Strength to Serve
In the kitchen, preparing food, listening to an audio book. I start the tea kettle and listen to the words. A sentence comes out that sticks in my mind. “Be of service to others” and I start to think.
What does serving others entail? If I start at the basics, does that mean forgetting myself when someone needs something? Now would be a good time to remind myself about boundaries. Being of service to others doesn’t mean ignoring my own needs for space. It doesn’t mean dropping everything I am doing to make myself available. Being of service to others doesn’t mean neglecting myself and my own needs.
So what am I doing to service others? I shift my thinking. Instead of thinking about how I dont or can’t serve, I start with “What are my strengths?”
+STRENGTH: Connecting with Myself: My sense of grounding in myself and in my body continues to grow with time. I practice connecting to me through yoga, journaling, meditating, my herbs, and walks outside in nature. I share my practice with others.
+STRENGTH: Connecting to Others: Since I have a solid base on connecting with myself, I feel I can truly hear what others are saying and connect quickly. This allows me to share with them the things I have found that I think might help them.
+STRENGTH: Creativity: I am a creative human. I believe we all are, I just practice my creativity daily. Whether that be in the form of painting, drawing, writing, creating a yoga flow or gardening. Each creative project is a new learning experience and I love learning new things. This allows me the tools to share my practices and experiences through videos, blog posts, photography, etc.
+STRENGTH: Putting Action to Something I find Exciting: When I find something that I love, the action that I put into learning is incredible. I pick up on things quickly and am able to put together amazing pieces of work when I find a project to be exciting. This is a double edged sword that I won’t mention too much since this is a post about strength… This strength gives me the capability to get an idea of something I need to add to a practice to help someone else.
+STRENGTH: Doing Healthy Things: This is a strength of mine that is easy to let slip. I love the healthy foods I eat. I love the herbs and teas I make. I love practicing yoga and rock climbing. I love hiking. All these healthy things are things that contribute to all my other strengths yet this one is the easiest for me to let go of. The excuses I can make are endless.
Finding my strengths and acknowledging them is how I will find ways to serve others. I have told myself many times that I don’t have any strengths. I remember that doubt, isn’t mine. Those thoughts have been planted there by the comparisons I have made. They are not natural. That mindset doesn’t help. That is a mindset that keeps individual strengths silenced and not available to share. It is time for me to accept that I am a creature of habit. I need structure and I need to create that structure for myself. No one else is going to put action to that structure for me. Besides, “action” is a strength of mine. What’s more exciting than working on living a life full of enrichment and fulfillment? Knowing myself is exciting to me. Uniting my mind and body is something I believe will guide me to living fully. Utilizing these tools I have will keep me in each moment, keep me healthy, keep me doing what I love. I am finding ways to serve others and I am creating ways to share what helps me.
So to me serving others means finding ways to serve yourself. Figuring out how to serve your soul and feeding that to others. I hope you are all enjoying what I have been sharing with you.
Here is A yoga flow 10 minute series to go with this post.
Read the info about the flow to understand the strength the flow is building.
