Watching anyone do anything that they excel at is amazing. Think of watching an athlete at the top of their game – everything they do is skillful, graceful, even artful. Think of listening to someone speak of something they are passionate about – they sound insightful, heartfelt, wise and purposed. Think of a woman comfortable in her own skin – she is poised, beautiful, confident and calm. Anyone who’s ever mastered anything will tell you they got there because they had heart and they practiced. They wanted it badly enough that they felt inspired, determined and mindful about it every day. They scarified for it. They couldn’t imagine living without out it. They worked on perfecting it every day. I get to live with someone that loves something that much. Joe loves comedy more than anything – except maybe me (although I’m sure my lead is a narrow one, haha). He loves listening to it, writing it and performing it. He will give up income, sleep and privacy for the opportunity to tell a great, honest, well written joke on stage. It is his passion so he pours his heart into it. Joe strives everyday to be good at comedy. And it’s no different if we are trying to make people laugh, shoot 3 pointers or have a good self image – it just takes practice and it takes heart. We need to do our exercises, get coached and work hard to feel good everyday about ourselves, because sadly after years of disappointments, mean spirited comments and failed attempts at this or that we’ve ended up feeling bad. But we can get good at feeling good if we just keep practicing. Today I am at day 36 of writing daily about my own struggles to feel good about myself and my body. It’s been a daily exercise to slow down, take notice and be good to myself. Writing everyday has been my exercise. It’s strengthened my feel good muscle if you will. Spending an hour each day getting my head right, facing up to a painful memory, transforming a negative thought, reflecting, understanding and paying attention to myself has been a lesson in self love and self acceptance. Over the past month and a half I have become more skillful at appreciating and loving my body, but I’m not yet a master. If being completely in love with my body and myself is my Olympics, I’ve got still some training to do. I do know that without a doubt, it’s worth all the hard work. Since November 1, when I started this blog project, I’ve had a lot of travel, my practice continues to grow, my patient’s cases have become increasingly complex and I’ve been asked to write for various other outlets beyond my blog, meaning hours of writing each day. Despite all of that, I’ve found the time each day to reflect and share. It’s been part of my training, part of expanding my skill set and part of mastering the art of self love. I am aiming to get very good at feeling good about this body I call home. I want to be an expert at taking good care of myself physically and mentally. I want to be the world’s greatest at feeling good about Brooke. That takes practice, dedication and hard work. I can honestly say looking back at November first, it was all worth it. I encourage all of you to put in the time each day to learn how to be better to yourself – it’s well worth getting good at. Put in the time, get coached on how to do it better (reading this blog is a good start) and pour your heart into it.
Joe, his sister Megan and his dad Gary. They are an inspiration to me to keep trying to be very good at what I do, to be honest and to be myself.
Joe’s dad is also a comedian and Megan is a singer/songwriter. Listen to one of my favorite of her songs here, with one of the best lyrics ever: I’ll never waste time being someone I’m not. I’m livin’ this one life cuz one’s all that I’ve got. Very inspiring, very honest, and very good advice.