Be a Weeble, not an Amoeba: Trusting Yourself in Uncertain Times
No matter where you are or how much or little you’ve been first-hand affected by the coronavirus itself, you’ve certainly been affected by this pandemic.
By the guidelines and restrictions put into place (or not) by your political leaders and your employer (or the industry within which you serve.)
By the way those guidelines and restrictions have changed who is and isn’t home and what everyone is or isn’t doing there.
Maybe you’ve realized there’s actually a lot you like about how your days look now, or that not a lot has changed for you overall, and you’re flooded with feelings around that and what to do or not do about it going forward.
And please, let’s not downplay all the humans you want to touch and Target aisles you want to walk and big toothy grins you want to let out from under cover of that breath-moist bandana dutifully strapped to your face.
I mean, there’s no question that you’ll do without to do your part, but you’re absolutely allowed to miss it.
And you know what? Through it all, by golly, you’ve been MANAGING! You’ve really been hanging in there. And I’m really freaking proud of you.
With each new directive, you’ve adjusted.
Shelter in place, they say? Cool. Let’s order contact-free takeout, hop on a Zoom call and cheers each other like the socially-distanced rockstars we are.
Temporarily shut down your in-person biz operations, they say? Cool. Let’s offer innovative, virtual, off-premises opportunities to our customers and clients and pivot like the entrepreneurial mofos we are! Let’s show the world all the amazing ways that live events can go virtual and meaningful connection can be experienced and nurtured from afar.
Teach and learn at home, they say? Cool. Let’s homeschool like bosses and prioritize what we know our kids need most right now. Let’s fumble through the tech and get these kiddos videoconferencing! Let’s visit our students by car parade, message them on IG or wherever they’ll actually answer us, and do whatever else it takes to let them know we’re there for them.
Above all, let’s teach our kids how to navigate tough times with patience, humor and, if not always grace, then the kind of deep, real compassion for self and others that they’ll carry with them for life.
Wear a mask in public spaces, they say? Heck, let’s make ‘em pretty. And maybe even flip a glove-covered bird at anyone who criticizes or insults us for wearing one or assumes we’re doing so in the name of fear and not civic responsibility (as if there’s anything wrong with being a little goddamn afraid right now anyway.)
This whole past couple of months has basically been a series of crappy circumstances that have evoked roller coasters of emotions and produced lists of tough but understandable directions to follow.
Each crappy circumstance has a range of ways we may be experiencing it, but we’re all experiencing it in some way. Regarding work, for example:
- Maybe you’ve had to learn how to work from home and figure out how to get it all done and done well while keeping your kids out of trouble, on their distance-learning schedule, and relatively emotionally unscathed
- Maybe you’ve had to risk exposure to the virus and manage your fear as an essential worker or healthcare warrior
- Maybe you’ve lost your job and income entirely or in part and have had to figure out how to navigate the overburdened unemployment system and creatively make distant ends meet in the meantime
- Maybe you’re more-or-less fine and realizing that more-or-less is no longer enough, so you’re grappling with what needs to come next
Depending on the particulars of your experience, each crappy circumstance may have been more or less tough to adjust to. But you HAVE been adjusting. You’ve taken steps and made changes and may have even gotten a little used to a new, albeit temporary, normal.
And now here we are, on the cusp of a new phase of days with all new challenges. (Not that the old ones are going anywhere, by the way.)
Now that we’ve all adjusted comes the matter of for how long? For how long do we have to keep doing this? How much longer ‘til we get to the other side?
Basically… Are we THERE yet?
Unfortunately, these are questions that no one has answers to right now.
And because you’ve been adjusting like a superstar for a good long while now (and navigating the aforementioned emotional roller coasters at the same time), you’re BOUND to get TIRED.
Let’s be honest. You’ve been tired for a while now.
Well, when we’re tired we tend to seek out more directions to follow, because it’s easier to follow directions than figure a thing out for ourselves on limited brainwaves and bandwidth. And anyway, following directions is how we all got ourselves through things so far, so why not lean on what’s worked going forward?
But this is new terrain, friend. There just aren’t as many directions to follow right now. This is a time of uncertainty, and we humans tend not to dig that.
Now to be clear… it’s not like we’ve been swimming in certainty lately. Far freaking from it.
But… having guidelines and directives to follow FEELS a lot like certainty, especially in the midst of a new-to-us experience like this.
