Alchemizing Shame Into Curiosity

Earlier this week, a father-son duo of medical doctors, Dr. David and Austin Perlmutter joined our Community of Optimize Coaches to offer their wisdom and to coach those who are in the Optimize Coach Program. Though they’re medical doctors, the wisdom I gleaned was not related to physical health, but rather a way to stay mentally healthy.

Quick context for those who don't know: I'm blessed with the opportunity to help those who are in the Optimize Coach Program have the best experience possible. One of the many cool things I get to do is attend every session we have with our Luminary Guest Faculty, brilliant authors and experts who always have massive wisdom bombs to share.

Before the session, I knew that feeling shameful was unhelpful, but I didn't have a tool available to help me truly alchemize this feeling into one that truly empowers me.

Now I feel that I do.

The tool?

If I feel shame, then I get curious.

You had planned to workout and didn't? Shaming yourself won't help but curiosity can. And the key here? To get super curious. Don't leave it at, "I just didn't feel like it." But ask, well why didn't I feel like it? Did it have to do with how I slept? Or the meeting I have scheduled later? Or because I didn't know what workout I wanted to do?

If yes to the last question, then what could I do to schedule my workouts ahead of time? Or how could I make it so that I don't have to put in any effort into creating my own workouts? How easy could I make this for myself?

If I feel like skipping a workout again, what could I do? Could I start dancing? Could I put on my workout shoes and see what happens? Could I text a friend to tell them of my plan to skip a workout?

That's just one example, but the point is that if we truly widen the scope of our curiosity, then we’re able to see the beautiful interconnections of all areas of our life that we can then use to step into the next best version of ourselves.

There's nothing wrong with feeling shame, we all feel shame. What we do with it however, is up to us. We can live in our shame, or we can alchemize our shame into endless curiosity that leads to us feeling hopeful and full of zest.

Do you feel shame sometimes? Me too. Let’s get curious.