Thanks for the Coaching Exercise: 150 Positive Ways I am Being

Posted on January 29, 2010 by Maia Berens, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Maia,

My heartfelt thanks to you for the coaching exercise of 150 positive ways I am being – meant to open my awareness to some of the many positive things about myself. At first I was just focused on anything that sounded or felt positive, without the consideration of whether it was about something I am doing (action) or a way I am being (vibration). Setting aside more important and impactful deadlines, I poured myself into this exercise and had written down 150 items overnight! Wow, I really do a lot of positive things. Then you clarified the exercise, asking for ways of being only. I went from my initial state of elation to feeling frustrated, and then finally to anger (directed at you for changing the rules of the project, or so I thought). Finally, I took charge of the “Being” project and got a handle on it. To get to this stage took me a few days of incubation, where I didn’t even think about it on a conscious level, but would agree I felt frustrated, and then, really, about 15 minutes of moving from anger to “take charge”.

Several months ago, I read a little book entitled Bringers of the Light , written by Neale Donald Walsh, in which he proposed that we make lists of the things we do and then to translate these actions to the state of being while doing the action. The value of this for Walsh was to remind ourselves that we are not human doings, we are human beings.

From my list of 150 things, half of the first 60 or so were ways I am being, and the entire rest of the list was made up of things I do. It seems that once I had begun to focus on things I do, on action, ways of being ceased occurring to me as the list grew in length. Here’s how I fixed this project:

I divided a sheet of paper into 2 uneven columns, and used the wider one to enter things from my original list that were about doing/action/activity and the smaller column for the approximately 30 ways of being I had written down. Then I took the approximately 120 actions and wrote in the smaller column beside each, the ways I was being when I did that action. While some ways of being such as compassionate, health conscious, self-actualized, were found in several actions, I also realized that, for example, when I donate old books to the library (action) I am being “conservation-minded, philanthropic, and sharing”. Maia suggested I could also be showing “awareness of clutter energy in my home” (we currently have seven tall bookcases and 4 short ones, stacked with books of all kinds). When I let others do things for me, I am being “considerate, empowering, gracious, and grateful”. Having retired after 49 years, I find I am being “laid back, feeling renewed, and being more available”. Oh, one more: I’m a “collector”, and when I collect things, I am being “aesthetic sensibility, a morphologist, and selfish”. While the word “selfish” may have a negative connotation for others, it is not so for me – it’s just one way we care for ourselves, and we should cheerfully admit it.

So, it seemed I added a layer of complexity to the list of positive attributes, which my coach, Maia, had asked me to do in order to gain a fresh appreciation for who I am being in the world, and yet it made the exercise richer and deeper for me. It seems it also showed me that I don’t like to feel like I didn’t get it right the first time.

Thank you, Maia, for the coaching, the support, the friendship. With me, you are always being any, some, or all of these: empowering, loving, compassionate, patient, persistent, thoughtful, aware, innovative, straightforward, collaborative, fair, intuitive, considerate, observant, self-actualizing, curious, imaginative, talented, light hearted, funny, alert, visionary, spiritual, dependable, communicative, accepting, open-minded – more later, that’s all I can think of for now!

Love you,

Anita