Being Enough

In some ways, we all feel like we're not good enough. In this meditation, Lou offers space to explore where you feel a sense of lack and offers a practice to help you recognize you're inherent worth and enoughness.

Transcript

And shifting gears into our topic today with being enough.

And this is such,

This is so foundational,

I think,

To our self growth,

Our work,

And our human experience.

This isn't,

This is a very human thing that we find ourselves.

And we talk about suffering.

So you have two different types of suffering.

We have the suffering that we see,

Like what happened this week,

Where we don't control,

And it's this real,

Real horrific suffering.

And then we have our daily suffering that this thing of our mind loves to create for our own lives.

That we're actually creating,

That our meditation practice is helping to notice how we create suffering in ourselves,

In our own lives.

And often one way,

I know for me,

That I create my own suffering,

And maybe you please let me know if this resonates for you,

Is by comparing ourselves and thinking that we don't live up to some sort of expectation,

Or we're less than someone else.

We're not good enough,

We're not strong enough,

We're not fast enough,

We're not smart enough,

We're not this enough,

We're not capable enough.

All of those things that we create our own suffering,

We stew often in our own insecurities.

And this is the human,

This is where,

This is the human work,

Right?

This is what we have to recognize,

Because there's a part of us,

There's a part of us that if we get quiet,

That we know at our core is perfect.

Maybe it takes some work to get there,

I don't want to give you that.

Yeah,

There's some more explanation to get to that.

But there's a part of us,

If we really drop down,

I'm going to try and do that today,

That can sense enough.

And that part of us is the same as presence.

Presence is an access point to enoughness.

And enoughness is an access point to presence.

When we're present,

When we're,

I heard Richard Rohr says,

I forgot maybe it wasn't Richard Rohr,

But like when you,

When we say peace of mind,

Someone,

I forgot what teacher says,

It's never peace of mind,

Because we're never in our mind when we're at peace.

We're in our,

We're present,

We're in our bodies,

We're in our experiences.

And we can come from this place of just ever present enoughness.

Now,

What we're going to work on today,

Because there's another side to not being enough,

Feeling less than.

And so we might be very used to that.

Maybe that's where we come from often.

And then there's the other side where we might unconsciously,

And we might not be aware that we do this.

I know I'm aware when I do this,

But we want unconsciously or consciously.

Okay,

If I'm not good enough at this,

I'm going to try my hardest to get to the other side to actually know.

Now,

Now where I'm seeing myself and well,

I'm not I'm less than this person,

But I'm better than that person,

Or I'm better than this person.

And we overcompensate to this other side.

And what happens is we're titrating between if we think of it like a coin,

We're either feeling down on ourselves or we feel like we're the best that ever lived.

And I'll speak for myself so I can go through that.

I've been doing some work personally on this as often as the things that I share,

Where I recognize there's this part of me that that at times will look out into the world and be like,

Well,

Not as good as that person or they have more this than being I would just do in this mental my own suffering.

But then there's this energy that I tap into that I call my Kanye West like it's also an Enneagram three thing for those of you that know that personality typing where I can think that while I'm so good and I'm so great and well,

I'm better than.

And so it's just this titration and I don't know about you if any of this resonates,

But I know that I'm tired of it.

It's just not it's just it's just tiring and as we step back,

Which we'll do today and as I've done this and see both those sides,

See the part of me that wants to think that they're not good enough.

See the part of me that thinks that they're the best that ever lived and just,

Oh,

Look at that.

Look out the mind creates these opposites and sit and rest and witness that and be in a space that can hold and recognize that I'm not any of those that I'm I'm enough.

And there's no there's nothing I have to do knowing that nothing I have to prove myself.

I don't have to say the right thing on this live to feel like I did something right instead.

I can can just trust the moment and live from the moment and when we live from presence,

We live from inspiration.

We live from alignment and we live from a our soul.

We live from a more connected space and that is where our lives flow.

That is where in the moment where we say the right thing,

As I speak this is reminding me of a of a line from A Course in Miracles that I'm going to I'm losing it.

But it's something like like it's like a prayer that I don't need to know the right thing to say.

I don't need to know the right places to be that that in the moment I will know.

Right.

It's this trust in being enough and being connected to that presence that everything can unfold from there.

I know.

I mean,

I still prepare these talks a little bit.

I'll make some notes on some things that maybe I want to point to.

But I know a lot of some there's and I'm always amazed by some people that can show up and just just be present and let the teaching right.

Let let the whatever it is,

Let the share unfold.

And so it's it's it's it's I've grown in that way,

But it's a practice.

It's a it's a continual journey.

So go ahead and shift gears into listening to seeing what other people are commenting and being more outward focus.

And starting to drop into being more inward focused.

So closing your eyes,

If that helps.

Making any shifts and movements.

And remembering the the note of.

Presence is an access point to enoughness.

And vice versa,

Enoughness is an access point to presence.

So as you start to breathe,

As you start to notice your breath expanding and easing its way out of your body.

With each breath that you become.

