Every other week a group of men and women from all walks of faith and various nations come together for “Heartfelt Conversations” to discuss what is on our hearts.  This week one gem I took with me was from a Spiritual minister from the Sufi tradition.  She said that there is the belief that if we allowed the spirit within our bodies to stretch and expand as far as it was capable, we would be able to reach for and touch the stars above us. 

Wow. What an idea! That concept immediately made me look around at the people next to me (as well as at myself) in a much different way.  I could really “see” that we were much bigger than the little physical body that we inhabit called our “Earth Suit”.  I was able to apply this information by giving encouragement to a good friend who was feeling very “less than” the other day.  She’s an amazing writer and gifted story teller as well as a very supportive friend to me and a loving wife and mother to her family. Yet, she found herself within a “doubt-cloud” yesterday wondering if she had offended people with her “knowing so much”, feeling like she couldn’t fit in any group and doubting that anyone understands where she is coming from. 

I reminded her of the story of our spirit bodies stretching out to touch the stars and encouraged her to s-t-r-e-t-c-h to her full capacity.  Yes she is talented; yes she knows alot and guess what? She has a huge heart and cares very much for others. The “Madonna nurturer” that she is obvious.  Others know she cares.  

I suspect this “doubt-cloud” came to visit when a very successful CEO that she had befriended recently invited her to take a look at their marketing plans and give her two cents.  She is to look over what they have and get back with the higher ups of the very successful marketing team and tell them what she sees and speak the truth, all with this CEO’s blessings.  Almost immediately she began doubting herself, not so much doubting her knowledge but doubting how her knowledge and assessment would be received by the team.  Do guys go through this?  I seem to hear about these “doubt clouds” more often from women. 

Anyway, I shared with her that the very successful CEO would not have asked her for her opinion and to share her insights with his team unless he believed in her capabilities and what she could do.  Yes, perhaps this team could have hired a team of “experts” to give their insights about their plans, but the CEO had (very wisely) automatically given her the key to his kingdom by bypassing the tedious process of finding experts to look over their marketing story, by giving his blessings to my friend. 

 Awesome. I encouraged her to trust the CEO’s judgment and to go for it and stretch her arms to the stars and beyond, to be who she is and to celebrate the opportunity to help others with her wisdom and insights.  Besides, it’s not our business what other people think about us. 

What stars are you going to stretch towards today?