The most important thing you can do for Yourself
The year is coming to an end. Can I hear an Amen?
As I prepare to close an old door - 2020 - and open a new one - hello, 2021! -, I focus on the things that´ll allow me to step up my game in dance, as in life. Here´s one of them.
This may be the most important thing you can do for yourself. Right now. Always.
Most of us are clueless about the power we hold within; we presume life happens to us and not through us. There are much powerlessness and irresponsibility, here.
Many of us are taught about self-empowerment and are able to make plans and set strategies that´ll allow us to materialize our dreams. Yet, we don´t persevere, we´re not disciplined or committed enough to the co-creation of our desired reality.
All of us are plagued by what I call an "invisible enemy", one of those silent killers that undermine our efforts if there´s effort, and destroys any possibility of accomplishment, no matter how much and how well we do. That is a deeply ingrained, and almost imperceptible, sense of unworthiness.
I´ve seen it in me, in my loved ones, in my colleagues and students. It´s a plague and nobody´s talking about it.
The plague of Unworthiness, or the belief that we´re not deserving of happiness and accomplishment, can only be compared to the plague of Comparison, another life destroyer.
It doesn´t matter how much you know or how much you do in order to manifest your dreams. If you believe you don´t deserve it, you´ll never get it.
Imagine folks running - wildly, focused, passionately - without moving from the same place. Those are dream makers who don´t believe they deserve to manifest their dreams.
Believing YOU DESERVE the blessings you dream of and work for is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOURSELF. Believing it in your bones, in your core, in your conscious and unconscious mind.
Without it, you´ll be the runner who never moves from the same place; you´re the adventurer stuck in quicksand.
Now, you´ll ask: Joana, can this be learned? Can I work on BELIEVING I DESERVE IT?
And Joana will put her "half-serious teacher glasses on" and tell you the hard, tough, urgent truth:
Yes. But it´ll take diligence, persistence, and a stubborn approach.
We´re suckers for universal formulas and quick fixes. But where belief patterns are concerned, there are no formulas or quick fixes, there´s only AWARENESS, DISCIPLINE, and CONSISTENT WORK.
Our subconscious mind, where our belief patterns are built and stored, is created through repetition. Whatever we repeat consistently, becomes an automatic part of our being, a core value, or certainty.
If I repeat a movement daily, chances are it´ll become natural to me. If I repeat a choreography for a good, consistent, amount of time, it´ll get into automatic pilot and flow out of me, naturally, without thinking.
The same thing happens with belief patterns.
If I´m taught to believe I don´t deserve great things - happiness, love, health, abundance, fulfillment - for a good amount of time; if I hear messages of unworthiness consistently, if I take them in and repeat them inside my head, they´ll become second nature to me; we won´t even question them.
This is why SELF-AWARENESS, something I always include in our courses at Joana Saahirah´s Online Dance School, is a KEY to self-empowerment.
If I don´t know myself, I don´t know my strengths and the sabotage agents operating inside of me. I´m clueless about who I am, what I can expand, and what I ought to improve, change, or eliminate.
Believing that YOU DESERVE IT starts with noticing that you may believe you don´t deserve it. This is not about putting yourself down - it´s about, for the lack of a better expression, "smelling your own shit" so you can clean it.
It´s possible to build a strong sense of worthiness; it´s possible to work on believing you deserve all the things you dream of; it´s possible to work on self-love.
But, as mentioned, there´s no universal formula or quick fix that´ll take you there. You gotta walk your path, as unique as you, and do the work.
For me, POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS, as created by the pioneer of Self-Development, Louise Hay, work. Affirming, through the spoken and written word, that I DESERVE IT, daily, is essential. But there´s more.
ACTING as if you deserve it is the missing number in this equation.
Your actions/decisions must reflect the affirmation "I DESERVE TO MANIFEST MY DREAMS". The No´s and the Yes´s you deliver the world; the boundaries you create, the decisions and the actions; the routines; every single step you take must illustrate, mirror, and confirm that affirmation.
Let me repeat it:
Nope, saying it out loud isn´t enough. It helps but it´s not enough;
Nope, writing it down isn´t enough. It helps but it´s not enough;
Nope, claiming you believe you deserve it isn´t enough. It helps but it´s not enough.
ACTION creates miracles. Mindful action; action with clarity, focus, and purpose; an action that comes from a sense of worthiness.
This year, like in every other year, YOU DESERVE to be happy, to accomplish your dreams, and build your dream life.
- Start affirming it - daily.
- Start to act according to that belief pattern - daily.
- When you fall off the wagon (you will, all of us do), going back to your old belief patterns, hop back in. When we go astray, we can always come back home. When you fall, you get up. Simple as that.
Do the work. Not for me but for yourself.
Why?
´Cause you deserve it.
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves to."
- W.H. Murray; explorer, mountain climber, committer
Love,
Joana Saahirah
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