Work....Do we 'have' to?

There's one thing overcoming our fear of change but I and many others need a 'kick up the rear' before we move forward to improve things in our lives. It seems to me to be because of  the way we were brought up or 'conditioned' in the home and our schools.

If we get punished for not behaving well, we bring that into the present and wait till we get 'punished', are in difficulty, we are at the end of our tether or get ill before we decide to change behaviour or improve something we are 'putting up' with, or get out of a bad situation.

Sometimes even that doesn't make us improve things.  It might just allow us to see ourselves even more as a victim with no power over our lives. We might be still running the old conditioning that makes us believe we are wrong, bad, useless or unworthy.

So about waiting for something 'bad' to happen before we do something about it, I look back at my life and realise that I've functioned from this space quite a lot. I use words like, 'I'd better go and do the housework'. The 'I'd better' says a lot...that we 'make' ourselves do stuff we 'should' do but don't want to really instead of choosing to do it from a place of power. At some point I picked up that housework was an awful chore. I wonder if it was because my Mother thought it was or because I would fight with my sisters about who 'had' to do it. It somehow was conditioned into me.

Work in general has the same 'air' about it. For so many of us we associate work with that, 'I'd better' feeling. We end up fighting against ourselves to go to work or avoid it as if it's going to kill us or at least drain all our energy! We talk about 'working too hard' and 'needing a rest' when most of us have never had it so good and easy!

With an expression like a good 'work ethic' we have to make work an 'ethical' thing to do instead of our choice. Or we completely cut it off for 40 hours or so a week and get in a grump if we 'have' to work at home as well. I wonder if thats why our mind and body says 'no' when we come home and cook, do housework or look after the kids. How many of us just want to slump in a chair with a cuppa or a wine or 2 after work?

So what would happen if we find a way of rising above that 'have to' feeling whenever we have it? It's a 'heartsink' feeling that in reality is not useful. it's old programming. How easy is it for us to have energy when we are engrossed in something we love doing? Suddenly we can be like an Olympic runner (well almost!) when we do something we're passionate about.

And what if we are conditioned early on that everything is an effort? Could this even happen at a traumatic birth when Mum gets so tired during labour? Just a thought!

So this is what I'm going to try for the next while. I'm going to ask for and muster up enthusiasm for everything I consider to be 'work' which often includes for me getting up in the morning. For some folk and for me sometimes (though much less lately) anything that involves getting out of a chair has become 'work'. It's not our fault, just that if it didn't feel like effort in the mind, maybe the body would respond with enthusiasm, health, joy and energy.  So when that feeling of 'I'd better' gets us remember we picked it up years ago and chuck it. and if you're having trouble knowing how, check out my website for an energy therapy that'll help. I'm hoping this will really lift my energy!

With Love and enthusiasm ;)
Liz www.stressalternatives.co.uk