Rapid-Fire Wisdom for Some of Your Biggest Challenges
September 7th, 2012
“I’m stuck, lost, in need of direction. I know what I want but how do I get there?”
You know what living a magnificent life means for you? It’s following the blazing inspiration that’s alight in your heart and seeing it through from start to heavenly end. I’m talking about your vision, your genius, the dazzling gifts bestowed upon you. You know, your birthright.
I know it can appear hard to get yourself ‘there’ because ‘there’ seems like this far-off place where magical things happen and spirits fly free – no longer compromised or buried inside meaningless living – but I want you to comfort yourself with the fact that instead of tackling the whole 1000-piece puzzle at once, it’s okay to simply connect the bottom corner to the next piece. And then add a piece after that. And maybe another when the spirit moves you.
Great whopping books are written word by word, page by page, just like houses are built brick by brick. You could do worse than adopt the same lead when it comes to The Reason You’re Here on Earth.
“If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are — if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.” ~ Joseph Campbell
“I’m scared of going it alone… and I’m scared of admitting that.”
Courageous transitions call for support so:
Forget this: it’s shameful and weak to ask for help; and
Know this: asking for help is powerful. It’s clever and brilliant and invites ease into your life, allowing you feel held and present while you focus on your soul’s work.
“How do I know if it’s right for me?”
Simply tune in to your deepest intuition, your inner whisper, the oracle inside that just… knows.
“We often hesitate to follow our intuition out of fear. Most usually, we are afraid of the changes in our own life that our actions will bring. Intuitive guidance, however, is all about change. It is energetic data ripe with the potential to influence the rest of the world. To fear change but to crave intuitive clarity is like fearing the cold, dark night while pouring water on the fire that lights your cave. An insight the size of a mustard seed is powerful enough to bring down a mountain-sized illusion that may be holding our lives together. Truth strikes without mercy. We fear our intuitions because we fear the transformational power within our revelations.” ~ Caroline Myss
When you learn to not only hear that soft, true and valid voice within, but to trust it completely, everything shifts. Call a committee meeting with your inner wisdom today.
“It feels like I’m constantly pushing. Why is everything I do so goddamn hard?”
Stop doing the things that kill your energy. If you let it die, it will die. Pleasedontletitdie.
“How do I stop feeling inadequate, not good enough?”
Left to her own devices, your inner critic is a bit of a bitch. She’ll show up unannounced when you’re feeling vulnerable or out of your comfort zone and dish up her own special brand of noxious nonsense, just ’cause she can. Just ’cause she knows you’ll cop it.
Protect your tender self and examine all the facts. Are they true? Really? Really?
Decide whether you’re going to allow your limiting beliefs, or the echo of your parents or your boss or whoever else you’re holding in a place of authority, keep you from shining like the luminous beacon of light you are. Write your fears and doubts and murkiest thoughts on paper to take the first step in releasing them. There are outrageously beautiful qualities inside you. Blaze.
“But… it’s not perfect.”
Good news: nothing is. Perfection is a myth. What’s admirable is that you are infinitely and actively growing, loving and evolving. Even when you fail miserably and publicly. Even when your thing isn’t tuned and preened within an inch of its life.
Instead of striving to be perfect, take heed of Tony Robbins advice and aim instead to be a sublimely flawed human being.
“Live life fully while you’re here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You’re going to anyway so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don’t try to be perfect. Just be an example of being human.”
Sky-high expectations and crippling doubts – we won’t be needing your services anymore. Thank you anyway.
“I’m kinda awkward, a bit weird. How do I fit in?”
Embrace what makes you different. I was thinking about the things I’ll never be recently. I’ll never be totally conservative because although on the whole I can be quiet obedient, there’s this part of me that likes to rebel. I’ll never be a hard-hitting journalist, because I’m not into confrontation. I’ll never wear Peter Pan collars and collect vintage oil paintings and cute owl trinkets because that’s not MY style. There are people that do all that and be all that (I know and love those people), with far more spunk than I ever could. What I’m left to step into is my own authenticity.
I want you to know – hand-on-heart – that your (self-diagnosed) awkwardness or the things that are different and vulnerable are no doubt the things the world loves most about you. Come alive being fabulously you.
“What if I fail?”
Sometimes we resist the things we know are good for us because we’re afraid of who we’ll become. Thing is though gorgeous, worry is like a prayer for something bad to happen.
If you fail, you’ll pick yourself back up again. If you falter, you’ll eventually find your way – or another way. Leave the small stuff behind and promise us you’ll play bigger.
Other random mind-benders and flipped and dipped perspectives:
1 // Life happens for you – not to you.
2 // Instead of “having to do all these things” you “get to do all these things.”
3 // The only permission you need is your own.
4 // Struggles are our defining moments.
5// Ali Brown (via Denise Duffield-Thomas) asks: “What would millionaire {your name} do?” So, what would millionaire you do? Millionaire you would book it/ do it/ take it/ leave it/ launch at it. Consider yourself nudged.
6// It’s OK to pull back from the world. And as long as you know that ‘wherever you go, there you are’ it’s totally OK to hightail it out of here for a while. A change in location will annihilate blockages like nobody’s biz.
7// When you’re exceptionally busy and stressed and over it, be of service. Taking the focus off your own issues is guaranteed to mellow the madness.
8// And it’s worth reminding yourself that sometimes, just sometimes, not getting what you want can be the biggest blessing of all.
The inspiration for this post came from the questions I asked on Facebook a few days ago: “What are you struggling with? What’s grinding your gears, stealing your spark, putting a big ol’ dampener on things?” It also comes from conversations and emails and the things that crop up in my own life. These are universal conundrums, felt by us all.
+ If you didn’t get a chance to share your challenges on Facebook, I encourage you to let them unfurl here.
+ Let’s get share-y: what works for you when you’re going through a rough patch? Unleash your tips/ advice/ shiny nuggets of wisdom below.
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Images: Dream Yourself Along | Sankaku | Ethereal Taurus
