REassociate: Checking Back In
Greetings, my friends, from my sunset soaked patio. I want to share with you something that has made this night all the more tangible for me as I drink in the pink-bleached horizon, the rich blending of birdsong, and evening fragrance of sweet earth.
If you read my last enewsletter “REcognize Love When it Comes to You,” you’re aware that last month my back went out on vacation and I was thrust into an unwelcome week of excruciating pain.
Having recently injured yourself heightens your senses. You catch incoming objects in your peripheral vision. You adjust yourself more carefully when getting up and down. You sit and stand more consciously.
Every intense emotional experience makes an imprint on your consciousness. One outcome can be that you start to notice things that you have ignored.
This last month I have consciously removed caring for myself OFF the back burner and promoted it into everyday life. I’ve enlisted physical therapy, massage, acupuncture, and chiropractic to lovingly restore my body.
As I’ve done so, I’ve invested money, time, and – most acutely felt –– in myself (time away from family and work). It has been awkward and at times has felt indulgent or selfish. It has been those feelings I’ve had to bring under the greater truth of caretaking.
Have you bumped into those very feelings yourself? Like you are somehow wasting time, or letting others down, or being selfish if you actually take care of yourself? These feelings – grounded in lies of self-abandonment – will drive us into a fragile state of exposure.
As I’ve been gaining victory over those hidden sentiments that kept me fragile, I’ve been REassociating with myself. Even if you’re not in need of a health upgrade, maybe there’s another area of your life – your marriage, your work, your home, or your parenting, where you, too, can REassociate….
To “associate” means to:
Connect or bring into relation;
I’ve been re-connecting with myself! Everything in this “house” called our body is connected – from the tip of our head to the sole of our foot. (Did you know – among the millions of examples of bodily interconnectedness – that the feet, the hands, and even the face are mini “maps” of the body and can help you trace symptoms to causes?)
Unfortunately, neglecting the care of my frame for the past many years in deference to parenting, business, and educating, has caused me to disconnect from ME! Not that I’ve “lost myself” as some say, but that I was unconsciously separated from signals I was trying to send Me!
Not any longer! I am beginning to REassociate by doing for myself what I do for others – treasure hunting (looking for relationships between things and hidden treasure) the root causes of everything that manifests externally. What’s true about good organizing is also true about the whole of life: get to the root of the problem if you want to see lasting change!
What can you begin to reconnect in your life? It could be as practical as regrouping with your kids and realigning their routines as summer arrives. It might be as critical as long-overdue connection with your spouse. Or maybe, is as impactful as finally investing the time figure out your life’s purpose?
REassociation is a reconnection to what matters. Is there anything in your life have you allowed yourself to become separated from?
To join as a companion, partner, or ally;
Endearingly, this definition of “associate” is a befriending. Isn’t that a lovely way of thinking about caretaking??
As I shared with you in my last newsletter, I have finally caught the heavenly drift that it’s not enough to “whip my body into shape;” but the right approach is to take care of it in LOVE.
As I am REassociating with myself, I am often bumping into an urgency to “fix” something. Thankfully, after my run-in with agony, I am not being duped into this driving demand anymore. When I see something that needs attention, I am now beginning to ask the question about what lifestyle changes I can make or what related issues are causing it. In this way, I am experiencing restoration!
Think about it: your best friend would not harass you into changing yourself out of shame or pointing out your brokenness. So, why do we allow ourselves to become our own worst critic?
To REassociate in any area of life, you must first begin with a genuine love and friendship for yourself.
You must become your own advocate, ally, and cheering squad! Sometimes when I am facing a daunting task or overwhelming situation I will go for a walk and exhort myself, reminding myself who I really am, and how I am uniquely equipped to tackle that task or situation, and all the promises of my life.
Have you been acting as your own friend? Or, have you been acting as a critic, or worse, an accuser?
If we want to experience restoration in life, we must begin by replacing those inner tapes with Truth or else our outcomes may be short-lived because we served a false motivation.
To unite;
I find in this final definition of “associate” a life truth for us all: when we come back together as body, soul, and spirit, we are finally reuniting into a whole person.
To use a word picture, if my spirit is the engine of my life, my soul the box car, and my body the caboose, in my case my poor caboose was chasing the first two cars barely connected by a thread!
When my frame collapsed on vacation last month, I searched the realms for answers, beginning in my spirit and soul. A few minor players emerged in that ballgame, but pretty quickly I began to see that it was in fact Body who the recipient of too little attention!
In giving overdue, loving attention to Body, I am bringing back into unity my three-part person.
Maybe this is your opportunity to REassociate with your body, a relationship, or maybe even your home or workplace. Has there been one area, space, or even person you’ve unwittingly neglected? We don’t have to begin restoring attention by beating up on ourselves for our oversight! We can simply begin!
I like to think of the work we do as professional organizers as chiropractic work in the physical realm. We help gently “tap” back into order that which has been dislocated and is causing chaos. When we bring attention and restoration back to an out-of-order issue, we are bringing the whole system back into unity!
I invite you to join me on my journey to REassociate! Personally, I am starting with befriending myself and becoming my own ally. I’m reconnecting the dots and believing that there’s a treasure buried in every map life presents. Finally, I am bringing back into unity an area that was out-of-order so that I can function at my highest capacity.
A rather immediate outcome of REassociating is that life will taste sweeter because YOU checked back in! You’ll notice things you had neglected in many areas of life, so that you can take back even more territory. You’ll become a more conscious participant in life, which is a first necessary step to becoming a change agent. You’ll find yourself appreciating the often overlooked things, like the nightly birdsong and spectacular sunset (that put on a majestic motion picture each night – whether or not you are present enough to perceive it).
REassociating in life is a gift; one that allows us to become a more engaged partner in this business of making earth a bit more heavenly!
Yours in Friendship
– Vicki Norris
Related:
- Sign up to receive our monthly inspirational [Restore] enewsletter
- Join the movement of Life Reclaimists by signing up for my free Life Reclaimist Jumpstart
- Visit our Life Reclaimist page for more resources
