Why I Am ME (and no one else)

Every single person on this Earth has expectations and assumptions.  We kind of have to in order to manage to get through life without losing our minds. 

Think about it..we assume that the guy in the other car will stop for the red light on his side so we just buzz on through the green.  But we also have assumptions about our expectations.

Mind spinning yet?

We know what we feel and desire in our heart of hearts.  But we often assume that who we are in our truest form won’t be accepted by others.  Many of us wear many masks and hide our dreams because of what we think is expected of us. 

And we won’t break out of these roles because we fear losing our friends and even family.

So we remain, unhappy, hidden and our greatest gifts – our light – is dimmed and shuttered.

If you step back over here with me to look at this a bit differently I’d like to point out of couple of problems with this line of thinking.

First, you were not put here on this Earth to be small, dim or hidden.  You have a light within you that is a gift, and you do it such a disservice by closing the shutters up tight because someone out there may not like it.  You were meant to shine!

Which brings me to my next thought.  Not everyone is going to like you – that is a given in life.  That’s okay.  Simply bless those people and move on.  However, consider this.  If no one knows who you truly are and they only see this facade – then in all truth – no one really likes or  loves you because they don’t know you.  They might like the person you are projecting, but that isn’t YOU.

You can’t lose what you don’t actually have I’m afraid.  Truly if you think everyone likes you then that is a huge hint you aren’t being your truest self.  You are playing roles to make others happy.  I mean c’mon…even the best of us have people who dislike them!

When you allow yourself to shine, to be you in all your quirky ways, then others who will love you for those very things can find you.  Until then you are just an actor on stage and people are simply loving your role…not you.

Imagine what and who you are missing.  Imagine the peace and joy of releasing all that misery and self-condemnation and allowing yourself to grow into the beautiful being you were alway meant to be. 

It’s okay to love you.  In fact, I’m betting most people you already know will love you too if you are brave enough to give them that chance.  You’ll be surprised at what happens.  Take off the masks – live free.

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I Let My Heart Break

Can I share with you something that has caused a huge shift in my world lately?  And it’s been a long time coming.

I finally let my heart break.  It’s been showing signs of cracking and on the verge for a long, long time.  I just refused to let it happen.   I’d just patch it up with some story I’d tell myself, or excuse or simply ignore things.  For a while…ignoring it did feel like bliss – kind of.  But band aids are not meant to last forever.

Let me explain.

To start with, I don’t exactly have the most supportive family.  Do I worry about saying that on my blog…not really.  They don’t read it.

Do they love me?  Oh I’m certain of it.  Overall they are good people.  But supportive - not so much.  It’s not that they come around telling me my dreams are fools gold or outright mock me or anything.  They simply gloss over and carry on with the status quo.  No interest, no questions and no cheering.

My own amazing coach has suggested looking at it from a different perspective – theirs.  Ouch – she got me there.  So I explored that.

I think perhaps my reaching for big dreams and lofty goals is uncomfortable for them.  They shun what they don’t understand.  Change is scary and even painful at times. I’ve learned the hard way to embrace that because I know at the other end is growth and joy.  Until you know that, it’s hard to look at changing what is comfortable without a reason to.  I have rarely followed the way that others do things.  I suppose that certainly could lead to a disconnect.

Still, I think you can support and lift up someone without understanding what they have on their vision board…or the fact they have a vision board.

Okay..big breath…big share.  I used to wonder – and often – what was wrong with me?  Something had to be wrong with ME for the people in my life to not want to know me or cheer me on.  Many time I thought that to have someone yell at me, call me foolish or mock me would almost have been preferable to this feeling of being invisible and unimportant.  Self blame seemed the logical choice.  I struggled with that for a very long time.  With my family of origin I still see it rear its ugly head at times.  Old habits die hard right?  I am working on it and get better every day.

So, here’s the thing.  An ‘event’ happened very recently that shook me hard.  I had to face it.  It wasn’t me, not alone anyway.  I participated in a dynamic that was dysfunctional.  Because it was from my family of origin, admitting that set me back and was really, really hard.   It was difficult and painful just to admit that this.  I really resisted saying it to myself and definitely to anyone else.  I felt disloyal and selfish; I also felt used and hurt.   Quite a mix of emotions to have to deal with.

It took some time (and some very good counsel) to realize that facts are what they are.  What has happened, happened.  It wasn’t about fault or blame or anger to realize that the relationship was unhealthy.

But boy, it still hurts like crazy.   I was up late one evening, sipping some tea and just listening to the fire and the rain on the window when I realized I had to let go.   I had to allow my heart to break from this in order to start figuring out how to put it back together. I also realized I had to give myself permission.

