Stories we tell ourselves
Our mind always tells us a story. It might be a repetition of something old, or an obsession of something new. It exaggerates. My mind is wired to tell me negative stories. I meditate and teach meditation not because my mind is calm from birth. It is because it helps me be present to the chatter and at the same time disconnect from the negative stories and create and embody new stories.
How is your mind wired? What kind of stories does it tell you all day long? Share with me by replying to this email.
Healing Your Money Story
The stories we tell ourselves affect our minds, they create patterns, some useful and some not so much. Yesterday, in my prosperity activation circle, we talked about stories we carry about money and how a very small incident from the past can affect our money patterns.
Here are a few steps you can take around healing your money story:
- Find one money story that you hold in your belief system
- Analyze how this story is affecting you now or has affected you in the past?
- Ask yourself if you can create and hold on to a more empowering money story
- Let go of your old story.
- Forgive who and what that needs to be forgiven
I will be talking about it again in detail in my upcoming free money-mindset workshop. You should check it out here
Increasing Your Income
In today’s world, it is increasingly important to have more than one source of income. You can start a business, get a side job, monetize your passion. I have been asked to create a webinar on this topic. I would love to know what questions about increasing income and having multiple income streams would you like me to answer in this webinar.
If you have tips around this topic, I would love to feature you on my blog about this topic. Reply back with your tips, your Instagram handle, and your website.
Finding Freedom From Within
Last year around this time, I decided to sit down and follow the Freedom process from the book Rise Above – Free Your Mind One Brushstroke At A Time.
Before I tell you about the process, let me backup a little bit.
I have always wanted to paint. But unfortunately, apart from having one random painting from school selected at an exhibition when I was young, I have not had any luck in getting any compliments for my painting abilities. I remember entering a private class at school for “better” artists for a painting/coloring exam called the “Intermediate” Exam where the teacher told me I was not good enough to be in that class and smirked.
I did pass that exam with a C grade. In my defense, many other people who have better art abilities than mine (a million times better) have also ended up with a C grade.
Since then, I have always wanted to paint but I have an internal dialogue inside of me that I am not good enough. So I have literally bought canvases from Amazon or Michaels and never really used them. Same with brushes and paints.
In fact, a few months before this book, I had friended a person who is an artist but I think I scared her away with my bad painting abilities. She kept postponing my invitation to tea at my place to show her “my really bad art” and then she never came.
But this is about the Freedom process. So let’s get to that.
So I came across this book a few months ago by Whitney Freya. In this book, she uses her Super Soul Flow process and inspires normal people like you and me who are “according to the society” not artistic enough to free our souls from any judgment towards the art.
She believes that the way we paint is the way we do everything else. She has a lot of processes in there. I started with the Freedom process today so will talk only about that and in the future, probably more.
I decided to buy paints, tiny canvases, brushes and palettes again. I gave some colors to my kids and we all had a painting time out for about an hour this morning.
In this process, all I had to do was to take the paint on my brush and paint the canvas one stroke at a time. While painting, I was to be mindful of all the thoughts and doubts that were coming to my mind. I decided to write them out.
And when I did this, I did realize that I do everything the way I paint. I have been definitely upping on my self-compassion but this helped me add light on where I was still needed more love towards myself.
I will warn you, these are vulnerable thoughts. I share, not because I want pity or sympathy, but merely to let you know that we are all human and experience humanity and suffering in different forms in our day to day life.
Here is a list of thoughts that came to me while painting this tiny little canvas:
- What will my school art teacher say about this painting? (As if I am going to magically meet her some day?)
- What will my family say? What a childish work of art?
- Is this in line with rules of art?
- How to perfect this?
- At Least these are chakra colors. Hopefully I am clearing chakras as I do this.
- Maybe it needs more color. Maybe it needs a better artist.
After writing this down though, something magical happened. I felt like drawing two lines like a bird with white color. And then a song started ringing in my head.
It was George Baker’s Una Paloma Blanca. And that is when I realized, I am so caged in my thoughts. And literally, this painting process was showing me all my thoughts that easily apply everywhere else (including what people will think about this blog after I share it)
I now believe that art in any form was made to free your soul from emotions, from hidden fears, to help you see yourself better.
Do you believe somehow at some point your mind and ego took over? You started dividing art by aesthetically pleasing vs everything else instead of letting it be what it was.
Have you seen children paint? They paint random stuff and they always admire what they do. As adults when people judge them based on their outcome, that is when they understand pleasing vs not pleasing.
So after that day, here is a promise I made to myself. I will paint. No matter how unaesthetic.
Nobody has to look at it. If it helps me get my self-doubts away, I will do it. I will be me. I will bring my inner bold child out and paint away.
Here is what I felt one more time that day:
Your mind cannot take your freedom away. Your self-talk that is masked by society, that is masked by past experiences, that is masked by ignorant beliefs cannot take your freedom away anymore.
If you want to look for freedom from this self-talk, you have to find it within. Through these simple but powerful processes that free you from societal norms that you have put upon yourselves.
This is what self-compassion looks like. This is what mindfulness looks like.
It is being there for yourself in the middle of your suffering and finding freedom from these thoughts that multiply the suffering. It is knowing that you really are a free bird.
Now here is my question for you. Do you like to paint? If yes, do you feel good about your paintings? If yes, that is great.
But if you do not, then buy this book and paint for your soul’s freedom today!
Thought of The Week
Too busy is a myth. People make time for things that are really important to them. This quote has stuck with me. It helps me prioritize, it helps me say no and it helps me let people make their choice of choosing what is important to them.
There is free will in the world and the more we understand this about other people, the more we understand this to be true about us and then we are able to value our own time and understand what is important to us.
By the way if you are not too busy and if finances are a priority, I would love for you to check out my upcoming 3 Day Free Webinar
