Hunker down and push through. That's been the way of elite performers (in sports, business, life). Except, it isn't.
As a former international elite athlete, I should know.
When we seek this profound change in life, when we feel something more is
emerging, our conditional identity demands we dig even deeper to speed
up the process.
In fact, most of the proposed solutions addressed to us are about exceeding in performance.
It really got me thinking. What have been things that have allowed me to:
1- heal from burnout, reconnect with my body after the Dark Night of the Soul?
2- become an amazing mom (yup, totally owning this), devoted wife exalted
in my husband's love, and a proud homemaker who floats through her days
... while also running a home-based business (in my 4th language)?
3- has me embarking on my life's mission together with my family, fully supported?
Intimacy.
Intimacy with myself. My feelings. My emotions. My body. All that I've been
trained to compartmentalize. To leverage the needed and suppress the
rest.
Spaciousness.
Spaciousness in my schedule. My time. My mind. A dangerous proposition for someone whose core identity
& self-worth are determined by very tangible KPIs.
Love.
Love for myself beyond achieving. Love for life - even and especially when
it felt completely disconnected from my Soul's yearnings, callings, and
needs.
And then... Courage.
Courage to take the leap and go against every conventional wisdom out there.
Courage to relate to myself which made me relatable to others even when we
lived completely different lives. When I (like elite performers do)
would make choices, priorities, sacrifices, risks that they could not
understand.
Whether it's doing the work to change the internal state of being, or packing up and leaving to change the external
environment, it takes courage to surrender into the unknown. To soften
into receiving.
What I have learned is that at some point, the life elite performers really yearn for, is to feel at home. With people
we care about the most. With life.
And that requires us to first feel at home with ourselves.
For me, that meant embracing my Bubby energy, honoring the fact that my
presence and my energy feel like a safe harbor even to strangers (while
my ego was al but preoccupied by the lack of a six-pack on my abs and
seven-pack on my bank account).
It's no more "faster, higher, stronger" when you're also an unconventional woman, Contemporary Mystic like me.
So, how does timeless, limitless, and spacious feel?
Sara
Mentor