If you’re anything like me, you’re feeling collective grief rising up in your being right now.
Is it your head or your heart?
I made a surprising discovery in my 20s. While I thought I had followed my inner voice...I hadn’t.
On the surface I had a lot of success. I accomplished my goal of working in the federal government. I owned a cute brick townhouse at the end of a sleepy cul de sac. I had close circles of friends that I spent hours laughing with. But something deep inside of me ached. And the feeling haunted me.
Unconsciously I did what so many of us do. I pursued the goals socialized into me and took them as my own. I abandoned my soul’s desires and essence to “fit in.”
Slow down to listen
Intuition speaks in long sentences.
Sending messages to us in bits and pieces that span over the course of a day, a week, a year, or even years.
Have you ever recognized in hindsight how all the pieces of one area of your life fit together? Suddenly the wider perspective and clarity you wanted is obvious. But you couldn't see it before in the messy middle.
Even though I know this, I still sometimes try to push for clarity. Wishing I can nudge my intuition onto the timeline in my head versus the pacing of my soul.
When I fall into this trap, I suffer. Like a person trying to draw a map in the densest fog. I struggle to chart my next steps when I can’t even see my hand through the mist. Eventually I must slow down to surrender.
Remembering goodness in life
Humanity is dealing with a lot right now *gestures wildly to all the things.* And I’m feeling worn out from the pandemic.
I sensed burnout in myself earlier this summer and started slowing down. I gave myself more rest and turned my focus towards nurturing my creativity. These shifts nurtured me, but I needed more.
I wanted to feel the inherent goodness in life. Not to cover up the challenges, but to balance out the challenging feelings I hold.
Let your intuition lead
If you hop on social media, you’ll find plenty of versions of OTHER people’s success. This can be confusing for sensitive people and empaths. It was confusing for me!
Last summer I took two months off of social media to clear out the volume of the external world. I wanted to hear my inner channel more. I realized that other people’s ideas of success were slowly creeping into my unconscious mind. And it was time to clean them out!
Grounding, safety, & resilience
Healing from perfectionism
Burn out and slowing down
Slowing down isn’t celebrated in our capitalist culture. It has real costs.
know the impact of slowing down first hand. I’ve taken two breaks from my podcast in the past two years. Each time I’ve taken a break, my listenership drops and takes months to regain. And I took a massive income hit after suffering a miscarriage this March. Needing time away from clients and teaching to heal.
We can’t hide from the fact that our capitalist system devalues slowing down or taking a break.
But not slowing down has even greater costs to our wellbeing. And choosing to slow down...greater rewards.
Tuning into spirits of place
Have you ever explored the power, magic, aliveness, and impact of a place? By place I mean land, location, buildings, and home.
Many of us want to get out of town and fast as coronavirus restrictions ease and people get vaccinated. Understandable given how many of us feel cooped up.
Why do we need a change in place? Is it for...
beauty?
the excitement of a change in scenery? Or routine?
a chance to step away from responsibilities and refresh?
Yes.
[H] Places have unique energy. An energy that influences, shifts, and changes our own. And visa versa.
Decode your feelings as a sensitive
Let’s talk about feelings.
Although we’ve come a long way, culturally most of us still struggle to be with our feelings and the feelings of others. I think of where I live, the United States, as pretty feeling illiterate. If that’s a phrase. Frozen in an adolescent mindset. Stunted from being able to be with complex emotions like rage or grief.
I’ve been working with complex emotions myself recently. Big, multilayered, grief, to name one, after losing our child in a miscarriage this March. The experience reminded me again just how much we struggle as a society to be with difficult feelings.
I’ve learned that I feel differently than most people as a sensitive person. Being a sensitive person is a complex and interesting way to live. Because as a sensitive person,