This is a topic I wanted to delve into for quite some time and given the global experience of Covid-19 pandemic, that is a focal point for all of us to relate and consequently the timing is more than ideal to finally bring this article to life.

After months of lockdown, physical restriction, emotional roller coasters and further struggles we have all been through while spending most of the time at home, one thing is certain beyond any doubt: we all had much time to go through our thoughts.

This is not a bad thing per se, it is called introspection and although we should always strive to pay a visit to our internal world every here and then, we were all forced to do it under these circumstances.

Diving into your thoughts and experiences, is not always a pleasant process, however, it is one of the requirements to promote growth and mental expansion on our way to set the foundation for a level-up.

As complicated as it sounds, facing your internal energy is demanding, requires time and effort to combat the challenge of awareness, acceptance and action upon the uncomfortable aspects we come across and that explains why we instictively tend to postpone that work, hide it under the rug and conceal it with hours and hours of busy lifestyle. In a sense, this is a reasonable reaction, since we do not always have the capacity to support such procedures physically, mentally, emotionally and energy wise. Although it is a wise choice to go through the darkness when we can actually support it, there is always a trap of eternal procrastination and the lockdown period pushed each and every of us into the void, almost by force wither we were ready for it or not.

On the brightside, the circumstances also forced everyone to get out of constantly postponing this journey, which is great, as we can benefit a lot out of it once we realize the true power of our input, IF we choose to conciously take the challenge and put the proper effort in, despite the initial frustration.

That being said, if one takes the quest and remains consistent on the mental work that requires, there comes the first fruit: CLARITY.

Clarity is the state we meet once we become aware of the situation itself, the real proportions of it and the facts it consists of. It is a state where we can observe objectively and in most cases we perceive everything in a different way than what we used to in the past, when we were influenced by our individual emotional triggers. One might wonder if the situation itself changed but the truth is that this particular situation has always been like this. It was just us, standing on a different angle of the spiral, looking at the same thing.

Another perk of clarity is that it goes hand-in-hand with internal peace. Once you observe the points objectively, you are able to connect the dots and complete a puzzle which was the initial cause of your frustration at the first place. When you are able to 'map' all the factors behind your attributes, emotions, choices and outcomes you are finally in a position to understand. Consequently, when you can understand what is happening, what led to it, what was the impact on you and in what extend you could control it to yield the outcome that you wanted, you achieve inner peace. Lastly, this inner peace provides the stability you need, especially in such turbulent times, to feel confident and secure in yourself since you can now have conscious control over your actions and make your choices around what you really want, instead of being controlled by the external drawbacks. And that is when you achieve the impossible: when the ground shakes and rips apart, you are able to walk on it the steadiest you have ever done because you have explored a new level of balance, backed up with tools to retain it regardless what happens under your feet.

At this point you can see how beautiful the dynamic is: at the beginning you dive into a disturbing chaos by consciously giving up all control, you strip yourself off the ideas of what what you perceive as real, possible or impossible and you expose yourself into what haunts you the most; only to realize that right in there you retrieve the answers you always seeked, you complete the puzzle that restores your sanity and you finally gain up even more control than you initially had. You are transformed, elevated and capable in all aspects, to reflect the fruits of your hard work, be more aware of yourself and able to make better -for you- choices.

At the end of the day, you finally internalize and utilize ALL the lessons and experiences you obtained throughout your life, you truly benefit from the positive things in your life as well as turning the negative ones in tools, making the suffering not go in vain. Furthermore, you are also able to re-evaluate everything in your life upon a new, clear and unbiased angle and that is beautiful. You have the knowledge and confidence to set a new sequence of actions to walk the path you want, against the wind, instead of flowing helpless on what each day brings. Additionally, you learn to stand your ground in various contexts and go after what you truly need at each point, fearlessly. That includes setting bariers to yourself as well, practicing self discipline over things you previously 'couldn't help'. If you are an empath, you certainly know the impact of constantly absorbing negative energy on your attempt to help and support others. Through introspection and clarity, you finally discover the power to possess self-care above your urge to help, because you can now see the full image of how doing otherwise escalates both short and long term.

That being said, introspection and clarity might seem to concern your individual case, however, a further benefit is that you can also undestand a lot more about the world around you. Using the covid-19 lockdown as a great applied example, you are able to understand why people around you feel and act in a certain way. When you are internally imbalanced and charged, overthinking makes it almost certain that you will project people's behavior as a link or indicator to who you are, but this is not the case. Since you also witnessed how you acted, entirely influenced by your internal situation towards others, same applies to them as well. You realize that certain reactions are not always a reflection of how they feel about you and there is a chance that there is nothing wrong with you even though you received an unpleasant reaction. It is highly possible that they just struggle themselves too and haven't gained their self-control back yet.

This realization can be critical in the way you respond to social interactions as well. Think about how you instictively react when you feel afraid, threatened and charged upon the thought that a person might be mad/uninterested/judgemental towards you. You most likely try to actively participate and jump into it with good intentions to resolve the matter. You expect to clarify things and instead you end up being even more frustrated that you didn't meet this expectation and therefore even more charged as you feel helpless even though you did the most reasonable thing: put effort and time in solving an unpleasant case.

Emotional charge drives an impulsive reaction which although comes from a good place, might not be what a tricky situation needs. In contrast, when you are NOT emotionally charged because you possess understanding, self-security and stability, you have the chance to do the most odd thing ever: not react and give space and time. It might sound weird but think about how you felt on your way to restore clarity and stability. It was frustrating, uncomfortable and draining and you wouldn't be able to handle such interactions optimally either during that time. Once you understand yourself, you can understand others too and realize that we don't all grow on the same pace. That being said, giving some space, time, understanding and support will leave some air for the other party to work on it and manifest their energy towards their introspection before they are able to grow and do their part on this situation in a transformed, elevated and more beneficial state of mind.

In conclusion, I would like to complete this article with the a sum of take home messages:

✅As scary as it sounds, don't hesitate to let go or lay back in times of high pressure. Look after yourself and let the rest of the life evolve on the same time.

✅Yourself will always be the greatest investment as you are the one who sculpts your dreams.

✅Happiness is not an all-time-perfect situation, it is a state of mind where you feel secure and content in yourself enough to be aware and adapt when conditions are odd.

✅Beauty relies on your way to willingly give up control and swim in the ocean of the impossible.

✅Temporary discomfort is a requirement for everlasting freedom and aims to make you look past the imperfections and keep going.

That's it for today! I hope this article provided some light into your day and inspired you to discover your inner strength on a whole different level! Don't hesitate to reach out for topic requests for future articles, stay safe and keep enjoying life. Don't overanalyze everything because at the end of the day: