24 Seconds
Where are your current challenges?
Whether it's at work or home, in personal relationships or health, you can probably find a story you're telling yourself of what it means about you, about others, or about the world around you.
And if you're not in a place of calm, peaceful, grounded experience, chances are the story has some pretty negative aspects to it.
No surprise there, since your brain naturally and automatically fast-tracks negative experiences into your memory and easily discounts the positives.
Survival prioritizes storing the aspects we perceive as threatening, and the nervous system is not very nuanced in distinguishing life threats from the emotionally or physically uncomfortable (but not directly life-threatening).
This shows up for all of us all the time. BUT, there are things that can make a difference!
I saw this again in a recent conversation.
A new connection was describing the amazing work she did bridging relationships and facilitating collaboration between law enforcement and community members.
Despite the work sounding incredible, and her leadership being central, she lamented an incident of someone who reacted with bias, causing great harm, even after participating in the program.
As I reflected back how discouraging and heartbreaking that experience was, I mentioned my confidence that it was not representative of the full impact she and the program had on the lives of so many people.
Her demeanor immediately changed as a broad smile filled her face. With that small moment of recognition, and an intentional shift in focus, she returned her attention to the many other examples of success, including both individual and systemic changes.
While these moments were not the ones that had initially surfaced, they were certainly there and plentiful when offered an invitation.
As you face challenges - whether in your personal life or in your efforts to bring about social justice change - consider these ways to support change from the inside out:
How can you be caring in acknowledging the part of this experience that is hard and/or connected to past difficulty, without allowing it to overshadow the whole picture?
What are some examples of times you made a difference, navigated a challenge, or overcame an obstacle?
What does it feel like in your body when you reconnect to these moments of joy, meaning, success, and fortitude?
Similar to one of the practices I shared last week, staying in the lived, felt experience of a positive sensation (for 24 seconds!) can actually support the re-wiring of the brain...and it feels a lot better, too. 🤗
As you continue to face great obstacles to support progress in the world around you, it will be natural to experience the acute sting of the negatives. After all, these are amplified in our news, in our dialogues, and in our communities, and they easily (if covertly) pull up past negative experiences as well.
To continue to sustain your energy, your efforts, and your whole-hearted living, you need (and deserve!) the benefits of fully embracing the positive moments as well.
I hope you, too, can experience the brightening of a wide smile expanding across your face as you sit in the impact you have already made and will continue to make.
You matter. You make a difference. I'm so thankful you're here.
***If I can be of support to you, your team, or your organization in sharing both the urgency and methods of integrating wellbeing into challenges of changemaking, please contact me.***
