Mid-February 2025 Newsletter

Hello, and a moving-and-grooving flowing-and-growing Mid-February to you!
Welcome, or welcome back, to my newsletter. Today's issue is about how it's all right to feel relaxed. Enjoy!

In this culture which is so focused on productivity and getting ahead, we can tend to scoff at anyone who appears to be doing nothing. Maybe they've been working non-stop for hours and are just now taking a brief break. Maybe they're thinking carefully about their next step, which is better than acting impulsively and creating a problem. Charging ahead mindlessly, with no clear direction, isn't usually helpful.

When I was growing up in a busy household with both parents working and 2 younger sisters, there was a lot to be done. Not being busy was frowned upon. If I managed to get a few free minutes to escape and read a book, I'd get accused of being a "Lady of Leisure", which was as shameful as being a liar or a thief. Resting or taking it easy was for slackers! Since I wanted to please my parents and also wanted to be what they considered "good", I completely bought into this message and programming.

Starting vision improvement almost 25 years ago, I carried this childhood programming along with me. I had to work hard! Since I desperately wanted to have better eyesight, I believed the only way to make that happen was to strive and struggle, putting forth great effort. Yes, I kept reading that this work was all about relaxation, not pushing and expending major effort. However I translated this in my myopic mind to mean I needed to try to relax! Trying was all I knew. How else would I ever get any results?

With a great deal of emotional work and energy work, I began to see how anxious and nervous I was, how "tightly wound", then took hesitant tentative steps to change that. Some of the vision practices gave me direct feedback that trying was counter-productive, yet I was still slow to learn. Experimenting with gazing softly at the eye chart (had I ever gazed softly at anything before this?), viewing the letters while trying hard to make the blurry ones clearer, they got blurrier! Yikes! Changing this habit of effort was like getting a speeding express train to change its direction.

All right, I thought, how could this be more fun? In my energy training, I kept hearing that the path forward was to allow what you want to happen, inviting it in rather than forcing it or grabbing for it. Allowing myself to see, especially when the scene was blurry, felt way too passive to me. However I was surprised when I tried it with the eye chart, easily gazing over the letters, just noticing and slowly scanning, then the letters became clearer! Once again, my habit of too much effort was getting in my way.

Relaxation is when we grow and heal, the "rest and digest" parasympathetic mode of our nervous system. That forcing and trying attitude, which was so familiar to me, was the sympathetic nervous system "fight or flight" mode. I was treating whatever I saw like an enemy I had to do battle with! I am giving myself total permission now to let myself see (and approach most other things in my life) in a relaxed way. Who knew clearer sight could be so simple?

For an article on vision practice being more fun, click here.

Have you wondered if my work could help you?
I'm now offering complimentary Discovery Session consultations of 20 minutes or so, for us to discuss what you're looking for in a coach, and to see whether you and I feel like a fit to work together formally. To schedule your Discovery Session, click here.

Do you want your own copy of future newsletters?
If a friend forwarded this to you, or you're reading it from Facebook or LinkedIn, this is a hit-or-miss method of receiving it, and you might not see it next time. If you'd like to be on my distribution list, you can join here. You can un-subscribe at any time. Thank you!

Please send me your questions and comments
Let me know what you've wondered about concerning energy medicine or vision or dreams. I'll be glad to write a short article addressing that topic. Thank you to those who have sent me questions, or see a question you asked me in a private session written about here. You're helping many other people! Enjoy the second half of this freeing month of February. I'll write again in a few weeks. Take care!