Regularly receiving support has lots of side-benefits. Here are three standout examples from today alone:
- Instead of using all my energy stressing out about asking for help, I effortlessly ask for what would help and then use my energy to actually create solutions. (Today I realized I double booked something I couldn’t change, and immediately asked a colleague to cover. When she couldn’t, I simply owned the mistake, and offered a new date and a way to make up for it for anyone who was inconvenienced. What could’ve seemed like an impossible problem: “I can’t be there and no one can cover!” became a simple act of making peace with what is and exercising my options until I found integrity.)
- Stress is no longer something I tolerate, it’s an indicator of when I need self-care or support. (Today I was stressed out about things outside of my control, and in the exact wrong headspace less than an hour before facilitating a paid event. Instead of trying to implement stress-fueled solutions, I put my phone on airplane mode, took a bath, and didn’t take my phone off airplane mode till I was done with the call. What previously would have felt like putting off my problems—which is grounds for self-flagellation, now felt like setting self-care boundaries. And I effortlessly handled everything that was bothering me afterward.)
- Equanimity is my new norm. I no longer assert power through emotion, but through my ability to be at choice. (I used to have justifiably strong emotional reactions to things that didn’t go my way. Today I got cut off by a car and met the event with pure equanimous acknowledgment, “I just got cut off.” Then I started laughing uproariously at the fact that it took zero emotional toll on me and instead acted as a testament to all the inner work I’ve done.)
Pretty cool to notice all these changes popping up without me even trying. I’m just living life and letting it get as good as I allow it to be.