Jump...

Weeks 45 & 46

“Jump. I’ll catch you,” he said.
”Do you promise?” I asked tentatively.|
”Yes. I promise.”

With that I lept. I lept off the balcony railing with the belief that this time would be different. That he would catch me and not let me fall. That this time his promise would mean something.

But it didn’t.

I fell. Hard. And hit my forehead on a rock, leaving a scar that remains to this day…though lately it is more and more swallowed up by my forehead lines as I approach 50.

You would think this would be a lesson in not trusting older brothers. But instead for years that scar reminded me of why I needed to trust myself.

When our instincts tell us something and we choose not to listen, it is so often ourselves that we stop trusting. My clients tell me all the time that the best decisions they’ve made have been the ones where they just trusted their own intuition. And yet, they are regularly asking me for help trusting themselves.

For many of us, our personal data warehouse of experience can point to the many times that we either did or did not listen to our internal voice and how the outcome was always “I should have trusted my gut.”

Some neuroscientists and neuroendocrinologists are now saying that the gut is as capable of signalling good vs bad decisions as the brain. A few even believe the gut is BETTER at it than the brain because the gut doesn’t have the capacity to add doubt to the equation. What all of these doctors agree on is that it takes practice and experience trusting our gut to prove to ourselves that the body knows what to do.

A key piece of information here is that this is not fortune telling or the gut as a magic 8 ball. Instead this is our body in the present moment looking at the information presented AND combining all the historical information it has in order to send the signal. It isn’t guessing…it’s seeking a decision based on past information. Could it be wrong? Sure. Is it often wrong? Not for me.

I’ve come to believe that every client who comes to me for Coaching is seeking a couple things: (1) Confidence and (2) Boundary Setting. But I’ve recently amended that to add: (3) Trusting Themself.

When I jumped off that balcony, I knew in my gut that my brother was not trustworthy. All the evidence pointed to the fact that 9 times out of 10, he would let me get hurt rather than keep his promises. Trusting myself could have looked like not jumping…or even jumping in a different direction…then if I got hurt, at least I’d have known it was under my own authority and agency.

Need help knowing when to jump and how to trust your intuition? Schedule a discovery call with me and we can talk about how to partner with some coaching.

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the USA. And please everyone…be kind to service workers and delivery people as the shopping season approaches.

Until next time,
Leah