May the 4th Be With You
stretch out with your feelings
I hope you’re either a fan or familiar with Star Wars as you read this. If not, you might want to skip this post!
Star Wars Day is on May 4th, one of my favorite pop culture-influenced days.
I’ve been watching the original trilogy with my youngest son, and still, it’s exciting to watch and, for the times, pretty freakin’ cool!! The special effects aren’t the best, but they were cutting-edge in the 1970s and ‘80s.
So many good lessons in those movies that I use in my life so much and that I’ve had to learn to tune into as I’ve gotten older.
As a recovering control freak who likes things like guarantees that everything will work out with whatever chance I might take, who has avoided looking at her dark side, knowing that every one of us has a dark side.
One cool thing about getting older is the awareness and ability to see your whole life from a wide-angle lens rather than being short-sighted. You can see yourself and your life in an entirely new light, on your hero’s journey, on your quest with all the twists, turns, choices you made, and trials you overcame to get to this moment right now.
Life here on Planet Earth is NOT for the faint of heart.
It’s a dense place filled with beauty and contrast: the light and the dark.
There’s a line in A New Hope when Obi-Wan Kenobi is training young Luke Skywalker in the ways of The Force. Luke is training with a lightsaber, using it to shield himself from blasts from a laser machine hovering in the air, shooting randomly toward Luke. Obi-Wan tell Luke to put on a face shield, so he can not rely on only his eyes to avoid being hit. Luke protests and resists trying it, thinking he can’t do it. Obi-Wan tells him to “stretch out with your feelings Luke” and to tap into other senses to sense what the blaster will do. He then says, “Our eyes can deceive us,” and THAT IS TRUE!
Much like our tendency to live in our left brain, overthink, be overly logical, and maybe even spend so much time in that one brain hemisphere that we are like floating heads that are probably lopsided to the left-hand side!
I have been a massage therapist for almost 10 years, and 90% of people's left-side necks and shoulders are tight. I think it involves spending too much time in the left brain hemisphere, thinking logically and linearly, and not opening up to the many possibilities that exist at any one time.
Open up to The Force and sit quietly for a few minutes with your feet grounded on the floor. Take deep, grounding breaths and imagine yourself dropping out of your head and into your body, your WHOLE BODY. Imagine it filling with the essence of YOU.
Getting into nature is another way to engage your right brain and body. Leave the noise and distractions behind and get out into the WILD and feel The Force all around you, that energy field that is literally what we’re made of. It flows all around us and holds everything together. Star Wars knows what’s up. Out in nature, you can BE. Nature says, “COME AS YOU ARE,” and will welcome you with open arms.
When you engage the right brain, you’re open to more creative problem-solving.
Just like Luke did, could you put on a blindfold or sleep mask and walk barefoot around your yard and see what you sense and feel? See how well you know your yard without your eyes! Try it out!!
How will you open to The Force and listen to what it has to tell you?
I challenge you to start getting into your body through nature, or sitting quietly, turn on some music for dancing, move your body in a fun way, and play around with your creative, right-brain self and see what happens. Maybe something will shift for you that you’ve been struggling with too much thinking. An idea could float in that you didn’t have before. Perhaps you’ll get inspiration and the nudge to go for it.
Whatever way, make it playful, make it fun.
Consider it your own personal JEDI TRAINING.
Let me know how it goes with a comment 👇
May The 4th Be With You, Always!
