “normal” beliefs, patterns and habits that have interrupted the natural flow of your body and these Tap in videos can help you do just that!

This Week’s Intention

1. Step back and notice what has become normalized in your life that does not serve you. Are you wanting to or willing to “do the work” to shift them back into a natural flow?
2. Do the Tap in videos daily (do the same one every day of the week – or choose a different one every day – there are many to choose from!)

Have a fabulous week my friends!

***If you are in need of and ready to get back to your natural state of being and feel you are ready for more than these daily tap in’s I would suggest  registering for June’s Silent Retreat  stillness and silence is a natural state – over-thinking, over-doing and busyness has become normalized – this retreat will reset this for you.

Contact me at leslie@wellnessdefined.ca with any questions or inquiry of personal coaching sessions, reiki sessions and availability or any questions regarding my on-line fitness, yoga and meditation classes or in-person (Edmonton) classes.