Last week we related the concept of focusing on contribution rather than blame to the season of discover. This week I wanted to follow up with relating this to another Network concept – AAA.

Overall, taking blame out of the equation lowers defense and judgement, and this helps conversation and energy flow openly.

When we sense that we are being blamed, we tend to get defensive, and this stops the open flow of conversation. The same thing happens when we judge our situation or blame someone for the way it is, it stops the flow of energy. When we accept how things are without judgement, we let the energy flow and this opens the possibility for change.

A personal example is trying to get Sarah to stop blaming me for getting her pregnant and to instead acknowledge how we each contributed. It’s going ok so far:)

Here is a recap of AAA in case you have forgotten or have not heard this yet.

AAA stands for being Aware, Acknowledge and Accept. This formula can be applied to any situation that we don’t like the way it is.

Aware – you first need to be aware of the thing you don’t like or want to change.

Acknowledge – you have to admit or acknowledge the situation. Donny states this is best done out loud and its even better if you say it out loud to another person.

Accept- accept that it is what it is without judgement, blame or wishing it was different. Accept that it hasn’t changed yet. 

Doing all 3 steps allows the energy to flow and opens the possibility for easier change. The last step can be the hardest. Here is an old newsletter about acceptance in layers. Link https://nextlevelchirodallas.com/acceptance-in-layers/

Let’s take a closer look at the 3 A’s we talked about last week.

You could argue that being aware the most important A as its the first step, and you won’t have an opportunity to acknowledge or accept something if you are not aware of it first. Without awareness, there is not much chance of change happening.

The second A or acknowledging that you are aware is usually the easiest step. This is best done out loud to another person, but you could also simply acknowledge it to yourself. A fun in-between is acknowledging something to yourself in the mirror. We also have an old blog post where we talk about journaling or writing our acknowledgements down as a substitute to doing this out loud.

Without a doubt, acceptance is the hardest A, and many people get stuck here. Non acceptance or denial takes a large amount of physic energy that can drain us over time. Overtime, there becomes a bigger and bigger gap between what we hope is true and what we fear is true, and this can create a shift in our body (usually in the pelvis). Eventually, the story becomes too painful, and we accept what is. This is when things can magically begin to change. Acceptance is very similar to ripping a bandaid off, it sucks at first but then it rapidly improves.

There is a misconception with Network Spinal and Chiropractic in general that something needs to be wrong to be under care. Although many people initially start care because something is wrong, it’s definitely not required to have pain, dysfunction or other symptoms to start or continue care. 

Other reasons people start and continue care include wellness, optimization of Nervous system function, stress management, growth, wanting more in life, maintenance and more.

Network Spinal helps your body and Nervous System learn to release stress and tension. These strategies develop and evolve over time. One way the body learns to release stress is by large muscle movements. During entrainments, you become aware of an area of your body and then you have the urge to move or reposition to release the stress. Usually this starts as large movements and then refines to smaller more specific movements or re positioning. These strategies cross over to life automictically. You might find yourself stretching, correcting your posture or otherwise moving or depositing your body automatically during life. You can also consciously tap into these strategies by allowing yourself to do so while doing self care. Things like body scan meditations are perfect for this as they bring awareness and also help to turn off your mind. This combination plus giving yourself permission to do so, allows you to connect to and release stress/tension. This can also come up during other body work such as massage or breathing exercises. We invite you to play with this as an addition to your self care. The specific meditation we used is https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=9B_NSBWGYCw.

Having different or multiple perspectives can help us have more energy and to see the bright side of things.

I’ll use my fall a couple of weeks ago as an example. My first perspective was that it sucked that I fell and that I was experiencing pain. If this was my only perspective, I wouldn’t get much else other than pain from the fall. After being on the ground for a few seconds, I was able to get up and added the perspective of gratitude that I could get up and that nothing seemed broken. Gratitude is almost always good to add. Shortly after this came the thought flash that I need to slow down or not rush- I was driving Max to College Station later that night after working a breakout entrainment session in Flower Mound until 6pm. We left much later than I would have wanted and I would have been tempted to rush getting there to get him to bed. I took the message of my fall (I only fell because I was rushing) to slow down and be careful on the drive. This brought more gratitude and appreciation(more energy). The fall also inspired me to ask Sarah to entrain me throughout the week which also added energy and growth. Ultimately, the fall added a lot of energy to my system and contributed to my growth. It still sucked physically with pain where I hit the driveway, some back pain and headaches, but these additional perspectives helped me have an overall better and richer experience.

Sometimes the universe gives us more energy in interesting ways, its up to us to add perspectives to get the benefit of the energy. Network Spinal helps us grow to where we can see multiple perspectives.

In Network care, we talk about reaching new levels of stability with levels of instability in-between. Levels of stability are periods where life is going well and not much is changing. Periods of instability refer to periods with lots of change from what you are used to. Last week, someone helped me see this concept as layers and I wanted to share my experience.

I recently restarted meditating and doing breathe work from the Art of Living. I am doing this with the intention of upgrading myself before our new kiddo arrives Earth side in July. The only issue was that I was waking up extremely grumpy and even angry after doing this work. This happened consistently for the first 5-6 days of doing the work. This was concerning to me, and it was causing instability in my life. I know that meditation and breath work are supposed to be good for me, but being a grump gus all day is not great. I consulted a practice member and friend who is a master yogi and his answer was simple and profound. He said it sounded like I was running up against a layer of something (anger) and he suggested I do more of the breath work and meditation in order to push through.

I realized that the anger after meditating was the reason I had stopped meditating many years ago. Meditation used to be extremely enjoyable and productive for me until something changed and I simply quit the practice. Anytime I tried to start again, I never made it through the angry layer.

I am happy to report that I stayed with the practice and am seemingly through the layer of anger and on to the next level of stability. Meditation and breath work are once again enjoyable and productive, I just had to push through the anger layer/level of instability. It took about 5 days until I noticed a wonderful shift. I was no longer grumpy and instead was laughing and playing with our kiddos more. My goal is to continue to do these practices daily for at least until the baby comes- I’ll try to continue then, but there will definitely be some instability to deal with.

Are there any unpleasant layers/levels of instability that you have been avoiding? if so, maybe its time for you too to push through the next layer.

Overall, taking blame out of the equation lowers defense and judgement, and this helps conversation and energy flow openly.

When we sense that we are being blamed, we tend to get defensive, and this stops the open flow of conversation. The same thing happens when we judge our situation or blame someone for the way it is, it stops the flow of energy. When we accept how things are without judgement, we let the energy flow, and this opens the possibility for change.

Here is a recap of AAA in case you have forgotten or have not heard this yet.

AAA stands for being Aware, Acknowledge and Accept. This formula can be applied to any situation that we don’t like the way it is.

Aware – you first need to be aware of the thing you don’t like or want to change.

Acknowledge – you have to admit or acknowledge the situation. Donny states this is best done out loud and its even better if you say it out loud to another person.

Accept- accept that it is what it is without judgement, blame or wishing it was different. Accept that it hasn’t changed yet. 

Doing all 3 steps allows the energy to flow and opens the possibility for easier change. The last step can be the hardest. Here is an old newsletter about acceptance in layers. Link https://nextlevelchirodallas.com/acceptance-in-layers/