Hello, and welcome back to the blog.
Do you trust yourself? I think fundamentally, we all do trust ourselves. We couldn't function in the world if we didn't trust ourselves to an extent. The challenge is how consistently we do this.
This is a theme I would like to explore over the next week.
Day 1 - 30/11/2020 - When we practice awareness, it gives us the power to choose.
I've started to notice more when I do this; by "this" I mean not trusting myself to the point where it actually bothers me.
There's a technique in mediation called 'noting', this is where you make a note of thoughts arising without querying or judging them. I'd like to use something similar for this week.
'Noting' allows you to create some space between you and your situation. Often we're so caught up in the moment it's as if we're working on autopilot. We don't have the opportunity to actively choose how we would like to respond. Noting allows you to be more present, buying you more time to make better choices.
I also think that starting each day with the intention of doing this makes the practice a lot easier.
Day 2 - 01/12/2020 - Trusting yourself doesn't mean you'll never get it wrong...
Trusting yourself doesn't mean you don't get things wrong ever, acknowledging this actually makes the practice a lot easier.
Rather than the situation being "I'll trust myself on the condition that I always get things right" (which is very narrow minded), it becomes "if the choice is between trusting myself and not trusting myself, I will endeavour to do the former"
Day 3 - 02/12/2020 - Don't reinvent the wheel
On this day I realised that it's important to recognise not only where I could improve on trusting myself, but situations where I do this very well. Taking a pause and making a note of those moments where you do trust yourself makes it easier to do going forward.
Day 4 - 03/12/2020 - Don't think too much about how people are responding/will respond
What you're not gonna do is use other people's reactions to gauge how much you should trust yourself; it's a useless exercise. People might not have even put any thought into how they're reacting to you, so why would you let it throw you off?
By doing this you communicate that "my priority is getting the message across, not how it's received". When you set this intention in your mind, your delivery shines a bit brighter.
