izumi tsurumi
The Spirit of Daruma
In our journey of life, sometimes we encounter joy, love, friendship and awe. Other times, we encounter failures, things not going our way, uncertainty, rejections that bring up a lot of discomfort within us. In these moments of discomfort we have a choice to show up for what is important for us and others involved, even though it may not be comfortable or easy - not in a reckless way, but being fully with our discomfort. This takes incredible courage.
This unit is about building the Spirit of Daruma within each of us. Daruma is a Japanese icon symbolising perseverance. Daruma always gets up no matter how many times it falls. Even when circumstances beat us down, if we can get up and act on what is important again and again, we can act for a cause bigger than ourselves, that is true to our heart.
This is living courageously.
Lesson 1: recognising your habits
In this lesson, I share the importance of pausing and recognizing our current habits and noticing what is working and what is not, especially in times of challenges. Developing this awareness is the first step to being able to work with the discomfort that shows up with challenges.
Lesson 2: building purposeful habits
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In this lesson, I share the importance of a ‘pause’ between stimulus and response to align our daily actions with what is important for us, especially in times of challenges. I also share the importance of a consistent mindfulness practice to cultivating this pause in our daily lives.
Lesson 3: thoughts cultivating clarity (Part I)
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Sometimes, during challenging situations, we may have many thoughts spinning in our brain, or have negative thoughts that prevent us from focusing on what is important to respond purposefully. In this lesson I share with you our tendency to create stories for various events we experience in our life, and that without awareness these stories accumulate and clog up our mind. This overcrowding of our mind can make us lose track of what is important when we are responding to challenges.
Lesson 4: thoughts cultivating clarity (Part II)
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As part II of the video, I share with you how the practice of mindfulness allows us to let go of thoughts to bring clarity, which in turn helps us to recognize that thoughts are not reality and bring our focus on things that are important, especially in moments of challenges.
Lesson 5: thoughts cultivating optimism
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Sometimes, when we are experiencing difficulty, we can have negative thoughts that get us stuck in survival mode and prevent us from moving forward and responding to them purposefully. In this video I share how we can notice our different automatic negative thought patterns and replace these thoughts to cultivate optimism and purpose in times of challenges.
Lesson 6: thoughts cultivating self empathy
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Sometimes, rather than letting our thoughts go or replacing our thoughts, being curious about these thoughts to find out why they even show up for us can help to reveal our needs and what is important for us during challenges. In this video, I share with you how understanding our deep seated needs can in turn help us figure out how we can respond based on what is important to challenges that show up.
Lesson 7: emotions - noticing and accepting
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Our thoughts are often accompanied by emotions, and sometimes, it is not only our thoughts, but also our emotions that can work against us to move forward based on what is important when we face challenges. In this video, I share about the nature of emotions and the importance of accepting all emotions- pleasant or unpleasant- in times of challenges.
Lesson 8: emotions - regulating the waves
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While we don’t have control over the things that show up in our life, we have control over how we regulate our emotions in response to these situations. In this lesson, I want to share with you ways in which we can regulate our emotions when we are experiencing them intensely, so that we have more opportunities to connect to a growth mindset, and respond based on what is important to challenges.
Lesson 9: cultivating self-compassion - uncertainty and anxiety
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When we face uncertainty we experience anxiety, and sometimes this feeling can prevent us from stepping out of our comfort zone and paving a path that that is based on what is important. In this video, I share with you how we can adopt a prototyping mindset to garner courage and step into the unknown. This approach also allows us to accept failure with openness and understanding.
Lesson 10: cultivating self-compassion - failure and self-criticism
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When we experience failure, many of us have a tendency to be highly critical of ourselves, which can make the path to picking ourselves up after our falls unnecessarily difficult. Instead, we can practice self-compassion, which is the capacity to respond to our own difficulty with kindness, empathy, and understanding. In this lesson, we will be focusing on how to further nurture self-compassion so that when challenges hit, we can move forward with resilience.
Lesson 11: design your practice
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So far we have learned about ways to recognize our experiences of discomfort and work with them with compassion and purpose. Now it is time to take action to apply your learning to your life! This lesson will take you step by step to design your practice and share ideas that can help you commit to your practice. With consistent practice, you can gradually but surely build the version of yourself you wish to be when it comes to responding to challenges with courage.
Lesson 12: coaching for growth
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As we delve into committing ourselves to the practice to work with our challenges with courage, one of the things that helps greatly is having a support in our life - because changing a habit can be difficult. A coach is someone who can support you. In this lesson I will be sharing with you a coaching format that you as a coachee or a coach can use. Having meaningful coaching conversations will help you and others to commit to practice and build skills to work with challenges with courage.