 When you embark on a new skill, learning or journey, you might easily envision what you would look like or feel like at the end of the process. For example, if you’re learning to ice skate, you might see yourself gliding around the rink without having to hold on to the sides. Or if you’re creating a new recipe from a food show you watched or a magazine you’ve read, you could imagine a beautiful dish that matches the picture. Or maybe you made a decision to eat healthier and you see yourself filling your grocery basket with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Perhaps you’re aiming to start a new career, and you could already see yourself breathing clearly and freely, making money doing something that you love. Getting clear on where you want to go and embodying the feeling of your vision are very helpful first steps as you grow and learn. What we sometimes don’t realize, though, are that there are awkward stages along the way. If you’re learning to ice skate, you sometimes fall when you let go of the railing. If you’re cooking a new dish, sometimes the end product doesn’t always match up to the beauty of what you saw on television or in the food magazine. If you’re on the path to eating healthier, you might find that stray bag of chips hidden in the cupboard and you waver whether to eat it or give it away. If you want to leave your job and start a new career, usually it can’t happen fast enough. You might be looking for new opportunities or gaining new skills, but you might get frustrated that you’re not feeling the freedom and fulfillment of your new career. I call these awkward stages because you don’t have your footing yet. You haven’t mastered these skills or reached the end of your journey. Between the beginning of the journey and the end of the journey is being on the journey. And I’ll tell you…being on the journey is a magical place. Why? Because you’re stretching your horizons. You’re trying new things. You’re exercising new muscles. You’re tapping into an energy of possibility as you seek to experience something new. So I’m here to encourage you… If you’ve embarked on something new in your life, it’s okay to expect the awkward stages of growth, and perhaps even to embrace them. Your feelings of awkwardness are a sign that you’ve invited the spirit and creativity of Life into your being, and you’re willing to express this Life as you. For your coaching assignment this week, here's something easy: Try something new. It could be as simple as buying something from the grocery store that you usually don’t buy, or driving down a different street, or learning a few words in a language that you’re not familiar with. As you embark on this journey, notice your moments of awkwardness, where you feel a little strange. Maybe you might be a little excited. Then, embrace that feeling of awkwardness, of strangeness and excitement. And silently give thanks for the fullness of Life that you get to experience. Abundant Blessings and Namaste. I'd love to hear your thoughts about today’s post. Please leave a comment below. Also, if you’re feeling the need for guidance or support, I offer a complimentary life coaching consultation where we can chat. You can learn more about these life coaching consultations by clicking here. Finally, if you're interested in receiving these weekly inspiring articles, feel free to sign up by clicking here.  Are there times in your life when you feel like you’re wearing a mask? To put it another way, do you sometimes present what feels like not your truest self? For example, a dear friend asks you to go to a party and, as much as you don’t want to go, you say yes because you feel you would let your friend down. This is the mask of politeness and obligation. Or someone at work gossips about another co-worker and, even though you don’t agree with what’s being said, you stay silent and nod in agreement. This is the mask of peer pressure. Or, as some of my clients experience, you show up at a job you hate and stick with it because you can’t see yourself giving up the pay or the benefits. This is the mask of living in the rat race. In some cases it might seem easier to keep on wearing the mask, but at what cost? Whether you realize it or not, the more you wear your mask, the easier it gets to forget who you really are. And the more you’re unsure of who you are, you’re more apt to live your life according to someone else’s rules. One of my coaches, Andrea Lee, has this saying: "Confusion occurs when you allow someone else’s energy to come into your field." In other words, if you feel confused about anything in your life, it’s probably a sign that you’re letting someone else’s opinions contradict what you know to be true for you. To be more blunt, if you feel like you “should” be doing something and it’s not resonating with you, you’re probably feeling the tightness of a mask. If you realize you’ve been wearing a mask, how do you take it off? You start by listening to and honoring your own heart’s whispers and guidance. It can be as easy as going to a restaurant, looking at the menu and asking yourself, “What do I want to eat?”  As you peruse the menu, let go of the pressures that say “this is what I should eat” or “this is the most popular dish, so I should eat that.” Ask yourself, “If I take a moment to listen, what do I really want?” And sometimes, you might have to ask yourself the question at least a couple times to get to your real heart’s longings. You may think, “Ooh, I want to eat this dish,” but after asking yourself a few times, you realize, “No, what I really want is this.” As you start listening to and honoring your own inner guidance, living life on your terms gets easier with each authentic choice you make. Eventually, the mask starts to fall away. So, for this week’s coaching assignment, check in with yourself and see if you’re feeling like you’re wearing a mask anywhere in your life. If you do find a mask, ask yourself:
The world is crying for more authenticity and for more realness. What can you do to be more authentically you today? Abundant Blessings and Namaste. I'd love to hear your thoughts about today’s post. Please leave a comment below. Also, if you’re feeling the need for guidance or support, I offer a complimentary life coaching consultation where we can chat. You can learn more about these life coaching consultations by clicking here. Finally, if you're interested in receiving these weekly inspiring articles, feel free to sign up by clicking here.  Have you ever found yourself waking up in the middle of the night disoriented and needing to go to the bathroom (usually in a hotel room where you’re vacationing), and because it’s so dark, you’re stumbling around and disturbed because you can’t see? It can feel very frustrating. Stumbling around in the dark is a great metaphor for how we sometimes can feel in life.
