Hustle from Your Highest Self
“Every (hu)man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Everyday my partner and I set an intention for our day. Very recently, I set the intention to live from my Highest Self, my inner divinity throughout the day. This particular morning I had a yummy meditation where I experienced union with Spirit, and I did not want to let that feeling go just because I was transitioning into the working part of my day.
God Laughs
Of course, as the saying goes, we make plans and God laughs. Here I was, divine Tiffany, excited about my intention and ready to conquer the day. However, I was quickly faced with a challenge that jabbed at one of my biggest weaknesses: PERFECTIONISM.
I received an email from my clinical supervisor about a mistake I had made, and the disappointment in myself felt like being stabbed in that soft spot right under your ribs. Exposed, regretful, and embarrassed was my immediate reaction.
Why So Bothered You Ask
This is a supervisor that I look up to, and the thought of disappointing her was hard to bear. This mistake also occurred within a high expectation environment, as we are dealing with patient’s mental health and some very serious professional expectations. I take pride in meeting these high expectations, and I am very vested in my quality patient care.
Rising Ego
What may have been a simple acknowledgement of making a mistake for some, my perfectionist ego rose up and sent me through what seemed to mirror the stages of grief. I started with shock and disbelief, immediately questioning her email. Then came anger directed at her, myself, and the whole high pressure medical system. Finally, when I accepted I had made a pretty epic mistake, came the tears.
Granted I was one day shy from starting my cycle and hormones were high, but I cried a deep cry, a soulful cry. As the tears streamed down my face, I remembered my intention for the day. I tried desperately to connect with my Higher Self.
But let me tell you how strong ego defenses are, they simply wouldn’t let me! I remember thinking, “How can I connect with my Higher Spirit, when God is perfect in everyway? How can I, this flawed being, tap into that right now, when I feel so ashamed?”
Realigning My Soul
After wallowing in self-pity and spending my lunch break journaling about the situation, I was able to consciously look at what happened and realign my soul. I confronted my false narrative that prescribes perfection as a part of my identity. I challenged my ego that equated my performance with who I am. I prayed for God to allow me to forgive myself. And after doing the conscious work I was able to realign with my intention for the day, learn from my mistake, and take corrective action.
Most importantly, I let myself off the hook and moved on with my day, cause let me tell you I had lot of other stuff on my schedule other than just processing this! But I left that experience so grateful for my intention that day. I was able to regain confidence, freedom, peace, and fortitude all from taking the time to realign with my Highest Self.
Bottom Line
As a go-getter there are so many trappings of the ego that can impede our progress. Things like self-doubt, fear, perfectionism, and false personas are all workings of this egoic identity that we create for ourselves.
And when we operate from this space, any natural bumps in the road or challenges in our hustle attack this false sense of identity that we have built and impedes our greatness. Instead of spending time embracing growth areas, time is spent taking care of the ego, and defending our false identity from falling apart. When we spend time defending our ego versus expanding our being our ability to reach success is halted. Or as Beyonce would put it “interrupting (our) grinding”!
Look
Hustling from your Higher Self will allow you to flow on your journey to success versus fighting your way to success. Hustling from Spirit versus ego will offer you freedom and happiness along journey to reaching your goals. You can be a conscious go-getter that isn’t led by ego.
But How?
I spent time devising the following tips so that you don’t have to fall into the pitfalls of defending your ego identity and false persona. Today, I’m sharing my tips on How To Hustle From Your Higher Self!
One: Be Authentic
First and first foremost, practice authenticity. When you face challenges, practice authenticity by taking time to quiet your ego and let your SOUL take the driver seat.
Spend time meditating, connecting with who you truly are. Then, throughout the day try your best to embody this higher part of yourself.
What Does This Look Like
Peacefully show up owning who are with love, grace, poise, and a willingness to grow. So many hustlers struggle with something called the imposter syndrome, which was coined by Chance and Imes (1978). This syndrome involves feeling like a phony, feeling unworthy of what you have achieved, and generally just feeling like an imposter in your career. (Bell, 2018). According to Ahlfeld (2009) here are some ways to overcome imposter syndrome:
- Maintain relationships with people who truly know you
- Foster resilience by separating your identity from your performance
- Adopt resourcefulness, with an ability to be flexible in the ways you learn and grow
- Maintain purpose in your life by staying connected with your values and things that you find meaningful
Embrace It Until You Make It
Authenticity is also about embracing your areas of needed growth with confidence, realizing they are apart of your testimony and story. Don’t fake it until you make, embrace it until you make it!