It’s hard to do that because I know that there is a huge lake of painful tears to go through first.  Standing on the edge of that keeps me from feeling the full brunt of it.   I also had a lot of anger about those hurts that I’d been ignoring as it simmered. Keeping a lid on it won’t heal it though.  Courage is what I needed to give myself permission to let it happen.

I’d love to say I’m all better and I’ve dealt with it and that I’m good.  Nope, this is a long history of pinpricks that have created a deeper wound then I even knew.  It won’t heal over night.

However, I can say I survived the initial cracking open and looking at the hurt.  I felt it, I allowed it and now I’ve put it away again until I am strong enough to do some more work with it.

Life is a process of learning lessons and some are wonderful and beautiful.  Some are painful and harsh, but will ultimately lead us to wonderful and beautiful if we can allow it.

It may be hard to believe but I am grateful that I had the courage to allow my heart to break.  I have learned not only am I stronger than I realized, but I am in charge of my own happiness.  I can keep the thunderclouds at bay but until I learn to dance in the rain the sun will not be able to shine.

For now, I’m just going to keep on dancing.

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Facing Fears

We’ve all got ‘em, we’ve all dealt with some of them and we all have a few that still chase us in our nightmares.  Fears.

Fear is an incredibly powerful emotion that only gets more and more powerful as time goes on.  Unless, of course, you DO something about it.

The biggest and most important thing you can do when it comes to our fears is not let them take on a life of their own.  Put them in their real place and start dealing with them from there.

Many who’ve been kicking around this blog know that a few years ago I was in a serious car accident.  Some of you also know that because of said accident my bank account plummeted VERY quickly and I soon was in some trouble. 

At first, I wasn’t capable of dealing with those decisions.  I really wasn’t. I did the best I could but I could only do so much and was in a lot of pain and confusion (concussions are NO laughing matter).  So…things slid.  I let them slide because I really thought I’d be better ‘soon’.  Soon is an interesting time frame lol

Anyway, my point being things got bad quick and soon it was really scary to look at those numbers and know that bills were coming.  I did what I could of course but wow…the stress of it all was really awful.  It wasn’t until I finally forced myself to sit down and really look at my finances that a great deal of the stress was gone.  The money was still a struggle but KNEW exactly where I was and could try to make a plan to deal with it. 

I hid from the issue for a while. I really can’t say what I was thinking except I didn’t want to have to deal with it. Maybe it was embarassment or shame? Maybe I hoped the budget fairy would come and take care of it? 

It’s funny because knowing you are short on rent money is really different to knowing your $125 short.  The first one is like a big black hole of terrified fears around not being able to pay rent.  The second is having to deal with asking for a bit of help which isn’t nearly as bad.  Really weird how our brain works isn’t it?  The unknown factors always throw a HUGE shadow, but often aren’t as big as you think when you turn on the light.

It’s the same with most fears. 

I really advocate writing them down.  Being able to put the racing thoughts into a coherent sentence or two helps you look at them a little more objectively and writing them down allows you to look these little monsters right in the eye.

From my experience with my own issues and with other people I’ve worked with, almost every single time you already know what you have to do to fix the problems. It can just seem so overwhelming and putting pen to paper helps you get organized and figure out what I call ‘the little next step’. 

With every next little step you most certainly are taking back your power.  That shadow on the wall gets smaller and smaller and much  less scary.  It does get easier.

You can only hide from the fears so long anyway so you might as well deal with them before they get any worse.  I waited longer than I should have; I can admit it now but it was hard then.  Tomorrow is only going to make it that much worse but today…today is better then it will be. 

The key of course is having the courage to be open and honest with yourself.  Hiding from our fears gives the fear power and it gets it by taking ours away from us! Screw that!  Take it back by taking a deep breath and looking at exactly what the problem and fear is. 

You can do – I know you can.  And if you need a hand to hold or a light to shine – let me know.

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Can You Get Out of A Learned Life Pattern?

I learned very early in my life that things aren’t always fair.

Recently I have had to face a hidden part of my self, and it wasn’t pretty.  What I discovered was a new level of honest and raw emotions. 

To be honest, I’m in a weird sort of way quite impressed with how well I’ve ignored and/or covered up these feelings and got on with life.

But  no more.

The pain, the emotions are out and they are staying out and they are going to change.

There has been a lot of people in my life who have, by actions (or lack there of) and by words shoved the idea that I was not really worthy of their time and affection.  I could earn some of it by doing for them, or giving to them but I, by myself wasn’t really making the cut.  So I became a giver of myself and in process gave away so much I ended up empty and lost.

I don’t believe for one minute that any of these people meant to teach that to a child and then re-enforce it over and over as an adult.  I think, for the most part it was a double-edged sword.  Maybe even triple edged…is there a triple edged sword? 

