It is January 2020 and I look forward to the new year with hope and enthusiasm. Setting my intentions that this is going to be a year full of personal growth and spiritual expansion! I pull my annual tarot cards and the card I was given for 2020 was the King of Pentacles: abundance, prosperity, and security. I set out with a spring in my step being open to all the possibilities the new year will bring!

Then in March we experience something unprecedented; something no one could ever imagine, a pandemic. We are asked to self-isolate in our homes and work from home. I am blessed to continue to work full-time at home but now it is just me and my dog. You see, I am the type of person who gains energy interacting with others and now I am spending days on end by myself. I miss my family and friends. I ask myself, I don’t want to get lonely and shut down what I feel I need; being busy and social.

I went back to my annual tarot card reading to see what I pulled for March, Chariot: direction, control, will power. Well, I am one that tends to like to be in control of my environment, I have a direction to build my success mentoring program through networking and classes, and I have the will-power to get things done using the resources I am comfortable with and have always utilized. However, all of that has changed with the pandemic. I can’t meet and gather in person with others. I need to explore and expand new ways to connect and deliver my content.  As I start to feel the internal panic of what am I going to do, I take a deep breath and recalled that through every chaos comes the greatest gifts. So, I shifted gears and started enhancing my meditation practice focusing on identifying the gifts I am experiencing during this pandemic.

Gratitude:  I have chosen to be a victor instead of a victim. I listed all the things I was grateful for: ability to work from home, ability to sleep in later in the mornings since I don’t have the commute to work, saving money because I don’t have to buy gas, entertainment, or getting my hair or nails done! Once I started writing each day those things that I was grateful for, I became aware of how truly blessed I was.

If journaling isn’t for you, try decorating a mason jar as your Gratitude Jar. Then each day, write something that you are grateful for on a piece of paper and put it in your Gratitude Jar. Then after a year, go back and read all the things you were grateful for during that year.

Time:  The gift of time is so very precious.  I was able to slow down and spend time with ME (my essence). To get clear on what I really want to do in expanding my success mentor program and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. It is humbling to evaluate what I have accomplished and what I yet want to do to only realize I have already lived more than half of my life! I want each day to be filled with things that I am passionate about such as family and friends, inspiring others to discover and live their life’s purpose. To not let the day-to-day demands drown out what is profoundly important.

Commit to making a list of how you spend your time over a five-day period. Draw a line down the page and on the left top column list things I did for myself and on the right top column list things I did for others. Then at the end of the five days, circle the top three things you spent your time on for each column. Ask yourself, is that what I really want to spend my time on?  You realize, 1) how much time we waste, 2) how much time we spend on things we really don’t want or have to do, and 3) how little time we actually spend on ourselves. Then create a plan on what changes you are going to make and then do it!

Connection:  I am learning technology platforms that allows me to connect with others from all over the world! Even though we can’t always meet in person, we can still experience a true heart-based connection. A deeper connection that we have all craved even before this pandemic. It appears we have all slowed down and taken the time to connect with others while coming up with creative ways to interact on Zoom through fun activities; really tapping into the child-like playfulness! Also, as I spend more time on my deck reading and/or studying, I am really connecting with the healing and peace that nature provides us if we only take a moment to notice.

A great way to connect to nature, is to go out and stand barefoot in the grass, sand, or even water!  Take several deep breaths and drop into your body feeling all the sensations of how your body is responding to nature. This helps you to ground and center so that you can release all the stresses of the day!

Three months later and things are slowly opening up and I am stepping into a new normal.  2020 is half over and even with the unplanned changes in our lives, I discover that I have a deeper understanding of personal growth and spiritual expansion that I truly believed I would not have gathered if it wasn’t for the pandemic.

My wish for you and the world is that we create a new normal of slowing down, taking the time to connect with others, living each day with love and wonder, and building a heart-centered honoring relationship with the most important person in my life, ME!

If you would like assistance on identifying the gifts you have experienced during this pandemic or creating the inspired life you would like to live, I would be honored to join you on your journey!

Live life inspired by awakening your soul!

Kellie

www.thespiritwellnesscenter.com