OnTheBeach: Stand Up For Who You Are

Most weeks I notice a theme developing in coaching sessions, where all my clients that week (and often me, too) are dealing with a particular issue, whether it’s focusing on self-care and rest, taking action, blasting away fears or a myriad of other themes. It’s not often that a theme runs into 2 weeks though…but for the past 2 weeks almost every client has been dealing with some variation of the theme “Stepping into personal power”.

I know, it sounds like a coachy buzz phrase, right? But it simply means standing up for who you are. Trusting in yourself. Trusting in your inner wisdom. It means backing yourself 100%. Trusting that even if friends, family or even society at large would disagree with you, it’s YOUR life. You have to live it your way. You have to trust that your instincts are good. You have to stand up for what you know is right for you. You must honour yourself.

You don’t have to do it in an aggressive or defensive way. In fact, if you are doing it that way, you’re not really honouring yourself at all. You’re arguing. Arguing implies there’s a reason to argue. Stepping into your personal power is about not needing to argue about it, not needing to defend it (even to yourself), not needing to justify yourself. Simply standing up for who you are.

Strongly. Effectively. Powerfully.

We all have an inner sense of what is right for us, and it doesn’t matter how many people tell us we’re wrong, we ‘just know’. Like I ‘just know’ that writing in the early morning is not for me, no matter how effective it is for others. Like I ‘just know’ that a snooze in the afternoon is far more effective than sitting slumped at my desk with spaghetti for brains, no matter how many people think that snoozing in the day is lazy/bad/wrong/cheating/ shows poor work ethic.

The more we trust that inner knowing, the more we go with it, the more we step into our personal power. The more we do what is right for us, even if we know someone else might see it differently, the more we step into our personal power. The more we trust ourselves to know what’s right for us in our lives, the more we step into our personal power.

It’s difficult to do at first, because since we were kids we learned to fit in, to do the sensible, logical thing. When we come up with a plan we know someone else is going to disagree with, we want to ‘win them over’, convince them…but we’re really trying to convince ourselves. When you ‘just trust’ your inner knowing, you just do it. You share it, but you don’t need to justify it to make someone else feel better about it, because you trust in yourself.

If you know that yoga/meditation/belly dancing are good for you, do them, no matter how many people think you’re nuts or woo-woo. If you know (as I do) that you work better when you are rested and you get to work on fun stuff, do it, no matter how many people think you should work with your nose to the grindstone 24/7 and ne’er let a creative, joyful moment infect your work day. If you know it is right for you to have an ‘unconventional’ life, live that life. The alternative is soul-destroying.

Of course, friends and family have an opinion. They are entitled to that opinion. You are entitled to ignore it. It’s your life. It’s your inner knowing. It’s your connection to what’s right for you. Without that connection we feel lost and confused and we take all the conflicting advice available and wonder why it doesn’t work for us. We were born as individuals. We need to live as individuals. Trying to be a Stepford Wife is painful. Allow yourself to be who you really are. Trust your inner knowing. Stand up for your true self. Live YOUR life. Step into your personal power.

– Something to Play With –

What do you know is right for you that you haven’t done because someone else might think it’s odd/wrong? Do it.

I’d love to know what you think about this article – please leave a comment below.

Love

Donna.x