This past weekend, I had the exciting opportunity to go to a retreat hosted by my amazing coach, Robyn Youkilis, as part of her high-level coaching program, the Rockstar Coaching Collective. The program touches on all things wellness, personal development, and being a better human. It's for health coaches and non-health coaches as well - people who are generally on a path to find greater wellness in their overall lives. There were soooo many good nuggets that came out of the weekend and I wanted to take a minute to share a few of the biggest things that stood out.
1) Choose communities that light you up, not just the ones you "fell" into.
We all fall into some communities throughout the course of our lives. And this is often great for us, but it's also important to find and cultivate communities that light us up-- ones that we CHOOSE rather than just fall into. There is a certain exchange of energy that happens when you plug into a community that matters to you. There is a flow of giving and receiving, and when it's with people you care about, the energy can be healing, restoring, enlivening. It can feel like fuel that recharges you -- and once you have plugged into such a community, you can create from an amazing place. Yes, communities take time, work, patience and effort. You can't just show up sometimes, but more likely, they will require you to cultivate the relationships within them which means showing up again and again, even if sometimes you don't feel like it. They often mean showing up in your truest form - however messy that may be. It's not always perfect, but that's the best part - being human is messy and imperfect. But if you choose to show up, to give and to receive, that is where the real magic can happen. So whether that's finding a group of like minded women who have similar interests as you, or finding an exercise class that you can go to every week or every few days, or finding a hobby that you can practice over and over with the same people -- those are all great places to build communities that light you up. The key is finding what lights you up (versus zaps your energy), and showing up again and again.
2) Do things that scare you - and keep doing them.
Be the one that grabs fear by the horns and says yes, especially when your gut and intuition tell you that you can do this. Fear is one of those things that can either keep you from living your life to the fullest potential, or push you to do more. But often, fear is something that we have to step into, because it is when we do things that scare us that we grow out of our comfort zones. We will never know what we are capable of if we only play it safe. So next time you are presented with an opportunity that scares the living $$IT out of you, say yes, and do it anyways. You may fail and fall flat, but at least you will learn from it, get up and brush yourself off, and can try again. There's learning in failure too.
3) Keep doing things from your heart, and don't be afraid to make your teachings personal.
This goes along with #2 for me and for many - because sharing things that are personal are often scary. I think most of us are scared to show vulnerability, because most of us are afraid of being laughed at or rejected. But the truth is, if we don't teach and share from the heart, no one can ever really learn from us. There may be many people in the world who do the same thing that you do as a profession, but no one does it in quite the same way as you do. If you can't share what's personal, it's hard for people to see how you are different, unique, or why they should work with you or learn from you. Also, the best teachers are those who teach from personal experience. We all have so much to share - we just have to be willing to be vulnerable at certain times to be able to share authentically in a way that reaches those it needs to reach. Yes, there will be people who don't understand - who may mock or reject you, but then you have to understand that those people are not for you. The people who are for you are the ones who can relate to what you are sharing or at least listen to you with an open mind.
I'm so grateful to everyone who made it possible for me to spend the weekend learning and growing. My parents, my husband, my kids, and also, myself. I made the time and the space to go to the retreat this weekend and that's not easy to do. But it is something that is so necessary for all of us - creating time and space to plug into communities and things that we care about - that light us up. If we don't make the space and time, the effort, to do so, we are missing out on some amazing life experiences.
So I ask you - where/how can you carve out time to plug into something that lights you up? If you are unsure of the answer, send me a note at payal@arorawellness.com. I'd love to talk it through with you.