What Does It Mean To Show Up?!

We hear people talk about “showing up” often… 

And yet when we read about the act of showing up, other terms are attributed to the action: persistence, determination, motivation, mastery, “doing the work.”

My hope is to simplify these terms and boil them down into one action that can be applied across all areas of your life: SHOW UP. 

What Does Showing Up Mean? 

Think about the last time you had a crush or were extremely excited about a project or vacation.

Imagine how easy it was for you at those moments to show up for that encounter, trip, or activity.

You were alive to the moment, anticipatory and at attention; enthusiastic, even! 

In an emergency circumstance when there is no thought, only action, you are fully alert to the moment — present, and participatory. 

Persistence, determination, and motivation contain active energy and mastery is their result. 

Showing up is being present and available, mentally, emotionally, and physically — even spiritually. 

Are You Really Showing Up?

Now imagine the last time you didn’t want to get out of bed, or you were dreading that deadline or that difficult conversation.

Recall how you had to drag yourself into action, resisting the dark feelings and thoughts along the way.

Maybe you were available and present, and maybe you showed up hiding within yourself, cowering behind a façade of good posture, false smile, and a firm handshake, desperately seeking the appearance of control, assurance, and ease.

But did you really show up? Or were you faking it? 

Showing up is not about how you present yourself to others. In fact, if your focus is outside yourself, you have not arrived.

Showing up is about vulnerability, and it’s about the rawest of raw you.

When you show up fully, you have dropped your external garb, the layers upon layers of protection around your heart and mind.

When you show up, you are making your inner self available to the moment, to the people around you, and to life itself. You are making yourself available to you. 

Knowing Yourself

It is through showing up for life, that we learn who we are at our core.

Do you know the old phrase, you cannot love another until you love yourself? This is true, and there are many self-help books that assist us in getting to know one’s truest, deepest self. (My personal favorites are Tara Brach’s, Radical Self-Acceptance; Debbie Ford’s, Dark Side of the Light Chasers; Kahlil Gibran’s, The Prophet; Pema Chodron’s, When Things Fall Apart.)

These books are sometimes known as “shadow work” books… they help us to see the part of ourselves that is hidden even from us until it is not.

There are whole parts of ourselves that exist beyond our awareness, and our greatest leaps in consciousness happen when these various facets are revealed to ourselves, learning to be accepted, appreciated, loved, and through those steps, transcended.

The light part of ourselves is the part we are proud of; we show it off to everyone, and we hold it up high in our awareness as points of pride.

This is wonderful. It is great to love our light. But to deny our dark is what keeps us stuck in unconscious patterns and relationships, disliking folks that reflect our shadows, unaware that this is why we dislike them.

When another is frustrating you, notice what is so bothersome about that person and you’ll be made aware of a part of yourself you’ve decided to deny. And when you learn to accept that part, that individual will no longer bother you. 

These self-help books that assist us in getting to know one’s truest, deepest self — one’s whole self — are beautiful.

They are powerful, and they help us grow into our full selves.

But what do these books truly do?

Yes, they expand the mind and consciousness, and they demand that we show up!

Show Up For The Work

In order for any type of self-work to be effective, a person must show up to the work and it is only through showing up that change can occur.

It is through showing up for life and for others that we learn our true shape — our edges, ridges, curves, and valleys of our soul.

We get to know ourselves and love ourselves by showing up through thick and thin, dark, and light.

We learn to show up for each part and the whole of our being. 

So let me know in the comments below…

In what ways are you (or are you NOT) showing up? 

Thank you for commenting, sharing, and liking this post! When you do you inspire others to deepen into their lessons and share, too. You rock!!

XOXO