If your hand went up, then please share your Secret Sauce with me!

I still remember that day in March 2014 when I had an epic Blah Day – the seeds of which had been sown a week before. If you are a long time reader of my blog or know me in person, then you know that I’m usually on top of my game armed with my daily ritual which includes Chakra balancing, meditation and walking Coco. But guess what? Blah days happen to everyone, and I’m no exception.

On the Friday preceding Blah Day, I got pushed very badly by a fellow resident while out walking Coco. In my attempt to protect Coco, I took the fall that set off spasms of pain in my lower back. Things got bad enough to rush to the Emergency OPD by Sunday morning.

I was still alright, I guess but my tolerance levels were slipping thanks to the painkillers. I systematically did all the Maintenance Tasks that I could do and selected the Productive Tasks based on immediate priority for the periods when I could sit up.

Then the Blah Day happened

My mobile service provider had outsourced a new verification drive to a Third Party that was supposed to collect some documents. They did not keep their appointments. I called the service provider and they told me that there was no drive and I should not hand over my documents to anyone.

The next morning, I got a text message to immediately deliver the documents for verification with the ultimatum that non-compliance meant discontinuing my service. This was just as I was preparing to go to the hospital for a check-up.

I called, I emailed and suddenly it appeared that I had to submit the documents. No explanation of having told me earlier that I did not have to. Fortunately, the franchisee of the service provider in my locality with whom I’ve been doing business for more than a decade  reassured me that if I got the documents delivered in the afternoon, he would do the needful.

Then we got to the hospital and when I came out to drive home, someone without a car plate had blocked my car! It took us 45 minutes to locate the owner who did not bother to apologize.

I got home; started receiving calls from the service provider who had not read my complaint letter properly and packed them off to read it. Just as I thought I needed to lie down, my customer service officer at my primary bank called.

It was not to inquire about my health but to tell me that he wanted to teach a customer how to use online banking for placing fixed deposits and could I go online and place a deposit for testing?

He persisted with his request and I finally growled a firm no and shot him an email telling him that this was a breach of client relationship. I got an immediate apology and good wishes for a speedy recovery.

I concluded that the world had gone crazy and I was transforming into the Red Queen ready to shout “Off with His Head”.

It was time to take a breather and work out what was happening.

These things happen and given a back problem, I knew my resilience was low.

I realized that the area of injury corresponded to my 2 lower Chakras – the Root (which was caused by my health concerns and pain) and Sacral (caused by the heavy painkillers) Chakras. With these 2 Chakras out of balance, my energy was blocked and to compensate, my Manipura or Solar Plexus Chakra was going into overdrive and manifesting as anger, helplessness and irritation. I was out of balance, even if temporarily.

It was time to put the Karmic Ally Coaching 4 Step Action Plan to work

Within 30 minutes, I was back to normal. Here’s my 4 Step Action Plan that got me back in balance. You can use it too even if you don’t have a back problem.

Step 1 – Contemplate 

Make an honest evaluation of the situation and note how you are feeling and if you are feeling any kind of heaviness in the body. This will give you an indication of which Chakra’s energy may be blocked or out of balance.

Step 2 – Prepare to heal thyself 

Still your mind with breathing and grounding exercises. My post titled Breathe and meditate to manage stress shows you how to do it.

Step 3 – Action 

Now you are in a place to take course corrective action.

Awareness – Identify the specific feelings that you are experiencing and

Acceptance – However painful, accept yourself and your feelings. You are human and you have permission to feel. You also have permission to be kind to yourself.

Chakra Exercises – Meditate on each Chakra where you have identified the sense of blockage. For this, with eyes closed, visualize a white ball of light descending from your crown or top of the head and flowing down your spinal cord to the location of the concerned Chakra. See it turn into the color of the Chakra and visualize the Chakra rotating at the right speed.

Alternatively, visualize the light descending to that Chakra as you inhale and releasing any negative energy on exhalation. Do this for a couple of minutes.

You can enhance your actions by keeping a crystal related to the Chakra in your palms while you meditate or a Clear Crystal Quartz – the all-rounder crystal. Affirmations that resonate with you and lighting incense also help with the breathing. Learn more about using crystals in my post The Magic of Crystals -especially for the Solar Plexus Chakra.

