Jessicah Travis Life Coaching

I’m still here. But I’m practicing what I’ve preached. I’m being present in every space I can be.

Pumpkins.
Afterschool pickups.
Endless talking from my backseat on the way home.
Hot chocolate before bed.
FaceTimes with bright-eyed babies.
Porch time with all the ones I cherish.
Long hours in my comfy chair learning the wonders of the world.

If i don’t remain present in these moments with all my senses aware, I fear I will get lost in the fret of these atrocities. My silence on a social platform does not reflect the weight of emotions I carry. I have so many words and thoughts that don’t quite seem adequate for what i feel. I don’t want to be another noisy opinion but instead I am rushing towards learning. Learn whatever I can so I am not the one who forms her thoughts and ideology on propaganda and fear. I’ve followed the fancy words, shame, guilt and religious piousness once before.

This time, my quietness is my power, not my suppression. My quietness is busy learning to stay present. My quietness is watching and learning. My quietness is preparing for the moment my quietness is no longer my power.

There is too much being said lately. Might we stop and just listen. Listen for the secrets to real wisdom, love without conditions, courage that crushes hate, and joy that keeps us focused on our why.

Maybe it’s the calm the builds the storm.

It’s a lie. Solving the “problem” is an illusion to satisfying the overwhelm and stress that anxiety offers you. Anxiety is trying to tell you how the future will look IF you were needing to “survive”. Resolving the future of a perceived threat is only resolving something that hasn’t happened. It may give you a feeling of temporary security or safety but it hasn’t actually done anything for you yet. It’s an illusion of resolution.

If you continue to live in the future solving its problems, you will miss the power of changing the timeline today. Changing the future doesn’t happen by fighting the future battles. Changing the future happens by creating a new existence today. It ripples into your future resolving the worries of tomorrow. Can you see it? If you jump on your timeline today and watch it ripple forward, the future your anxiety warned you about starts to disappear and a new future is set in motion. So place your feet in today (step on your timeline) and create something new that your “anxiety future” doesn’t see coming. You will pull your mind out of survival mode (fight or flight) and fill your brain with pings of endorphins. It’s both chemical and mindset. Creating things isn’t something your fight or flight brain can do. Remember that solving problems and creation are two different experiences. If you want to reduce anxiety and looping thoughts of fear and stress, get present and create something!

A few ideas:
❄️Bake something that requires multiple steps and ingredients.
❄️Write something that expresses your feelings of today…poem, blog, mantra.
❄️Paint or draw
❄️Learn something new that enhances your holiday …napkin folding, making bows, table setting.
❄️Go into nature and design something from its elements.
❄️Remember that seemingly pointless “hobby” that felt like a waste of time? It has immense purpose! Start it up again.
❄️Create a list of all the things you can create from your uniqueness.

No matter how simple or complex your creation is, remember that creating is the point…not the product. Get curious and get creating! You might be amazed at what your soul wants to show you.

Every new experience and every new learning expands our reality. Literally. We create new associations and understandings of how life works. We learn how we exist within this reality and find more possibilities for what our future can hold. Even when we stand at a zoo sign that we cannot read yet, we imprint our minds with new connections between language and our senses. This amazing 5 year old can’t read yet, but he knows the plaques have something to tell him. He knows there is something to learn. He called each sign and each statue along the trails a “treasure!” He had discovered something of value he had never encountered before. Funny thing about this…we saw black bears climbing trees above us and to Asher, that wasn’t the treasure. He had seen pictures of bears in trees before. But the signs with maps and words on a path that led to other signs with maps and words…well…that was an adventure! Curiosity and mystery have their fingers entwined around treasures!

This has challenged me to reimagine what a treasure is. What if a treasure is a new finding that holds value, adventure and learning embraced by curiosity and mystery? How would that change things? My world just flew wide open!

Go find treasures everywhere! It might just expand every fiber of your being!