Reset with Personal Truthz

Self-Care Articles

 

I don’t know about you, but I need a personal reset. And not the kind I used to do when I was in my twenties.

At twenty-four, I was at the start of a three-year psychic healer apprenticeship that included studying spiritual psychology. My teacher introduced what he called High Gear Week, designed to tighten our practice and raise our vibration. No news, no sugar, no junk food, no alcohol, no caffeine, no gossip, no complaining, no television, no sleeping in. We added meditations, hikes, clean eating, clean conscience, clean living all around; be your best self for seven straight days. It was an aspirational sprint.

The “High” in High Gear was an idealized version of humanhood running at full capacity with all the right habits locked in and all the wrong ones locked out. Like auditioning for sainthood for one week every three months. You had to fire yourself up to commit to it and get even more fired up to see it through. And I can’t say there was any downside to it. It was definitely invigorating and made me feel like I could do anything I put my mind to…for a week anyway.

The reset, which used to be about all the things I had to stop doing, is now led by all the things I need to resume doing. Twenty-four-year-old me needed a list of no’s to get me aligned. This version of me? She needs a list of yes’s.

Over the years, the yes’s have changed for me too. My dharma teacher has a phrase: a little too loose, a little too tight. The work to “raise my vibration” is happening throughout my days, every day, by raising my awareness and responding with that awareness as often as I possibly can. If I get so stiff in my disciplines that it turns into stress, it’s a little too tight. If I get too lax in my integrity, it’s a little too loose. Reset now means toggling within that balance.

So the pull toward a reset these days has little to do with an idealized version of myself and everything to do with coming into balance with the behaviors and conditions I already know are right for me, the ones within which I thrive. Amidst success, those behaviors and conditions got crowded out by lack of time and outside influences, making my awareness a little too loose and my schedule a little too tight.

Don’t get me wrong, outside influences are wonderful, but they can take their toll when they disrupt the doing of the things you already know work for you. My outside influences have been a full private practice and a commitment to turning that practice into a teaching model. I used to do a mix of both, but in the last decade the private practice has dominated my schedule, squeezing out the time I need to build new courses and travel for live events.

So the idea of a reset, which once meant aspiring upward toward who I “should be,” has evolved into me reaching back to what I already know is true for myself, and slowing down enough to make the space to reintegrate those me-isms into my daily life. And the resets work best as a regular practice. Kind of like the way I clean out my purse monthly—dump out the contents, select what I actually need, top up the supplies and throw away, give away, or store away for easy access whatever’s left over.

Personal Truthz (the “z” is on purpose to note the difference in this kind of truth) is a concept I developed and have been teaching for decades. It’s the knowledge we all have about ourselves, revealed and unjudged. Some of which will evolve over time, others of which will remain with us our whole lives. You don’t manufacture Personal Truthz; you uncover them and embrace what you find. This is not about boundaries with others, per se. It’s about knowing what is true for you on the deepest, most personal levels. Discoveries no one else can make for you.

One way to look at discovering your Personal Truthz is to imagine yourself walking through a house where all the furniture is invisible. You need every piece of it to live well, but first you have to find it. That means a lot of bumping around. A coffee table here, a dining table there, woops! a footstool in the kitchen! Where’s the flatware drawer…?

But after several trips (no pun intended), you start remembering where things are. You throw a sheet over each one as you find it—that’s you claiming your Truthz, saying this is me.

You stop knocking your shins and start gliding through the rooms. The unknowns become knowns. I’m talking about your owned self. What is true for you, in your own life, that makes living it easier and more fulfilling.

Finding out what is true for us—detecting and then owning the otherwise invisible landscape of our individual lives—is the practice. Standing in what we know about ourselves creates the magnetism necessary for the world to collect and form around us in ways that actually fit and feel good, inside and out. Like living feng shui.

Here are a few of my Personal Truthz, the ones I need to return to:

Eating late never works for me. It takes effort and focus to have a cutoff time. I need to be mindfully aware with extra supports in place, or I’ll fall into the habit of starting my last meal too late. I also have to start my first meal earlier.

Starting my days with exercise has always brought relief and a feeling of self-satisfaction. It’s delightful to know my workout is behind me. And if I can’t get that done, then I need to close the night with it.

I love to make my partner’s morning coffee. The additional perk is that it sets me up to have sunlight first before screen time. And my brain takes in real things in the three-dimensional world before it has to translate everything from my computer and iPhone.

Getting seven-and-a-half hours of sleep is my minimum. When I read a hardback book in bed instead of watching TV, I fall asleep earlier and stay asleep longer.

Eating a green salad earlier in the day always picks up my spirit. I literally feel better about myself and life when I do that.

I am a sugar addict. There are no two ways about it. Since going lectin-free, I’ve replaced almost all of my sugar with non-sugar sweeteners, every now and then allowing myself a max of 4 grams of the real thing. Even still, it is a slippery slope and that 4-gram rule gets pushed when I’m in a restaurant or when Santa or the Easter bunny comes around. I’ve been sliding down that slope and need to get back up and off the edge altogether.

Throughout my life, Sunday mornings have been my “resting in” time when I stay in bed, catching up on phone calls with friends and family. But it’s gotten away from me and I really need that time back.

Writing is redemptive. Never has a truer phrase been spoken for me. Making room for some writing always delights me beyond measure.

That’s my list of Personal Truthz that have gotten squeezed out of my schedule. Not High Gear ideals handed down by a teacher but earned knowledge. Things I’ve bumped into enough times to throw a sheet over them and call them mine. And honestly, given that every single one of them is what I want to be doing anyway? It’ll be super easy to fold in at least half within the first few days.

A reset doesn’t have to be a surgical experience. It can simply mean a return. And returning to what you already know and love is easier than you think…because it is already yours. And I’d love to hear about yours! Your Personal Truthz alive and well, and those that need recapturing. Email me at kd@kdfarris.com.