How is your relationship with asking for help? I tend to get so deeply involved with helping others, that when someone asks me what I need, I freeze.
During one of the community coaching sessions that I facilitated last year, I had the participants work on asking for help. In order to model this practice, I started by asking the audience for help with a health issue that I'd been dealing with for many years. After the session, a woman came up to me and recommended an herbal tea.
I promptly took her advice by ordering the product and following the social media account of the herbalist who created it. I followed her instructions and made some of the lifestyle and dietary changes that she and other healing professionals in my life recommended. Now I'm celebrating my third month in a row of being free from the debilitating pain that I'd been suffering from for years.
Developing the habit of pushing past my feelings led me to develop a high tolerance for pain, both physically and emotionally. Pain comes to communicate a need, and if it's ignored, we may cause ourselves further harm.
To hold myself accountable while supporting others who were experiencing similar challenges, I formed a healing circle. In each session we have shared our stories and resources which has created a powerful pathway to our healing.
How might you leverage the support of your community for your healing and wellbeing?
Who are the members of your community of care?
Where do you need to ask for help?