Turning Towards Life - a Thirdspace podcast

320: The First Step is to Admit 'This is Hard for Me'


Listen Later

"The first step", writes Paul Weinfield, is not reaching for a solution to our difficulties but "the willingness to admit 'this is hard for me'". It's this move that gives us the opportunity to let go of the habitual ways we have of 'holding up the heavens'. And when we do this, we have the chance to enter into a series of discoveries about the force and patterns of our own personality and assumptions - and maybe even to find out what of the scaffolding that we use to hold everything up is ready to fall so that something else can grow. 

In this conversation Lizzie and Justin consider how it is that we come to know when it's time to solve, and when it's time to open to what's new, and how we might each help one another do that.

Hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.

Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribe
Support Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife

Turning Towards Life, a week-by-week conversation inviting us deeply into our lives, is a live 30 minute conversation hosted by Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn of Thirdspace.  Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google, Amazon Music and Spotify.

Here’s our source for this week:

The Willingness to Admit 'This Is Hard for Me'

The first step is not a solution, but the willingness to admit, “This is hard for me.” For as long as we deny that our lives can be difficult, we will always act from our conditioning and take the same ineffectual actions. But if we can sit with compassion for ourselves, our innate wisdom can show us how to truly be there for ourselves, and, eventually, how to let go.

Compassion feels a bit like rain at the end of a hot summer day. There’s a sense of relief in letting it all come down. Yes, you have to let go of some control. You have to let go of trying to hold up the heavens with your solutions, strategies, and stories of right and wrong. But maybe all that scaffolding needs to fall. Maybe none of it kept you safe in the first place. Maybe, all the while, there’s been a child tugging at your sleeve, saying, “Can we go now? I don’t want to fight any more. Just stay with me. All I want is for you to stay with me.”

Paul Weinfield 
www.paulweinfieldcoaching.com/about
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Turning Towards Life - a Thirdspace podcastBy Thirdspace

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

14 ratings


More shows like Turning Towards Life - a Thirdspace podcast

View all
This American Life by This American Life

This American Life

91,329 Listeners

Good Life Project by Jonathan Fields / Acast

Good Life Project

3,378 Listeners

10% Happier with Dan Harris by 10% Happier

10% Happier with Dan Harris

12,740 Listeners

Mamamia Out Loud by Mamamia Podcasts

Mamamia Out Loud

662 Listeners

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee by Dr Rangan Chatterjee: GP & Author

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee

3,935 Listeners

Everything Happens with Kate Bowler by Everything Happens Studios

Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

5,152 Listeners

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day by Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

1,225 Listeners

Meditative Story by WaitWhat

Meditative Story

3,079 Listeners

Poetry Unbound by On Being Studios

Poetry Unbound

3,619 Listeners

People I (Mostly) Admire by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

People I (Mostly) Admire

2,039 Listeners

We Can Do Hard Things by Treat Media and Glennon Doyle

We Can Do Hard Things

41,518 Listeners

Pulling The Thread with Elise Loehnen by Elise Loehnen

Pulling The Thread with Elise Loehnen

1,110 Listeners

The News Agents by Global

The News Agents

1,314 Listeners

The Mel Robbins Podcast by Mel Robbins

The Mel Robbins Podcast

20,335 Listeners