Lights, Camera, Refrain from Action | Julie Brown Intuitive

I spent this glorious full moon equinox sleepless, stumbling through mini-epiphanies in the middle of the night. My theme this month seemed focused on the idea of reacting, and how often this sort of action creates a chain reaction that sometimes feels like a locomotive without brakes. Reaction is an action taken in response to something else. When I was a teenager working with animals, I learned quickly to stay anchored in the midst of a dog tugging on a leash or a horse ready to tuck his haunches and run. In both situations, the best option was to lead the action rather than react to the animal. But this lesson came through trial and error, after many times of feeing frustrated and reactionary. And every time I found myself responding rather than leading, I became ungrounded and was no longer the one calling the shots. So what does it mean to call your owns shots, act from the core place of empowerment rather than in response to something else?

Most of us have some experience in relationships where we experience our reactions. For instance a friend asks you to do something that you really don’t want to do or you don’t have time to do. You react and quickly say yes and hurry through the task. Afterward, your friend feels slighted because you half-heartedly helped and you feel resentful because you said yes when you wanted to say no. So in the end it was a lose-lose proposition. Often times we don’t even know we react. Sometimes it happens before we are even aware, or we are avoiding the feelings of guilt, or it’s a habitual response to external stimuli. Is reaction really helpful? Are you really leading your life or being lead by external forces?

So how do we act from a place of mindfulness? How do we stop a cycle of being reactive and take responsibility for our personal power? The first step to any kind of change is awareness. If you recognize reaction is one of your tendencies, it could be time to really dive into a new awareness around it. Get to know this part of yourself. Are there times when you are more reactive than others, or does it happen more frequently with certain people? One way to get more of a handle on it is to slow down the process in which you take action. Refrain from the “doing” stage until you are clear where you want to go and it feels like it is an empowered place. In situations when you are face to face with someone and feel your emotional triggers come up, just take a moment and breathe. You can always say to someone you need sometime to think about something and will get back to them later. Most importantly, be gentle in working with change, as things soften and become more manageable with loving-kindness.