Melanie O'SheaSeveral weeks ago my beautiful Grandma left her physical body and made her final transition to Spirit. The moment I stepped out of the hospital, after saying goodbye to her physical form, I felt what I can only describe as a shift of energy in not only myself, but something shifted in the world… I still cannot find the right words to describe it, but it was strong and profound.
And, it sent me into deep hibernation mode, where, for weeks, I had no motivation nor energy to do anything more than the bare minimum each day.
I haven’t been able to come up with an explanation for what it was that set off this period of stopping – I was grieving for sure, but it was also something more that I can find the words for – that undeniable energy shift, whatever it was.
I have tuned into this feeling many times and I get a sense that I went through some kind of ‘upgrade’ or I ‘levelled up’. Apart from that, it seems very clear that I do not need to understand, just accept (not easy for me to do, but I’m growing when it comes to acceptance!).
Apart from several weeks in sloth mode, I haven’t noticed any real physical ‘upgrades’ (damn! haha), however a pretty major change has been my grandma joining my team in Spirit! My team supports me during my intuitive medicine sessions, by showing me important information about my clients’ health, which I then relay to my clients, so that they can heal.
It is such a joy to be able to work with my grandma, and relate to her in a different way than when she was in her physical body. And, her addition to my team definitely seems to have helped my intuitive abilities to grow and has made me a more conscious and more skilled medical intuitive. Which is fantastic!
It’s as though I needed to slow my physical world down for a bit so that the spiritual upgrades (for want of a better term!) could take place.
My period of hibernation has brought about some very interesting conversations over the last couple of weeks, around what is too much downtime, and is there even such a thing as too much downtime.
During a chat with one of my closest friends about my lengthy time out, she shared that she thinks maybe sometimes I listen to my body too much.
I responded with “there’s no such thing as listening to our bodies too much”. Listening to my body and giving it what it needs – including rest – is so important to me, and it’s the main reason I no longer suffer the debilitating symptoms of fibromyalgia.
However, I also know that at times I do sabotage myself by using ‘my body needs more rest’ as an excuse to binge Netflix instead of processing or dealing with something, or taking action to move forward. And upon reflection, I think this was probably the point my dear friend was trying to get at.
The conversation really got me thinking – is it possible to rest too much??
I think in our society it has become so normal to ‘push through’ – to show up for that shift even when exhausted, smash it out at boot camp even when our muscles ache, strive for that promotion even when we’re already struggling with our work load – that we have convinced ourselves that being active and taking action is the only way to progress and grow.
I think as a collective, we have forgotten what happens in periods of rest – when we allow ourselves to stop and just stay put for a while, to not be actively working towards some goal, to be OK with not getting stuff done….to just BE.
In those moments of really stopping and really resting (and not just ‘treating’ ourselves to a 20 minute afternoon nap or a weekly yoga class), we not only give our mind and body a little R&R time, we give ourselves the opportunity to wait for guidance – guidance from our own team in Spirit, from our higher self, our soul, the Universe.
I believe that when we gift ourselves this time to really connect with our inner wisdom and we are open to guidance from beyond our logical brain, this is when we achieve growth and progress way beyond what we can by always being busy doing.
Sure, there are times when we have to push through and to show up – we live in a material world with bills to pay after all, and our minds and bodies need to be pushed to uncomfortable points sometimes for us to build strength and resilience – but we have got to stop thinking of time to just BE as a ‘treat’ or a luxury, and start thinking of it as a necessity.
From my period of putting everything on hold, I have been able to achieve a sense of finality around a relationship, a renewed sense of direction and purpose, and a fresh perspective on many areas of my life. I feel more excited about moving forward, and I feel reassured that I’ll be guided to each next step, I trust my intuition and connection to Spirit even more, and I feel more gratitude and appreciation for the challenges I’ve faced and the lessons I’ve learned. I have more love for myself, and I feel ready to welcome more love into my life.
Not a bad list of achievements for a period of doing ‘nothing’!
Perhaps I got a bit too comfortable with my hibernation, and maybe I should have pushed myself to get back into the swing of things sooner, but then perhaps I would have missed out on what turned out to be some pretty incredible healing and growth…
My grandma was (and still is!) a very wise and practical woman, and I can hear her saying “oh people are too busy nowadays. Rush, rush, rush! They make themselves sick rushing around, trying to do everything! People are busier and sicker than ever! Why does everyone feel the need to always have somewhere to be, something to do?”
A very wise woman indeed.
