I’m heading to another gig (one more “I Thirst” concert).
I was so moved to see quite a few people who drove several hours to attend the concerts – they told me how much they enjoy our Saturday morning ‘email visits,’ and how they find them helpful and inspiring.
I’m deeply grateful for that…
And as it is with all that we put our hearts into – with an intention to uplift someone else – writing these emails helps ME, too, to grow and heal a little bit deeper each week 🙂
So… here is what I’ve been reflecting on this weekend:
Windshield vs. rearview mirror
Yes, this is what happens when you drive 5,000 miles in 9 days… haha… 🙂
I’ve been going through my coaching course with a small group of people. One of the participants came up with this cool metaphor to explain how he deals with something from his past.
I brought it up in our next session and expanded on it a bit. I talked about it in our FB live, in a training session for Radiant Coaches Academy, and even in my mentoring sessions at the prison. It’s a really good tool that gets us to evaluate whether we are moving forward or being too fixated on the past – and letting something from the past, such as hurt, pain, grief, resentment, addiction, unhealthy behavior or bad habits keep us from healing.
As we journey through life, we must keep our eyes looking in front of us through the windshield (which is the present and the future). Yes, occasionally we must glance at the rearview mirror but not get stuck looking at it for too long – or we will crash.
Sometimes the windshield gets foggy or dirty – either from the outside (our external situations) or from the inside (our internal mindset – limiting beliefs, negative self-talk, etc.) So we figure out what needs to be done to get that windshield clear again.
Sometimes we drive and let the road take us to a new adventure, and sometimes we have specific destinations we want to get to – and we need to put them in our GPS in order to get there.
There are times when we aren’t moving (because we are grieving or healing from trauma), and that’s when it’s safe to look in the rearview mirror in order to figure out where we came from. (Which is important because, as Winnie the Pooh says in the “Christopher Robin” movie, “I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I’ve been.”)
And yes, sometimes we will long for one of those self-driving cars so we can close our eyes and rest for a bit… (which, in a way, is the same longing as the one depicted in Carrie Underwood’s song: “Jesus take the wheel”). It will take an enormous amount of trust to really give up complete control, but if the car is the metaphor for how we move through life, we are required to sit in the driver’s seat. (Stay with me here, don’t say: “I prefer to walk or be on a bike…” this is just a fun visualization that can inspire you into gaining some insight into your present journey and can help you evaluate how you are handling it.)
I’ll leave you with that. 🙂 Have fun with it!
CONNECT WITH ME