Elaine Dizon is a Filipinx life and mindset coach, writer, mother of 2, and a recognized AT&T Business Cultural Champion. She supports working moms with their next courageous conversation by churning chatter into courage through a process of pause and reflection.

When the year started, I needed a word to keep me grounded in possibility. With a tremendous amount of uncertainty in January 2021, I chose the word RECEPTIVE. With this quality, being receptive afforded me a position to receive all that comes my way. Whether it was something I expected or not, I wanted to look at each experience and opportunity with a fresh set of the five senses – to take it all in – the sights, the sounds, the smell, the touch, and the feel. Perched in a position of observation, there’s a moment or a beat where the best action is non-action, and you can pause and allow the moment to permeate and reserve a reaction that is in alignment to your core values. Over the last eleven months, I sought out every opportunity to be receptive and encountered a few key learnings.

Here are the top three key learnings from a year of being receptive:

Deepening one’s self-regulation to technology bells and whistles. When conditions are beyond your control, there is a hearty number of stimuli around you. Being receptive offers a space for you and those conditions to co-exist and those extra moments allow you to choose how you react to the ping or ding of an email notification or call. Sometimes we take too many narratives away from meetings and calls into our space and we find ourselves conditioned to respond immediately to things when the level of urgency can vary from moment to moment. Be receptive to the idea that amidst volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous times, there is a huge gain to taking a deep breath as you take it all in and proceed with a sense of calm and ease that you may not have entertained before.
Appreciating the unfamiliar. Being receptive to new topics and ideas as well as uncomfortable topics and ideas can challenge you in ways you cannot foresee. Sometimes it is pleasant and coming from a place of curiosity whereas other times, it is stirring up unfamiliar sensations where it would be easier to just leave, exit, or delete the situation from your day. Staying present and open to receive these moments can lead to a continuous learning opportunity, pushing towards a growth edge, or affirmation that this is not an ideal moment of learning. Offering yourself that perch to discover a nurturing moment of learning or attuning your learning to another time yields an informed choice based on appreciating the learning opportunity and timing it just right.
100 Doors Opening. As we continued moving into a virtual world, meeting new people in new online forums meant being receptive to different rooms and platforms – hello Accelevents, Clubhouse, Facebook Groups, Mighty Networks, Slack Channels, Teams Rooms, WebEx Rooms, Zoom Rooms, and on and on and on. Instead of running for the analog hills and staying in familiar territory, being receptive to these online environments meant inviting new connections to the analog hills for getting-to know-you sessions, brain storming, and design thinking with conversations over the phone – which meant alleviating telepresence fatigue – yay! Making 100 connections that aligned with my core values and business goals was like making new friends at the playground when I was a child. I literally could say, “Hey friend” in these online forums and truly believed that I did. In an ever-changing world, a constancy in connection was most welcome.

This Receptive Mindset helped me launch into the year with a sense of anticipation. It was as if I was watching a movie and I can shift into a mode of receiving all that lay before me and take my time to decide – and time was always relative. Sometimes it would take three breaths to decide and sometimes it could be as long as three weeks. Whatever the case, being receptive allowed me to weigh everything out accordingly and enjoy the decision-making process with support from different friends, family members, and collaborators.

As the final month of 2021 winds down, I invite you to practice being receptive.

Be open to what is around you.
Be grateful for what serves you.
Be connected to those who uplift you.

If you would like to explore what word can ground you in 2022, please sign up for my final workshop of the year! On December 16, 12P PST, this word nerd will be hosting a Find Your Word for 2022 to support you in shifting your energy and attention towards what’s most meaningful to you in the new year. To learn more and register, click here.