What happens when people are operating on the belief that some people are better than others?
That’s why we have bullies.
That’s why some people drink.
We compare and despair.
We feel like we are not enough.
Or that other people are stupid.
None of that feels very good.
What is another belief that we could operate on that would feel better?
I like the idea that we are all part of one energetic force. We are all connected.
It reminds me of a blog post I wrote a dozen years ago about Jill Bolte Taylor, the neuroscientist who had a stroke and watched herself lose her sense of individuality. She is an incredible storyteller.
You can watch her TedTalk here.
It’s one of my favorites.
But we don’t have to lose the use of half of our brain to experience the world differently. We can try out different ideas.
What belief would make sense to you AND make you feel good?
This morning I have been hyper focused on making sure a bunch of projects with hundreds of details come together.
I felt stressed about having enough time and money to do everything the way I want.
As often happens, I ran across this quote just as I needed it. Doctor, shaman and coach, Sarah Seidelman shared…
“In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions:
“When did you stop dancing?
When did you stop singing?
When did you stop being enchanted by stories?
When did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?”
-Gabrielle Roth
Just asking myself theses questions feels like healing to me.
How are you supposed to learn new things?
By trying things out.
By failing.
By looking like a dumbass.
By assessing and trying again. (This is the part most people skip. They fail and stop.)
You don’t want to just simply try again.
If you fail over and over without assessment and change, you will eventually become discouraged and give up.
But it doesn’t have to feel like work.
I went skiing last week for the first time in around 30 years.
My daughter asked me to teach her how to ski and I was excited.
It combined two of my greatest loves… skiing and teaching.
The biggest complement was when she said, “That wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be!!!”
That’s what a trainer strives for:
When someone thinks they are smart and wonderful and doesn’t even realize that the trainer was the secret sauce.
Maybe that’s what makes a good Mom too. Hmmm.
Most of my skiing skills came right back to me, but I was learning and relearning as I went.
We went from snowplow (now called pizza) to turning, to bringing the uphill ski parallel to the downhill ski, to a little ankle action.
It wasn’t pretty (on my part) but it felt so right.
What would you like to learn at this point in your life?
What is the first small step to take towards it?