Anxiety, Abundance & Creativity | Wednesday Waffles 1st Edition
I first heard the term ‘Wednesday Waffles’ 8 months ago from a British friend. Every single Wednesday her friends back in the UK send each other a voice note or update on their week.
In North American English to waffle means “fail to make up one’s mind”.
In British English to waffle means “speak or write, at great length, without saying anything important or useful”.
Now… I don’t want to lean into the “without saying anything important or useful” part of this term… because I believe you can waffle on about what’s on your mind, what excites you, or even what’s important to you… and it very well can leave a positive impact on someone else’s life.
I love to waffle on about spirituality, personal development, emotional wellness and joy.
After 5 years of being in a deeply healing hermit phase, in 2023 I was ready to have a social life again (there is a whole other story here). One of my favourite things in being social is chatting with friends. Or what my British friend likes to say, having a chin wag.
So, I’m bringing Wednesday Waffles to you! I want to share insight into the conversations I’m having lately… conversations about healing, energy, human design, empaths, intuition and the universe. I want to share the tips/practices/strategies that I’m remembering to implement in order to stay balanced, aligned and connected with my soul. And there may be a few extra things that I share each week, like quick insight into an Energy Update or bonus resources to support you along your soul path.
So let’s dive into the very first version of Wednesday Waffles!
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You know you’ve had your rock bottom moment, but you don’t know how to pick yourself up and start moving forward.
What is a spiritual awakening?
How do you create lasting positive change?
What do you need to know in order to find purpose?
If these are the kind of questions you’ve been pondering then you’ve come to the right place.
I have curated a “playlist” of sorts. It’s a Spiritual Workshop filled with free content including an EBook, a 60 minute mentoring session and guided meditations all with the soul focus to support you in your spiritual awakening.
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Back to the blog - Anxiety, Abundance & Creativity | Wednesday Waffles 1st Ed.
Conversations I’m Having Lately…
A really good friend of mine has been experiencing a lot of anxiety over the last year. She moved to our little mountain town from the UK a year ago - a different friend than previously mentioned. This town attracts visitors from all over the world on working visas. It eventually steals the hearts of many who become permanent residents in Canada. It’s a stunning place to live with an amazing community. Anyways back to my friend, she had never experienced anxiety like this before. We’ve talked about this a few times in the past, but our most recent conversation was a bit different.
After asking if she wanted to hear my suggestions (I will always ask someone’s permission before offering any sort of advice, tips or strategies - because who wants to be friends with a know it all) she said “please tell me, I need to figure out how to work through this”.
There were 2 things that I told her she needed to work on and start practicing. First, she needed to practice energetically shifting back into her body. She had been prioritizing living from her mind too much and that was causing the overwhelm. The way I see it, your mind is a hamster wheel, sometimes it’s spinning wild only because you keep entertaining the wheel by jumping onto it. The practice of tuning back into your body allows you to step off the hamster wheel.
The second thing I told her was to become the observer of the thought, rather than identifying as the thought itself. This is a bit more of a complex practice if you’ve never considered it before but once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Oftentimes your mind begins to run wild because it’s stuck in a pattern of thoughts that has been reoccurring over time. Your thoughts are 95% repetitive from one day to the next. When you identify as the thought itself you become stuck inside that pattern, believing everything it says as the truth, and the thoughts end up controlling how you experience life. When you step into the role as observer of the thought you end up holding all the power, which allows you to then change the pattern into something more supportive, encouraging and expansive.
My friend understood what I was saying in both of these concepts, but didn’t know how to put them into practice.
I asked her if she meditated. She said she had tried some guided meditations previously and she knew she should meditate more. Nothing ever gets done when we say “I should do this”... the word should can feel so degrading and judgmental.
Finding a style of meditating that feels expansive, supportive and healing is important. Just because one guided meditation didn’t work for you doesn’t mean that all guided meditations are wrong.
I gave her 2 meditative practices to help with her anxiety.
