PODCAST
She Grows with Allyson Scammell
EPISODE #1
In this episode, we do a full exploration of core gifts. I define core gifts as the unique abilities you were born to share. They’re also called your superpowers, genius, and original medicine. Core gift discovery and infusion is the first of three important components of soul-guided business growth. This is you showing up as the best version of yourself to be ins service to your ideal client or customer.
In today’s episode, I reveal what happens in childhood that causes us to hide away or “cork up” our superpowers. I offer a powerful way to define your core gifts and an easy technique to connect to your core gifts daily so you can define them more clearly and infuse them with greater intention into your life and business.
In today’s episode we explore:
- Why we tend to cork up our core gifts
- How to define your core gifts, and
- Connecting to your core gifts on a daily basis to grow your superpowers
- DOWNLOAD your FREE PDF guide revealing the 5 visibility blocks preventing your ideal clients from finding you.
- Join our community at the Soul Guide Circle HERE of over 1,100 soul-guided leaders, lightworkers, and entrepreneurs.
Listen + Subscribe on iTunes.
This Week’s Challenge: Hop on the journey to discovering your core gifts today with intention.
References & Resources:
- NASA study about the creative genius of children HERE.
- DOWNLOAD your FREE PDF guide revealing the 5 visibility blocks preventing your ideal clients from finding you.
She Grows with Allyson Scammell
Ep #1: An Introduction to She Grows with Allyson Scammell
[00:00:00] This is Allyson Scammell. In today’s episode, we’re doing a full exploration of core gifts. I define core gifts as the unique abilities you were born to share. We’ll be diving into why we tend to cork up our core gifts, how to define our gifts and how to connect to our core gifts on a daily basis. I’ll end the episode on a cool challenge that you can start doing right away. So be sure to listen until the end.
[00:00:35] Welcome to She Grows, a podcast for soul guided women entrepreneurs ready to grow their income, impact and inspiration. Each week we’re going to explore how to align to the soul of your business and grow it from there. I’m your host, Allison Scammell. Let’s get growing.
[00:01:02] Thanks so much for being here and tuning in. I am crazy excited about the content. We’re going to be exploring in this episode. So I’m going to be devoting this and the following two episodes to exploring soul guided business growth. And that is what this podcast is all about.
Soul guided growth puts your heart in the driver’s seat of your business. It has three primary components. First is core gift discovery and infusion. Second is soul guided planning. And third is aligned and inspired strategy. So this episode will look at the first category, Core Gifts, which is a topic I am endlessly fascinated by and passionate about exploring. But before we dive into all that, I just want to mention that this podcast is for soul guided women entrepreneurs. But if you’re not in that category and this content calls your name, then you, my friend, are in the right spot. So let’s get started.
How to define your core gifts? How do you define your core gifts? So taking a step back, we have core gifts, which I defined as the unique abilities you were born to share. Some people call them super powers, natural genius, original medicine. There are a lot of different ways people refer to these unique abilities we are born to share. But what’s important is that we are all born with a natural genius that is uniquely you, and no one else has it. I just read about a long term study conducted by NASA. The study explored the creative potential of children looking at their ability to come up with new, different and innovative ideas to solve problems of the children between four and five years old.
[00:03:04] Ninety eight percent (so virtually all of them) fell in the genius category of imagination. When studying those same children at age 10, only 30 percent of the children now fell in the genius category of imagination. When these same kids were tested at 15 years old, the figure dropped to twelve percent. The reason for this is because we aren’t taught about core gifts when we’re children. And it’s also because of the way in which most educational systems are structured, because they stifle our natural genius. And I’m going to tell you what I mean by that and why that happens. When we were children at school, we were taught to sit quietly in our seat, color inside the lines and not to question authority. We were also told that the way to learn is to memorize the ideas of others. But here’s the deal. Our core gifts thrive when we’re standing or dancing or shouting in our seat, coloring outside of the lines or in space or in crazy new places. No one thought of and challenging ideas and ways of doing things. Not only that, we all have shadow gifts, shadow gifts or the dark to our light. They aren’t bad. They’re just a contrast of the full expression of who we are. Getting back to how we show up as children, when we’re told to stay inside our lane and we aren’t able to express our gifts, our shadow often comes out.
