Welcome to the Peaceful Power Podcast and today I'm chatting all about what happens when the pendulum swings too far in one direction..
Introduction
Remember last year when I was working on cultivating more kapha into my life? Yay I thought I was good bringing in more feminine flow energy and grounding when in reality I gutted who I was to my core, a fiery pitta who likes to get stuff done. I realized this after I stepped on the scale and had gained about 20 pounds. I just became so out of balance with who I was.
Can you be soft without losing your edge?
This was a question I started asking myself. Can I still be feminine but not completely lose my edge? After all the edge is what I've realized on my entire life- playing 3 sports in high school and college, being a double major and minor, always having 3 or 4 jobs, starting my own business, always looking to learn new subjects-yoga, Ayurveda, herbs through the years. For me I found I needed to strip it all away to come back to who I truly am.
What went wrong?
The Feminine flow to me is where I started to feel like I needed to look a certain way or be a certain type of energy to fit into the mold of what that "should" look like. After all I am a personal trainer running moon circles those are at odds, right? How can I be into such earthy medicine as Ayurveda yet love lifting weights and feeling strong? Cultivating that kapha energy really just stirred up confusion in my body when my mind was already at odds of what I "should" be. Recently I just decided I was going to be that girl. I love training and lifting weights having muscles, I also love working with the moon, meditating, creating herbal recipes in the kitchen. I am a multi-faceted human like most of us are. I tried to put myself in a box because it would be easier for people to "get me".
This is one of the reasons for my many social media detoxes. I had to get away from everyone else to tune back into me. I was recently asked on an interview on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird are you? In my head I was like a 10. Instead I responded with my favorite singer is Michael Bolton to which the response was you are at least a 6 and then you probably have some other quirks from there lol. I think when we try to push away those quirks or try to fit into some else's agenda we start to lose ourselves and what makes us unique.
How can we keep our innate nature and still function in our world today?
I think we can if we slow down to listen. As I was attending a yoga class with my mentor we were reminded to come back to our breath and listen to our body. I think when we take time, I call it divine time with ourselves everyday that is how we stay true to us. Not the watered down version that is easy to fall into but our true nature of who we are at our core.
How can you start to align your goals to your current self to help better the future you? Yes, that was a lot but really chew on this and journal. For me I have a physical goal for the first time in 3 years I want to have a 6 pack by Summer. I know it's possible all I need to do is clean up my meals meaning no random snacking mid-day because I'm bored, prepping for the week ahead, and planning out recipes to make. The other side of that is pick up my workouts. For me I've been working out just not as hard as I need to, to see real results. So I've upped my game and now am doing 4-5 lifting sessions a week programmed out and more running intervals. Just like my mom running always works for me.
Weekly Challenge
Where do you need to look at your pendulum in your life? Where is it swinging too far in one direction causing you to be out of balance?
Where to Connect with Andrea
Instagram- http://instagram.com/seasonallivingmamas
Facebook- facebook.com/andreaclaassen21
Website- andreaclaassen.com
