FILLING YOUR
WELL
'Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around
and catch you.'
John De Paola
One of the most rewarding things about my job is how much I
learn from my clients. Invariably, during the course of a
week, someone will show up with an issue that is similar to
something I'm facing at the time. The uncanny thing about it
is that often I haven't even realised that the issue is mine
until I hear my client articulate it.
This happened last week when one lovely client began to
discuss a talk she was preparing for her staff. The topic of
the talk was 'balance'. She took me through her notes and
reached a part in her speech that stopped me in my tracks.
What she said was something along the lines of this (that
she kindly gave me permission to quote). 'When I was young I
didn't think twice about making time to sit in fields or
watch sunsets or lie on the floor with my headphones on
listening to music. But somehow I made myself believe that
you stopped doing those things when you grew up.'
I was surprised at how much her words moved me. I felt my
throat tighten and I recognised within myself the
vulnerability we feel when we have the sense that someone
has glimpsed inside us.
She went on to talk about what happened in her life without
those things that 'fill your well'.
I often talk to clients about what fills their soul but I
like the image of the well. The past few years of drought in
Australia have made all of us aware of how precious our
water resources are. Months without rain left our beautiful
Melbourne parks dusty and dry. I don't think I'm alone in
feeling deeply affected by the parched, brown landscape that
I see each time I fly across our state. The recent storms
stirred up a lot of that dust and the rain washed it away.
There's something about the green that is now springing up
around us that feels restorative.
Our personal wells aren't visible to the outside world.
Often we fail to notice the warning signs of our own
personal drought. The people closest to us usually observe
the finest cracks as they begin to appear. But some of us
think we're invincible so we dismiss their feedback and
press on.
Allowing those cracks to become chasms exposes you to both
unhappiness and ill health. It's important that you learn to
measure the resources of your internal well - are you full
to overflowing; completely drained or somewhere in between?
Spend some time remembering the things that filled your well
when you were young. The things that you did just because
you could...things that maybe had no clear purpose, no
obvious external value. The things that you did that relaxed
you or made you laugh or made you feel connected with the
real you.
Feel free to share your ideas by commenting on the blog
http://calmcreative.blogspot.com/ entry 'Filling
Your Well'.
As I've learnt, others can remind us of the things we've
forgotten we used to love. |
