Dear One,
With the true intention of sharing illuminating ideas for alleviating challenges and elevating y-o-u, I’m changing it up.
Rising from Falling topics will remain the same – and all are welcome here as always.
I’ll be speaking to you, women with Lyme, on mind and heart ideas that helped me with inner healing.
Which, I believe, was pivotal to full healing – for me.
To help you, hopefully, heal within too.
With that, I offer you ‘Practicing.’
What helps an awkward, doubting, insecure 10-year-old girl become a successful entrepreneur? Or enable the same sick, losing-nearly-all woman to fully heal, find her purpose(s), and even thrive and serve?
Practicing.
This meant leaning into Practicing what I was discovering to heal and grow when the world doubted and/or fear grumbled. In 2017 – and occasionally still, recovering perfectionism’s negligibly keen on struggling, mistakes, and failing, all of which are part of a Practicing recipe.
To come back from what several told me was unrecoverable, I read, read, and read about how others performed amazing feats – or transformed &*#% into sugar.
Practicing repeated as a theme. Pun intended.
Martha Graham’s a Practicing example. She’s different from you alas with Practicing she became TIME magazine’s Dancer of the 20th Century and a prolific choreographer, creating 181 ballets over 70 years (!) plus a dance technique that influenced worldwide modern dance per marthagraham.org. Her professional’s school of dance is even the oldest in the US.
Wow to results – partly from Practicing.
Graham believed that we “learn by Practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by Practicing dancing or to learn to live by Practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes the shape of achievement, a sense of one’s being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some areas, an athlete of God. Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.” Thanks, Goodreads.com
Practicing in minuscule ways, daily or quite regularly, without perfection, with a vision or golden fabulousness – of healing – in mind created results for me too.
Even when this mini twinkling of a belief that Practicing would help could be summoned at first with 1% of a pinky toe. Tolerating doubts and denial that Practice mattered was part of the deal.
Practicing created hardly imperceptible, heartening shifts; over time, with continued and imperfect Practice these improvements enlarged to visible, then magnified. A deep bow in gratitude to and for Divine Grace.
“Practice is simply my process. I try to let go of what I think society expects from me and create with the joy of a child.” Amen Rowena Macleod, Artist & Owner of The Art Shack.
Practicing tips and musings I find worthy of mentioning:
• Consider beginning to Practice a healing idea, imperfectly. Starting may be a hard part due to fear of messing up, inability to complete the task, fatigue, or whatever other issues you’re dealing with at the moment. Consider what you would start with if, for example, you hanker to learn to cook. You’d start with boiled eggs or a very simple 4-5 ingredient dish that you’d have a greater likelihood of succeeding in making. Then, chicken soup yumminess becomes more doable with the successful egg experience under your belt. How does this apply to healing? Ponder – potentially after prayer or from gut prompting – googling and perusing a 5-minute article on an as-of-yet unexplored topic to start your mind aiming in a healing direction. Maybe – begin practicing listening to an audiobook 15 minutes per day (or 3!) – like The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. Listening to this book in my worst times began my Practice of listening to new, sometimes averse-to-me ideas on how to little by little use trials from Lyme to triumph,
• Just Do It. Ah, Nike. Perhaps consider giving your desire for the perfect way though – a vacay day? Practice for a minute eve (yep, really if that is what it takes to do it) and keep it easy; this way you begin in the direction of your heart’s desire and can work up to more time later. Whatever it takes. Each time you Practice, particularly at the outset, you’re creating new mental grooves – thanks Coach, Michael Choo – for what can ultimately become scrumptiousness. For me, listening to audiobooks starting with Holiday’s book – when I felt nearly hopeless – began my mind thinking about challenges (which seemed to be all I had going at the time) differently,
• If you’re used to or long to attain competence in skills quickly because that is what worked for you before Lyme, icky, messy, or blah during Practicing feels uncomfortable or unpalatable. Knowing this helped and helps me continue Practicing reading daily (5 years later),
• Improvements, refinement, discernment, and re-direction happen with Practice,
• Practice takes time. And more time, and
• The Importance of Practice – And Our Reluctance to Do It article by Jennifer Long echoed much of this (Harvard Business.org). Ms. Long suggested an Accountability Practice Partner – an A.P.P.; this aided me too. Initially, I Practiced talking about mindset issue resolution/Practice ideas with my therapist and used my Gratitude Journal as a place to Practice a different focus – on what made my heart happy. Even if it was organic blueberries that day. A workmate, friend, or text pal may assist too. The point is to have someone with whom you regularly check in on your continued Practice. Or some way. Having someone whom I trusted who was supportive was pivotal for me. Plus, this person may warmly remind you it’s ok to fall off the horse, take a break, request Holy help, and then begin riding again. Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you’d like to ponder me as a potential Accountability Practice Partner. I’d be honored.
It takes Practicing, Practicing, and Practicing to eventually arrive where you long to go and ‘become proficient in a new skill or behavior” (J. Long).
Practice works. Big time. Even for aiming in the healing direction.
With Practice, patience, and compassion for your precious self, grand goodness is actually possible,
Judy