Sitting with Discomfort

Breakthroughs in understanding oneself happen in the midst of being pushed to our limit.

During more turbulent times, opportunity exists to tap into the energy of the chaos and find out the messages the messiness is trying to tell us when we are poised to listen.

Last week, I spoke with my colleague that “I’m at my limit”, “My bandwidth is low” and “I’m running out of steam”.

My colleague turned to me and asked me if I could do “more”.

My body crumbled and I replied, “no, I can’t do those things she was asking”.

My colleague pushed and asked me if I could do other things.

In this moment, I gave up my agency, my control of standing firm in what I could handle and I told my colleague, “yes, I can do those other things”.

What transpired was that there was more tasks apart of what I “agreed” too which mirrored similarly to what I originally said no to and I became angry.

I sat with the anger and I was reminded of this quote, “anger is sadness’s body guard”.

I realized I was sad that I gave up my personal control and allowed someone else to influence my decision making.

What I did with this energy, renewed understanding and empowerment was to have a conversation with my colleague.

We spoke candidly and transparently about the situation.

I came to understand that she saw how impacted I was and how burned out I was and she recognized that she could have paused and reflected back to me what she saw.

I said, “yes” that would have opened the door even if I wasn’t clear on what I was experiencing in that moment.

I know I would have been relieved she saw my humanness.

Strengthening your inner trust, understanding your inner critic and healing parts of yourself that you didn’t realize created ingrained beliefs can lead to freedom.

If you’re struggling with getting to the other side of troubled waters, reach out for support and you can see how you can build your bridges with loving support.