Episode #80
Stop Pushing Through
Episode 80 – Stop Pushing Through I Am Self-ish Podcast We are often taught that strength means pushing through. Push through the pain. Push through the grief. Push through the stress. Keep moving. Keep functioning. Do not let anything slow you down. But what happens when pushing through becomes the very thing keeping us from actually healing? In this episode of the I Am Self-ish podcast, Will Wright explores the difference between pushing through a difficult experience and actually going through it. Pushing through can sometimes be necessary. There are moments when life requires us to keep moving despite what we are feeling. The problem begins when pushing through becomes our only response. Will explains that pushing through often means using our energy to get past a feeling as quickly as possible. Going through something means staying present with the experience long enough to understand what it may be trying to show us. The difference is not speed. It is presence. When grief, sadness, stress, or emotional pain is repeatedly pushed aside, it does not always disappear. It can return later as anger, numbness, heaviness, resentment, exhaustion, or patterns we cannot seem to understand. Sometimes what we call strength is simply avoidance with better branding. Going through an experience does not mean becoming stuck in it. It means giving yourself permission to acknowledge what is happening before immediately trying to manage it, fix it, or convince yourself that you should be over it. Will encourages listeners to replace suppression with curiosity and begin asking: “What is this feeling trying to tell me?” Hard experiences often carry information. They can reveal what matters to us, what we need, what we value, where our boundaries have been crossed, and what truths we may have been avoiding. Real resilience is not simply the ability to keep moving. Real resilience is the ability to keep growing. The next time life gets difficult, instead of automatically asking yourself how quickly you can push through it, pause long enough to ask: “What is this trying to teach me?” You do not have to fix every feeling immediately. Sometimes the work is simply being willing to stay present long enough to hear what the experience has been trying to say. Produced and Edited by Will Wright William Wright Certified Master Practitioner Career & Leadership Coach Will@iamself-ish.com 646-645-1509 www.iamself-ish.com Be bold. Be SELF-ISH. Less stress, more choice.
