Parties and play dates, picnics, camping, county fairs, vacations—summer in the northeast is brimming with every kind of energy. Not wanting to miss out on anything, it’s impossible to not find our August calendars full of fun and excitement.
Why do we do that?
We pack our calendars so full that we barely have time to think. Have you ever come back from a weekend away or vacation, thinking you need another vacation to recuperate from the one you just had?
We want to have fun, of course, and make memories with our friends and family. And for most of us, we want to be outside as much as possible to soak in that vitamin D we rarely get during the winter months. But something else is also going on. Sometimes we’re afraid we’re missing out, of not being included, or connected. And sometimes, when doing, we buffer ourselves from feeling, from being.
With the advent of social media, the fear of missing out (FOMO) is on overdrive. We feel isolated instead of connected. Our newsfeeds are full of everyone sharing their “best” life, and that can trigger different emotions including an energy of fear. What’s your first reaction? Happiness and joy that someone you know is having a great time?
Or is it something else.
This year, and especially now, great energy shifts are taking place. For many of us, things we thought we dealt with are now front and center, staring us in the face, often triggered by social media. And things we’ve explained away as “it’s just the way it is,” or “that behavior just runs in the family” are now bubbling to the surface.
With these energy shifts, we have an amazing opportunity to end the fear‐induced cycle of “something else” for good…if we want to do the work. It’s not easy (hard‐won goals rarely are!), but the result will be greater than anything you can imagine.
There are three things you must do to end it. First, you must want to end it, want to release the energy that is weighing you down. Then you must act upon that want, because intention without action equals nothing. Finally, you must learn not to be attached to the outcome. Many times we’re so fixated on a specific result that we’re blind to the fact that we’ve already achieved our goal.
So how do we do it?
The first step is realizing you’re ready to release whatever it is you’ve been struggling with. It sounds easy, but you need to remember that this is something you’ve been carrying for a long time. You may even identify with it so much that you believe it’s part of who you are. When you’re ready, you’ll know because you’ll feel that you’re ready.
Second is action. How do we divest ourselves of energy that no longer serves us for our highest and greatest good? We do this by taking the responsibility of ownership. Most of us want to know the “how,” “why,” and “when” of it. How did I get this? Why is it mine? When did it come to me? None of that is necessary; we simply don’t need to know. The important thing is to take ownership of it, whatever “it” is. By taking ownership, you are no longer allowing that energy to move through you; rather, you are moving through the energy until you are through it. You are no longer walking behind it or even beside it; you are now in front of it. And when you are in front of it, you see options and opportunities you didn’t see before. This allows you to take action.
Lastly, we must learn not to be attached to the outcome. The art of letting go can be challenging to learn and usually comes in small steps. Take these small steps…one at a time. You may be surprised by the outcome you achieve.
Once we start letting go of all the heavy energy we’ve been carrying, we start seeing what we perceive as changes within ourselves. But what we’re really experiencing is the emerging of our authentic self. When this happens, our view of the world is different.
We realize that solitude is just as important as activity, that being our authentic selves allows for the activity of doing. And we realize that what we feed our mind is just as important as what we feed our body.
The goal is to be in harmony and balance. Too much of a good thing is the same as not enough. So while you’re enjoying all of the activities of summer, remember to take some time to simply allow yourself to be.
Just breathe.
