When I chose this tagline for my coaching business, I was not just looking for a catchy phrase. I wanted something that reflected my convictions.
Before we set out to achieve anything in life, we start thinking about it, right? Then comes the believing stage when you believe what you were thinking is possible. From belief comes the desire to take action, which leads to achieving.
During my recent trip to India, I visited an abandoned coastal town called Dhanushkodi in the state of Tamilnadu. It is located on the South-Eastern tip of India and, across the body of water, is only about 15 km from Sri Lanka. You can see the land of Sri Lanka through binoculars from here. This town was destroyed by a cyclone in 1964 and is now a tourist attraction because the drive here is very scenic. The narrow strip of road is bordered by oceans on both sides - the Bay of Bengal on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other side. What makes the view even more breathtaking is that one sea is calm while the other is rough.
It was while standing on this beach and taking in the beautiful sights that I got the idea for this blog! 😁
Aren't our thoughts like waves of the sea? They come and go. That’s the nature of the mind – to constantly keep switching between thoughts. Passing thoughts could be compared with the small waves that lap the shore and go back into the sea. The serious thoughts could be seen as the large waves that crash onto the shore. Even they go back.
When it comes to negative thoughts like past regrets, future worries, or present challenges, we need to remind ourselves of the waves analogy and let them go. Sometimes, we can go against the natural programming of our minds and hold on to negative thoughts for too long.
While coaching one of my clients who had migrated from another country and had been in NZ for 4 years, she was frustrated at being unable to find a job more aligned with her qualifications and experience. After diving deep into this issue, I felt that she seemed stuck on something that was preventing her from taking the initiative to move forward in finding the right job.
After a few sessions of questioning her about this issue, I found out that she was holding on to a pang of guilt from many years ago. She felt she had been selfish with her ambitions in the past and let down a close friend to move forward in her organization. She had given in to the belief that it was her karma getting back at her for the selfishness she had displayed back then. I spent quite a bit of time helping her get over this stumbling block. After all, her mind had been conditioned by this thought for many years!
I had earlier given the analogy of waves for thoughts. I feel that thoughts can also be like quicksand. If you allow them to stay in your mind for too long, they’ll leave you stuck. After all, once you’re stuck in the quicksand, the more you struggle to get out, the deeper you’ll get dragged in.
Be aware and ensure you don’t allow negative thoughts to stay in your mind for too long. We are only human so we will have the occasional negative thought. Just acknowledge it and, as Queen Elsa sang in Frozen, “Let it go”! 😊
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