“It's hard to take courage in a world full of people. You can lose sight of it all. The darkness inside you can make you feel so small.
I see your true colors shining through. I see your true colors and that's why I love you.”
-Cindy Lauper, True Colors
It's time to talk about impostor syndrome.
Welcome to solo work life meditations.
If you work alone most of the time and experience that mental chatter that's a bit too strong because there's nobody to bounce your ideas or stress off of, then you are in the right place. It doesn't matter if you're a small business owner, solopreneur, digital nomad, remote worker, or content creator. These meditations are made for you.
This is a meditation to help you let go, connect, and energize your solo work experience.
If you're new here, welcome. This meditation is part of the Solo Work Life Meditations project, which includes a podcast, YouTube channel, and a newsletter with a sprinkling of body and soul tips from yours truly.
You can see all of that at solowworklifemeditations.substack.com. There'll be a link for you in the show notes or video notes, depending on where you're consuming this.
A special thanks to Elizabeth, an american living in Denmark, for this topic request.
Elizabeth, you're a rock star.
There are three parts to this meditation. The first is an affirmation, the second a breathing exercise, and the third is a small body movement.
You can be sitting or lying down for this meditation. However, you feel the most relaxed. Please do not do this meditation while driving. It can be quite dangerous.
Close your eyes if that's comfortable for you. If not, you can stare at something if you like. It's okay. In fact, if you want to look at something beautiful, feel free to view the image on the YouTube video version of this podcast. They will always be beautiful photos I've taken myself somewhere in the world.
Impostor syndrome
self doubt
not ideal. Ideal for who?
Whose standards are we measuring ourselves to?
I am.
You are.
You are as you are. You don't have a change into someone else. You are who you are, and that's what it is. A chair is a chair, coffee is coffee, and you are you.
I am.
Don't finish the sentence.
This is the whole sentence, just like you are a whole person. You can have goals, learn and grow, and experience different things. I hope you do, and I hope you enjoy doing this.
But you do not have to change who you are to fit into anyone else's idea of success or professional or achievement.
I am.
Say it out loud with me three times so that your brain understands this is the whole idea.
I am.
I am.
I am.
You work alone and that can be really hard. You don't have someone around you during most of your workday to appreciate your quirks, your brilliance, your generosity.
You may have an online community, but let's be honest, that is very different than when it's in person. So you are going to have to fill that role. The role of appreciating who you are, not who you may become at some
One more time.
I am.
Hang a post it on the fridge, set a reminder in your mobile phone.
Or pick another way to remind yourself every day that you are who you need to be right now.
I am.
Let's shift over to our breath. Now we're going to breathe in deeply and then immediately breathe out deeply.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Like this. (inhaling and exhaling sounds)
This self doubt builds up pressure. We can't hold onto this pressure when we're breathing deeply. The body is just too busy for that nonsense. And that's the point.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Let's do it three more times.
Ready?
(breathing sounds)
Remember every day to breathe deeply like this. It will give your brain time to let go of the shoulds, coulds or woulds of those heavy expectations you are putting on yourself.
Breathe in
breathe out.
That could actually be a reminder in your phone. Breathe in, breathe out.
As we wrap up this meditation, we're going to work on our neck.
The first time I heard that many people store pressure in their neck, I was relieved.
I thought it was just me. Is it you too? Let's work on that.
We are NOT going to rotate our neck around in a circle like you might be used to in exercise videos. This is a different kind of exercise. We need something deeper and less busy. Some acceptance movements.
Tilt your head to the left for six: 1-2-3-4-5-6 and back to center.
Don't hold your breath while you're doing these movements.
Breathe normally.
Now we're going to go to the front. Just lean your head over. There's no wrong way to do this. 1-2-3-4-5-6.
Okay, let's go back to the center.
Let's take a few seconds to envision your neck as a candle and that the stress, the expectations that you're putting on yourself are dripping off like wax. It's dropping to the floor. Don't worry, you can clean it up later.
Okay, let's go to the right. Now lean your head. Lean your neck to the right. 1-23-4-5-6.
And come back to center.
Finally, we're going to lean our head back just as far as it is comfortable. 1-2-3-4-5-6. Lovely.
Holding on to the stress makes us less in tune with ourselves, less productive during our workday and less happy in life overall.
Who needs that?
Not me and definitely not you.
Remember, as you go back to work, remind yourself “I am”.
You're brave and innovative, so it's natural that you'll feel uncertain about what you should be doing. You're creating a path. Allow yourself to do it as it feels right and let go of the judgment in the process.
Feel free to open your eyes now if you close them.
Thank you so much for joining me for this meditation. If there's an aspect of solo worklife that you'd like me to focus on in one of these episodes, let me know, just like Elizabeth did, you can go to solowworklifemeditations.substack.com/contact
alright, get back to work. (laughter)