Start Believing in Your Own Strength

“Take 10 steps, Rest 10 Seconds”

I never thought I would make it I thought for sure it would break me, but with every 10 steps I was able to keep going, beyond what I believed I could.

It’s 1986, I’m six years old with my own little bandanna tied around my then platinum haired head, excited to begin what my mother had assured me would be an unforgettable and most enjoyable experience, she was correct about one of those. We were at the base of Mount Washington starting our ascent up the Jewel Trail, which was deemed the easiest trail, in fact my aerobicizing, road running mother had ran three miles prior to the hike, apparently, she too thought it would be easy, that assessment proved to be incorrect. About an hour into the hike I was already certain that this would kill me, I tried to stay positive, but the idea that my little six-year-old legs (do you know how short the stride is of a six-year-old) would be able to carry me up that mountain was not looking good. I’m fairly certain there were tantrums…I was tremendously good at those, definitely tears and sniffles, but I kept trudging on.

Getting above tree line was a godsend, if you’ve ever hiked above tree line you know what I mean…the views are great but there’s something about the energy way up there (or the thinning air and lack of oxygen), a rest for a lunch of peanut butter and fluff helped fuel me on. I still had a long way to go and that infusion of energy (fluff is pretty much pure sugar) and optimism didn’t last long. My father who was carrying most of the gear for the whole family stayed with me as my mother and soccer/hockey/skateboarding/no fear brother pushed ahead. There we were, a little girl who did not believe she would make it and her father carrying the family’s belongings…struggling…so we took 10 steps and rested 10 seconds…over and over again. There were several fun size Snickers Bars involved in getting us to the top but we did it, and I was bouncing around like a fun loving six-year-old who had completely forgotten that only hours before believed she didn’t have the ability to take 11 steps without a rest.

You Can Handle This

Often times when you’re experiencing events or situations that push you to your limits, self-doubt and fear creep in and you start to believe that you’re not strong enough, that you’ll crumble to pieces and never reach the other side. To paraphrase Byron Katie , “You’re never given more than you can handle. You’re never given more than you can take”. If it is in your life, then you need to believe that you are strong enough, because if you weren’t, it wouldn’t be part of your life experience. In those moments where you’re being asked to be strong think back to your own Mount Washington. Think back to those times where the only doubt you should have had was of your own self-doubt.

You Control Your Own Beliefs

A belief seems so hard to overcome and is often powerfully charged with emotion. You may think ‘I can’t just stop believing one thing and start believing another, beliefs don’t work like that’. I ask you then to define what a belief actually is. The best definitive definition I’ve heard is from Abraham Hicks “A belief is just a thought you keep thinking”. Sit with that for a moment let it settle within, and tell me if you feel the vibration of truth. What this means is your beliefs, what you believe you’re capable of or not are merely just thoughts that you’ve repeated, and it’s this repetition that gives them the emotional charge lifting them from mere thoughts to beliefs. Once you’re aware of this, all you need to do to believe in your own strength is to start thinking ‘strong you’ thoughts, and repeat them over and over again.

Since past evidence supports the idea that you’re never given more than you can handle, (because if you were you wouldn’t be here right now reading this marvelous blog), you can use that truth to bolster yourself up. Once you step into your own strength, and accept the fact that if it’s in your life than you are strong enough to experience it, life gets a little easier. There will be less energy spent on worry and doubt and more energy spent on doing and overcoming. You will no longer be questioning if you can make it through because you know deep within yourself that you will. Imagine if you truly believe that you’re strong enough to handle whatever comes your way, this will then give the willingness to accept all challenges with a strong embrace. You are strong, you are capable, you are experiencing what you’re meant to and you will persevere because there really is no other way.

Elizabeth SimmonsMay 17, 2020