Salute to yourself

Recently we celebrated ANZAC day, a very important day in our history. On this day, we celebrate with respect, honor and thanks to those who died in the World Wars. If you haven't experienced the power of such a day first hand, maybe you can imagine it.

We recognise the reasons behind the war - to protect our loved ones from risk, and potential death. On this day we acknowledge the many who literally laid down their life to ensure the safety for others against some of the worst fears.

At the moment, we could equate the current situation to a war against an unknown. At least in the other Wars, we knew exactly which country we engaged with, their philosophies, their principles etc and why they were fighting.

We were able to identify with something but in the current situation war is a lot more insidious, and in many ways an unknown. We can't actually see it, feel it, touch it. We are experiencing the social, economic and health impacts, but, we don't actually see 'it'.

We are required to respond in a very different way. The threat of the virus.

There's a few ways we could explore the situation and relate it to the physical wars of past.

The language used by governments, media, friends, communities etc..Your reaction to these words and the filter that you are hearing them through. 

Are you hearing fear, propaganda, restrictions, control, etc or on the flip side, are you hearing messages from our government, health system etc of providing safety, security, understanding, Wisdom and insight into how to self-protect and how mitigate the risk of this silent threat we are experiencing? 

Another example of this is.... All of us, and I mean every single one of us, have lived through our own wars. We don't get to our age without fighting battles, and these are our own Wars, held in yourself, projected out into relationships, social spaces, work etc, just as the viruses are being projected into the economics and social interaction. 

We have our own battles in our own mind. 
Our self esteem at times, relationships, careers, when we don't understand or appreciate other people's perspective. 

On the bigger scale and talking about the, big issues. Maybe when you've been dismissed from work or friendships when dissolved or peeted out. There's all the emotions and the feelings that come with this and hopefully self analysis. 

Hopefully self reflection follows, asking "What actually happened? What is this?" And sometimes we start to really get critical of ourselves and then then the war can start. It's quite easy to get quite bitter if we expect ourselves to doing things differently.

Their might be regret, grief, anger, frustration, loss, all these bigger, heavier emotions can come to the surface. It may if not resolved lead to depression, and that is even a bigger war, and how often do we fight the Wars? 

I know for myself, when I've had depression. I've had some thoughts for months on end, and it's only when I really, really digged deep to understand the history of the trigger points that life improved. 

Another analogy could be like a boil. Until we actually get down, right into the actual bacterial source, the boil keeps coming back. So we need to open it up. We need be able to push out all the gunk, all the yucky stuff. And then we also need to clean the infection with antibiotics at the core bacterial infection, in that particular spot. 

But, how do we do that when we have emotional war. How do we do that when the mind is racing, the mind is, really going around in circles and between self negativity to trying to function living.

Again, it is a silent war. 

Not many people can hear our own silent war unless we share it. Not many people will see a problem, because most of us put on a very good mask. We hide our true selves for our self protection. It's part of our copy mechanism to say, "Oh, everything's fine". When in reality, maybe you're falling apart and crumbling on the inside, and you would just love someone to sit with you long enough so you can just get all the gunk out of your head and out of yourselves and out of your body so that you can then start to heal properly.

Maybe it was a job, a career, a relationship, a friendship, something in the family. Maybe the trigger is just self trying to come to terms with some of your choices. The grief and process the disappointment, whatever it is, it doesn't really matter as the question is, "Have you been able to do the steps to actually get to peace?"

Have you been able to let go the bits and pieces that have been keeping you trapped, still chained or tied down to the past or to that cycle of fighting? 

Or have you been able to stand up like we do at ANZAC Day and play your bugle to honor what you have gone through. That now you are able to stand with self respect, honor, praise, recognize and give massive amount of thanks to all the parts of your life that you have gone through to date?

Knowing to that each every single step that you've taken, every decision, every action, every thought has in fact brought you to where you are now. If you're in a great space, I'm going to challenge you. How often do you actually say to yourself, thank you! 
Thank yourself for sticking it out. 
Thank yourself for doing the hard yards. 
Thank yourself for taking the time to know, and learn different things. 
Thank yourself for being open to others. 
Thank yourself , for just taking things little bit deeper and seeing what your soul actually is, which is - just love. 

Or if you not quite there yet, still go on and give yourself the respect and give massive amount of thanks for all the hard yards you have done to date.

If you're not even halfway there, then go right back to where you are, and that's perfect because every place is given out at its own right time.

Start where you are emotionally, mentally, physically, as this is not just about gratitude, it goes beyond gratitude, but actually honor and give thanks. 

The fact that you're still here, the fact that you haven't left the table, the fact that you are in a sense still seeking or you've still committed to doing and doing things just to get through, to be honest, even on the worst of the worst days. 

Wherever you are in your journey at this point, I challenge you to really just sit. Just sit and ponder, look at your life experiences to date and see, yes, the things that have stuffed up, but see how you moved through that.

And if you, are still stuck emotionally or mentally in some of those bits, forgive yourself. Reach out, journal, tap through it. See your efforts and thank that part of you that has had the courage to do this. 

If you would like to venture more into healing, then I am only a phone call away. ​​