This year has been a bit of a hibernation year for me, so to speak. If you’re spiritually inclined or into the Tarot, it is actually the Chariot year, a Seven year (2023 = 2+2+3). And the Chariot themes have stuck with me through the year – all that moving forward with fire and going towards your goals.

Year of the Chariot thoughts

But also, a Chariot is technically a transport option, a vehicle, it gets you from one place to another, so it’s alot about the journey and the process too. Do you want the journey this year to be smooth? No stopping or bumpy roads? Do you change directions frequently or is it one-way?

Also, who or what are you choosing to bring along this journey? Are you packing your chariot full of luggages or are you discarding things as you go? Or were you discerning from the get-go?

So, for me, it’s been a very interesting year in terms of really stepping into my power and my leadership space as well, but it’s also about letting go of some friendships and habits that no longer served me.

A huge part of Chariot for me is also the reconnection to myself. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m really in a it of a hibernation zone, I’ve been less social this year, less willing to go along with what others are doing and more able to tune into my intuition to do what I want. And in line with that journey, I took a business course earlier this year where the teacher was talking about how to actually have more clarity around your business and what you were doing.

How is your self-esteem like this year? Find out below!

The sensory deprivation process in business

She suggested something called a sensory deprivation process and the key takeaway was that, you as a business owner, in order to be clearer and more aligned with where you want your business to be headed – you deprive yourself of all external stimulation. This involves:

• Unsubscribing from any email newsletters that you’ve been dreading to open for awhile
• Unfollowing certain people on social media
• Fine-tuning your YouTube or social media recommendations by indicating “not interested” on the topics you have zero interest in

So that was exactly what I did. I unsubscribed and unfollowed so many profiles. Guess what? When I was done trimming down everything – I felt way lighter and clearer. I’m able to focus, I concentrate better and am able to separate or discern my thoughts from others’. I am able to make better decisions because of how clear everything is to me.

So I do encourage you to actually do this. If you’re feeling very fuzzy headed, like you are always muddled, confused, unclear. Perhaps you cannot remember what really went on your day, you find yourself stuck and unable to move forward in a direct manner towards your goals, then it’s time to cut out other people’s opinions and rediscover what is yours.

Some other things I did to cut off external influences and turn more inward

• No unconscious screen-time or scrolling: Anything done on a phone or laptop has to contribute to my life in some meaningful way – i.e. a piece of writing for my book, a business thing I’m tending to, reading an e-book, clearing emails etc.
• No reading entertainment or gossip sites or magazines. These are some of the worst influences and time-sucks in my opinion, they not only dull your mind and senses, they fill your heads with tons of unnecessary information about randos the media tells us we need to know about. No we don’t. They contribute nothing of significance to our lives
• Cutting out TV episodes, movies or even books that I’m not getting anything out of
• More silence, ASMR-type audios, sound healing sources, meditation and more
• More journaling, automatic writing and just doing nothing
• Reading – alot. You will be surprised how much you can read once you tune out of the online chatter
• Being incredibly conscious about who I allow into my space, and drawing boundaries at their behaviour and emotional dumping. I’m very particular now – in part, my intuition gives me signs – of who I spend time with/allow into my energy circle and the types of conversations we are having
• High-level ninja stuff: Being discerning of my thoughts – what I’m thinking of myself and other people. Am I jumping into conclusions too early? Am I seeing things from a holistic view or am I being biased? Am I being triggered by old emotional patterns and can I respond differently?

Try some of these today and see where it takes you.

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Why is cutting yourself off (or minimising) external influences important?

You may not even know this or be aware, but whenever we are reading or taking in information or listening to someone or scrolling our social media, we are absorbing the (i) opinions of others and (ii) energy of others.

I always advocate standing in your own truth and being very discerning (and sometimes even straight up ignoring) other people’s opinions, because overtime, you will find that your mind, actions, thoughts, feelings, behaviour etc are actually filtered through other people’s beliefs.

Living a life that is influenced by what others tell you isn’t a life of true happiness or freedom. It’s actually about giving your power away to others.

Secondly, and alot of people may not really understand this. But whenever you engage in anything external that involves others – ESPECIALLY social media, you are absorbing the collective energy.

Have you ever felt exhausted, anxious, confused, dazed after you’ve been scrolling your instagram feed? You aren’t only just taking in information, you are taking on everyone’s thoughts, feelings, vibes etc that they’ve projected onto the platform.

This is why staying away from social media is never a bad thing.

Are you in the right abundant and manifesting mindset? Find out below!

How would you know if your sensory deprivation is actually working?

The biggest sign is that you’d begin to feel like you understand yourself so much better. You start to get a bit better at recognising and tending to your needs, you recognise your emotions so much better. Yes, your mind is clearer.

But the biggest sign of all, is that your previous behaviours and interets will no longer interest you. And no I don’t mean hobbies, but your desire to scroll your IG feed, desire to watch TV mindlessly, get on gossip sites, essentially frittering your time away – those things won’t matter anymore.

You will start to want to spend less time around people whom you don’t really vibe with.

You start to become quite a different person 🙂

Are you ready?

Are you ready to take back your power and be one with your Self? Start the deprivation challenge in your own way today. In time, you’ll find out how in-tune you could be with yourself without any of these distractions.