Doing Your Own Work: How to Remove Your Blocks - Week #6 of The Awakening Journey
Last week we talked about choosing to be a leader. You might notice that there are times when you want to choose to be a leader but you hit a roadblock. I know this happens in my life a lot more than I care to admit. For example, I might want to get up and have a productive day by going to the gym. But as I’m laying in bed thinking about getting up, I think about all the reasons I don’t want to or can’t. Sounds familiar?
It isn’t bad or wrong to skip the gym (just an example), but, if this behavior stops you from achieving your long-term goals, then you have a block and you need to do your work.
What does this mean to do your work?
It means to stop looking outside yourself, own your responsibility for yourself and your impact on the world.
Start looking within yourself to sustainably move beyond this block for good.
Doing your work means:
Getting curious.
Committing to courage.
Going deep within yourself to find the source and root it out.
It also means ANY time you are triggered (frustrated, upset, bothered by something that is happening in the world around you), you have work to do on YOURSELF.
Feeling triggered is an invitation to look at yourself.
Take some time to process and pretend to have a Growth Mindset even if you don't have one!
When you start to open up to "doing your work" you will see that you have control over the only thing you can control. YOU.
Why do you need to work on yourself?
You need to work on yourself because that is what you are here for. You were born, you create an ego, you spend the rest of your life “healing” the ego. For the sake of the evolution of your consciousness.
You need to work on yourself because you are the only person you can control.
You need to work on yourself because what you see outside of yourself is always inside of you. When you change your inside, the outside changes.
You need to work on yourself because this is the only thing that creates sustainable change. Within you and with the world.
And lastly, you need to work on yourself because that’s what leaders do.
Leaders take responsibility for themselves and their world.
How do you work on yourself?
There are many ways. Some prefer journaling, talking to a coach, or doing The Work with Byron Katie. I recommend the one that works for you.
Another profound process I have found was doing the Shadow Process Work with Debbie Ford. Debbie’s work first came to me after reading The Dark Side of the Light Chasers many years ago.
I attended a Shadow Process weekend retreat where many of the experiences had a profound impact on me.
Something very powerful was released after a very simple exercise on the second day. I first identified the shadow part of me. For instance, the feeling of “I’m not enough”.
I sat facing my partner and I would say, “I’m not good enough”. He then would repeat, “You are not good enough”. We would repeat this over and over again for a timed period, usually for 2 or 3 minutes.
It felt like a physical boulder was removed from my heart. At the root, what I took away is we all have a dark side. When we embrace it, it loses its power over us.
You don’t need a partner to do this exercise, you can do it in your mirror.
Your Work Challenge
Step 1: Make a list of blocks and things that trigger you.
Step 2: Every day, choose one of the items on the list and decide on a way to process it.
Here are a few ways you could try:
Journaling
Talk to a coach
Do the exercise mentioned above (find the trigger and process it in front of a mirror)
Do Byron Katie’s “The Work” - Here is a link to her worksheets
Spend some time in stillness and without thinking about it directly, hold it in your consciousness. Then journal what comes up.
Meditate on it
Pray on it
Go out in nature
Reach out to someone who has experienced this same thing and ask them about their experience
Any or all of these are a good start.
Next, we will talk about the thing no one wants to talk about, fear and death. In the meanwhile remember: the present moment is where your best life happens!
With love and gratitude,
Darla