Bit more present in your body in this moment.

You're starting to touch more of.

The enoughness.

And the fullness.

When things are enough,

Things are full.

And so as you slow down,

As you relax your shoulders down the bag,

As you soften the muscles and the eyelids.

As you relax your jaw.

As you notice the thoughts that take you away and ease yourself back,

Wake up within the thought,

Recognize that you've gone away.

Have a mini awakening.

And come back into your body.

Each time you do that.

And each time you become a little bit more present.

You also access.

The enoughness of who you always are.

Stay with your breathing body.

Tuck the chain,

Extend your neck up.

Stay rooted in your feet on the ground.

Each breath,

Just another.

Subtle layer.

Between you.

And your innate enoughness,

Another layer.

Gently washing away.

Gently.

Relaxing and softening.

Each subtle layer taking you more into who you really are.

There's nothing you have to do.

There's no one you have to be.

No job to get done.

No race to win.

No deadline.

Just you here now,

Your breathing body.

Present.

Full.

Enough.

You made it.

You've arrived.

Can you relax into that?

You soften the parts of you,

The thoughts that are coming up that's telling you all the reasons that you haven't.

All the things and plans you still have.

Can you relax those?

And come back into your breath.

Come back into the enoughness,

The fullness of this moment.

And then together.

Let's take a conscious breath in.

And let it go.

So now we're going to move into more of our work around this and maybe you were able to touch something and just grounding.

We're going to see if we can see what shows up in this work for us today.

And so to do that,

I invite you to imagine that you are walking up a mountain.

Anything that comes to mind,

It could be a hill,

Could be something that you're going to get to the top of.

And metaphorically,

This mountain is representing your work in this area.

And so as you walk and you bring to mind an area of your life where you feel like you're not enough.

You feel less than others.

You feel not capable and competent,

Not worthy.

Where you compare,

Judge.

Maybe it's your relationships and work.

And where you think you're supposed to be.

And as you walk up this mountain,

Just hold the situation,

Hold this area of life in mind,

Hold it in your body,

Recognizing that each step you're saying,

I'm going to work on this.

I see it.

It's under me.

And then imagine that you get all the way to the top of this hill,

This mountain,

Whatever you imagine.

And just stand on the top,

Start to connect with the environment that you see,

Sky.

The wind.

The clouds,

What you feel,

You hear,

What you sense.

Feel your feet on the ground.

And hold again the situation this time in your body.

Really let yourself connect with what you notice.

Do you notice any parts tightening or any energy that's calling in your body?

And so as you look out,

You're facing north.

And what we're going to start to do is work with these different sides.

Different sides of ourself.

And to do that,

I invite you to turn to the right,

Which would be east.

And if you're able to,

I'll also invite you to turn.

If you have a chair that can just turn so you're physically doing this where you're at,

Could also be helpful.

If not,

You can just imagining that you're turning to the right.

And this side that you look out to,

This represents that voice that tells you all the reasons that you don't live up and you're not good enough.

And what we're going to do here is we're going to give it some space.

And we're going to give it.

.

.

We're going to let it have some space to just share.

So let your body.

.

.

Can you feel if you embody and just let this voice kind of grow in you?

And I know this might be challenging.

Can you feel what you notice in your body?

How does it show up?

And then imagine that you become this voice.

And I want you to just start speaking the things that it says.

So you could do this in your mind.

And if you're able to,

Speak this out loud and speak in the way that it would speak.

Maybe it's got this like gnarling voice like,

You're.

.

.

You'll never be good enough.

Right?

Really kind of sense its power.

Sense what it.

.

.

How you feel it.

And just let it have some space.

We're just like,

Hey,

We're going to give you some chance to just speak all the things.

You're dumb,

You'll never be good enough,

You'll never get that job.

No one likes you.

That person's always better than you.

Right?

Let.

.

.

Just let.

.

.

Give you another 30 seconds to just let this out.

Let it out.

And then pause and notice,

Right?

Kind of step back a little bit from being that voice where you can see.

Just notice how your body's feeling just from giving it some space to share.

And then what we're going to do is we're going to flip.

And this might be even harder for some of you because you might not even have access to this part.

Right?

If there's a part of us that feels less than,

There's also a part of us that could feel better than.

And so you're going to switch and you're going to turn to the west.

And if you're in the chair,

Maybe flip-flop and you turn the other direction.

Right?

And this part might be more in the shadow.

So it's actually might be beneficial to see if we can tap into it,

Especially if we haven't before.

Right?

And this is the side that now thinks that you are better than others.

Right?

That thinks your way is the right way.

That thinks you're awesome.

Right?

Maybe too awesome sometimes.

Right?

There's no,

There's nothing wrong with thinking we're awesome,

But sometimes we can lean into it.

And I want you to lean into it right now.

And so if you were to embody the opposite of the voice that you just let,

I want you to feel that in your body.

What is it like?

How does your posture change?

And then just as we did on the other voice,

Right?

Start to speak this out.

Again,

If you do it silently,

That's great.

