The Power of Change
What does change feel like for you?
Is change something that excites you or is it something that causes fear?
Both feelings are normal and often exist in the same moment. I love to use the phrase nervouscited for anything new that I'm taking on because it encompasses both the butterflies in my stomach and the excitement that I feel.
Change can be subtle, it can happen slowly over days, weeks, years or it can happen rapidly. We're always changing, it's just not always apparent on the surface.
Yoga teacher training changed me.
When I first became a yoga teacher, I felt like an emerging butterfly testing my wings. I knew I had found my calling. It felt powerful to finally step into that space. I also knew that there was so much growth yet to come and that I had the potential to change lives around the world in a positive way. Little did I know what that transformational change would look like.
When the pandemic began I fell into a deep depression. My yoga community was torn from me when the studios closed.
I felt cut off and alone. I had my family, but part of my depressive state was that my family didn’t know all of me, there was a part of me that I showed only in the yoga space, when I showed up to teach and connected with students. I felt so lost without my yoga community to brighten my day.
When a dear friend invited me to join her Life Coach Training program designed especially for yoga teachers I immediately said yes because I desperately wanted to be a part of a yoga community again.
Little did I know that coach training would unlock my true purpose and give me the courage to finally define who I am (instead of chameleaning myself into other people’s expectations).
My purpose is to guide women and non-binary folx out from the shadows so they can embrace their true selves, feel confident in their decisions, and define their purpose, because everyone is valuable and no one deserves to be overlooked.
Defining my purpose unlocked something deep inside me.
It made me see my people-pleasing tendencies for the destructive behaviors that they are. Whenever I would choose to do something because someone else wanted it and not because I did, a bit of my self-worth would chip away. I spent years of my life focused on other people’s needs and ignoring my own.
Sadly that’s a normal behavior, especially for women because we were taught to be invisible, to not make waves, and to always serve others before we serve ourselves. When we do that, we destroy our ability to love ourselves unconditionally.
If we can’t love ourselves unconditionally, it’s difficult for our brains to believe that anyone else can.
That’s at the heart of sabotaging behaviors, like avoidance, ghosting, denial, and angry bursts.
When you can strip away the need to serve others first, it’s like being a caterpillar emerging as a butterfly from a cocoon.
You feel disoriented, your wings are so wet you can’t fly yet, and your entire way of interacting with the world changes. When that happens give yourself permission to rest, be curious, and explore what’s possible for you now.
What might your life be like if you let go of the need to serve others first?
If you’d like support with letting go of needing to serve others first, check out Emanate: The Women’s Empowerment Course. Learn more here
