Episode 103: GROUNDED, my word of the year.

I’m Meagan Skidmore and welcome to the Beyond the shadow of doubt. I’m a woman, daughter, sister, spouse, mother.

Life coach and person of faith on a mission to normalize, asking questions and allowing doubts on a faith journey and.

All aspects of life.Join me as I bring this traditionally.Taboo topic out of the shadows of Shame and into the light. I firmly believe we normalize through more talking and engaging in discussion. More talking peels back, exposes and erases the layers of shame associated with asking questions and allowing doubts. When we are more authentic about our journey, we are more powerful because shame has no power in the face of authenticity.

First Friday’s free coaching a confidential group to bring all the questions, vent frustrations, share fears, express doubts. Navigating a new and uncertain reality is hard enough. Let’s remove the worry of judgment from others in this group. I will help yourself so that you can be there for your child, family, loved ones, and for you too. Click the link in the show notes. To sign up, you must complete the agreement.

Hopeful Spaces is a Dallas Hope Charities component of hopeful discussions sponsored by Mercedes Benz Financial Services USA. It’s a free monthly parent, ally or caregiver support group facilitated by Megan Skidmore Coaching. Email chc@dallashopecharities.org for more info.

Hey everyone, welcome to the beyond the shadow of doubt. Thank you for joining me for today’s episode. At the time of recording, I’m traveling, so I’m trying something new. I’ve never recorded, not using my podcast equipment at home, so hopefully the sound comes through just fine on this. Recently, I chose my word of the year and I want to share a little bit about that process with you. During my writing practice a few weeks ago, I had a profound realization just how much I have been caught up in my stories lately. I had written I’m not smart enough or good enough in my coaching abilities. I’m not as good as fill in the blank, a fellow coach or my own coach. I also wrote I can’t do it. All this was in regards to my roles as spouse, mom, entrepreneur, so on.

I’m wishy washy back and forth, up and down in my faith journey and in my role as a parent. I’m doubting myself as a mother. I didn’t prepare my kids enough or I’m so out of shape, so big heavy. Should I join weight Watchers again? Or no one has texted me to thank me for my Christmas card. As I am reading this to you, sharing this with you, it sounds quite ridiculous out loud. And that’s the thing. I write so I can see my stories. But in that moment, I had this epiphany. I am lost in the stories that I think others have about me, which are really the stories I have about myself. I realized I’m torturing myself going in circles and cycles of unhelpful thoughts. I decided to ask, what do I need right now?

And this experience is what helped me narrow down what I wanted for the word of the year for 2024. I had been considering empowered. I really liked how that made me feel. But when I went through this writing process and considered the back and forth I was having in my stories, I decided I needed to feel grounded before I could feel empowered. I had to know how and where to first ground myself before moving forward from a place of empowerment. In a recent session with a client, the client shared, I am standing my own ground. I get scared because this is new for me. And I realized that when this client voiced, I’m standing my own ground and that this is scary because it’s new was really another way of them saying, I am creating boundaries. Establishing boundaries is a process.

It doesn’t happen one day or all of a sudden. It doesn’t happen overnight. In order to stand your ground, quote unquote, you have to know your ground first. I’ve decided unless I feel grounded, I will not move forward in XYZ. That thing? Fill in the blank. And furthermore, I will not judge myself for the decision I’ve made. I will purposely decide that it’s working for my good. What does it mean to feel grounded? Well, I decided I can define that best, at least at this point in my journey, by how I know when I am not feeling grounded. I’m feeling confusion, resistance, stress, fomo, fear of missing out. I’m experiencing self doubt. I’m judgy, I’m lost in my storiness. Or perhaps I’m in the compare and despair cycle or playing the victim.

Maybe I’m out of alignment, and that can be physically in the form of neck or back pain, muscle tension, jaw aches, headaches. It can be out of alignment. Mentally, I’m not congruent in my thinking and showing up authentically. There’s others that I’ve written, but for now, I’ll leave it at that. When I experience any of these, I know I’m not grounded. Now the big question how do I move to a place of feeling grounded? Or how do I become grounded? I have some really excellent thoughts about this that I will share in a future episode. For now, I invite you to jump on a complimentary chat with me to explore how you might experience this in your own life, or what your word of the year is, or if you haven’t chosen one yet. Let’s do that.

Jump on a call with me and let’s choose your word of the year. Even if you are listening to this and the year is half over, it is not too late. The link to schedule a free call with me will be in the show notes for now. Thank you for joining me. Until next time.

Beyond the Shadow of doubt podcast is a proud member of the Dialogue podcast Network, which is part of the dialogue journal. Found@dialogjournal.com founder Eugene England was a Mormon writer, teacher, and scholar who wrote, my faith encourages my curiosity and awe.

It thrusts me out into relationship with.

All creation and encourages me to enter into dialogue. My hope is that this podcast is.

An extension of that vision. Visit meganskidmorecoaching.com to find this podcast and.

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