So work hard to figure out what are weaknesses that are stopping you from reaching your goals. For instance, If you want to become a successful speaker but are battling stage fright, get to know what’s behind the fright. Is it low self-confidence? Is it performance anxiety? Then figure out what you need to grow in these areas. For the speaker example, do you need daily practice to feel more confident or mindfulness tools to cope with performance anxiety?
Denying who you are is not only harmful to your hustle, it’s harmful to your mental health. Take time to authentically embody your higher Self, growth areas, and true identity within the world we live in.
Two: Be Confident
Another key piece to hustling from your Higher Self is self-confidence. When you think of those times that you have connected with your inner Spirit, try to remember essence of that presence. While many words may come to mind to describe her, I can assure you that “insecure” is not one of them.
As such, being secure with yourself directly aligns you with your Higher Power. Here are some easy ways to improve your self-confidence.
- Work on your internal dialogue. Self-doubt and negative thoughts about yourself are the root causes of feeling insecure. An easy way to begin working on your internal dialogue is to use what I call “the replacement strategy”.
Here’s how it works: using mindfulness of thoughts, when you become aware of negative internal dialogue such as “Who do you think you are?” or “I could never do that” practice replacing these thoughts with a self-affirming thoughts such as “I am a divine being” or “ I can do anything I set my mind to”. The more you do this, not only will it get easier to catch these negative thoughts, but you will begin to having less of them.
- Create an affirming environment. Surround yourself with self-confirming imagery and relationships that reinforce a positive image of yourself.
In recent years I have happily conducted and reviewed much research on the topic of self-conception. One conclusion that I can say without a doubt is that what we see reflected to us impacts how we see ourselves.
Makes sense right. But what we need to understand is that imagery and relationships are important mirrors that we don’t always give weight to when talking about self-esteem.
For instance for myself as a Black woman, it is important for my self-esteem to consume uplifting and counter-stereotypical imagery of Black women so I don’t internalize prevalent negative media messages about myself (i.e. stereotypes such as the Angry Black woman). It is also important that I surround myself with relationships where I am valued and respected so in turn I see myself as valuable and worthy of respect.
- Embrace your birthright to divinity. Just by being born you are deemed a divine soul with a valuable purpose here on this earth. Try to keep this as the cornerstone as you hustle. Know that no matter the challenge or environment, you are so much more than a hustle and life circumstances. Stay connected to the fact that you are a sacred soul simply moving through the ebbs and flows of your journey.
Three: Intuition
My last tip for being a sacred boss is to use your intuition. God is constantly speaking to us through inspiration, insight, omens, coincidences, and gut feelings.
Make sure you take time to be quiet and still so that you may hear him. And when you do, be serious about using that intuition in your hustle.
Here are some ways to connect with your intuition so you can hustle from your Highest Self:
- Meditate daily. Meditation helps you take a step away from the physical world and connect with the divine. Practicing daily will help you get past distracting thoughts and allow intuitive wisdom to be revealed to you.
- Dream Analysis. Our dreams reveal what is percolating within our unconscious. Explore themes of your dreams and decipher what they mean to you. One easy way to analyze your dreams is to ask yourself, “If I could change only one thing about this dream, what would it be?” And then ponder on that. This will give you insight into some themes that are trying to make it to your consciousness.
- Take stock of how things make you feel emotionally. This doesn’t have to be super complicated. For example, the next time you are faced with a hard decision in your hustle such as investing in a new project, take a step back and notice how you feel about each potential decision. This can be as simple as asking does this feel good or bad? Then use this information to guide your next steps. Caution: this does not mean stray away from ventures that make you feel bad, but simply use this intuition to see what you need in order to make the decision feel good.
Every step on this journey to fulfill your purpose can be guided by Spirit. Authenticity, confidence, and intuition will help you align with your HIgher Self. There is an infinite amount of power and potential within in you, hoping to transcend ego and produce something magical. Flow with this power, and let your inner soul guide you on your journey.
– Tiffany Shelton, M.A. is a conscious lifestyle blogger and training to become a neuropsychologist in Los Angeles, CA. Her passion to elevate consciousness incorporates brain science, psychology, and spiritual philosophies. Her writing goes beyond the message of self-care or wellness, but instead consciously adds to these movements by demanding awakening and insight. Learn more about Tiffany Shelton by clicking here.
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Hustle from Your Highest Self
