The Freeing Power of a "Reset Button"

In the past year I've started doing something new.

In those moments when my mood is inexplicably low and I feel too weighed down by things, I imagine I have a "reset button."

It works kind of like having a Near Death Experience, complete with all the spiritual wonderment, love, and limitless joy that people who have NDEs consistently report having ... just without the life-"ending" accident.

I lightheartedly pretend that my life has ended, and that I get to start fresh.

It probably sounds a little crazy, but it's amazing how instantly it frees me from whatever it is that was weighing me down.

I still get to care about everything I'm truly devoted to in life. And it's not at all about avoiding being responsible for anything that's mine to own, because when I make mistakes I know how to do repair and make things right, and it feels wonderful to do that. (In fact, that's a big source of the freedom and joy I experience, most days: I have so much spaciousness to be fully human, and authentically me, in the midst of deep connection with the people I love most -- my heart's family.)

And sometimes ... well, the parts of me that can still get insecure, can make up big, significant, doom-filled, mostly unconscious stories about things that are really nothing more than passing weather.

Like, I didn't feel like going out on New Year's Eve. And now that it's New Year's Eve and I'm home by myself (exactly as I chose!), one of my "inner orphans" has decided that this is proof I'm unloved and unlovable.

You know, just normal, everyday, human, 'inner orphan" disasterizing and -- honestly, until just now as I'm writing this blog -- just unconscious enough to have no apparent reason or source, and get caught in the grips of.

This is one of those times when I've found it works almost like magic, to press that "reset button."

(Presence and witnessing work great, too. Or writing a blog about it! O, the gentle irony. Being human is just so ridiculous, sometimes, isn't it? Endlessly, tenderly entertaining.)

So ... as you experience the beginning of your New Year today, alongside (or instead of) any Presence, Reflection, or Intention Setting you might engage in, I invite you to lightheartedly try out that "reset button," too.

If you let go of anything weighing you down and start fresh, right now ...

what new space, what new freedoms open up for you?

Blessings on us all,