My family repeated what they had learned.  I don’t understand how they can not see the hurt, but they simply cannot and will not.  I have had to learn to let that go.  I have to hand that back to those people and let them own it until the day they are ready to deal with it themselves.

As I got older, I repeated this learned patttern on my own.  I gave and did for others and didn’t value my Self.  This included my time, money and love.  And if I didn’t value it I was only going to attract those who also didn’t.  Not bad or mean people…but people who were going to help me repeat this pattern over and over of not getting what I need.  And at one point I was really in need emotionally and physically and ended up pretty much alone.  You want to talk about painful?  Yup..that really hurt and it still kind of does. 

In the past, I would change myself, adapt who I was and what I wanted in order to keep the peace. I’d hurt, but never show it.  I wasn’t even sure who I was anymore.

What I’ve learned is I’ve repeated these relationship dynamics over and over again.  They hurt deeply, but it is what felt normal to me.  I just simply made excuses and shoved my own needs down figuring I can just deal with it myself.  As I mentioned … sometimes you can’t.

I wanted to change this.  I started to see that it didn’t have to be this way.  I wanted OUT of this pattern.

Sadly, it meant inflicting more pain on myself in order to break free.  This is not an easy thing to do.  It can be lonely and scary and well…leave you wondering if it’s worth it.  This is really tough when your boundaries have to change with your family.  People don’t like change, they get uncomfortable with you making changes especially when it affects the relationship.  I had to, at one point step, back and decide to let them initiate contact and do some follow-up on the relationship.  The lack of interest was heartbreaking for me. 

The one big lesson I’ve learned is it’s far more painful to be lonely when you are with someone, then it is to be lonely when you are by yourself.  I rather like myself and so don’t really feel sad at being alone.

I am learning my worth every day.  I have found some kindred spirits who do value my spirit.  It has taken a lot of time, tears and many, many lessons along the way.  It seemed like each time I reach a new understanding, it opens up a wound that must be bathed in tears in order to begin to heal.

I find though that each day I am more ‘me’.  I know more about what I need, what I want and I’m not shy about it anymore.  I still enjoy being a giver, but only so far as I am happy doing so. I won’t wreck  my health or life to make someone care for me because that isn’t real anyway. 

I wanted to share this because I have also discovered that many people travel the same path and never understand that it can be different. It is possible and it is better.  It was during this journey (and I say during because it’s never-ending I think) that I was lead to coaching.  My life journey is taking me places I would never have suspected once I started living it in an authentic way.

Do you have trouble with boundaries and repeating the same types of relationship dynamics?

We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us.
Jean-Paul Sartre

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Avoidance is a Coping Skill

Avoidance.

I mentioned this as a coping skill in my last post “Fooled or Foolish” and I’ve since had the question about what I meant by that.

When I started getting a little better and could be awake for more than an hour at a time, I had to start to deal with all the stuff I ‘missed’.  You see, I was pretty much on my own for this *ahem* adventure in car accidents. 

I didn’t do very well. Or maybe I did.  Either way I did the best I could and that I suppose, is all anyone could ask of themselves.

And when I got a lot better, where I could actually remember what I did the day before, I started to also realize a lot of things had changed.  Myself included and I struggled with that.  I wanted ME back, I wanted my happier life back; I didn’t want to deal all the stuff that had piled up and I fought those changes and problems with avoidance.

I simply refused to deal with it until I what ever issue it was got so big I was forced to do something. 

Looking back I realize that at the time this was a coping skill.  I wasn’t able to deal with literally everything in my life turning upside down and on its head, as well as the emotional upheaval and the pain and rehab…ugh!  It’s not all over with yet either.  I just deal with it much better (most days).

Avoidance is a coping skill.  However, I found out that all that stuff just grows bigger while you’re pretending it’s not there. Now, I really did need to learn to put things aside so I could heal and I have to deal with that. 

However, it’s not a great way to cope over the long haul.  Avoiding life is fine for an afternoon where you have  a migraine that makes you want to hide in bed and just try to survive it.  It’s not a great way to live your life.  And  many do everyday and not because of an accident; they are simply stuck in a terrible cycle.  It causes a great deal of stress and upset, and it doesn’t have to be this way.

Perhaps this is a good thing to have gone through because as a Mindset Coach I can recognize it quite clearly.  I also can relate and understand how much emotion is behind using avoidance.  I also know first hand what it takes to fix it and get through it.

What I want you to know is this.  It doesn’t go away. You can avoid it only so long and you will have to deal with it.  It is much easier to deal with things one at a time as they happen then it is to have everything build up and come crashing down on you all at once. 

Facing up to life, getting things under control takes time, effort and courage.  I ended up having someone totally unexpected come around to help keep me from falling off the edge.  We need support and sometimes even ideas on what to do next when we are overwhelmed.  Boy do I get that.

So, what can I help you with?

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