What Lights You Up?

This morning I pulled a card from Rebecca Campbell's Work Your Light Oracle deck.

I admit, I haven't pulled cards in a while now and everyday I promise myself that tomorrow will be the day when I include it in my morning ritual. I said such promise this morning and instead of postponing it to tomorrow, I opened the app and 'drew' a card from there. Pretty easy, huh?! Sure, if it were that easy I'd do it every day but somehow I was not ready to hear or read the messages and this is ok too, as long as it is part of the process. So back to the question: "What lights you up" was a good way to restart drawing cards and rekindle a passion of mine.

What Lights ME up?

• Without a shadow of a doubt, my 3 men are my daily dose of energy.
• When the boys come home from school and excitedly blurt out the news of the day as they walk in through the door, they make me feel fuzzy and warm inside... my light is on. I am grateful that they are so happy in school, that they've been blessed with friends, good teachers and a safe and great learning environment.
• When my hubby surprises me with a hug whilst bustling away preparing lunch or dinner, I go all mush inside and my light is just amped. I am grateful for the appreciation because since Covid-19 knocked the winds out of this planet last year, I feel like I'm drowning in dishes and laundry and trying to keep a healthy balance between work, home and life isn't always easy. That hug is my secret weapon to keep on going.
• My calls to my family overseas ... they are my roots, my foundation and that light keeps shining even when the video call ends.
• Conversations with my friends are also high on my list of what lights me up. Especially I love those raw conversations where we can just say it as, free of judgment but full of love.

However, as blessed as I am, and I am really blessed for my daily miracles, there is one thing missing that glues everything together.

Every morning, as soon as I open my eyes (to snooze my alarm for the first time), I unconsciously make a choice to turn on my light for the rest of the day. It's a choice we make to go on and face life with light in your heart or searching for life in someone else's shadow. We might not always be lucky to have the right environment where our light shines bright all the time. But, we can CHOOSE to turn up the voltage by which we can see life from a different perspective.

"Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars."― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. Be the light that drowns out everything else and share your space with the brightest stars.

There were years where I consciously dimmed my own light and my own gifts because, as strange as it might seem, I was scared of the light. I preferred to be in the backseat, and follow blindly and hide and believe it or not I hid behind a mask of extroversion. People who knew me then and meet me now think I went into hiding because I do not show any special signs of being outgoing. In reality though, I consciously made a decision to shine my light for ME FIRST and I feel happier, stronger, full of energy. It's one way of being selfish selflessly if that makes any sense.

If you, like me, are an introvert and struggle with keeping your light shining bright, I would like to suggest the following 7 tips which have helped me in my journey.

1. Breathing techniques help to refocus, clear the brain fog and lessen anxious feelings. Learning various ways of how to inhale and exhale recalibrate the oxygen levels in your brain. And that is only one benefit.
2. Dancing: I dance in the bathroom before I take a shower. Music varies on the mood but one song I like to 'shake and release' is Taylor Swift's Shake it Off song. Even if our bathroom offers limited space, it's me and me alone, it's one song and I really let my hair down. "Dance like nobody's watching" ... literally
3. Go for a walk in nature ... Nature has a way of matching your light and taking it up a notch or two. (My sister's favourite song comes to mind here... "I'm walking on sunshine, whoa And don't it feel good")
4. Schedule regular chats with friends and family, preferably outside your home but we all know that Covid-19 showed us other ways of keeping in touch. Do not isolate yourself. Keeping your light shining bright also requires us to keep a steady flow of fuel that comes from outside sources. In this case it's human contact. You do not need to be surrounded by people all the time, but a little contact keeps the fire burning longer.
5. Volunteering is another great way of brightening up your light. It's a give and take situation... you give your time and take away a sense of accomplishment that you helped someone else today.
6. Eat colourful food. Food makes us happy and the more colours on your plate the happier your brain is going to be. Can you imagine the firework display in your brain when you indulge in super foods full of colour? Delicious!
7. Meditation. There isn't a day that goes by that I do not sit on my cushion to meditate. Sometimes it is a guided meditation and other times I just use my noise cancellation headphones to cancel out the world and focus on the light in my solar plexus

"Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth." Mark Twain

And you? What Lights YOU Up?