1 - Focused Breath (2-8 minutes)
This is for the moments you realize you are stuck on the hamster wheel of thoughts, and the anxiety is growing. Take 5-10 deep breaths, on the inhale notice how it feels when your lungs expand and on the exhale how it feels when they contract. For the next 5-10 breaths, send the energy of each breath into different areas of your body. Starting with your toes and fingers and moving all through your body. You can even say to yourself “I send this cleansing breath to my toes”. As you start to feel calmer in your body you can take 5-10 more breaths, stating to yourself “I breathe in calmness and I breathe out tension/anxiety” and feel that energy flow through your body.
2 - Observer of Thoughts (10-20 mins)
This is for the moments you want to practice calling your power back to you and actually shifting the old thought patterns of fear or worry into new patterns filled with support and trust. Start off with a focused breath meditation to calm the energy in your mind and body, and to connect the pathways of awareness from body to mind. The second part of the meditation is about noticing your thoughts and the feelings they bring up in your body. See that thought as its own train, you don’t need to climb aboard. You can watch the train as the thought comes in, notice if there are other thoughts attached to the train, and let it continue to move as it flows out of your mind. Bring your attention back to your body, your breath, and how you feel.
This isn’t about solving anxiety. Anxiety is a feeling that occurs when you become overwhelmed by the constant cycle of thoughts in your mind. These practices are about learning to comfort yourself with compassion when you feel anxious. By bringing your focus back to your breath and slowing it down you end up calming your nervous system, which allows you to see more clearly. By practicing observing your thoughts you learn to not become overwhelmed by them because you know how to slow the hamster wheel down.
By the way, I told my friend that this is something I’ve been practicing for over 8 years. You don’t need to be a master at it right now, you simply need to have the courage to try and the desire to create change for yourself.
3 Tips I’m Remembering…
1 - Protecting my energy is a necessity as an empath. Taking 2 minutes every morning before heading to my part-time job at the vet clinic is all I need. I call in my protective spirit guides and angels, I set my protective shield around my body and aura, and I thank my spirit guides for protecting my energy. This is the difference between finishing an 8 hour stressful day feeling exhausted and emotionally drained from the clients I had to deal with versus feeling calm and satisfied with how I handled each situation with compassion and strength.
2 - Creativity with no pressure on the end result can inspire more creativity. 3 years ago I bought the basics to start trying my hand at water colour painting. I picked up a brush maybe 5 times in those 3 years, until 2 months ago. Now once a week I meet up with a friend for coffee and we both bring our painting supplies. Having this 1-2 hours every week to devote to a craft that is simply for myself has been exactly what I didn’t know I needed. I know that by tapping into my creative well for fun has helped me to dive deeper into creating for my spiritual work. Because that is truly a huge part of what I do inside my business here at AwP Wellness. I create.
3 - Abundance grows where gratitude lives. I cannot grow my capacity to receive more abundance if I’m not appreciating what I already have. When my friends feel appreciated by me they show up with more confidence and radiance. When I take the time to appreciate myself I feel more courageous and empowered on the path I walk. So, the same can be said for abundance and money. When you take the time to appreciate all the money you’ve received and all the things you’ve been able to purchase with money, your capacity to receive more abundance will grow. Whatever energy you pour into your life is the energy you will receive back. When I have held fear, worry and stress around money I have only ended up holding myself in that state for longer. This is why I am reminding myself that where gratitude lives abundance grows.
If you are a member inside The Soul Care Space then don’t forget to check out this week’s available resources - an 8 minute visualization to guide you in building TRUST on your path; and a 23 minute energy forecast to gain exact HOW TO steps for harnessing this Horse Energy alongside new beginnings with springtime.
Let me know what you think about the Wednesday Waffles idea and what is resonating with you most!
Happy Wednesday my friend, and don’t forget to protect your energy! It’s a wild world out there and us empath souls have to stay aligned and grounded to create the changes we wish to see in the world!
Much love,
Sydney Smith
Spiritual Mentor
Founder of Adventuring with Poseidon Wellness
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