Prioritizing Your Needs and Desires With Inner Work

Photo By: Anastasia Shuraeva

Have you ever felt like you could barely keep your head above water? Almost as if everything in your life is happening simultaneously — your car is due for maintenance, you have to carpool your kids to summer activities, your work projects are overflowing, and you still have to figure out what to cook for dinner. Sometimes life is overwhelming, and all you can do is react. But, when balancing responsibilities, there’s no time for a pause.

It’s common to put you and your needs on the back burner, especially if you have more pressing priorities. Unfortunately, when this occurs, you’re less likely to take time to meditate, work out, or self-reflect. As a result, you neglect yourself while getting lost in daily activities.

Although many people believe they’re present and take breaks, more often than not, they seek comfort in external factors like TV, social media, food, and drugs, numbing them even more.

It’s human nature to want to avoid the feeling of pain and find comfort as soon as possible. However, this comfort can manifest in unhealthy coping mechanisms that don’t serve you or your journey.

You may experience short-lived satisfaction, but ultimately, you won’t feel nourishment or a sense of progression. Instead, spending hours scrolling on social media or watching the news distracts you from reflecting and finding the fulfillment you truly seek.

When you numb yourself with TV shows or endless to-do lists, you become oblivious to your purpose and what makes you feel joyful. Many individuals believe that being productive will bring fulfillment. However, have you ever taken a step back to ask yourself if any of these tasks, chores, or projects are important?

How essential is it to rearrange the silverware drawer? Is pulling weeds from your yard vital right now? Is it crucial to dust your shelves?

There’s nothing wrong with taking on projects or watching your favorite shows, but when you fill your life with noise, you get distracted from doing the inner work.

Consider if the outside world is distracting you from yourself and your priorities:

• Are you spending more time on social media versus focusing inward?
• Are you happy with your life?
• Do you gauge your own happiness on what’s happening in the world?
• Do you feel you can’t be happy because of current events, relationships, or circumstances?

Distractions are often used as coping mechanisms to avoid doing inner work, digging deep, and healing. The truth is doing the work is challenging. Sometimes it requires facing deep-rooted trauma or transforming belief systems. But it’s a necessary step to breaking through your monotonous routine and tapping into your authentic self.

The Issue With Numbing Yourself and Avoiding the Inner Work

You don’t make room for yourself when you fill your journey with activities. Suddenly, you’re living a life that isn’t meant for you, and you’re just trying to get through each day. There is a lack of purpose and authenticity, which can lead to depression and apathy.

That’s not how you should be living! Instead, you deserve to experience fulfillment and progression on your life’s journey.

Turning inward allows you to understand your wants, needs, and desires. When you do the work, you can finally open the door to the next chapter.

What Does It Mean to “Do the Work”

“Doing the work” focuses on self-reflection, allowing you to process the barriers preventing you from being happy. You may ask yourself challenging questions like how you want to travel through your life or what’s preventing you from living as your authentic self.

Inner work goes beyond checking off your to-do list and directs your attention to your feelings. As a result, you may unearth powerful revelations like trauma or limiting beliefs as you reflect.

But the work doesn’t stop with acknowledging your feelings. It requires time and consistent practice to learn how to sit with yourself. Self-reflection is an ongoing process of recognizing what’s happening in your life and what changes you need to make to be content.

Activities for Working on Yourself

• Meditate for five minutes a day: Life gets busy, but there is always time to spare. Whether it’s an hour, thirty minutes, or less, meditation is a powerful way to silence the noise and focus on you. You can find short guided meditations online.
• Journal your thoughts: Writing down what’s on your mind allows you to clear mental clutter and discover ruminating ideas.
• Check-in with yourself weekly: Notice any patterns coming to the surface. What are you meditating on? What are you journaling about? If you see a trend, this can guide you to look even deeper into your blocks.

From there, consider what support you may need. Maybe you require a friend, family member, a therapist, or a hypnotherapist? Perhaps, you need to shift a belief or heal from past trauma. Engaging with a support network and modifying your belief system can help you get to the root of change.

Autumn: A Good Time for Self-Reflection

As we move from summer to fall, we’re entering a quieter season before hibernation, winter. Summer activities are dying down, the days are becoming shorter, and the kids are returning to school. Autumn is a great time to align with the natural seasonal cycle and establish routines and goals following the busyness of summer.

Allow yourself to pause and reflect.

You can continue to walk through your life with constant distractions, preventing you from living as your true self, or you can choose to reflect on what matters most to you.

As you tune into yourself, consider how you’re feeling, what matters to you, and how you can reprioritize your desires and needs in life. What you want now may differ from what you wanted three months ago. So carve out time to focus on your current desires and do the work.

Break Through the Distractions with Hypnotherapy

Life can be hectic, complicated, and loud. But it doesn’t mean it has to remain that way. You don’t have to stay stuck in a hustle cycle or numb yourself with external things. You have the power to create a life on how you want to be and feel.

Start doing the inner work by creating space to sit with your feelings and navigating your wants, needs, and desires. Then, with the assistance of a support network and a hypnotherapist, you can gain peace of mind and direction.

Hypnotherapy is a healing modality, enabling you to transform your belief system, let go of limiting beliefs and guide you on your path.

If you need assistance breaking through life’s distractions and turning inward, schedule a virtual session with Mindful Hypnotherapy of San Francisco today!