Our Enoughness – A Priceless Gift to Treasure
As the cycle completes for 2018, I’d like to express my appreciation for all who have continued to support and participate in both the Casework and Supervision Workshops as well as the organisations that I have worked in during the year. This year I have continued to explore the potential of one of the basic principles of The Strengths Approach, which is ‘I am already enough’.
This statement has again ignited much discussion, some consternation and a confirming settlement in people.
What I have loved about these responses and reactions is the depth of pondering that has occurred.
We focus so much on our ‘enoughness’ being related to our achievements, as if our worth as human beings is assigned only to whether we have met the external markers set by family, education systems, tradition, media, employability, social demands etc.
We all know that underneath the external expectations there can lurk an anxiousness, an eternal treadmill or an uncomfortable pull towards achieving another ‘something’. It never ceases. We can be slaves to an outside voice telling us we will never be enough. This of course is relevant to our clients as well.
What if we approached life from being already full, already enough and then made choices that confirmed our ‘enoughness’?
Whist this may feel and sound radical and unachievable, I have noted time and time again, once people stop and feel this truth in relation to someone they love and care for, almost without exception, they ‘get’ that their value is not in external achievements but in their being-ness, a space, an exquisite quality, a purity untouched by factors of looks, behaviours, ability, education, colour, race and the myriad of other indicators that are used to separate, divide, and judge.
On a practical note, bringing the understanding of our own and others’ ‘enoughness’ to our work is the best gift we can give our clients and colleagues!
To be seen first for who they are in their ‘enoughness’, and for not what they do or have done, offers a priceless gift that can connect another back to the truth that they too hold that quality and essence within that is permanent and absolutely untainted. You may be the first person who has seen them in this way.
The questions remains, do we connect with this quality in ourselves first…?
Many of you may have known Wayne McCashen who wrote the book The Strengths Approach. Wayne passed away last week after a short illness and is remembered as an initiator of the Strengths Approach first in Australia and then internationally. Wayne had a deep understanding of the ‘enoughness’ in everyone and was a dear friend.
Warmest regards and I look forward to collaborating with you in 2019
Bernadette
Bernadette explores ‘enoughness’ in her 1-hour practical and insightful workshop Enoughness Trumps Trauma – A Webinar on Trauma-informed Care online & in person.
Click here for event details and bookings.
