"You are the owner of your body".

A good friend recently said to me, "You are the owner of your thoughts and the owner of your body". It is easy to believe that we are simply a product of our environemnts, our community, our family, colleagues and friends. Still, we all have unique gifts, outlooks and instincts that guide and drive us forwards.

Listening clearly to our intuition about the lives we wish to live, the world we want to inhabit and the values we wish to cultivate and protect - requires constant tending to. Ultimately, each of us is autonomous, free and responsible for our own happiness. Our relationships, the dynamics to which we were born into and the patterns we learned to survive, are simply constructs. Our real strength and power lies in constantly stepping outside of those constructs and connecting with what gives us joy, ease and purpose.

We are always free. The challenge lies is remaining in touch with our own autonomy. Cultivating a wild imagination that nurtures positive thinking and a healthy body requires discipline and repetition. Our minds have enormous neuroplasticity - so it is a case of taking care of our thoughts, taking care of our bodies and feeding ourselves with positive affirmations, convictions and values.

Stepping outside of cruelty and misalignment, requires constant awareness and tending to. A friend, who also practices Reiki, shared a technique she taught her children in order to stay safe and regulate in any given environment. She said, "imagine you are sitting inside a giant bubble, that is keeping you safe. You can choose any colour you want your bubble to be. Really imagine it protecting all your good energy and shielding you from harm."

Cultivating the imagination in such a way taught her children how to remain free internally and essentially how to build boundaries in any environment. This invaluable and simple tool acted as a protection for her children whilst they were growing and taught them how to remain colourful, unique and remarkable - despite any animosity.

Often, we shapeshift and lose the parts of us that are vibrant and ecstatic - and we wonder why our bodies and thoughts feel misalligned. Boundaries and self-regulation are vital, as is constant anchoring towards who we really are, what truly inspires us and what we are working towards.

Another friend recently disclosed that he hated the lack of sharing within his small team. He sensed the agressive competition between him, his manager and internal colleague. Instead of mentorship and a transference of knowledgem he sense innate gatekeeping designed to prevent his development and limit his acquisition of technical skills, that might bolster future promotion. He realised that all he could do was observe this dynamic, look for professional mentorship outside of his team, remain consistent and target better team dynamics in his next professional position.

At times, all we can do is protect our autonomy, nurture our intentions and feed our creativity. The energy outside of us is wild and unpredictable. Essentally, we must remember that, "we are always the owner of our thoughts and the owner of our bodies".

You decide how you want to live, eat, move and connect. You decide who you include in that journey and you take the lead in how you manage animosity in the places you work, live and breathe.

Whatever circumstances we find ourselves in - our sense of freedom, autonomy and imagination is boundless and entirely within our hands.