Let’s talk about the cheerleaders in your life…the ones that cheer you along in your journey!
Allow me to talk about the sport of baseball as an analogy. By the way, any sport, or facet of your life can be used as a substitute in place of baseball. You are a baseball player. It’s your turn to bat the ball and you step up to the plate. There is a cheerleader in the stands…cheering you on. The cheerleader yells, ‘you can do it; hit a homerun.’ The first pitch comes across the plate and you go to hit the ball. You miss and it’s a strike. The cheerleader in the stands yells…’you can do it…hit the ball…you can do it’. The second pitch comes across the plate and you hit a foul ball. The cheerleader starts to say…’don’t worry you can do it…keep focused and go for it’. You have a cheerleader who cheers you on to do the best you can do….and you eventually hit the ball out into the field leaving you on third base. That whole game goes great like that…you feel pretty good about your performance….your team wins.
Later that week you head to the ball diamond again…and it’s your turn up to bat. The first pitch comes across that plate and you go to swing and decide at the last minute not to swing…and the ump calls the pitch a strike. In the stands you have a cheerleader. The cheerleader for that game is different. The cheerleader yells….’come on…hit the ball…you can do it’. The second pitch comes across the plate and you swing at the ball and miss. The cheerleader is getting a little loud and says…’come on…don’t miss the ball…hit the ball…watch the ball closer.’ The next pitch comes and the next pitch comes and all the way through the game you hear the cheerleader telling you things like….’you need to loosen up…you’re pretty tense and tight…what’s going on, you need to watch the ball closer….your letting the team down by missing.’ Lots of cheerleading happening. Seems with every pitch or every miss or every strike…that cheerleader has something to say about how you could be doing it better or you need to do something different….whatever it is in the moment. There is a cheerleader who is all over you with every move you whether good or bad. The whole game seems to go like that…you aren’t feeling so confident about how you played…the team still wins that night.
In each of these two examples…you were the ball player…and there was a cheerleader in the stands. You showed up to play ball and someone or something was there to cheer you on. Now let’s take that analogy and apply it to your everyday life.
Do you have cheerleaders like that in your life? How do you handle the different physical people that cheer you on? How do you handle the mind and your Self when the mind and the Self talk to you in ways that don’t feel so good?
We may have people in our lives who encourage us to move forward using supportive words which ring as an ‘untruth’ for us…we may have people in our lives who encourage us to move forward using words which ring as ‘truth’ for us…and then we may have people in our lives who encourage us to just ‘be’ with whatever we are feeling in the moment. However those people show up….whether through the physical person or through the mind/the self…they are there for a reason. Those voices help us to unlearn, learn and grow as we journey along in life doing what we so perfectly do…live our life. There is no judgment…there is no good or bad…no right or wrong…it just is. An opportunity of awareness….
As you go about your day to day…start to notice the different cheerleaders in your life. The different voices that show up. Do the words that come through feel like truth for you? When I say that…pay attention to words people say about what they say about the situation you are in…or what they say you may be feeling…or what they say ‘could be’ the problem. Does it sound like a truth for you?
If I could give you an example of what that may look like…let’s say you have a stomach ache. It’s about noon time and you haven’t eaten yet all day. You’ve been really bothered about your son having to go to court on a charge that you know he didn’t do. You’ve been bothered so much that it’s causing your tummy to feel upset. Someone comes along and tells you your stomach ache is because you haven’t eaten yet today and that you need to eat breakfast because it’s the most important meal of the day and you need to make sure it’s healthy…and on they go. Does that sound like a truth to you? Maybe, maybe not.
With the cheerleaders, you will come to know what your truths are in life. If I may also add here…your truths will change in life. That your truths will change in life…I know for fact that is a truth. Life’s experiences have taught me that…..
Sheila
Leave a Reply