“You can’t work someone else’s medicine.”
~ Michael Trotta
I’ve just returned from the Martha Beck Summit in Phoenix, where I had the honor of meeting so many inspiring teachers, connecting with good friends, meeting new friends, and experiencing so much that words can’t describe. I will likely write many blog posts with all the information I received and wanted to begin with what I learned from nature-based coach Michael Trotta and Susan Dahl-Robertson.
Michael spoke to us about finding your own original medicine – the gifts you have to bring to the world. This is your purpose in life. I could identify with his story of seeing others you admire and trying to be like them. Much of my career was spent this way, seeing how others were succeeding and trying to be like that. I did a fairly good job, “succeeding” to the point of senior vice president, but the higher the position and the longer I did something that didn’t fulfill me, the more painful it was to be me. Because I WASN’T being Me.
We often define things is by what they are not, as well as using metaphors. If you were to describe a watermelon to someone who had never seen or tasted one, you might say, “It’s a fruit, but not like an apple or a banana. It’s similar to a cantaloupe, in that it has an outer rind that you don’t eat, but a watermelon’s seeds aren’t like those in a cantaloupe…”
When I got to the point in my life where I realized that what I was doing was making me very unhappy, when my body was screaming at me to do something differently, it was simply telling me “Not this.” I had been forcing myself to do things they way others did, the way it seemed it *should* be done, for so long, I had forgotten what it felt like when my essential self said “YES!”
Michael took us back to our childhoods, when we ran and played hide-and-seek, climbed trees and built forts. He explained how the ways children naturally play are practice for survival skills. Hide-and-seek is similar to tracking for hunting. Building forts is creating shelter. As children, we naturally go towards the activities that we excel at.
Susan asked us to think of an experience when we lost track of time and asked what did you love about it? Think of experiences when you felt powerful, free, incredibly useful and inspired. These are all clues to what medicine you bring.
Where in your life are you trying to force yourself to be other than you? I’m reminded of Dr. Seuss, who brilliantly said, “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”