Everyday when I leave my home, I see the word “courage” on the door as I enter my garage from my kitchen.
I painted it on my door 13 years ago in a silver paint as a reminder to go out into the world each day and be the “self” I am, while doing the things that are mine to do.
The word “courage” has been on my door for so long now that there are many days that I don’t notice it at all.
But in it’s early days it served its purpose. It helped me focus more on what I hoped for than what I feared.
I no longer need the daily reminder because it’s more of an internal process now.
This practice has shifted my internal compass, the way that anything we focus on with purpose, intention, and consistency generally does.
In order to continue in my own developmental journey, I must challenge myself at my current state of being. In other words, what worked then doesn’t work any more because who I am is different.
I plan to replace that door soon. I am not one for the nostalgia of “things”, only for experiences and people.
Besides, courage is a characteristic and seeing the word everyday was a conceptual process intended to inspire deliberate focus.
In her book Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life, Shakti Gawain talks about life containing three aspects:
- being – alive, conscious and in the present in the moment (being totally complete and at rest in our lives);
- doing – movement and activity that flow from being vital (it stems from natural creative energy);
- and having – a state of being in relationship with other people and things (to comfortably share and occupy the same space).
She asserts that these aspects are not in conflict, but suggests an order for fulfillment.
In practice we must be who we really are, then do what we need to do, in order to have what we want.
Often in the pace of our culture, we are focused on doing, so we can have and then be. The doing itself can be so hectic that not much is left for enjoying what we have and being… happy, fulfilled, connected successful…
Everything that flows from our being shows up in our outcomes.
This is not a call to self blame nor is it a call to being perfect in your intentions.
Instead it is a suggestion to put a characteristic front and center in your life that represents the being state that matters to you most at this given time.
Let it become second nature and then after a period of time when it seeps into your being, choose another.
What word of inspiration would you paint on your door?
Copyright © 2015 Ruby Blow. All rights reserved.
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