Thinking month at Kimberly DuBrul Coaching continues!
Thinking for myself has been one of my greatest learnings and challenges. I grew up learning to get along and most of the time that meant going along with what others thought about things rather than honoring my own knowing.
As a young adult and beyond this looked like taking on opinions of others- what they thought about people, what their experience was, how they viewed situations- rather than sticking with what I knew to be true. It can be people, the news, posts on social media.
It is great to be open minded, in fact, it is important– however, this does not mean you jump ship on your own truth, if just means that you consider other perspectives. Learning to connect with others while holding differing ideas and opinions is a true life skill.
This week’s blog is intended to bring your awareness to where you are in having your own back and honoring your own knowing, while being willing able to listen to different perspectives.
Here’s an example. In the last week I saw a post from someone about yoga- I won’t go into detail, but the post said some scary things about yoga. For me, yoga has been, at important times life saving- I have practiced and it has helped me to heal and find a lot of peace. I have taught and studied yoga and those things have helped me to grow into a better person and positively impacted my students. I have met some of my best friends through practicing yoga.
In reading the comments on the post I saw people abandoning what they have known as their truth with comments like- “Yoga has helped me so much, but thank you for this, I will not be doing yoga again.” So quickly believing what they read as their truth, too.
The original poster was talking about her singular experience and she even said she was practicing yoga and meditation 7 hours a day- this is not our normal experience. It’s not a balanced way of living which is bound to have an impact on our thinking and not in a good way. More on thinking in moderation and generalizing next week!
Homework for the this week:
-Take time to journal your thoughts about where you are at with this- when have you had your own back, stuck to your own thoughts and beliefs and when have you chosen to take on someone else’s belief just to get along or create connection.
-Commit to holding fast to your own beliefs and notice the times when you want to be swayed. With awareness, you can consider all perspectives and stick with what you believe when it makes sense.
Bringing awareness to this will be enlightening and is a great opportunity.