Staff of Light

Suit Up has become a somewhat common phrase. It denotes getting ready to do something. When you go to work you “suit up”, or get dressed in a suite for work. Sports players “suit up” and put on their uniforms. Astronauts put on their “suits”.
Suiting up means get ready for what you are going to do.

It means changing your clothes, and preparing your outfit for the next segment of your experience.
But it also creates mental triggers. Putting on my button down shirt and pants puts me into a “business” mindset. A mindset where I am can focus on work, and interact with people professionally.

Putting on a t-shirt and jeans signals a bit of relaxation.
Putting on uniform often helps sports players get into the mind set to excel in their game.

So suiting up sets a mind frame. It is a method to help us focus.

I suit up to go to work, to go to conventions, to do this or that. How many of these suits are masks. Does the real me shine through the suit I am wearing?

I think part of the challenge is to be authentic to yourself when you are wearing a suit (mask).
I can operate in many different environments, from professional to casual.
What is the real me. Where do I actually feel most comfortable and connected?

That is a good question.
I think that your core values is what stays consistent through all of the suits, and that if you don’t feel false to yourself, you are doing well.

I have been really busy recently. I took on 2 new projects at work, which are very consuming. I also have had some issues that have sapped my energy.
October was a really rough month for me. I felt like the month was one long struggle, an uphill battle the entire way. I was very happy to move into November.

I was not happy last month, and I was not in a good mental place. However the experiences did help me refine what I want, I got a better, clearer view of what I want to create for my life.

I also have been able to get a better understanding of what it takes.

Inspiration is the key. What inspires a person to take action? What do I enjoy doing? What do I just need to do?

I still don’t have a definitive answer, but I am narrowing things down.
Being inspired gives you energy. Being inspired gives you focus and power. Being inspired allows you to overcome obstacles and things make sense, click in place.

When you are working from inspiration you are in the flow, you react in the correct manner, you just know what to do, what to say.
Sometimes things don’t work out exactly right, but you learn from the mistakes and do better.

Sometimes you are not inspired, and you can be in breakdown. You just can’t care enough to do anything, you can’t care enough to want to be inspired.
Caring takes energy, and sometimes the energy system is so depleted that there is nothing left for it.

I see it kinda like water. We are water, physically we are made up of lots of water. Metaphorically we are also like water. When we exist and go through our daily lives, we are water, liquid, flowing here and there, making our way through the path of least resistance.
Sometimes we get sick, or depressed and we “breakdown”, we loose our energy, or our energy becomes depleted.
When this happens we become like ice. We “freeze” up and stop moving, or we move very, very slowly (like a glacier). Things slide off of us, and it is hard to do even focus on the most important things.

On the other side of the equation we can become steam. By adding energy (inspiration) we can power the world, we can make things happen, we can change – anything.

If we are in the “ice” state it is very, very hard to go to the “steam” state. It takes a lot of energy to turn ice to steam, generally you need to go through the water state first. But going from water to steam can be accomplished. It takes less energy.

Just like the stages of water, to change our state we need to remove or add energy. Adding energy is the most rewarding feeling. Adding energy is the key to creating our life, in comparison to having our life create us.

How do we “add” energy to ourselves. When you are in the “Ice” state, it is very hard. But we have many tools available to us. The most powerful is directing our thoughts. Finding something to care about, finding something to focus on, and focusing on it. Letting you imagination start to build a picture of the perfect outcome, starting to feel the perfect outcome happening, living like it is.
Just by starting to think about it and focus on it, we start to add energy to it. As we start to “feel” about it, we are multiplying the energy many, many fold.
Our thoughts and attention are energy. What we focus on gets our energy boost (which is why it is not good to focus on perceived negatives such as lack).
Once we start with a thought, and start focusing on it, a picture will start to form. The picture will capture our imaginations, and eventually it can inspire us to do what needs to be done to make it happen.
Inspiration then feeds energy back into the system, and we are off to the races (or steam state).

Sometimes it is hard to focus, to care, to direct the thoughts.
In that case we often need to do something physical to assist. There are many physical traditions that can kick start the energy process for us. Most forms of exercise, running, walking, cause the body to physically produce chemicals that can get us going along this route.
Traditions such as Tai Chi, Qi-gong, and Yoga couple mental focus with physical movements, which is very effective in helping us improve this energy.

I hope today you can find something to be inspired by, that you take some time to set an intention, focus your thoughts on something positive and become steam, if even for a little bit.

I will.