Last week I shared about an experience I had at a pole dancing stretch class and how our bodies store unresolved emotions. If you missed it, you can find it here.
I promised to share this week about why this is important for your business and your ability to lead, and here it is.
When something “goes wrong” with our body, we go into one of these coping modes:
- Awfulize – worry and imagine worst case scenarios
- Escape – deny that there’s a problem at all by ignoring the body’s signals and distracting the mind (Netflix, food or busywork, anyone?)
- Push through – take something to mask the pain and just keep going
- Fix – keep trying different things to take care of the symptoms
None of these actually addresses the problem, so we miss the messages our body are sending us. We aren’t stopping to actually hear and be with our bodies. We do all of these out of fear and a need to control what’s happening.
The alternative is to be deeply present with our body and what’s happening.
Staying fully present to what’s happening in our body is hard! It means feeling emotions like fear, sadness and hurt. It also means being uncomfortable and not being in control of what’s happening.
When we worry, ignore, deny or try to fix what’s happening, we’re taking our energy and attention out of our body and putting it in our mind. We go into our head.
Staying in our body at these times is incredibly healing. We’re able to see the bigger picture, because these “issues” are never just about the body. There’s always an emotional / spiritual / energetic component.
Staying in our body while feeling the fear and discomfort gives us a new level of presence. Our strength and resilience increase, and we gain a deeper connection to our intuition and inner guidance.
The same is true with our businesses.
When things get uncomfortable, intense and scary with our business, we go into a coping mode without any awareness at all that that’s what we’re doing. It’s become a reflex of self-preservation. Sometimes we even think we’re doing what we “need” or “should” do.
On the other hand, when we can stay present and aware through the fear and discomfort, we get greater clarity and abundance. The key is to stay engaged with your business when you want most to pull away.
This week, notice where you’re avoiding getting to the heart of what’s going on in your business and yourself. What do you do when it starts to feel too intense and what’s possible if you stay engaged?