Practice, Part 2
I sometimes hear my clients make the same complaint that I have made to my own coach – that something I believed I’d made progress with was coming up again. Haven’t I already dealt with this? Haven’t I put effort in, worked on this issue, and fixed it?!
Although it may feel like I’m back at square one, I actually need to picture this more like a spiral staircase. Each time I come around to an issue, I’m seeing it from o
ne step higher on the staircase. I have a new and different perspective based on my previous learning. In my experience, the issue is a bit easier to work with from this step – less difficult and less emotionally charged.
One issue I’ve worked with repeatedly is my feelings around financial security. Having my own coaching practice has been an incredible experience, but it is also sometimes scary – especially for someone like myself who worked for full-time employers for 20+ years.
When I first started my business I worried about my finances a lot. Then I learned to ground myself in service. I examined my old ideas about money and financial security and challenged them. I adopted new beliefs around sufficiency and abundance. I brought in gratitude every time I touched my checkbook; first I said “thank you” to the universe that I always had enough to pay my bills and later because I knew there would always be more. As trust started to crowd out worry, I became more financially secure.
What the above paragraph demonstrates is practice. It may not be what we typically think of as practice, but that’s exactly what it is. We don’t simply address a big issue just once; we work with it on an ongoing basis and it changes. These lessons are the ones we are here to learn and they stay with us, but they do get softer and more quiet as we continue to work with them.
Do I still worry? Sometimes, but those moments come less often and don’t last very long. There’s too much evidence of abundance in my life for me to ignore. And my regular practice keeps the worry manageable.
What’s something that keeps coming up for you that you thought you dealt with? What could you do differently to work with it or change your thinking? What would you like to practice so you can make a real shift to the next step on the staircase?
Enjoy the view!