[00:04:50] Our shadow shows up in a lot of ways. But a typical way, especially as a child, is through rebellion and going against the grain. And when we rebel and go against the grain as children, we are told that it’s bad and it needs to be quieted. What most children make this mean is that all parts of that part of their personality or expression is bad, and it all needs to cork up both the light and the dark. So we put a lid on everything and we keep that lid on until we grow into adulthood. Your light will remain corked up inside of you until you make the decision that you’re going to discover what your light is. Stand in it and share it with the people you feel called to serve. Because here’s the deal. The world doesn’t want your gifts. It needs them. They’re not optional or nice. They’re essential. That’s why taking this time to explore this light inside of you. Bring it to the surface and share it with others is so critical. So let’s get into it. How do we define our core gifts? Well, I like to always start with this disclaimer. It is no one and done solution. I cannot give you a ten question quiz and I’ll churn out some answer for you. Discovering your core gifts is a rich and at times intense journey. And although you are the only one who can find the words to truly define your gifts, it does help to work with someone else who can hold the space for you as you explore.
[00:06:37] I learned about my core gifts, for example, from master coach Michael Trotta. He refers to gifts as original medicine. And one of the big things he taught me about discovering my core gifts is that they reside within the joyful energy of play. So it wasn’t surprising to me when this study from NASA found that creative genius is found in childlike play, which is why virtually all the four to five year olds were deemed to be creative geniuses. So I ask you then, with this in mind to think back to your childhood. Think back to a time or an instance when you were in a scheu full state of child like play. Time stopped. Maybe it was getting close to bedtime and your parents were telling you to go to bed and all you wanted to do was stay up and play because you were having so much fun. Think of something specifically you were doing. When I think back to my childhood, for example, and when I was in a joyful, childlike state of play, I was riding horse with my sister. I grew up on a ranch in South Dakota. And every time I say that, I almost feel like tears are going to come to my eyes because it was such a special time for me and we had so much fun.
[00:08:16] So when you have that moment or those moments in mind.
[00:08:21] Think about something that’s very accessible to you today. An activity, something you can do that triggers that same feeling of joyful child like play. Now, very sadly, I don’t have a horse in my backyard today like I did when I was a kid, so I can’t ride horse with my sister every day. But when I think of an activity that I can do every day that’s easily accessible to me, that triggers those same emotions and feelings and energy, I simply arrive at nature walks. I love walking in nature. Absolutely love it. And so I will go on what I call core gift connecting nature walks. And before I start my walk, and it doesn’t matter if it’s five minutes or an hour, I set this intention and I say, “I intend to connect to my core gifts in this time”. And then I let that go and I come into the present moment and then I feel my connecting and communion with nature and I continue on my hike. And I’m telling you, about nine times out of ten and maybe it’s even 10 times out of 10, some insight, some piece of clarity arrives to me about what exactly my core gifts are and how I am meant to be an expression of them. What I call this is a core gift home practice. I invite you, I encourage you to carve out time in your daily or weekly routine to connect to your core gifts with intention. What I mean by that is think about that thing that you did as a child that put you in that joyful play like energy.
