Expansion / Contraction Exercise
Personally, I believe mindset has a lot to do with success and fulfillment … I wanted to give you a simple but effective exercise you can implement immediately. Something very valuable to take away from this presentation; and something you can use for the rest of your life.
Relative to Awareness, Beliefs and Choice, this exercise has four levels … basically: variations on a theme. Do it at the level that suits where you are now; then, push yourself a little out of your comfort zone and try to incorporate more as you adapt.
AWARENESS
You are in one of two places (or states) at any given time
You are either in a state of expansion or in a state of contraction
If you’re in a state of:
Expansion = you feel joyful, excited, grateful, appreciative, relaxed
If you’re not in expansion, you are in a state of:
Contraction = you feel embarrassed, concerned, guilty, fearful, doubtful, worried
You cannot feel both at the same time although you may bounce between very quickly
EXERCISE: For now, simply be aware of the two places. Any time you become aware of a feeling ask yourself: “is this a state of contraction or expansion?” That’s it.
BELIEFS
You may not believe it is possible to change your state … be it expansion or contraction … simply through awareness and/or choice. Beliefs are ingrained and take time to learn and unlearn. Give yourself permission to be patient with you.
Once you’ve practiced simply being aware of each state and start to recognize the difference in yourself, take it to the next step.
Notice how you felt in each state.
Were you in one state more than the other?
Why do you think that is?
You may or may not know that I am a Certified Money Breakthrough Method Coach. This exercise is a variation of one we work through relative to money beliefs. Since how we do one thing is how we do everything, these states of expansion and contraction can be applied to many other scenarios and situations. Today, we are simply looking at the states from a generalized point of view.
At any time throughout your day, when you’re feeling emotional and check in with yourself to determine whether that feeling is expansion or contraction, that’s all we’re doing right now. Familiarizing yourself with the difference in the feeling and simply being aware of the difference.
CHOICE
Most people are not familiar or comfortable feeling a state of expansion on a regular basis.
GOAL: choose to increase the feeling more often
EXERCISE: keep up your awareness. Each time you recognize contraction, choose to put yourself in a state of expansion by thinking about something that makes you feel grateful, excited, or appreciative; watch for a sense of relief, unburdening, or lightness
For now, choose the SAME item to take you to expansion. Do your best to feel the feeling. This will start building a new neuropathway or trigger and, very quickly, you’ll be able to go from feeling contraction to expansion in an instant.
It might feel a little strange at first and that’s OK. You might shut down almost instantly due to fear of change. That’s OK too. You are recalibrating your new “normal” and it might take a little getting used to.
OVERVIEW – Awareness, Beliefs and Choice
EXERCISE: once you have practiced the same item to take you to expansion and it is working easily for you; feel it more; strengthen that link; keep the feeling longer, increase the frequency of how often you go there; your goal is a longer timeframe of experiencing the sense of expansion.
Then, try choosing a different item and going through the process again. Then, a different item and so on. The idea is to build a series of new neuropathways … a ‘net’ of sorts … that will make it easier for you to be in a state of expansion. At some point, expansion will become your ‘normal’ and feeling contraction will begin to feel uncomfortable. Imagine what that would be like in your life!
So here’s the thing…
- You have all the tools — right now.
- You are perfect where you are — right now.
- You are ready to share what you know — right now.
You are either aware of this — or not. You either believe it — or not.
And you either choose to take action — or not.
In honour of yourself, please consider implementing these exercises into your life and world.
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