Let those wake up calls wake you up!

A few years ago I was listening to an interview with Pema Chödrön, author and Buddhist nun.

She was talking about paying attention to life because it’s always speaking to us.

She told a story of how she had been appointed director of a Buddhist center in Colorado.

Of course, she was honored to be chosen for such a position, but she wasn’t thrilled about it.

The reason was that, at that point in time, her plan were to go into retreat for a couple of months, and this new responsibility would screw that up.

So, she found herself that evening in her room, complaining, and feeling that it wasn’t fair that this opportunity should show up at such an inopportune time.

Then, as she struck a match to light a candle, the flame caught onto her robe and quickly encircled her.

She acted fast and put out the fire.  But she got the message loud and clear:  Appreciate the gifts you’re given.

It was a wake up call.

And we’ve all had wake up calls in our lives.

Maybe yours showed up as a bad relationship, a car accident, a health scare, a strange coincidence, or even a dream.

A wake up call can take on many forms, but its goal is always the same:  To open your eyes to a change that needs to be made.

About 7 years ago, I had my own wake up call… literally.

“Deborah!”

I heard her voice, clear as if she was standing in the doorway of my bedroom.

Startled, I sat up straight in bed, sweating.

I was fully expecting to see my mother standing at the door of my bedroom, but no one was there.

It was a Wednesday afternoon in January.  I was off work with pneumonia, and I’d fallen asleep.

That was when I heard my mother’s voice waking me up, just like she used to when I was in school.

Of course, she had died 10 years earlier, and I knew she wouldn’t be there.

But hearing her voice, so crystal clear,  woke up something inside me.  It made me realize that life is meant to be lived, really lived, because we’re not around forever.

Up until then I hadn’t been fully listening to my own inner voice.

For years I’d wanted to make a career change, and make the move into fitness and health.  But I’d been too scared to really jump into it.

Instead, here I was, sick again, and my it was as if my mother was saying:  “Get up!  It’s time to make a move.”

So I listened.

That was the week that I got myself a life coach.  And 18 months later transitioned into what I’d been wanting to do for so long.

Have you ever had a wake up call?

Did you listen to it, or brush it off?

The thing is that life is constantly sending us subtle messages.  If we don’t listen to them, then life just continues to send us less and less subtle things until we pay attention.

Hopefully we hear these messages before our health or well-being is affected.

But often it takes a takes a dramatic event to kick us in the pants and finally give us the courage to make a change.

Many of the people I’ve worked with have come to me because of their own wake up calls.  Either it was something their doctor said, or the number on the scale, or a relationship gone sour that really made them look at themselves.

The thing is that, way too often, getting back into shape and changing our eating habits comes when we’ve allowed things to go too far.  Because we didn’t choose to pay attention to the small messages earlier on.

When we wait too long to listen, the wake up call gets loud and ugly.

But a wake up call doesn’t have to be a huge event, and it doesn’t have to be negative.

If you are more present and mindful, you’ll awaken before the message morphs into something louder.

And to be present means not taking so much for granted (because nothing is certain), and really taking notice of what’s tugging at you.

Write these things down, or meditate on them, or talk to someone who will really listen.

There’s a reason for thoughts that keep hanging around or things that keep happening.

Be curious about what these things may be trying to tell you.

And then do something.

And wake up.

Keep moving forward,

Debbie

PS If fitness is in the cards for you, there are still a few weeks left of Boot Camp and Yoga, and new sessions of both will begin in January.  Let me know if you’ll be joining us!

PPS Or if you need coaching to supercharge your health, nutrition and fitness, contact me and we’ll create a plan that fits your life.