Hello,
It's Dr Bethany Brown here and thank you for joining me for this short letting go of perfectionism track.
Before we begin I invite you to take a position that feels comfortable yet alert.
If you would like to do so I invite you to close your eyes but equally choosing a soft gaze at a neutral point is another great option available to you today.
In the first few moments of this exercise let's just take a moment to settle into this track.
Bringing awareness to our body positions,
Feeling points of contact with the floor beneath our feet or whatever we might be sitting or lying on.
Bringing awareness to these pressure points and points of contact,
Feeling ourselves being rooted and grounded here in the present moment.
Now let us think about perfectionism and in particular I would like you to bring up to mind in your mind's eye something where you have noticed the strive for perfectionism.
It might be something that you're working on currently or more just a general theme that has been threaded throughout the narrative of your life but bringing up an image that represents the current strive for perfectionism and just in the first few moments I want you to observe it for as it is.
Noticing the struggle,
Noticing any thoughts,
Feelings,
Urges,
Physical sensations,
Building awareness of what comes up for you in this current pursuit and struggle for perfectionism.
How does it feel to think about it now?
How does it feel to bring awareness to it?
And what I would invite you to do is to notice whether or not this is working for you.
If it is,
Why,
How and what are the elements that are working for you but perhaps more importantly,
I would like you to reflect on what about this is not working for you.
What about this is not serving you well in this moment,
Day to day and long term?
What aspects would you like to let go of?
And as we do this again,
Bringing awareness to what our mind might throw at us.
Questions,
Thoughts,
Fears or challenges and just observing them for what they are.
Not needing to attach them,
Fight back against them,
Answer them or solve them.
Just being aware of them.
We're now going to do three different stages.
Three different stages for thinking about your current struggle and pursuit of perfection.
In this first task,
I would ask you to invite in self-compassion towards yourself.
Thinking about how you could be kind to yourself.
Thinking about how you could understand yourself and how you could understand yourself and what you are going through at present.
Perhaps part of this might be thinking how you could forgive yourself or celebrate yourself or just be that compassionate hand on your shoulder saying,
This is hard.
But in these few moments,
Responding to yourself and your current pursuit for perfection from a stance of self-kindness,
Self-compassion and understanding.
What would a compassionate response be to yourself?
What would a compassionate response be to those reflections you have already thought about in the beginning of this exercise?
As you consider this,
Really listen to this response.
Hear it and connect with it.
The second task I would invite you to do would be to think about the process.
So the thing that you are noticing,
The striving for perfection,
The pursuit of perfection,
The desire for perfection.
Rather than focusing on the outcomes,
The achievements and the tasks,
I want you to take a moment to notice the journey you have been on,
The process.
What qualities have you demonstrated in your pursuit?
Have you shown that you are dedicated,
Hardworking,
Caring?
Have you shown that you're actively problem solving,
That you are organising,
Planning?
What qualities and traits have you utilised,
Demonstrated and used as part of the journey regardless of the outcome?
And as you do this,
I invite you to notice what it feels like to notice the process,
To appreciate the small victories and be mindful of the journey rather than the outcome.
And in the final section of this exercise,
I invite you to embrace any mistakes.
Perfectionism often drives fear around making mistakes and a viewpoint and perspective that mistakes equals failure.
However,
What we know is mistakes are a natural and expected part of a learning process.
They're opportunities for us to learn,
Grow,
Evaluate,
Re-evaluate and adapt our plans.
What have you learnt from your mistakes in this process?
What have they taught you?
What has your growth been?
And how could you continue to grow?
And just as we come to a close,
I would like you to think about what your takeaway is from all these reflections.
What has struck you from this exercise?
What do you want to take away from this exercise?
And what do you want to do with that learning?