[00:10:22] Decide what activity you could do today in your life. That’s easy for you to get to. You don’t have to drive five hours to get there. You don’t have to have a horse in your backyard as you do that activity. And before you engage in that activity, you say to yourself, “I intend to connect in to my core gifts” and just be open and aware and mindful to the insights and discovery that arrives to you. The other way to get information about your core gifts is to ask your heart. And for those of you who have been listeners to me and in my tribe for a while, you know that I do a lot of meditations and dialoguing and visioning and receiving messages and guidance from the heart. And how I do that is simply to first quiet the mind. You can’t hear the hearts whisper if you have the loud clatter of your mind getting in the way. And I quiet my mind simply by taking three deep breaths into the lower part of the belly. So take him three deep breaths, then once your mind is quiet and you’re safely in the present moment, I pivot down and I place my awareness on my heart, my heart chakra, that area in the center of my chest that connects your higher self to your human self. And I ask my heart questions, whatever’s on my mind. But in this particular case, we want to ask the heart, “Heart, what are my core gifts? Can you give me a visual? Can you give me words if you are at the start of your journey?” Maybe you need a little more help.
[00:12:25] Can you tell me what they are? If you’ve been at this for a while, maybe you have a specific question or nuance you’re exploring. It doesn’t matter where you are in your journey, your heart will help you. That internal guidance system will point you to your gifts to that alignment. Because here’s the deal. Yes, it’s nice to say core gifts are the unique abilities that you’re born to share, but beyond that, they’re really an energy frequency. They’re a vibration and they are you showing up at the very best version of yourself in service to the people you feel called to serve. And when you are in that alignment, that energy, that expression, you are resonating and vibrating at your highest possible vibration. And that that feeling, that alignment, that energy, that is what core gifts really are. And so while defining them with words helps you, they guide you, they trigger that alignment, they only tell a very small actual piece of the story. However, I always say words are a great place to start because they can help you get on the path to that alignment that you eventually want to experience. The final thing I’ll say for today about core gifts and trust me, there’s gonna be so, so much more in episodes ahead about core gifts. So please hit that subscribe button because you’re not going to want to miss all the cool stuff coming.
[00:14:07] But what I mentioned for today is that the action that we take in expression of our core gifts often, almost always, takes place when we’re pushing the edges of our comfort zone. The action takes place at the outer edges of creativity. The reason why is because you are the only person on the planet with your core gift blueprint. So you are creating all the rules or you’re breaking all the rules. However, it looks like for you and whenever we’re out there at that outer edge, guess what? It almost always feels uncomfortable. It feels uncomfortable to be putting yourself out there in new ways, sharing new ideas, doing things ways that nobody else has done before. It can feel scary, but if you lean into the discomfort, if you accept it as part of the process of expressing your gifts, if you take the risk of you follow through on what your heart is asking you to do and you take that inspired action and expression of your core gifts. And if you come out of it, the other side. It is one of the most exhilarating feelings that one can feel. So, yes, the discomfort is there. And I’m not for one second going to say that any of this is easy because it’s not. It’s challenging. And yes, it can be scary, but it doesn’t mean that you’re off track. It’s not right that you should caulk your gifts back up. It’s part of it. It’s part of the journey. It’s part of the calling. And it’s in that discomfort that you start to write the new layers, the new shapes of your core give blueprint.
[00:16:15] And the more that you show up and take the risks and assume the challenges, the easier and easier it gets, the bigger and bigger your comfort zone gets and the more and more powerful your gifts are and your ability to express them. So I want to end this episode on a challenge. And my challenge for you is to hop on the journey to discovering your core gifts with intention today, and what I mean by “with intention” is that your core gifts have been with you your whole life. You are born with them, you’ll die with them. But now what we’re doing is we’re gonna say, I know there’s this natural genius inside of me and I’m gonna get to know it. I’m gonna get to know it inside and out. And I’m gonna start sharing it with intention, with greater intention to my ideal audience, to the people I feel called to serve. And when you do that, when you put the intention behind your actions, you show up so much bigger, so much more clearly, so much more powerfully. And so I’m asking you today to make set that intention. Hop on the train. Commit to the journey. Start your core gift home practice. Start that daily connection. Go back to who you were as a 4 or 5 year old and start to look for all the opportunities in your life and in your business to share your natural genius with your audience and the world.
[00:18:02] Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for being on this journey with me. And until next time, I look forward to growing together.