And up until now, we could trust directives as they came (once we settled on a trustworthy source and, perhaps more importantly, learned which sources to IGNORE… but I digress lol.)
So far, we’ve by and large had checkboxes we could check off to know we were doing the right thing.
- 6-foot separation from others? Check.
- Mask over nose, mouth and chin? Check.
- Pay online for food pickup and pop the trunk when you get there? You bet.
- Sanitize the shit out of every surface imaginable? Begrudgingly, but yes.
- Follow the rules for the good of the whole? Absolutely. Let’s flatten this curve TOGETHER.
As we transition out of lockdowns and into phased-in reopenings, we’ll still need to read and heed new guidelines, for sure. But that’s not going to be what gets us through.
What we need now is to find and foster a trust within ourselves, in ourselves — a trust that we can navigate the uncertainty without getting swallowed by it.
- That we can trust ourselves to take care of ourselves
- That we can trust ourselves to hold on, when we don’t exactly know how long we’ll need to hold
- That we can trust ourselves to make right decisions, in a time that will be overflowing with decisions to make, as communities and commerce rebuild together
My big soul work is to help people learn the way wisdom speaks to and through them so they can use it to uncover, create, and inhabit their most positively thriving life. It centers around developing practices and habits of self-trust, self-love and self-care that create space for making intuition-driven decisions you can count on.
And it can help you go from feeling all over the place to grounded, soundly, right here.
It can help you transform your worry, fear and doubt into calm, peaceful faith.
It can help you feel strong, confident, and able to hang in for the long haul instead of just barely hanging on by a thread.
Sometimes we get to fill our toolbox slowly and tuck it away til we need it.
Sometimes we get to develop our practices in peaceful times, not even realizing their true value until they end up carrying us through tougher ones.
And sometimes, like now, we need to show up as we are, learn what we can, try and apply it, reflect and revisit it, all in the middle of the messy moment.
* * * * *
Have you ever played with a Weeble? It’s a small egg-shaped kid’s toy that came out in the 70s to a theme song that said “Weebles may wobble but they don’t fall down.” Because no matter how hard you pushed it to one side, the physics of the thing would always cause it to wobble back to the other side and never tip over.
As a kid, I loved Weebles because it was fun to watch them wobble and also fun to see how they really never did fall down.
Today I recognize in them the beauty of being centered, grounded, able to roll with a tide and not be overtaken by it.
I recognize in them the way my self-care practices bring me that same strong, simple peace.
I recognize in them how rarely I stray from my own set point. And when I do, how relatively easily and swiftly I return.
It’s a state of simple, quiet grace that is fertile ground
for profound joy, growth and peace.
As opposed to feeling emotionally pushed, pulled, prodded and poked by anything and everything around me.
Formless, like an amoeba. Constantly changing inconstant state, fundamentally affected by the energies, emotions and expectations of others.
The struggle to go from amoeba to Weeble is real for many of us on a good day. Lately, it surfaces in one way or another in every single real conversation I have.
I’ve put together an opportunity that will allow you to get the support you need right now in a super accessible way, without committing to something big when so much is up in the air right now.
I’d like to help you reach Weeble status :) Here’s how we can get you there.
Coping Through Uncertainty: How to Trust Yourself in Challenging Times
a month-by-month membership for becoming more weeble, less amoeba
What it looks like:
- Weekly 60-minute group video calls + recordings featuring teaching, tool-sharing, guided meditation, feeling exploration exercises, Q&A, and laser-coaching hot seats (as determined by member needs each week)
- Private Facebook group space for follow up Qs and a place to share your successes and struggles to be witnessed, encouraged, supported — you are NOT in this alone! Plus I’ll pop in with additional exercises, inspiration, and reflections as they come…
- Living document workbook of all the strategies, tools, resources and exercises we use, practice and explore… as dictated by the unique needs of the group
- Month-by-month membership commitment (no long-term contracts or price points to contend with!)
- One 30-minute 1:1 call at the end of the month to reflect, evaluate, and co-create your personalized plan of best next steps for the month ahead
I’m offering you all of this for the super low price of $49 per month, to make it as accessible as I can for you.
Learning how to trust yourself and access the very real wisdom that’s already within you has never been more valuable. I cannot WAIT to witness you as it happens.
Click here to start your month of membership.
BONUS AWESOMESAUCE: With your month-long membership, you gain access to a suuuper-reduced rate on 1:1 coaching sessions, should you decide that you’d like to level up your growth and support in that way!