Take the Next Step…The One Close In
These days it’s been about taking steps. Not all of them steps that I have wanted to take but steps that, nonetheless, are necessary. Why you ask? Well they are the steps that are close in. The ones I don’t want to take. I have always been quite the Type A person. The steps I generally want to take are quick (literally) and big. Generally ten steps ahead as is typically the case when someone tends towards Type A behavior. Since I know that this has been my Achilles heel throughout my life, it is with a more humble approach that I take the next step in. I mean I am a wellness coach, right? If that’s the case then I need to begin to coach myself on some wellness! It is with all this attention on steps and those that just ahead of my feet that I turn to a poem by David Whyte that I heard him recite at the Harvard Medical School Coaching in Leadership and Healthcare conference in 2013.
Start Close In
Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way of starting
the conversation.
Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple.
To find
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes a
private ear
listening
to another.
Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow
someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don’t mistake
that other
for your own.
Start close in,
don’t take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take
Beautiful right? ahhhhh. What is it about taking that step that feels SO INCREDIBLY TOUGH? Well for me I think it’s being in the middle. On my yoga for recovery Instagram account, Soba Yoga, I mentioned the other night about what a challenge being in the middle is. for a lot of us. Everyone thinks that mindfulness is this new hot thing like a new fad or something. Like the new pant or skirt length of the season. I am the first to say that I am definitely challenged by it at times. But at the same time, the rebellious side of me (which tends to be a lot of me) feels like some sort of BS is up with all the current press on mindfulness. In a society that is so caught up with getting somewhere and numbing out all our emotions, do we start to see this new pressure to be mindful about how insane our lifestyle is. Bull crap right? Yes I say…bull crap. Generally speaking if people were as mindful about being mindful they may stop talking about being mindful and just smell a rose. LOL! Anywho…..
So enough of society…back to how this impacts me. I am very often caught up in the end of the story. Generally I want it to be hearts and flowers and sunsets (see Instagram and you’ll get it:) I can’t help it….I am a Pieces which means I am an eternal romantic and dreamer. I LOVE Hollywood endings (in fact I very rarely watch movies that are about anything but Hollywood endings….life is real enough for me thanks!) I want everything to be safe and secure which is why I have generally stayed in my jobs forever (last one 10.5 years despite me knowing a few years in that it was WAY too stressful for me.) In the past I have clung to things/people/situations just because the familiarity of it all felt secure. You know it’s the old dysfunctional message “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Be grateful you have a job….yadda, yadda, yadda) So it is with becoming a wellness coach that I have begun to take a look at how I life and whether or not it’s actually well. Hence the step that’s close in….be with being in the middle.
Perfectionism is like my evil friend who sets me up often. In building my business now I can get stuck in that place. I have chosen so many options in the past out of fear that I want this to be SO not about that. Yet in doing so I can get stuck in knowing what I don’t want but not being clear with what I do. So lately I am just focusing on staying fluid; like this ocean I have been swimming in…
Being fluid allows me to see that really all I need to do is just take A STEP. I am allowing for the ones that I don’t want to take because I know my resistance is what is keeping me stuck. One thing I learned two years ago when I made the massive leap from full time to part time work is that no decision needs to be fixed and static unless I allow it to be. You take a job, make a friend, date a person, eat a food, go to a place and you see how it FEELS. If it feels right…BAM…if not then you work towards shifting it. Some of the decisions I have made and are still in may not be perfect but they are working enough to make me feel like they are worth keeping. When the time to move comes I will know it. When the right situation appears…I will know it. HOW??
By paying careful attention…..BY BEING MINDFUL!
Pay attention to your breath…practice patience and just take A STEP. It doesn’t have to be the most perfect step….it just is a step forward. Keep moving and you will stay fluid. Being fluid will keep you unstuck. Being unstuck will make you happier. Being happier will make you healthier. Being healthier will make ME a better wellness coach!
Take the step close in. The one close to your feet. And see where it leads you.
I bet, like me, you will find a yellow brick road under foot that has a trail ahead and a trail behind. Lots of people are standing along the sidelines like they are watching a parade. They are cheering you on with big smiles and warm hugs and kisses.