Patterns, fears and deepest desires : What comes up for you when you STOP

We often talk about holiday times as 'getting away from it all’. I totally get that stepping away from our day-to-day lives can bring fresh perspective and energy ... YES🙌🏽

AND in my experience I don't really 'get away from' those things that are challenging me deeply - my own thoughts and my closest relationships - I tend to take those things with me!

So as I stepped back and away during this recent Summer break ... I was curious about what would come up in myself and in my relationships and what could I notice...

Here are the reflection questions that emerged for me:

• how am I behaving? What behaviour patterns do I notice...? Are these serving me and creating the culture I desire for our family?
• what am I thinking? What thought patterns can I notice...?
• what underlying beliefs do these thought patterns reveal? About myself? About others? Do these beliefs limit me or resource me?
• what anxieties and fears bubble up...? How can I allow and feel these to understand them and move through them. How can I have compassion for myself even while experiencing those feelings.
• and then (the really fun bit!) what hopes, dreams and deep desires emerge...?
• what do these reveal about what's in my heart?   How can I align the choices of my life with the deepest desires of my heart?

This process (for me) took many days, sometimes actively thinking about it and sometimes just mulling over in my mind. And something about choosing to ALLOW all of this to come up into my awareness. To listen and stay curious. Rather than censor, evluate, justify, explain, deny, move away from, exclude.

And noticing how often I use my day-to-day busy-ness to numb out these deeper parts of myself.

Coaching questions for you:

:how does this idea of getting curious about what comes up into your awarenss when you stop resonate for you?

:what is coming up for you when you stop and listen to yourself and notice your patterns?

:what is important for you about what you are noticing?

:are there any changes you want to make?

:what is your best next step?

:what support and help might you need to do that?

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I write weekly on a mix of topics like leadership, spirituality, change, resilience and wellbeing, navigating and shifting the systems we're in as women and my journey with intersectional feminism. I also share awesome free tips, research and resources that I don't share anywhere else! www.katycatalyst.com/signup