Equanimity, Mindfulness, and Gratitude
My son’s Covid test came back positive this weekend.
He continues to have symptoms.
He isn’t currently living with me.
He is a young adult.
He lives with his older brother. So he has also been exposed.
These are the facts.
As those of you who coach with me know, you don’t get to change the facts.
Resisting them doesn’t help.
You do get to choose HOW you experience them.
I am grateful to be a mindful coach in this moment.
As a coach, I have gotten to help so many of you experience challenging situations and relationships in a better way. And I also get to use them to help me. Mindful coaching tools and strategies help me on the daily and this is the perfect opportunity to use them.
And they work! They are allowing me to experience this situation with mindfulness, equanimity, and relative ease.
When I show up like this, I win and so does everyone else around me. Including my son. And my parents.
Grateful for how far I have come and to have these tools well-honed and available.
No rumination.
No anxiety
No resisting reality.
No “shoulds” and should not haves.
No “What ifs.”
No anger.
No frustration.
I am instead using these tools and strategies - now habits — to observe and manage my brain and to manifest the feelings I want to intentionally feel given the situation.
I want to cultivate:
1. Love
2. Compassion
3. Acceptance
4. Presence
5. Connection
For my young adult son, for me, and for my very worried parents.
My nickname in my family is “Mama Bear.” This comes from before coaching (BC) —- it may or may not be a form of endearment from when I would worry and try to fix and control as much as I could. My doctor mom fix-it tendencies were well-honed over years of medical training.
Even when growing up this was often the role I took in my family.
This time - and so many times since I have embraced being mindful and living through thought work — I find myself able to show up for challenges completely differently.
I am able to show up with ease and presence and love and compassion. I am able to focus my energy on what I actually can control - me.
I am able to pause and be present, be mindful, breathe deeply (for both of us), send love and compassion, stay connected, and choose my thoughts with intention.
I am able to use my voice and knowledge to educate and advise and connect and check in with love and compassion. When worry pops up, name it, see it as love. Feel compassion for me as a mom knowing I wouldn’t want to not have any worry. Take needed action- if any. And move on.
I would have been happy to skip this experience and yet “this is what we have today.” “Of course it is.”
This challenge is an opportunity for me be mindful and feel empowered and it is allowing me to show up with equanimity gratitude, and love. It feels good. I feel even a little proud (a tough one for me).
Whatever challenges may come your way, coaching can help.
Even if you aren’t in the midst of a struggle right now, I see coaching as “training of the mind.”
It helps you learn to get out of your own way and be prepared to not struggle about the inevitable struggles which will come your way.
If you are currently struggling with challenges- marriages, relationships, career, parenting, health or mental health issues, Covid related stressed and especially if you are struggling about struggling —- relief and a new path forward is possible.
Right now.
Even in the midst of chaos, uncertainty, and a pandemic. Reach out to feel better.
And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASKS!