May 05, 2008
Want Self Growth?
Find Your Sweet Spot!
Well Being Stream Ezine – Issue # 001 – May 5, 2008
Welcome to the very first issue of the Well Being Stream Ezine!
For a really long time I’ve wanted a vehicle to share information about wellbeing and self growth with as many people as possible, and at last that vehicle is here with this website and ezine. I gotta tell ya, this is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in my life. Really! I sure hope you get as much out of reading it as I do in sharing it. :-)
So, how is your Spring going? It is so lovely here in Colorado. The grass is growing again and orange poppies are blooming in my front yard. As I’m typing this, birds are singing to me from
outside my window. This is when it really starts to feel like Spring to me – my windows are open, sunshine is streaming in, birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and I can go outside without layers on! This year I even have two wildly adorable baby bunnies that have set up housekeeping in my back yard! They are as cute as they can be.
Wherever you live, I hope that you are feeling the energy of newness and aliveness of Spring, along with its abundant support for self growth. May you know the radiant light of your own Being, with every step of your path along the way.
Kai Hu
WellBeingAlignment.com
Table of Contents
1. Featured Article: Want Self Growth? Find Your Sweet Spot!
2. What’s New at WellBeingAlignment.com?
Want Self Growth? Find Your Sweet Spot!
One of the reasons I choose to live in Colorado is because the seasons are very distinct and the energy of each one brings with it different opportunities. With each season I feel a different kind of self growth support from the Earth. This last winter I felt support to burrow in, reflect, take stock, evaluate where I am in my life and to plan.
Then, as we edged toward Spring, I could feel an entirely different energy coming in. Now the Earth energies are giving us support for new life, new directions and possibilities for self growth. It’s exciting! This is a time of year when it’s 
easier for us to push past our comfort zones, to grow and stretch. It is like the journey that my bright orange poppies make each year. The sun coaxes the bud up through the soil, while the roots dig into the rich earth below. 
Then, in its own time, the magic moment comes – a radiant splash of orange bursts out of the bud and what a celebration of life it is!
That sensation of being drawn up and out is the gift that Spring gives us each year, whether we are conscious of it or not. This gift is a radiant spark of energy that bursts from within,
encouraging us to find and follow the path that fills us with the most light, while we are simultaneously encouraged to reach deep into our grounding to support the thrust upwards. This self growth energy that is as available to us as it is to the trees, flowers and animals, especially if we tune into it and open to its power.
Brain Plasticity
Speaking of stretching past our comfort zones, I saw a PBS special recently about brain plasticity. A medical doctor said that one of the key ways that you can keep your brain young and alive is to keep it challenged, to keep stretching and pushing past your comfort zones, to try new things. When we do the same old things day after day, the brain isn’t stimulated and we can lose brain plasticity and function.
On the other hand, when we try new things, the brain’s capabilities for self growth expand and more wellbeing chemicals are released, so we’re happier! An important key in maintaining brain plasticity is balance. We need to be challenged but not pushed so much that we are under constant stress, which can actually go the other direction and cause debilitation. So there is a “Sweet Spot” between the two extremes of stagnation and over stimulation that is different for each person. We each need to find our own Sweet Spot, the place where we thrive on challenges that excite and invigorate us but don’t wear us down.
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“A sweet spot is a place, often numerical as opposed to physical, where a combination of factors suggest a particularly suitable solution.” |
Finding the Sweet Spot
Finding the Sweet Spot in whatever you’re doing keeps you in the wellbeing zone. Here’s an example. I tend to be an introvert more than an extrovert. The Sweet Spot for me in the social aspect of my life is a place where I sometimes have to nudge myself to get out and get together with friends. Too much of that can be stressful; too little of that and I feel isolated. When it is “just right” I feel pushed past my comfort zone into places where I’m challenged but enriched. This is the place of optimal wellbeing and self growth.
So, how can you find your Sweet Spot? Look for whatever lights you up when you think about it or imagine doing it. I’ll give you an example from my life about how this works, then we’ll take a look at what areas the Universe is already nudging you to explore.
The idea of creating this new website and ezine has been exciting me for years. Now that it is finally manifesting, there aren’t many things I’d rather be doing than working on this site. However, as much as I love writing and sharing about self growth, learning the mechanics of the site (new software, setting up templates, etc.) could be overwhelming if I let it.
Working With Your Emotional Feedback Guide
So here’s what I do. Each day that I work on the site, I look over my “To Do List” and look for which item excites me and lights me up the most. Recently that has been figuring out how to use the Mail Out Manager so I could get this ezine out to you. It has me really fired up right now. When I think about the ezine, ideas immediately form about what I want to do and a flow of make-it-happen energy develops on its own.
On the other hand, there are some other things that need to be done that bring a feeling of contraction when I think about doing them now, like figuring out how to set up the RSS/Blog portion of my site. Because it doesn’t excite me right now, I just know that it isn’t time. I also know that when it is the right time to do it, I’ll be filled with excitement and light.
