1 week growth

Watch the YouTube Video

I shaved my head a week ago as a detachment from my ego, a reminder to what’s important in life and as an inspiration to others to focus on the true sources of happiness.  To my surprise, I actually really liked how my baldhead looked so in a sense my ego could be attaching itself to that new cool image.  The practice of detachment for me has been and will be watching my hair grow out and not wishing it to be different.  I noticed that I didn’t like it as much once the black stub started growing in, so I noted that dissatisfaction as an observation instead of a desire for it to be different.

In my last blog I said that the material and physical don’t bring us true happiness.  Today I would like to talk about what does and how to find that for you.  A good exercise to find out would be to reflect or write down all of the things that bring you joy. Once you know what they are you can spend your energy focusing on them to fill you with more joy and then the physical and material won’t seem so important.

What brings me joy is listening and living from my heart, nurturing myself, inspiring others, spending time with nature and animals, having heart-felt connections with others, living on a tropical island, sharing smiles with strangers, feeling vibrant health and energy, learning new things, exploring new places, puppies and babies, riding on a motorbike, walking along the beach, warm bathes, beautiful food that nourishes my body, knowing who I am, developing myself, overcoming challenges, giving to others, feeling the love from my family and friends…not how my hair looks.

Find and focus on your joy!

Grow

letting go of image

Shaving My Head

A Practice of Detachment, Reminder and Inspiration

Om Namah Shivaya

(I Bow To My True Identity)

ego detachment

My name is Elicia Woodford, I am 35 years old and currently living in Koh Samui, Thailand.  My business ePowerMe is about releasing thoughts, behaviors, beliefs, toxins, and stress that keep us from being who we really are and fully alive. I am launching another business called Samui Healing which is designed to provide cleansing information, services and resources to support ePowerMe’s mission. I’ve personally done many various body, mind and material cleanses this year. Cleansing is about getting rid of what we don’t need that is attached to the ego like stress, social pressure, and an image that is identified with the body and material things.  I decided to end my year of detox with a spiritual ego cleanse by shaving my head to detach from society’s pressure of looking a certain way and caring what others think.

Reasons, Reminders and Inspiration:

v    Spiritual Detox and Detachment

• Detaching from ego, image and identity

v    Source of Happiness

source of happiness

• How you feel is dependent of what you are thinking and the health of your body.  If you are overly concerned with physical appearance, and what others think, then you will cause unnecessary stress and unhappiness.
• Most people think that if they look good then they feel good.  If you dig deeper on what it is costing you in stress and worry to look good you will see that is not true. 
• Pay attention to your thoughts “My hair is too short, I wish my hair was straight/curly, my roots are showing, I want to look like Angelina Jolie, I can’t go out with this pimple, I need my teeth whitened, I wish I was skinny, my nail chipped…”
• All the physical things that seem to matter most are impermanent and will change.  Your hair will grow, your nails grow, you choose to adopt a clean natural diet and your skin and hair glow plus the extra 5 pounds comes off without trying.  With this awareness you can focus on what matters most in life: the health of your mind and body.
• I’m not saying to not care how you look and to let yourself go but instead let society’s pressure of how you should look go. Care more about what thoughts you let in your mind and what you are putting in your body.  Know what thoughts and food either feed you or deplete you.  Your happiness depends on them.
• Focus your energy up towards who you are, how you live, and your potential instead of down towards what you look like, what you have and comparing yourself to others.  Become aware by asking yourself, “Does it matter, does it make me happy and is it beneficial to my life?”
• Another thing to be aware of is how you treat others and your generosity.  When you give selflessly and are kind to others you feel good about yourself.  Practice compassion on yourself, while making changes, and you will feel good and be able to relate to others with a better understanding.

v    Cancer

prevent & heal disease

• Cancer is real and can heal.  Place importance on trying to prevent it by improving your lifestyle choices. 
• Cancer, and other illnesses, can only live in a toxic and deficient environment. The best defense towards disease is a healthy body.
• Focus on boosting your health with detox, cleansing and nutritional therapy.

v    Patience & Dedication

• Patience is needed for growth and development.
• Developing the mind with awareness and compassion for yourself and others requires practice and patience.
• Be excited to see what develops at each stage of the growth. It is about the journey and not the destination.

v    Embracing Natural Beauty

live & radiate from your heart and nature

• When you live from your heart and nature you radiate natural beauty.
• I am releasing what is not me (chemicals) to let my natural hair and self shine through.

v    Re-birth

• 2009 detachment & detox – from the things that I don’t need, that cause stress and unhappiness.
• 2010 birth & new development – caring and nurturing my mind and body like a newborn.

Let go of what you are not to find out who you are!

Credits:

Hairshaver – Dany Lopez,  samuihair@yahoo.com, +66 (0) 81 787 4893

Blue Sarong – Donated by Ta from Thai Organic Life

Photographer & Samui Healing Model - Carrie Bain

This is dedicated to everyone’s feelings that need to be acknowledged.

I find myself teaching people every day about respecting and honoring how people feel, and for those feeling the way they do, how to stand up for their feelings.  When I hear the words “calm down”, “relax”, “don’t be upset”, “stop freaking out” or my all-time favorite “you are crazy” I WANT TO SCREAM!  If I do scream though, I most likely will be told to calm down…

OK, so if I’m upset or emotional what will help is to respect why I’m upset, have empathy and compassion to the situation and just be there to listen.  The thing that will make it worse is to tell me to not feel the way I do.  It’s time we stand up for our feelings.  The more we stuff them inside instead of releasing and respecting them, the more they will deplete our well-being.  Take your power back by understanding, managing and releasing your emotions.  Most importantly they want to be expressed and deserve respect.

I’m going to start off with an example that happened to me today.  I landed in Orange County airport and needed a taxi ride to a house in Laguna Beach.  I told my driver the address and asked him if he knew where that was.  He started driving and said he knew Laguna Beach but not that street.  I was starting to get concerned but was relieved that he had a GPS.  We were headed down a highway as he played around with the GPS. I had to ask him if he found it and he then told me that his GPS was broken and that he would have to call dispatch.  The meter had reached $20 and we were on a highway headed to nowhere.  I was starting to get upset as I told him that I would Google Map it on my iPhone.  Turns out that we were headed in the opposite direction to what the directions said and he knew I was getting upset so he shut off the meter and said he would turn it on when we get to the right road.  His intentions were not communicated clearly to me so I became more upset, confused and worried. I’m not sure where my driver was from but English was his second language as he explained after I told him that telling me to “calm down” was rude.  He then went on to ask me if he should have said, “relax”, I started to feel a scream rising.  It doesn’t matter if you understand the language or not.  What needs to be understood is that if someone is upset, there is a reason and to acknowledge that instead of telling him or her they shouldn’t be upset or feel the way they do.  After I told him “relax” wasn’t a good response either, I suggested that next time he just apologize for the inconvenience and relieve my worry by explaining how he was resolving the situation.  I think he understood but then was overcompensating the rest of the 30-minute ride with being concerned that I was upset and that I should be enjoying my weekend. 

This book is about expressing feelings.  These are the real life stories of those screaming to be heard and respected.  Thank you for listening and understanding.

If you have a story that you would like to share and contribute to the book, please email me elicia@epowerme.com