Hello Friends,
Today I’m writing from the beautiful Red Mountain Resort in St. George Utah. It’s a beautiful morning – clear skies, birds singing, fresh, sunny air. This is the view from my room.
I’ve always been kind of a shy person. But I am excited to teach this retreat, along with my friend Mary Johnston-Coursey. In the past, walking into a room filled with people expecting some kind of experience would have made me nervous. Today, I feel excited and energized, but not nervous.
In her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown talks about letting go of what other people think. A sure-fire way to start feeling very nervous and anxious is to feel like we have to “be” a certain way in order to please others. Letting go of what people think means, I have confidence in my offering. People will have their own experience with it – I can’t control that. All I can do is be myself and share from what I know. Brene Brown calls this, showing up in our own authenticity.
When our priority is to please others, we’ll always be running around and spreading ourselves too thin in an effort to gain their approval.
When our priority is to be authentic, we come back to the center of our own being.
There is ground there. I just need to show up.
Here I am. Here’s what I’ve got. This is the real me. There’s such a relief in that!
Today I have many priorities. I truly want all the retreat participants to enjoy an amazing time, and to get what they need from our experience together. I want everyone to feel safe, to gain insight, to find joy in their experience.
But my top priority is to show up as my authentic self.
I learned a great exercise from my coach Christine Kane for reminding ourselves of this priority. She calls it the “situation upleveler.” For any situation you’re about to go into, ask yourself:
1. Who do I want to be?
2. How do I want to feel?
3. What’s my desired internal outcome?
4. What’s the best case scenario?
I always want to show up as my authentic self. To me, that’s calm, centered, and aware. I want to feel confident in my awareness, and connected with the people I’m sharing time with. My desired internal outcome is to feel that I have done my best. The best case scenario, is that we all have an amazing time.
And I wish this for all of you, too, today and always!
Namaste,
Erin