I’ve been in several conversations with other women visionaries and artists and one thing that comes up is how we are birthing our projects. There is a popular story going around that sounds something like this… If you are meant to do something, you’ll be in the flow and things will feel easy.
I don’t think so.
Birthing a new project or mission or vision is work. Yes, there is joy and support but there are also times that feel hard.
When I’m painting, there are moments of total spirit connection… when things are flowing and it feels amazing and other moments I’m hating my painting and I’m wondering how I’m going to pull it together… times I want to paint over it or put it in storage and start something new. But that is where the juice is.
Do you think Michelangelo was inspired and excited the whole time he painted the Sistine Chapel? Do you think Steve Jobs felt in the flow all the time and never hit resistance? What about Mother Teresa? Oprah? Elizabeth Gilbert? Princess Diana? Mary Magdalene? Cleopatra? Joan of Arc? Lady Gaga? Susan B. Anthony? Rosa Parks?
You think they hit rough patches? Where things felt out of flow? What if they had said, Well, I’m not feeling like it anymore. It must not be what I’m meant to do? How far would they have gotten?
When I had my first baby I had a hospital birth. I had a doula and for the most part things went smoothly. My body knew what to do. I waited and waited to dilate fully so I could push. I remember my doctor telling me, Okay Amber, its time to push. I would take a deep breath and puuuussssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh while my doctor and all my support (Tony, Mom, Dad and doula) would count to ten with me. I’d take a little break and then my doctor would watch the monitor to tell when another contraction was coming and tell me it was time to push again. It was hard but after 20 minutes, I pushed my baby out.
My second baby was a home birth. I had a midwife and things went very differently. My body still knew what to do but my midwife didn’t tell me when it was time to push. She said I’d know when the time was right. Boy did I! When it was time I couldn’t do anything but push. My body took over. There was no counting to 10. I just rode the wave of my contractions.
This made me think of how it is when we birth projects or paintings or businesses. Sometimes we may listen to those who tell us it is time to push… and we do. And it is hard. It makes sense. We might be dilated (or ready to go) so we push. And projects are born. Sometimes projects are like my 2nd birth. There isn’t anything you can do but go along for the ride.
My point is both births were hard. There was pushing involved. Grunt. Labor. Both times I decided I had changed my mind and no longer wanted to have a baby. It felt too hard… and yet that was right before the push. Right before they were born. Both were births.
So if you have hit the rough part, the pushing part and you are tired and are thinking… maybe this isn’t what you are meant to do, remember, there is pushing required for birthing babies.
Comment below. What are you birthing? Are you in the place of flow or the place where you have hit a rough patch?
