In this post we will be covering just that! Do we have "weaknesses" or just misused or under utilized strengths? On the other side of the coin do we admire ourselves for something we think we are strong in but it's hurting ourselves or others? Where is the balance?
Or are we just splitting hairs?
Maybe.
A little.
However, it's a thought process that has helped me to investigate my feelings and the outcome of choices I make. Going from: "this is my weakness...this is who I am. It won't ever get better" to "what is to uncover here? What talent of mine is hiding? What talent of mine is in overabundance? Where is the balance?
Balance.
The word that's been on my mind and heart for years now as a slow and intense burning fire but never completely achieved but allows me to learn, grow, experiment, and investigate.
Someday I'll find that balance, the perfected state.
But that won't happen in this Earthly life, that's what it's for: to have to focus on bringing ourselves back from straying-too far on either side of scale- to the present; To bring back what we've collected on our journey and to learn from it: the calm and the challenge; and to be present in this moment now by uncovering the mysteries of our subconscious.
Balance practices are everywhere.
- Yoga means literally means to "unify", to "join" to "unite", to "subjugate", to "control", to "yoke". I wrote a bit about my yoga experience up until this point here.
- Meditation is the practice of thinking deeply or focusing ones mind for a period of time and can be done in stillness or chaos. It's something that draws others who struggle for a deeper meaning of their feelings and to typically find that peace in the tension. Through meditation I feel like balance is found when a deep rooted and traumatic event is uncovered and then releases allowing the mind and body to release and move forward.
- Our own nervous system works to obtain a balance between parasympathetic and sympathetic, swinging back and forth every few hours in the day.
- Ayurvedic medicine is literally a balance in bodily systems through the use of diet, herbal treatment, and yogic breathing.
- Intuitive Eating- I don't like the stigma that comes with the word "diet" but feel free to use that in it's pure definition of "the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats." Our intake for our bodies takes a natural course of balance between many food groups including sweets. When we listen to what our body is telling us it needs, it finds balance.
"Don't be too hard on yourself when you catch yourself in the past or future. Gently bring yourself back to the present and see the beauty of life."What we may consider our weaknesses or our strengths function much of the same way: trying to find the balance.
Many of my own "weaknesses" felt abuntant in a time of a lot of fear and anxiety in my life (you can pretty much pick any of my blog posts from 2018 to learn more about that time of my life).
The one thing I tell everyone that helped me the most during that time was to see everything in my life different. Instead of feeling inflicted I felt the need to solve the mystery and find the lessons in my life, sprouting a consistency in blog posts. Once my perspective changed so did the outcome of the emotions I felt. I began to progress and slowly got to a point of realizing the beauty and gift in trials not only in myself but others as well.
Pain is important.
Our "weakness's" are important and can be made strong. (Ether 12:27)
But how?
By seeing the strength hidden in the weakness, by accepting it how it is now but seeing it's potential.
In the example of me yelling at my kids that was my fear and anger talking. It was my "weakness". However there were moments where I would talk or sing and the attention, focus, and change from my children was nothing short of a miracle. My strength was there underneath the fear that made it weak.
When talking with my mother in law about this topic she mentioned that our strengths could be misguided and could become weak. The example of serving others came up which hit home for me as well.
A personal example is joined by my recent discovery of my purpose, my word. This was brought up in a conversation with a good friend who had read the book "The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results" by Gary W. Keller (if I remember correctly). I haven't read it myself yet but she challenged me to "find my one word" to which I thought about it off and on for the next two weeks before I read a story in "A Path With Heart," By Jack Kornfield of a man you lived his life by putting joy into everything he did. As he aged he began to forget more and more things but through his karmic pattern of joy he put into place, even without memory, he continued his practice. That was when I found my word:
JOY
My word plugged into every definition I had been collecting. Everything I have done or desire to do, specifically to bring joy and happiness to others through support in their own endeavors or through my own work and goals. Things such as when I wanted to be a psychologist, art therapist, teacher, yoga, American Sign Language, writing fictional stories, writing blog posts, conversing with others deeply, seeing the things others don't like about themselves as great stories and loving those parts about them, wanting to work as a character performer at Disneyland to bring magic to others, giving talks, travel, and even down to something seemingly silly and small such as promising my husband when we got married (or maybe even before) that it was my goal to always make him laugh for the rest of our lives. We even made up what out tombstones would say. Mine: "It was my goal to always make him laugh" His: "HA HA HA!"
This word made every action I've done make sense even the times where I couldn't make someone happy. When my focus was driven by a determination to make someone else happy no matter what I lost sight of my true purpose: to give out my joy, not to make someone happy because in reality I couldn't do that. My purpose is to share my joy not to sacrifice it because someone doesn't accept it. When I focused all my efforts on only trying to make someone else happy, just as my mother in law said, it became "misguided and became weak."
This is my purpose, guys!
My biggest strength!
The word that guides everything else!
And it became weak.
I questioned it.
I doubted myself.
But when I began to retrain myself and as I continue to gain confidence, I will continue to find more footholds in the fulcrum, the balance, of my gift; neither the weakness nor the strength: just the purpose.
So what do you think?
Are there weaknesses?
