The Value of Vulnerability - Daring Greatly
I'm currently reading Brene Brown's "Daring Greatly". Recently, I've been hearing a lot and reading quite a bit on the topic of vulnerability and authenticity, so it seemed like this book would help guide me on how to open up more and shine light on how I can help my clients on their journeys.
I know it's scary when hiring a coach. It takes a TON of courage and trust to open up to someone in sharing your daily habits, your fears, set backs, and goals. And, I feel immensely honored when someone selects me to be a part of their health and well-being journey, letting me in.
I've found that people who open up to vulnerability ARE the most successful in meeting their health goals, as compared to those who phone it in and tell me what they think I want to hear during our sessions. And, as I think about it, this hold true not just in health and wellness, but in all aspects of our lives. Personally and professionally.
"Vulnerability is the birthplace of creativity, innovation, and change." I invite you to join me in opening yourself up to vulnerability. I'm half-way done with the book, but you can read here on this blog, where I'll be sharing insights and "a ha's" that I glean from the book! Just like working out, or eating healthy, building vulnerability is a practice. So, I invite you to practice with me!
I found myself nodding my head and having a light bulb moment when reading about scarcity. So often in our health and well-being journeys, we feel that we aren't enough. We aren't thin enough, we don't have enough will power, we don't have enough time, we're not smart enough, we're not good enough, and the list goes on and on. Take a moment to think about the ways in which you've felt not enough in both big and small ways. SO much of self-care and compassion is being open to believing that we truly are enough, just the way we are.
It's a scarcity mindset...and the powerful thing that made me take pause was the passage where Brene cites another book, "The Soul of Money" by Lynne Twist.
"For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is, "I didn't get enough sleep." The next one is "I don't have enough time." Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining, or worrying about what we don't have enough of...Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we're already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds are racing with a litany of what we didn't get, or didn't get done, that day. We go to sleep burdened by those thoughts and wake up to that reverie of lack...This internal condition of scarcity, this mind-set of scarcity, lives that the very heart of our jealousies, our greed, our prejudice, and our arguments with life."
Wow! Let that sink in for a moment. If that passage resonates with you, may I offer something that's helped me tremendously in dealing with scarcity thinking? It's gratitude. Even though it may seem like a super too good to be true solution, it really does help. And, that's writing out a minimum of 3 things that I'm grateful for each day. Even if it's a crappy day, being grateful for my home, my husband, and my pets, helps lasso that scarcity beast and make it not appear so overwhelming.
What are your thoughts on scarcity? Do you recognize yourself in any of the thoughts noted above? How do you deal with it?
