Discovering, Embracing & Fostering Our Unique Strengths

Each and every one of us is unique, as such we all bring the potential to offering something truly special to this world, provided of course that we are able to first discover, then embrace, and finally foster it. This track is taken from my course, ‘Questions To Heal Your Soul’, available now via my profile.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the session,

I invite you to take a seat or lay down and get yourself comfortable and take three slow and calm breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth and as you're taking those slow and calm breaths I just want you to draw your attention to the sensations that you can feel in your body,

Maybe you can feel the weight of the clothes you're wearing,

Upon your skin,

The firmness of the chair or the ground,

The temperature of the room,

Are there any internal body feelings that you're aware of,

Now draw your attention to what you can hear,

Listen to the sound of my voice,

The tone,

The volume,

The inflections,

Do you hear the sound of your own breath,

Sounds of nature,

Traffic,

People talking,

What sounds can you hear right now,

Now I want you to draw your attention to your vision,

What colours and shapes can you see playing in the darkness of your closed eyes,

Are they moving or are they stationary,

Just draw your attention now to your thoughts and I want you to invoke an analogy of cars going down a freeway,

You're just watching them,

A thought comes,

You see it and acknowledge it and then you let it go,

We're not grasping,

We're not holding on,

We're not judging,

Just noticing,

Just noticing our thoughts,

Just noticing the physical senses of our body and then just beginning to gently open our mind up to a place of contemplation,

Of openness,

Flexibility,

An expanse of growth,

We're opening ourselves up to the wisdom of the universe,

Of God,

Of the muse,

Of our intuition,

Our ancestors,

Of whatever place or space that gives us strength and power,

We're opening ourselves up to,

In a moment I'm going to ask you a question twice,

We're just going to let that questions wisdom unfold,

Just watch it without judgment,

Without filter,

Without grasping,

Just allowing it to play in our mind,

Allowing it to grow,

Allowing it to evolve,

To express itself and to reveal its wisdom,

What can I do in this world that no one else can do,

What can I do in this world that no one else can do,

So this question of what can I do in this world that no one else can do initially made me feel lesser or lower because while we're taught or some of us are taught as kids that we can be and do whatever we want to be,

The reality is a lot of us end up with lives that are not quite reaching our full potential,

To say the least.

We see other people,

These power players,

These elite athletes and authors and artists and business people and quote-unquote successful people and we see them with unique talents and we turn the lens upon ourselves and we don't see that,

We don't see our unique talents and our abilities and what we can do that no one else can do,

But I immediately see two problems with that and they both stem from being too close to the source.

It's very hard for us to see our own talents,

To see ourselves in our totality and our truths.

Someone might notice a strength in me that I might not even realize I have,

A talent I have,

That I'm unaware of or that I don't value as highly.

You can look upon someone else and compare them to another quite easily,

But when you put yourself into the mix it becomes quite challenging.

I would like to look at this question as a collective.

Once again,

If you look towards successful people,

Well-rounded people,

They've got a collection of skills that all combined to make them uniquely successful.

It's not just one thing that they can do well,

It's many but it's in conjunction.

If someone is the best at one thing but has no complementary skills,

That typically isn't enough for them to survive or thrive.

They will be really good but unless they can get themselves into position to fully exploit that singular talent,

It won't work for them.

So what this question is highlighting for me,

What can I do in this world that no one else can do,

Is making me contemplate the concept of synergy.

I know in myself I have a collection of talents.

I am quite introspective,

I'm quite good at poetry,

I'm able to put myself out there in the world,

I'm able to express,

I'm okay being recorded or on camera.

Now,

In all of those aspects I am by no means the best and other people can certainly do all of them,

But can they do all of them combined?

Maybe.

But importantly,

Can they do them like me?

No.

Only I can present this unique mix of skills and abilities and attributes and learnings and talents and present it to the world.

That is what I'm capable of.

There's some advice that is given to writers that I'd like to apply to life in general.

They say that some writers stop themselves from writing and expressing because they believe that it's all been said.

But the response is that it might all have been said,

But it hasn't been said by you.

So I would like to suggest,

And if we can apply that globally,

That it might have already been done,

But it hasn't been done by you.

Everyone,

Everyone is unique,

Even identical twins born with the same DNA are exposed to different environments and thus turn out differently.

We are a combination of our nature,

Our nurture,

And depending on your belief system,

Divine inspiration.

But either way,

We are unique.

That uniqueness allows us something of value because you,

The person listening to this,

And me,

Myself,

The person speaking this,

Are different.

Now I can offer you myself in totality and you will get something from that because no one else can speak these words with this tone,

With this intonation,

With this intent.

And no one but you can absorb those words in the way that you're going to absorb them,

And to respond to them,

And to accept them,

And to run with them in your own way.

This is a unique connection that only you and I share.

Now yes,

There'll be other listeners,

And yes,

There'll be other teachers,

But they will also form unique interactions,

Which will therefore produce unique results.

Those unique results,

With enough iterations,

Has the potential and power to produce wonders,

Creativity,

Greatness,

In a whole variety of different fields.

You know,

The greatest accomplishments,

Artistic endeavors,

Creations,

Inventions,

Business ventures,

All of these things,

Enlightenment feelings,

Often are sparked from a singular thought.

Those thoughts often come from connection,

And also an understanding of our own unique talents,

And abilities,

And attributes.

As long as we can step out of our own way,

Stop comparing ourselves to others,

Because we'll never be someone else.

It's okay to aim to be at the top.

Just realize that the ladder you're climbing is different to the ladder that someone else is climbing.

You might be both climbing the same wall,

But you're going to get there slightly differently.

And you might find by the end that you've actually ended up somewhere different.

Your goals are unique to you,

And what you can bring to this world is unique to you.

And more importantly,

I suppose,

The world needs your unique voice.

It needs you to speak,

To express,

To be you in your totality.

Because if you don't,

We are all missing out.

If I chose not to express myself in my truth,

This talk wouldn't exist.

The body of work I've put out wouldn't exist,

And therefore the connections and,

You know,

Benefits of that work would not exist.

It would take away all of the downstream effects.

If these words,

If a poem I write,

If anything I do impacts someone,

And I were to take that away,

That impact has no ability to spread.

If I help you,

If I awaken you,

If I just give you a little bit of a smile today,

That has a downstream effect,

Because perhaps you can pass that on in your unique way.

It's this idea of paying it forward.

So I ask you,

What can you do in this world that no one else can do?

What can you do in this world that no one else can do?

Well done.

This brings us to the end of the session.

At the bottom of your screen,

You'll see an option to view the classroom or to ask a question.

Before moving on,

I invite you to take a moment to click through and share your insights,

To read the answers from other students,

And to hear my replies.

Remember to start your responses with session three,

Or to restate the question,

What can you do in this world that no one else can do?

That way,

We all know which one you're referring to.

This is an opportunity for deep learning,

Further introspection and insight,

So please don't miss out.

I look forward to seeing you in the next session.

This track was taken from the course Questions to Heal Your Soul.

It's out now on Insight Timer and available via my profile.

I invite you to join in.