Are You Ready To Take An Evolutionary Leap In Your Life?
We all know that getting to the destination of our dreams requires taking consistent action steps and continually pushing forward. So why don’t we “just do it?“ Why do we procrastinate, remain complacent, become paralyzed, or shrink in fear? Why, even when we know what we should be doing or the steps that we need to be taking, do we get easily sidetracked, go unconscious, or function on automatic pilot?
Why?!
Our Shadow!
Your shadow is the part of you that determines how much success you will achieve. It impacts your thoughts, behaviors, actions, inactions, choices, and non-choices, basically dictating your life. When you deny your shadow and hide the parts of yourself that you do not like or want to be, you whittle away at your full self-expression. And since your outer world is a direct reflection of your inner world, when you lose access to all of who you are on the inside, you automatically limit what you can create and manifest in your external world.
This is one of the many reasons I always get so excited about The Shadow Process Workshop. I know that each one I lead will be the catalyst for me to have a huge breakthrough and propel me into another reality in terms of what I will be able to realize in my life.
Every time I prepare to lead The Shadow Process, I start thinking about and asking to be shown what shadow I most need to integrate in order to have a radical shift in my life.
In 2014, my goal was to write a book. I spent the first quarter of the year caught up in the cycle of starting, stopping, promising myself I would start again, preparing to start, finding an excuse to postpone starting, feeling guilty about not starting, starting, and then stopping again. I came up with very justified reasons for my postponements and delays but underneath them all was fear — the fear I could not do it. I wasn’t even stopped by whether the book would be “good” or not. I just feared that I would never have the wherewithal to complete a book and that would mean I was unsuccessful, an obvious shadow — a characteristic I did not want to be. So at The Shadow Process in April, 2014, I worked on the shadow I had around being “unsuccessful.” I realized the gift of “unsuccessful” is that it allowed me to let go of situations that no longer served me like my marriage or an unfulfilling business. In working with “unsuccessful,” I also realized that I never owned the “successful” part of myself either. Although on a cognitive level, I knew that I had achieved a lot of accomplishments and had the degrees and accolades to affirm that, I never really saw myself as “successful” because there was always that next thing I told myself I needed to accomplish before I truly would be “successful” — just like my father! When I made peace with and owned that I was both “unsuccessful” and “successful,” I went home, sat on my living room couch every weekend, and finished my book by mid-June.
My next issue came as a result of a bit of a surprise. Not only had I finished my book but I actually really liked it. It felt like the book wanted to be something more than a manuscript I completed and would just email to my family, close friends, and clients if they expressed interest in reading it. I needed to establish a plan to “get it out there.” But to do this, it would require me to take a risk, step outside of my comfort zone, and let my work be seen. Luckily for me, just as I was hitting this quandary, The Shadow Process in June, 2014 was coming up! Once again I asked to be shown what shadow and parts of myself I needed to integrate in order to take that next evolutionary leap in my life. Always thinking I had a good relationship with being both “visible” and “invisible,” I was shocked that these were the two words that came up for me to work through during the June workshop. Although I knew I had fear about not making a mark in the world, not being special, and being invisible, I did not realize how much fear I had about being visible and how unsafe that felt to me on a cellular level. As a result of my work that weekend, I was able shift my beliefs about being “visible.” I now truly believe that it is safe for me to be visible and I know that if and when I don’t feel safe being visible, I have the power to cloak myself with my cape of invisibility since they both serve and protect me.
Currently I am working on my book with an editor and positioning it to become the basis for my next chapter in terms of the work I do. I am not sure what that will look like but what I DO know for sure is that the next piece of my transformational journey is right around the corner and it will happen April 17th to 19th in Ohio when we have our next Shadow Process Workshop! I have no idea what will come up. But whatever it is, I am confident it will shift something inside of myself that will create an evolutionary leap in my life. And for that I am very excited!
Transformational Action Steps
1. Think about a goal you want to accomplish.
2. Ask to be shown or identify a characteristic, quality, or part of yourself that you need to integrate in order to achieve that goal.
3. In order to really cultivate that characteristic, ask yourself every morning for two to four weeks, “What action can I do today that will support me in really being that characteristic or owning that characteristic inside of me?”
4. Take those actions!
5. Come join us in Ohio, April 17th to April 19th for The Shadow Process Workshop.