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“All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it!” |
In following my own Emotional Feedback Guide, my self growth feels very much like the poppy’s blooming process that I described earlier. I feel drawn up and out instead of pushing or grasping. I feel aligned with the Universal Life Force, which is the one who is doing the “work.” I just need to keep doing my job of looking for the option or choice that lights me up, moment by moment in every department of my life, then follow that.
When I pick the option that brings excitement, I know that that is “do-able” for me right now. Even if I have no clue about how to do it, I know I’ll figure it out. The excitement propels me forward and motivates me to keep following the choices that keep me flowing up and out (like the flower) to accomplish it. This keeps me in the Sweet Spot! I’m challenged enough to feel stretched (so the brain, body and mind are happy and alive), yet not stretched so much that I’m stressed about it. Sometimes when I’m working on the site, I wake up so excited about working on it that I go right to the computer and it’s well into the day before I realize I haven’t eaten and I’m still in my pj’s!
So, enough about me.
What Is Calling You?
What would you love to do that challenges and excites you? What lights you up with joy and anticipation when you think about it? What gets your juices flowing? When you’re at the end of your life, looking back, what would you love to say this about: “I’m really glad I gave that a shot!” instead of: “I wish I would have tried that.”
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“Happiness is a direction, not a place.” |
Whatever it is, this is a good time to start it because the Earth energy of Spring is giving you a tremendous amount of support to do that very thing, right this very moment. This is the very same self growth energy that is making new buds on the trees, coaxing flowers up above ground and making lots of baby bunnies and ducks! If it can do all that, what can it help you to do? All you have to do is look for what brings good feelings into your being when you think about it. These feelings are the evidence of the Spring energy already in action inside of you. It is Life Force saying “I’m here with all the aliveness, resources and energy you’ll ever need to do this thing. C’mon – let’s do it!”
Just Say YES!
Once you follow that call it is like saying YES! to the Universe. Then the Universe says YES! back to you. If you just keep saying YES!, it will keep echoing back an even bigger YES! Try it and you’ll see!
As you follow this guidance of light and inspiration inside you, at times you could still feel stretched, uncomfortable and awkward, the edginess of self growth. That’s because you open up to a new world every time you say YES! to those urges that light you up. You move out of the old, stagnant, boring, predictable place and into a new zone where you don’t have all the answers yet. But they will come as you need them, if you just keep following the aspects that bring good feelings and light when you turn attention toward them. The light itself will take you through the whole process and you’ll become much more than you ever were before.
Spring Energy Is Always Available
We don’t have to wait until Spring shows up on the calendar to access its energy of self growth. It is also heightened at these times:
- On the New Moon, which is today, May 5, 2008. Next month it is on June 3.
- Every morning. (Morning is Spring energy, noon is Summer, late afternoon is Fall and night is Winter.)
- Any time you consciously look for what brings feelings of aliveness and openness to you and you say YES! to it.
Many blessings to you! Drop me a line and tell me about your new adventure!
What’s New at WellBeingAlignment.com?
If you haven’t been to the site in awhile, c’mon back for a visit! Here are the newest pages:
How’s Your Alignment with Abundance?
There are three important factors that determine our experience of abundance and prosperity or the seeming lack of it:
- Where we focus our attention, either on the fulfillment of abundance or on the lack of it.
- What we accept and believe we deserve.
- Experience or inexperience in opening and receiving. Read more …
Mind Power – How to Break Free of Limiting Beliefs
With a simple process you can discover and let go of restrictions you’ve put on your life with unconscious or conscious beliefs. This can help you align yourself with more wellbeing than you’ve ever known before! Read more …
Feeling stuck? With this do-it-yourself process you can easily release negative energies that may be holding you back. This is the latest installment in the “How to Be Happy” series. Read more …
Need some help? Here are two awesome practitioners who can help you align with wellbeing and disentangle yourself from dis-ease.
Read more …
What’s Coming?
A website reader recently asked me about How to Meditate and I think that is an excellent subject to cover (Thanks Terron!). There are so many different ways to meditate and so many benefits from doing it. I want to help you discover your way – the way that is best for you! I’m looking forward to writing on this subject. I’m excited about the following upcoming topics as well:
- Self-Empowerment Comes From Love
- Creative Visualization
- Addiction Recovery
- Pain Relief
- Gratitude
- Creativity
- Relaxation and Play
- Natural Giving
Are there wellbeing subjects you’d like to read about? Drop me a line and let me know your ideas.
Pass It On
If you like this ezine, please feel free to pass it on to anyone who you feel would be interested. If a friend forwarded this ezine to you and you’ve enjoyed it, you can subscribe here.
Contact
Have any comments, ideas or feedback? Drop me a note – I’d love to hear from you!
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Photo Credit: © Dreamstime.com | “Rainbow” by Algol