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“We must continue to open in the face of tremendous opposition. No one is encouraging us to open and still we must peel away the layers of the heart.”
– Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist master
There are books that you read, that reach down and grab you by the soul and shake you, and that’s how I experienced reading Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within While the book is really about writing, I found it so relevant to the authentic leadership journey, as it really is about diving deep to get real in order to connect.
I’m a big believer in “you teach what you need to learn” – both because I could never be the owner of everything there is to teach on this vast topic, and for what it makes of me – and I’m finding this process is one of constant surrender. Surrender of ego. Surrender of control. Surrender of what I think I know, in order to see what I don’t know.
It’s quite uncomfortable really. To surrender.
We must surrender what we think we know, in order to see what we don’t know.
And yet I find the more I do, the clearer I become. The more open I am to the opportunities around me. The more receptive I am to the lessons I need to learn. While it makes no sense to me logically , what I find is that the more I surrender the more powerful I become. Powerful in myself.
And when we’re powerful in ourselves, we are powerful in the world. For we can break free of the “shoulds” and the comparison game, and the negative self-talk, and the need to prove, and our knee-jerk reactions, and all those nasty things that mess up the good things in our lives and our ability to lead.
When we’re powerful in ourselves, we are powerful in the world.
So today I invite you to join me on the edge of the cliff – to leap into the unknown. Leap into the mysteries of your own heart and soul and surrender. Surrender what you think you know and swim with the questions.
If you dive deep enough, you might just come up with a pearl.