Shine Your Light
For A New Beginning
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
John O’Donohue
The vast majority of us women have forgotten our potential because we have learned to act in a certain way to survive in this world which was primarily created by men, for men.
In many ways we’ve disassociated with our feminine gifts.
What we have inside us is infinitely more potent than anything you’ve recognized before.
It nags at you to experience yourself more fully, more deeply, to let go and trust the wisdom in your heart and bones. It’s not a mental thing, like a bunch of thoughts or like saying a bunch of affirmations, but a genuinely lived-out experience. True embodiment - embodied living. It’s not living from a place where we WANT something. Rather, it is raising our standards and speaking clearly about what is an absolute must in our lives.
This purpose-driven life requires clarity and stepping into our higher purpose to inhabit what these longings and desires are asking of us. This is hard work. It requires an absolute vulnerability to see where we are not in alignment with what we are seeking. You can’t just make a list and expect life to deliver. It’s necessary to change on a cellular level. It means stepping into a higher vibration, energy field, vulnerability and being fully expressive in order to gain our hearts’ most authentic desires.
It happens experientially in how we show up in the world, where we match the inner states of longing with what we are creating in the physical realm of life.
What is holding us back from these deep longings?
Ask yourself what is it that you truly want and why is it that you don’t have it? What is it in my life that I am willing to give up in order to get my desired outcome?
We live in such an entitled society, where we feel we deserve everything that we wish for: I’m going to think it, and I’m going to get it; the law of attraction will give it to us… But, there is a price. I’m not saying this is bad; it is most often for the best.
Change and transformation is growth and evolution, from tension and chaos comes the birth of something new. There will be things that we will need to give up in order to move ahead into this newer version of ourselves, and I think this really scares the majority of people.
What are the ways in which I remain small to protect myself from change? And what is the payoff or secondary gain I’ve been getting for staying in this belief system?
Most of the problems that we manifest in our life are a payoff in some way to our addictions or our shadows. Getting to the deepest source of our discomfort or belief system can be challenging.
The ones that are protective of ourselves aren’t something to be transmuted or changed, but rather integrated into the whole. They have been keeping us safe in some way for most of our lives.
A personal example is an old belief about shining my highest, brightest light because I’m afraid of being too radiant or too much, and possibly attracting attention that I won't be able to handle. That can often trigger past trauma.
Until my mind/body/emotions could function in unison - wanting to be radiant and attract abundance was impossible to manifest.
None of this gets sorted out in the head or through the mind.
It’s not something you can figure out. It’s only through the body that new seeds get planted.
Some of the tools that you can use to help shift the energy are movement, guided visualization, speaking directly to your wounded ones and letting them know you value their voices. I like to drum and use sound in nature, talking out loud to the trees and the ocean, and even the small creatures I meet along my path. If necessary, my husband can hold space for me to rage at the masculine (which is not directed personally against him, but more sort of a collective anger). He will just relax and be like an empty channel to witness me releasing my pain for all the ways I’ve harmed or failed to use my voice to protect my boundaries.
I receive constant witnessing from my mentors, and they continue to help me clarify my communication skills and keep tuning me to the wisdom of my body. They are instrumental for my growth.
It has been slow work for me, but deep and lasting.
The beauty in this journey is that often the smallest reflections, subtlest somatic experiences can shift significant aspects of my perspectives and long-held patterning.