What do you do if you find yourself stumbling around in the dark? The first step is to stop and get your bearings. Trying to rush to the bathroom after immediately waking from a deep sleep can be disorienting. Instead, take a second to stop and see if you can locate where you are. Ask yourself, Where am I? Your eyes might need to adjust to the darkness. After a few seconds, you can start to make out the shapes of objects and get a sense of where you are. The same is true in a life situation where you feel lost. Take a moment to breathe and get a sense of where you are and what’s happening in your life. See if you can look at the situation without blinders and look at what’s real. Too often, people want to immediately rush to a solution. However, if you’re stumbling in the dark, you might run into a table or stub your toe. You might cause more problems because you want to take action, any action. But if allow yourself to be present to the moment, you begin to ground yourself and bring a greater awareness to your surroundings and where you are. After you get your bearings, the next step is to focus on where you want to go. If you’re in a dark hotel room, you might have to recall where the bathroom is. Okay, you say to yourself. My bed is right here, and I remember the bathroom is around the corner from the foot of my bed, across from the closet and right near the front door. This same step can apply to a life situation. Once you know where you are, you have to get clear about where you want to go. For example, if you’re in a job where you find yourself dreading going to work and you get sick often because you can’t stand it, you might determine that where you really want to go (in your heart of hearts) is to find another place to work. This step might be one of the hardest for people to make. You may have an inkling of where you want to go, but then you immediately start to think of all the ways it could go wrong or why it shouldn’t happen. With this particular example of knowing you want to find another place to work, you might think, "I can't do that. I've been in this job for 15 years. What else could I do? There's no way I can start all over again." This step is difficult because you might be conflating where you want to go with how you'll make it happen. These are actually two separate steps. That’s why I like this metaphor of stumbling in the dark to go to the bathroom. You know where you are (on or near the bed) and you know where you need to go (the bathroom). It’s simple. You usually don’t ask yourself what could go wrong in going to the bathroom, or why you shouldn’t go to the bathroom. You just know that you need to get there, and that's where you need to go. So what’s the next step? After you know where you are and where you need to go, you figure out how you want to get there. If you’re in the hotel room and it’s really dark, you might need to shuffle your feet slowly forward while waving your arms around to make sure you don’t hit anything. Or, if there happens to be some light coming from an alarm clock or some brightness coming from underneath the door from the hallway, your eyes might have adjusted to seeing a clearer path and you move forward with more assuredness and ease. Whether you shuffle or take big strides, you start moving forward. With your life situations, you’ll have to figure out what initial steps you want to take. One way to figure that out is to write out and brainstorm some possible ways to get from here to there. See if you can come up with at least 5 different possibilities. Another way is to talk with a close confidante, like a friend or family member who can be a sounding board for you. Or an additional path is for you to seek out some professional assistance from someone like a coach, counselor or mentor who has the expertise to help you figure out what steps to take. And, as with stumbling in the dark, you might need to adjust your steps along the way. You might have started off feeling self-assured, thinking, “I know where I’m going. Let me get there quickly,” and you walk boldly ahead. But then you accidentally bump into your luggage that you left in the way. So you might switch to shuffling your feet for the remainder of the path. As in life, you take a step and then you re-adjust along the way if you need to. The spiritual truth in today’s lesson is this: There are moments in your life where you may feel yourself stumbling in the dark. No matter how lost you may feel in the moment, there is always a way forward. Getting centered and clear on where you're at now and where you want to go help to make the journey a little easier. And sometimes, you have to move your feet when you can't see the whole picture. When all is said and done, take heart. After you start moving and taking action, eventually, you will find the light. Abundant Blessings and Namaste. I'd love to hear your thoughts about today’s post. Please leave a comment below. Also, if you’re feeling the need for guidance or support, I offer a complimentary life coaching consultation where we can chat. You can learn more about these life coaching consultations by clicking here. Finally, if you're interested in receiving these weekly inspiring articles, feel free to sign up by clicking here. |
About JoselitoJoselito is a spiritual life coach helping people create a purposeful, spiritual path to career and financial freedom. Popular Blog Articles Beware (Be Aware of) these 5 Unhelpful Money Stories How my body told me to quit my job How I was offered an all-expenses paid cruise after making my Vision Board Today I choose to live my GREATNESS You are not your stories. You are the story-teller. Your job is not your Source. Archives
February 2019
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