Well this week hit with a different kind of energy! Amazing what a one hour time change when you spring forward (for those that celebrate) can do to a person! (and the whole family…)

We take so many of our signals and rhythms from nature, and it is something we forget to notice UNTIL something changes and throws us off our rhythm. Even if you wake up with an alarm clock, you still know how the world looks and sounds. The wavelengths of energy that let you know, without out even seeing the clock, approximately what time it is.

The biannual shifts of the clock mess with the relationship we have with our days and require us to recalibrate and adjust. This article in Scientific American calls this “circadian misalignment”.

Circadian misalignment refers to a mismatch in timing between our biological rhythms and the outside world. In other words, the timing of daily work, school or sleep routines is based on the clock, rather than on the sun’s rise and set.

source: Scientific American

Internal Rhythms

Our own internal systems have rhythms that respond to the nature systems that we coerce to follow the clock. Telling us when it's time to glow, time to rest, time to refuel our expended capacity for living life. Living a life that lights you up is about noticing those signals, appreciating what they are nudging you to do and embodying them by taking some form of supportive action. When we don’t listen to these signals and live too long outside of our capacity, we can find ourselves having a moment, shall we say.

Capacity: the chronological, emotional, physical, mental and monetary resources you have to work with and the boundaries that they each have that you need to honor and balance each day in order to live a life that lights you up

When you start to have a moment, I invite you to take a pause and ask yourself-

• What core need am I really needing to address right now?

• Where did the rhythm get knocked out of flow?

• And what do I need to ease back into it?

When I had my own moment this week, I saw that I needed-

• more rest due to sleep sabotage and the time change

• a mental break from the pressures I put on myself and not honoring my capacity

• to change and raise my vibe

And I gave them to myself!

Not as a reward once I pushed through one more thing, but as responding to the needs I saw I had with care and concern. It hasn’t been an instant fix, but it’s righting the ship and helping me take aligned action in the direction I want to go. The power of compound action over time has an even greater multiplicative effect when you combine aligned action, consistency and an inner vibration that matches. This printable goal setting tool has been helpful for me to work on finding harmony with each of these elements and I refer back to it constantly when I need a boost in recalibrating my journey forward.

Know Yourself

What are the things that your self is letting you know it needs?

Are you listening?

Are you saying to yourself, "of course you need that! Let me lovingly respond to that right away."

As I navigated my way through one of several moments this week, I followed my own guidance. I honored my need to rest and reset by laying down under my weighted blanket. I’ve found that being horizontal allows for the greatest rebalancing of my systems, like water finding an equilibrium point. I put on a meditation from The Projector Movement that I have found effective for easing the mental pressure that builds up based on my Human Design type. And when I was done, I eased back into the doing of the things by putting on a high vibe song that helps me tap into the vibration of courage to keep living a life that lights me up.

Something as short as 15 minutes can redirect your entire day. Possibly your entire life, if you’re brave enough to keep making the changes to keep realigning you toward the life that you were designed for, the one that lights you up. It’s what you do when you are in a dip, when you feel like you want to knock people’s hats off, and you do the things that help you through those moments.

If only you stop to notice what your inner self is telling you.

Make Your List

Do you have a list you can reference to help guide you through when you have moments like this? One that captures the specific practices and methods that restores your capacity based on this moment you’re having? When you are already tapped out, it helps to not even have to think about what would help you through this moment. We are all pretty prone to grabbing our phones or convincing ourselves that if we can just power through, then you’ll take better care of yourself. But experience shows us that it might dull the problem, help us avoid it a bit, but does very little to meaningfully replenish our capacity.

To help you create a better picture of what your inner self is telling you about what it needs and wants, likes and doesn't like, check out my printable mini-course on making a More/Less list.

Going through this practice myself, I now have a better bucket of ideas I can draw upon when I start to have a moment. And better yet, the things that I know more effectively reset my capacity for all the things so those moments are fewer and farther between.

Keep the lists you create wherever you can easily reference them in the moment.

• In your phone notes

• Written in your journal

• Bullet list in your planner

• Post-it on your computer

• Bathroom mirror

Building an understanding of yourself by what drains you most and what most effectively fills you back up, you can start to factor that into your schedule and maintain a better handle on the ins and outs of your capacity. Using that self-knowledge to anticipate & prepare for potential things that will strain your capacity by naming potential stress points, like seasonal time changes, will leave you more confident in navigating unexpected life moments that come up.

Raise your vibration

Using the power of music to raise your vibration is something I encourage you to give a try. When you sing along to it, it literally shakes things up in side of you and taps into the spaces within us that don’t have the capacity to put things into words. But we know sounds and we know vibrations. What is a song that helps boost you up when you are having a moment? As you consider your options, these are things I like to factor in-

• Honors where I’m at but nudges me to see a path forward, especially with the lyrics

• Taps into a deeper inner knowing that I can just inherently feel for no mind-validated reason

• Is in my vocal range so that I can sing it out without straining or forcing

• Stirs an emotional response to release what is no longer serving me or emboldens courage for taking aligned action

I don’t question the emotions and feelings that come up when I listen to “Night Changes” by One Direction (as cringy as part of me wants to feel about it), I just know that there is something about the line “having no regrets is all that she really wants” and the musical swell that happens into the chorus that stirs up my spirit into taking aligned action.

Use this prompt to help you make a list that you can refer back to and intentionally select from to help when life just throws you one of those moments and guide you back to a more vibrant version of yourself.

This week, make your list of songs that give you a boost and make a playlist that's easy to access. And make a promise to yourself that you will give your spirit a boost when you see it needs some love. Build your library of self-knowledge and feel the boost of starting to live a life that lights you up!

What songs are on your list? Remember, if you want a guided journey through all of the different lists you can make to know yourself better, grab the mini-course to start your journey today.

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Stephanie Rose is a mom, wife, business owner and a forever student in finding ways to know herself better. She acts as guide for your own journey, sharing insights, tools and practices to help you remember your magic and live a life that lights you up. Sign up for her newsletter and check out her free resources.

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