Time to Make a Whole-Hearted Promise to YOU?

Feel something deeper is calling you?

Are you sick and tired of coming down the priority list and giving your power away?

Do you have a change you want to make in your personal or professional life (big or small), a project or idea that you are ready to create? Is it time to embrace your courage and confidence?

If so, I have an invitation for you…

The Invitation…

Change is one of the few certainties in life.

Many of us want to change things in our lives or about ourselves, but that is not the main problem.

One of the main problems is we criticise and judge ourselves harshly for not making the change/s.

A few years ago, it dawned on me. I finally realised I had to change on the inside for the outside to change. It was a real lightbulb moment and I understood what Aldous Huxley meant when he said – “I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.”

Is it time to make a whole-hearted promise to you?

What Does it Mean to Be Whole-Hearted?

There are three quotes that sum up the meaning of heartful or whole-hearted living for me – two by Pema Chödrön and one by Dr Brené Brown. They are as follows –

• “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy – the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” ~ Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Dr Brené Brown.
• “If we want there to be peace in the world, we have to be brave enough to soften what is rigid in our hearts, to find the soft spot and stay with it. We have to have that kind of courage and take that kind of responsibility. That’s the true practice of peace.” ~ Pema Chödrön: Practicing Peace in Times of War.
• “To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.” ~ Pema Chödrön: When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times.

At the start of the book Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Dr Brené Brown refers to 10 Guideposts to Wholehearted Living. These 10 guideposts are what the Wholehearted people “…work to cultivate and what they work to let go of” in their lives (p.9).

They are as follows –

1. “Cultivating Authenticity: Letting Go of What People Think
2. Cultivating Self-Compassion: Letting Go of Perfectionism
3. Cultivating a Resilient Spirit: Letting Go of Numbing and Powerlessness
4. Cultivating Gratitude and Joy: Letting Go of Scarcity and Fear of the Dark
5. Cultivating Intuition and Trusting Faith: Letting Go of the Need for Certainty
6. Cultivating Creativity: Letting Go of Comparison
7. Cultivating Play and Rest: Letting Go of Exhaustion as a Status Symbol and Productivity as Self-Worth
8. Cultivating Calm and Still: Letting Go of Anxiety as a Lifestyle
9. Cultivating Meaningful Work: Letting Go of Self-Doubt and “Supposed To”
10. Cultivating Laughter, Song and Dance: Letting Go of Being Cool and “Always in Control”” (p.9).

Time to Make a Whole-Hearted Promise to YOU?

Are you ready to make a whole-hearted promise to you today and change your life? There are many promises you can make, however if you use the above guideposts of wholehearted living as a guide, you could start to promise –

1. to let go of what people think about you and start to cultivate authenticity,
2. to let go of perfectionism and start to cultivate self-compassion,
3. to let go of numbing and powerlessness and start to cultivate a resilient spirit,
4. to let go of scarcity and start to cultivate gratitude and joy,
5. to let go of the need for certainty and start to cultivate intuition and a trusting faith,
6. to let go of comparison and start to cultivate creativity,
7. to let go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth and start to cultivate play and rest,
8. to let go of anxiety as a lifestyle and start to cultivate calm and stillness,
9. to let go of self-doubt and ‘supposed to’ and start to cultivate meaningful work, and
10. to let go of being cool and always in control’ and start to cultivate laughter, song and dance.

Over to You…

What other whole-hearted promises could you make to you? Feel free to share them below!

If you are ready make a whole-hearted promise to you and take the next step towards freedom and opening your heart, why not join our Toolkit?

References –

Brown, B. (2012). Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. New York, USA: Penguin.

Chödrön, P. (2006). Practicing Peace in Times of War. Boston, USA: Shambhala Publications.

Chödrön, P. (2010). When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times. Boston, USA: Shambhala Publications.