I was ready to fake an illness to avoid the handstand!

Fear is real and can limit your growth, this brain doc saw her fear and almost listened to it! Thank God for a great teacher that slowly taught me!

I actually had a plan to leave the class early so I could avoid even trying to do a handstand as I was pretty sure it was not going to go well. I was ready to fake an illness. I think the last time I did a handstand I was 9 years old and giggling with my sister on our bed while we were supposed to be sleeping. I was at my 6:15 am yoga class that I started to attend about 3 months ago. I had slowed my yoga practice to a halt over the past year. I slowly stopped doing any yoga at home, I had kept up with it regularly, per youtube, during covid and loved the tropical views of the classes and the stretching. I had dropped it or let it slip away. Really I had no particular reason, I dropped the habit. When I returned to this 6:15am class to rebuild my yoga habit I found an awesome teacher, Robyn, that puts a lot of time into cool music to the point that I may have been dancing a bit on my mat. It was so fun and such a nice welcome back to yoga.

This month, in our yoga class, she has been building our moves to do a handstand, breaking down the training into little parts so that we could put it together one day. I personally thought it would be others that would be doing the handstand, I would watch and cheer them on as I had decided I was too old and not not strong enough to do a handstand. Life can send those messages, not you, you are not the one. Let others have success and know you are not a part of it. Fear can be sneaky and powerful. Yet, Robyn built our skills one tiny step at a time, we hardly realized anything was changing and when we had to hold those planks or wear these bands to build our forearms she kept reminding us of our goal and how we were building. It helped yet those long planks are still hard! Hard is OK. Learning is hard. Learning is uncomfortable. Learning takes trust in the teacher. Learning will bring on many emotions, my fear was kicking in something fierce! I find Coaching is like this, it takes time and encouragement to remind your coachee that they can build, they can learn and they can grow and you better believe emotions will bubble up and fear will tell you stories that you cannot do things. It can be hard to break out of these limiting stories. Coaching helps to challenge your stories that are present that tell you; you are not the one that is supposed to be growing or challenging the norms in your office or practice. I personally am so grateful for coaching. Coaching pushes me, it helps me build skills one step at a time to get closer to my goals. Coaching reminds me that emotions are common and they will try to limit your growth. I currently have 2 coaches. It is OK to build those new skills and challenge that story in your mind that you are not the one that will do that handstand this morning or achieve that childhood dream that you have.

I attended a meeting of 1000 women business owners in Puerto Rico last month, the keynote speakers all shared that they honored their childhood dreams and kept skill building to get closer and closer to that dream. They all share the “middle” part of their life, where they were still skill building, and it was not all sunshine and roses. It was hard, it was challenging and it was messy. This reminds me of my handstand skill building, it was messy, hard and guess what I did something like a handstand on a day where I told myself I likely could not. I had already tried to convince myself to leave and let others soar. Let's remind ourselves of the middle, the skillbuilding time, the messy days of strength building and moving toward your childhood dreams. Fear will be present, it will try to keep you comfortable, the excitement is in the growth, a few steps past the fear.

I love to look at the neuroscience of skill building, dreaming and learning agendas. Neuroscience experts tell us that our brain uses our fear to keep us safe and out of risk. Brains are busy running the whole body and don’t have a lot of extra energy for you to go achieving your dreams. Be sure to give your brain support with supportive people, nutrition, sleep, movement and fun to help you keep up your energy in learning. Once we set our goal and our learning plan, we can keep taking those skill building scary steps. You got this. As I was pulling out of the parking lot this morning, after my handstands, there was the most beautiful pink and blue sunrise that was amazing! Life is full of beautiful surprises.

You can build your learning agenda to get closer to your dreams.

Get a coach, they will challenge your limitations and help you reach your dreams, I highly recommend the fun music too!

Thanks Robyn for reminding me to keep building skills and jump over the fear, it is worth it.

Women docs, reach out if you are ready for Business Coaching, I am a Hello 7 certified Business Coach. I help busy women docs consider and or keep building your business. I have 4 slots left for this quarter, I can send the application and we can see if we are a fit to move you toward your dreams.

Email me thebrainfresh@gmail.com, I will send a calendar invite, we can chat!

Keep Dreaming

Mary