• Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
RESOURCES
  • Home
  • My Story
  • High Praise
  • Work With Me
  • Blog
  • Contact

Practical Mystic

How to Get Yourself OFF AutoPilot

July 31, 2013 By Lorna 5 Comments

31 Jul

Life begins where your comfort zone ends.

 

Do you ever think about your default personality?  By that I mean, the way you show up and behave in new situations?  I used to think mine was a bit reserved, but mostly friendly and approachable—and then I got a serious wake up call.

 

I was taking the second class in a series on personal development.  The first class had been incredibly eye opening and important enough to me that I had signed up for the follow-on.  This was experiential learning—translation—learning by doing— and I already knew that they had us do some crazy stuff.  As I sat there that morning, I felt intense sensations of dread and anxious anticipation.  What were they going to have us do?  Could I handle it?  Would I embarrass myself?  What if I couldn’t do it?

 

Our instructor began the intro.  He went over the usual things—rules, housekeeping, expectations, etc.  But then as he dove into why we were all there that morning, he said something that rocked my world.  He said, “The way you show up here is the way you show up in life.”

 

Hmmmmm.  How had I shown up?  With that lovely dread and anxious anticipation I mentioned before.  Was that how I showed up in life?  Yes.  Yes it was.

 

As I thought more about it, I realized that I spent a ridiculous amount of time worrying about what I didn’t know and couldn’t control.  Despite being a smart, capable and resilient individual, I walked around in a constant state of overdrive when put in unfamiliar situations. This produced two things in my life:

 

  • More often than not I stayed in my comfort zone—within the safe confines of my home and family.

 

  • When I did venture out, I took most of my own enjoyment out of the excursion by being nervous, uptight and anxious—even in seemingly benign situations.

 

Inevitably, my worrying was for naught.  My worst case scenarios, fears and dreads never came to fruition.  Even in that class with all its craziness—I did just fine.  Reality has always been gentler than the nonsense I create in my mind.

 

My take away from this lesson has been profound.  Recognizing this anxiety ridden part of myself has allowed me to gently change it. When my blood pressure goes up and my heart starts pounding in an unknown situation I remind myself to trust.  Trust that I can handle whatever comes, trust that I am safe, trust that other people know what they are doing and that the best approach is to relax and enjoy something new.  It isn’t always easy, but when I am able to do it, the experience is richer and fuller because of it.

 

The class I took changed me.  That first day I showed up with dread and anxiety, nowadays I try my hardest to show up to life relaxed and excited for what will come.  I don’t always succeed, but I’m constantly working on it, and encouraging my clients to do the same.

 

How do you show up in life?  Do you need to change your autopilot the way I did?  Please leave a comment below.

 

Did this post speak to you?  Do you know someone who might benefit from this topic?  Please hit one of the buttons below to share on Facebook or send to a friend.  

And of course, if you haven’t already–please leave your name and email for a weekly infusion of health and inspiration delivered direct to you inbox–it’s free!

<p>Image courtesy of [image creator name] / <a href=”http://www.freedigitalphotos.net” target=”_blank”>FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>

Filed Under: Blog, habits, Mind Body Connection, Motivation Tagged With: habits, health, mind body, motivation, personality, wellness

About Lorna

Previous Post: « What Turns You On?
Next Post: Lifestyle Change 101 »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Aimelie Ronquillo says

    August 1, 2013 at 12:36 am

    Great post Lorna. I love how you said, “Reality has always been kinder than the nonsense I create in my mind,”.. Overall I think i show up pretty well, but i know there are times where I don’t necessarily want to be somewhere but have to because of obligation and create more stress than necessary. Great perspective on shifting my attitude toward trying something different and new.

    Reply
  2. Mandy says

    August 1, 2013 at 8:57 am

    Hey Lorna, brilliant post. Soooooooooo true isn’t it how we hold ourselves back from experiencing things in life… If we just opened ourselves up a little more and stopped worrying about worst case scenarios we can gain so much from the things we do. Thanks for sharing this.

    Reply
  3. Silvia says

    August 1, 2013 at 2:55 pm

    It certainly did Lorna. Love this line:

    Reality has always been gentler than the nonsense I create in my mind.

    I think this is a brilliant tweet! Will tweet it out!

    Reply
    • breathecommunity.org says

      August 1, 2013 at 4:26 pm

      Awesome Chef Silvia–thanks!

      Reply
  4. Desiree East says

    August 2, 2013 at 9:02 pm

    It’s so easy to forget about self-awareness in this way. I know for a fact that I am a worry-wort, and lately, I’ve been trying to pay attention more to my body and my breathing patterns. Thanks for the reminder!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • My Story
  • High Praise
  • Work With Me
  • Blog
  • Contact

What do the Laws of the Universe have to do with
ease and flow
FREE E-BOOK

Take me to the E-BOOK >

MESSAGES FROM THE mystic

Blog >

Recent Posts

  • What do you believe?
  • You’re making sh*t up
  • Mirror, Mirror
  • The School of Life
  • Will you be my BFF?
badge-logo@2x

my story

work with me

high praise

contact

home | resources | blog

© 2021 The Practical Mystic | Lorna Gager

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT