For real, it tends to feel much easier to celebrate what we perceive as a success.
Our body posture opens and stands tall with pride, eye contact becomes direct and unafraid, we stride with a sense of purpose, endorphins invigorating us.
But when we experience what we perceive as a failure, we often shrink back, shoulders hunched, spine compressed and gaze low, our proverbial tail between our legs as we find ways to hide our embarrassment.
The body tells the story of how we feel because the body’s been conditioned by cultural narratives.
‘Success is good’. ‘Failure is bad’.
How about we write a new story in the body of our collective… one in which ‘success’ and ‘failure’ both become ‘EXPERIENCE’.
Think about it...
That creative project that didn’t fly in the way you thought it would.
That relationship that came to completion after 6 months when you had been envisioning happily ever after.
That healing protocol or cleanse you just couldn’t seem to stick with.
That career you had banked on but you left because it was destroying you inside.
What if all of it happened exactly as it had to happen for you to gain the wisdom and expansion that only comes through EXPERIENCE?
Sure, in the moment it feels like a smack in the face.
But without that smack, would you have stepped to your growth edges?
Let’s honour the EXPERIENCE for what it is and lean into its lessons.
Of course, the flip side of this is not getting too attached to our ‘successes’ either.
It’s all temporary, none of it defines who we are, and it’s all simply EXPERIENCE.
🙌🏼 TRY THIS:
The next time you’re about to beat yourself up over a perceived failure…
Let your body stay open and expansive. Become upright in the EXPERIENCE and be fully receptive to the feeling that what ‘didn’t work’ is actually serving you somehow.
📝 Note 3 things that this EXPERIENCE is teaching you, without adding a layer of judgement.
Empowerment is not about getting things ‘right’ all the time, nor muscling our way through life. True empowerment blossoms within us when we are willing to hold ourselves and each other through all our EXPERIENCES.
🦂Ha! As I was finishing writing this, a scorpion stung me. No joke! I am breathing into the perfectly imperfect EXPERIENCE that feels like a precise punctuation of life’s unpredictable dance. 🤪
What are you currently experiencing? And how is it shaping you? COMMENT or SEND ME AN EMAIL. I'd love to hear from you!
With love,
Stephanie Kittell
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