Without Awareness There is No Choice

This is one of my favorite quotes from my mentor as well as one of the most transformational life principles of JBMFR® work.

Without Awareness There is No Choice.

Rather than give a detail description, I would like to offer a few insights on what this can look like in different settings.

In real life...

This goes as deep as you want it to when it comes to personal development and living an empowered life.

So often we accept our upbringing, societal messaging, belief systems, as "the way things are" and yet something inside of us disagrees with it. If we're not on a path of gaining more awareness, we continue to live the way we've been trained to live. 🤷🏻 It's only a "bad" thing if you're not happy/content in life. (The soul deep happiness, not the "riding a constant high" kind).

When we take the time, which often times includes finding the appropriate support systems, to do the soul searching we can start discovering the truth of who we are. The life we were meant to live. We start cultivating a life that surrounds us with the people who enhance our life more than they take from us.

In the massage room...

As I continue to grow into my skillset, there are times that I will ask you what you felt in an area or ask you to bring your awareness to an area of your body. I'm trying to nudge you deeper into your connection with Self and/or get feedback about what other area(s) of your body may also need treatment.

Another way that this applies is for those who are on medications.

Before I go any further, I want to emphasis that everyone is on their own journey and sometimes taking a medication or supplement is necessary with life's circumstances. There is no shame in that in my world.

That being said, certain medications CAN limit your internal awareness, which can then affect the results you get from your sessions.

Pain relievers and other medications that affect your cardiovascular or nervous systems can decrease your ability to feel deeply. (That's the point with some of them).

I mention this not to encourage your to get off your meds, but to offer into insight on why you may not be able to have the level of internal awareness that you may want. With the medicinal interference, you may need to "work harder" to feel deeply. Not a judgment, just an observation/opinion.

How this quote has shifted me...

I'll limit it to 2 bullet points today, lol. Trust me, there are WAY more examples, these are just the ones that jump out at me as the best examples in this moment. Especially because they first affected me personally and then rippled into my professional life in transformative ways.

• This quote (and JBMFR®) gave me the awareness of how much of a "stuffer" I am/was.... I'm working on it.... Ya know, when you stuff down all the feelings and thoughts that you don't want to deal with because they're uncomfortable, or you were trained from childhood that feelings aren't ok.... anyways... I have found that "stuffing" created excessive amounts of tension throughout my whole body. That tension caused headaches, aches/pains/numbness, a heck-of-a undercurrent of bracing which took tons of energy to maintain and an inability to relax.

• This quote, JBMFR®, and therapy have allowed me to peel back all the layers of programming and beliefs that had me living in misalignment with my true self. As I began to realize how my professional choices were affecting my personal life and physical body, I had a choice. Do I continue on, or do I take the road less traveled? It wasn't an easy choice, but it's certainly been worth it.