Friday reflection

Your story is now

Hello!

As this early January week winds down, I hope you’re feeling optimistic and energized — we deserve that at this point in the year, don’t we? (Maybe we even deserve it….all the time?) I hope, too, that you're being the way you want to be. I deliberately say "being" because after years of working with coaches (and, ahem, being married to one), I know that the results we generate in life, and the happiness we experience, are all about our way of being in the world, NOT our capitalism-induced habit of doing-doing-doing.

Spraypainted message, "You are here," on a sidewalk, next to someone's feet

If you aren't being the way you want to be, please be gentle with yourself (perfectionism is a tool of the patriarchy, let it go, let it go), and remember that it's never too late to pause, notice, and adjust. In fact, every moment offers a new chance for this.

…In fact, all we have are moments. (Someone’s been revisiting Eckhart Tolle — can you tell?!)(It’s me.)

So, how does all this relate to telling your story, or to getting louder, as I like to say? After all, women and stories and power are the topics this newsletter promises to cover. So why am I going on about presence?

Because your presence powers your story.

Let me say that again: Your presence powers your story.

At this time of year, it’s SO HARD not to get swept up in our thoughts about how the year ahead “should” go. I invite you to resist that temptation, and to choose to focus less on the story you’re projecting for your future (“I’ll finally lose 10 pounds! I’ll be more organized! I’ll get better at saying ‘no’!”), and more on what’s happening right now. Because when you focus on the now — when you are fully present — then you connect more fully with yourself, your true self, not the self you construct in your mind.

…And the more you connect with your self, the more you know the truth of what you want to say, and do, in order to be the most authentic expression of yourself.

And it’s from this place of authenticity that the richest version of your story — your life — unfolds.

If “being in the now” sounds waaaay too conceptual to wrap your mind around, I get it. But the thing is, the more I study presence, the more I realize, it’s not conceptual at all; it’s entirely practical. It’s steps to take, and take again, and take again.

Here are some prompts to support you in taking those steps:

• Look around whatever room or location you find yourself in. What can you see right now? Really catalogue the details of your environment.

• What can you hear? Don’t gloss over so-called background noise like the heater rattling or your dog snoring. Observe everything.

• Keep going: What can you feel? Taste? Smell?

• What sensations do you notice in your body? Where do you feel tight, or open — warm, or cold?

• What does your breath feel like as it comes in and goes out?

There is so much information and aliveness available to us every single moment, and the practice is to keep coming back to it, again and again.

…to keep coming back to your self, again and again.

Because you are your own home. And coming home to yourself is an act of peace. And when we are at peace, we tell the truth, and we ARE the truth.

If we want stories that tell the truth about women, we need to start with ourselves.

Now.

Amanda