If you want a complete set of Chakra Balancing Exercises that are good for overall balancing, my ebook Stress Management with Chakra Balancing Exercises is a good resource.

Step 4 – Check 

Having done step 3, assess how you are feeling and if the sense of heaviness has gone. The final part is to forgive the person or situation that brought on the imbalance and show gratitude for all that you have.

That’s what I did too. I was grateful for the franchisee who got things sorted out and for the faith that my customer service officer had in me that I would help. I forgave the document collector who was only doing his job as well as the banker because he later realized that he couldn’t force a customer to place a fixed deposit to teach another customer.

I was grateful for the emergency help I got at the Hospital OPD that kept me going until my personal Orthopaedic Surgeon was back in town from his lecture tour in the USA and could help me with my new back problem.

I often find that even if the actions have not been done correctly, the simple acts of gratitude and forgiveness help to release these temporary energy blockages and prevent long-term illnesses.

I haven’t experienced such a nightmarish day since or felt like the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland (or even the Grumpy Kitty) but I know better and take five if my health is not up to par and my resilience is at a low. That’s a better way to manage life.

Have you ever had my kind of blah day or any kind of blah day that was nightmarish? How did you cope with it? I’d love to read your personal coping tips!

PS. This post originally appeared way back in 2014 in my original blog Vatsala’s Tips for a Stress Free Life and the links for the 3 Chakra’s discussed are to posts at that blog.

One sign of having good self-esteem is your confidence in your choices and decisions. You trust your judgment and act accordingly.

Instead of looking outwardly for validation and guidance, you look within and trust you Inner Wisdom or Higher Self.

You respect yourself and acknowledge that your life and experiences have provided you with the tools and knowledge to help yourself.

When you let others take decisions for you without your active participation, you are setting yourself up for failure because it is not your decision, not based on your experience and out of touch with Source, your Inner Guide.

So, look inward instead of outward to other people for guidance unless it is something where you really need a more experienced person to guide you on your journey. Even then, trust your intuition and your own counsel to decide what is best for you.

This may be hard at first, given our conditioning to make decisions based on the outside world, by putting the world first and then yourself. Making a shift and change of mindset takes time and motivation to stay on track.

If you fall down in your endeavors, don’t give up. Just accept that you slipped and decide that you will continue towards your goal with more resolve.

In the course of life, you will face many situations where you need to take decisions and make choices. If you worry that you may make the wrong choices or decisions, you will never be able to move forward.

There are no guarantees, you simply have to trust yourself, have faith that you know more than you give yourself credit for.

Spend a little time each day connecting with Your Higher Self and intuition.

This can be first thing in the morning or even the last thing at night. Give it the right information and you will receive the right guidance.

For this you need to have self-confidence that you will consider the right information. While gathering your information, do not be afraid to ask questions. Explore all options.

Sometimes there will be clear cut either/or options and sometimes more than two options.

In such a case, consider the pros and cons of each option and the outcome that you envisage based on the same. Delve into your memory for similar or somewhat similar situations and how you had taken care of them. What went wrong? What went right? What could have been improved?

Having done your homework and taken into account your prior knowledge and experience, you just have to trust yourself and make a choice.

Having made a choice and taken a decision accept responsibility for your decision and make it work to the best of your abilities.

You may need support, you may need further guidance. It is at this point that you can reach out to others who have walked the path before you for insights. Share this information with your Intuition and let your Higher Self partner with you for success.

Know that we can all improve. The road to self-improvement begins with self-belief and self-trust. It means having confidence in your capabilities and not caring about the world at large.

If you are about to make a mistake, your true friends and well-wishers will let you know.  You will also meet a lot of negative thinkers who will say everything to create doubts in your mind. Ignore them, they don’t matter. You do.

Just embrace the truth, you can trust yourself!

Additional Resource

Need more help? Check out my Self-help and Self-study program Self Confidence in 8 Steps on Kindle.  If you are a Do It Yourself buff who wants the guidance but loves to fly solo, then this book is a must check out. Just click on the image to check out the preview.

If you purchase a product or service through a link on my site, there’s a good chance I’ll receive some kind of “thank you money” from the company or person I referred you to. For more details, check out my full disclosure (link at bottom of every page).