Stress and it's many manifestations have been displayed in my life over the past few years. Anxiety.
Emotional Withdraw.
Spiritual shut-down.
And for months, I've walked with these shrouds over my shoulders--so heavy that they slowed my pace, even pulled me to the ground, restricting my forward movement to crawling.
And I've undoubtedly learned of the thick connection between these heavy emotions and our physical bodies. When we feel threatened, when our stress levels rise, our bodies change.
Our blood vessels constrict, our non-essential systems (digestive, immune, reproductive) shut-down. We become hyper-aware of our surroundings, perceiving danger behind every corner, our hearts racing with the fear of the unknown.
With increased levels cortisol pumping through our blood, we become susceptible to all sorts of genetically predisposed illnesses. Diseases in our family lineage become personal realities due to the stress coursing through our veins.
Simply put: our stress and anxiety destroys us.
What enters our life (the small and large tragedies) are often out of our control.
But we do have power to transform what comes our way.
We can take external circumstances and transform them into stress and anxiety.
Or we can take external circumstances and transform them into healing.
I'm (finally) choosing the latter.
For me, this means long walks. Still moments during the earliest part of my day.
It means petting my cat when I could be working. Taking long naps on weekend afternoons just because there is an open bed and my body needs the extra time to repair and heal.
Healing means talking to my sisters, to my mother, to my husband, to my father. Putting relationships before this constant pressure to perform.
And like this tree, bare and exposed, there are blooms starting to blossom. I can see them, I can feel them, and I know, soon, they will be open for the world to see.
Do what you can to embrace what is around you (good and bad) and transform it into something that will bring more peace and grace into this world. We are all trees ready to blossom. There are blooms everywhere, if you take the time to see.
