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The Power of 'Just Being'

Michelle Claffey Leadership Coach Retreat Photo


So, back to Carla’s story.

For those who missed the first share, click here.


Carla is an executive client who realizes that she sold herself short for years and can have big dreams. But what?

 

The mantra of her year is "Do what I want,” yet she attempts to dismiss it. "People who get what they want don't care what other people think.  They aren't afraid to dream. They aren't afraid to fail. I've been holding myself back. I get to Do What I Want. Wow, what will those people who already think 'I do what I want' think? I do what I think I am supposed to do, expected to do. I follow the rules. I need to stop limiting myself.”

 

Following Carla’s stream-of-consciousness, she recounts how she always wanted to be a teacher but didn’t pursue this dream because she felt she couldn’t make money to have what she wanted. Has anyone else made career path choices for financial stability and security?  I have.

 

After Carla says "I don't know" about 10 times in 3 minutes, I invite her to pause, take a deep breath, and sit for 2 min. "To just be. To be with yourself. I've got the clock." 

 

With twenty seconds left, Carla shares that her anxiety shows up when she feels she needs to figure out her big dream. She realizes that what she does know is that everything is good, and maybe she doesn't need to want anything more. Carla acknowledges that she has already succeeded professionally, and her dream at this moment is to have a happy, successful child.  

 

Envisioning her daughter sitting next to her, Carla wants both of them to feel calm, secure, safe, confident, competent and loved. To reduce her feelings of overwhelm, Carla declares,


"I just need to BE Right where I'm at. And JUST BE HERE. I don't need more. I am just going to BE."

 

JUST BE. It sounds so simple, yet it is so tough for so many. Can you relate? 2 minutes of sitting is like an eternity for many of my clients! 

 

Breaking a pattern and belief system of Striving and Doing all our lives to embrace Just Being requires recalibration, presence, being in your body and not just your head, and making conscious moment-to-moment choices. Wisdom arises from within when you can Be still enough to listen.

 

May you join Carla and choose to practice Just Being! Nature is a fantastic place to Just Be!

As South African Lion Tracker, Boyd Varty, recently shared in an online class, "We all have something big and beautiful and scary and bold that we want to go and find, that we want to move towards. And it's scary. And what I offer you today is it's a beautiful thing to find a challenge, a way you want to live that scares you and have the courage to face it, and stand your ground, and look at it directly in the eyes…It's a good lesson, too, to say when we’re really lost, to remember to drop into stillness."

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