But if you're able to really,

If you're in a room,

If you have some privacy and you're really able to speak this,

It's even more powerful.

And notice what the energy is like.

Notice how this voice speaks.

I told you before,

I call this voice my Kanye West.

So it has that kind of arrogant tone for you.

It might be similar or might be different.

I just get a sense if you can access this other point.

Notice how that feels.

And what we're going to do now is start to flip between each of those.

And so in a moment,

I'm going to have you shift and go back east and come back into that voice that thinks it's not good enough.

And then in a moment after that,

I'm going to have you come back west and come back to that voice that thinks they're the best.

All right.

So and if you're moving and if your chairs might be,

You know,

You might be flip flopping a lot or if you're just in this visualization on top of the mountain,

Just kind of want to just move and titrate between each of these sides of a coin and just notice what that's like.

All right.

So flip to the east and let that voice connect again.

You're not good enough can embody it speak how it would speak.

And then flip go back west and embody that voice that's better than.

And then flip again,

East less than.

And again,

Flip west.

And then come back to center.

Right.

So back facing north facing straight if you had been moving your chair and imagine that you just take a step back both in the visualization,

But also just energetically.

Right.

And notice the part of you that's in between those two sides.

We just had you embody and just sense how exhausting is it to go from one side to the next.

And can you feel who is the person that can see both sides but rest behind it?

Can you connect with that?

Feel what it's like to be in the center like if we were in the center of a coin,

We're not heads,

We're not tails,

We're the center.

We see both of those,

But we stay strong and hold them both knowing that they're not ourself with a capital S.

Sense the truth,

The fullness,

The enoughness of just being here.

And then I invite you on the top of this mountain to let your enoughness be heard.

And so that might if you stay in the visualization and you're staying silent,

It might be just imagining that you're screaming to the sky saying I am enough.

Or if you're letting your body really get into this one today and you're able to maybe you reach your arms out.

Maybe you can hold that both sides in your hands,

But you connect with your center and you look out and you yell out and you give yourself a nice strong I am enough and let it out.

Let the universe hear the truth of who you are.

Let it ring down into your toes down into the earth as you send it up into the universe.

Feel your strength,

Your power,

Your fullness.

Stay in your body.

Notice what feels different from this centered place.

And then we know this mountain that we've climbed and maybe this is where you'd want to bring in.

But I want you to just hold in mind in your life.

Where do you want to bring in this?

Where do you want to step into with this enoughness?

Can you feel yourself stepping into that situation that conversation that engagement?

Without being on one side of that coin.

Instead of being centered and full and present.

And then before we start to head back down the mountain,

I'm going to offer a couple affirmations to help us root this in.

So you're welcome to repeat.

You're welcome to just listen.

I am enough just as I am.

I don't have to do anything.

Be anyone.

Or achieve any goal.

I am always,

Always enough.

I am always,

Always enough.

Just rest in that for one last moment.

Thank yourself for leaning into your work,

For showing up.

For recognizing the light and the darkness within you.

And for working to be a vital force of good in this world.

And then slowly you can imagine that you start to walk back down that mountain.

Eventually letting go of the visualization and just dropping into your body in your home or wherever you're listening to this.

Again,

Recognizing the enoughness of who you are always,

Always.

And whenever you're ready to come back,

You can open your eyes and join us here in this beautiful virtual container that we get to share here on Inside Timer.

Reviews

I was initially hesitant to give voice to “the East” in this meditation, the constantly looping narrative that I’m less than and not enough. I’ve done a lot of work to quell and quiet this voice which oftentimes overpowers presence in the moment for me. But, I am glad I did.

I feel a lot of my meditative practice has been steering me towards embracing discomfort, towards accepting the moments that give rise to a feeling of wanting to escape or avoid.

The vacillation between East and West reminded me that these two extremes originate both from a place of fear, pain, and Ego. That, although they seem so vastly different, they are essentially two sides of the same coin. One directed inward, the other outward and neither one very helpful in the grand scheme of things.

Settling in the middle, between two extremes, felt so enriching and peaceful.

Thank you for sharing this guided practice, for creating a space and moment that allowed growth and learning. What a wonderful gift to offer everyone!

Amazing! Such a powerful practice. Thank you!

Wow! Such profound exercise and yes, very exhausting to live this way.

Thank you so much for this guidance. I found it just when i needed it.

I believe the Holy Spirit led me to this guided meditation today. Thank you for your guidance!

Presence is the access point to enoughness and vice versa. Needed that today!

Excellent teaching Lou. There's so much content to sift through. Thanks!

This is powerful and life enhancing. I feel supported when I remember that I am not alone with my feelings and experiences. Thank you.

Always, all ways, grateful for your generosity & vulnerability Lou. I was able & will continue to let go of these East/West patterns that are so common in my body. 🙏🏼

Lou,
Enoughness! I love that.
Straight to the core.
Thank you Lou
💛💚💙

That was DEFINITELY just what I needed to hear this morning, Lou. Thank you…I truly AM enough!