Tag Archives: becoming whole

Journal Challenge Week 2 – Lightbulbs and Lightning Strikes

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Image from Dan's Data

Image from Dan’s Data

“SOWING LIGHTNING

Seize
Bolts of lightning from the sky
And plant them in fields of life.

They will grow like tender sprouts of fire.
Charge somber thoughts
With unexpected flash,
You, my lightning in the soil!”
~ Visar Zhiti, The Condemned Apple: Selected Poetry

 

Hello, my Lovelies, and welcome to Week 2 of our Journal Challenge!

If you’ve only just found us now, it’s not too late to go back and start at the beginning. That’s the beauty of journalling. It waits for us, and works with our own time-frames.

I suppose you’ve heard about Lightbulb Moments. You know, that instant where the light comes on and you truly UNDERSTAND something for the first time. ‘Ah,’ you say, perhaps a little excitedly, ‘I get it!’

There’s another kind of awareness that can hit us too. It’s painful. It’s abrupt. It’s super-charged and the sting is so shocking that the memory is somehow imprinted into you at a cellular level. ‘Holy Shit!’ you manage to choke out, if indeed you can find any words at all. That ain’t no Lightbulb Moment, honey. That’s a Lightning Strike!

Some of our most powerful insights and guiding direction comes in the form of Lightbulb Moments and Lightning Strikes. This week we’re opening ourselves to reconnecting to the wisdom we’ve already received, as well as inviting more of these moments into our lives.

Are you ready? Courage, my dears.

Let’s Begin!

Image from tumblr

Image from tumblr

Choosing a Crystal

You may wish to choose a crystal to work with this week. It is entirely optional, and you’d be fine without one too – but for my fellow rock lovers, read on…

You can hold this crystal as you write or meditate, place it under your pillow or beside your bed while you sleep, or carry it in your pocket to help you stay focused.

You could choose your stone based on what most appeals to you. That’s a very valid approach. But if you need a little direction, good crystals to work with this week include:

  • Citrine
  • Clear Quartz of any kind
  • Emerald
  • Amethyst
  • Labradorite
  • Orange or golden calcite
  • Black Tourmaline
  • Hematite
  • Jade

This week I’m using a rather comforting Labradorite that fits perfectly into my hand. Feel free to let us know what kind of crystal you choose by leaving a comment below or over at our facebook page.

Labradorite

Week Two Meditation:

There is so much wisdom already inside you. It stretches back through your family tree, and through your past lives. This week, before you begin to reflect on and journal your exploratory questions, take a minute or two to perform this simple meditation.

Image from Pinterest

Image from Pinterest

Ancestor Activation Technique

Before you begin writing, sit or lie quietly. One by one, raise your palms and look into them, seeing all the lines and contours. Know that your entire family lineage is held within these hands, and that your hands link you back through time to loved ones who still watch over you and guide you. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know or feel connected to your family, or if you don’t know your family history. It doesn’t matter if the family you are born into is a family with whom you don’t resonate. Family is bigger than that. It goes back so much further than you might know. These bonds anchor us in a love far beyond our conscious understanding. We reincarnate into our family tree over and over again. None of us is ever alone. We are always well loved, although we may not always understand this.

If you are using a stone, cup your crystal in one hand and then place your other hand over the top. Rest your hands comfortably in your lap. If you’re not using a crystal, place your hands palm down on your belly.

Visualise a rainbow in your crystal, or if you are just using your hands, visualise a rainbow in the palms of your hands. Breathe in to activate your hands and let that rainbow of colour expand, flowing out into your aura and into your body on each outbreath. Close your eyes if it feels comfortable to do so.

Image from Maha Rose

Image from Maha Rose

Now in your mind offer up a prayer to your Ancestors. Ask them for guidance and help. Ask them to flow wisdom and opportunity to you. Say anything else that feels right for you.

Then sit in this energy a little longer and be open to any thoughts, images or ideas that come.

Finally, take six breaths deep into your belly, letting your body relax completely.

Now you’re ready to write!

Journal Questions:

You can choose any or all of the questions below. Some will be asked as traditional questions, and some are sentences that give you a place to start by leaving a space for you to complete that sentence.

I suggest going with what resonates and repels for a good balance. Write as much or as little as you need. It could be three words or three pages. Spread it out over a week, or spend a solid hour or two over one day – it’s up to you! If you’re in flow, keep going and see where it takes you. Be brave here, sweethearts. Pry open those tightly closed doors. Fling open the windows and let the light in. We can’t operate in darkness. Healing needs air and sunlight.

You can also write over more than one sitting, even beyond this current journal challenge, taking yourself deeper and clearer each time you come back to that question. Trust that more will be revealed as your own wholeness is revealed.

If you’re using a crystal, hold it in your non-writing hand, or place it in your lap or pocket. Feel free to get yourself a beverage, or to sit in a coffee shop while you do this. Enjoy the process!

2012-06-04 11.06.04

This week we’re bravely peeling back the layers, seeking to own all the parts of us. Including those things we have pushed away, rejected, been shamed for, or that give us embarrassment or pain. I’ve grouped the questions together for a reason.

If you don’t know how to answer something, ask yourself again, and then wait.

Still nothing?

Ask again and wait some more. Then ask – What am I afraid of here? Bravely wait for the answer, and then ask yourself the question again, knowing that your fears cannot harm you.

Also ask yourself this, if it feels right: Is this a family pattern? How might I break this pattern, so that Ancestral Patterning stops with me?

Self-Sabotage:

  1. What is my most insidious (subtle and sneaky) self-sabotaging behaviour?
  2. What is my most overt (obvious and visible) self-sabotaging behaviour?
  3. Why did I start this behaviour? Who did I pattern it (copy or learn it) from?
  4. What are the benefits of this sabotaging behaviour? How does it keep me ‘safe’?
  5. What would happen in my life if I gradually replaced this behaviour with one that genuinely supported and sustained me?
  6. What positive behaviours could I choose?
  7. How does this knowledge make me feel? Why?

Resentment:

  1. The people I resent most are…
  2. The reasons I resent them are…
  3. It’s so unfair for me because…
  4. I’m so worried that I’ll never get time to…
  5. I hate that I’m always the one who has to…
  6. What do I resent that others tell me about myself, or expect me to be?
  7. The thing putting me under all this stress is…

Excuses, excuses:

  1. What do I tell myself that keeps me small?
  2. Who else do I know who behaves like that?
  3. What virtuous or ‘good’ patterns or behaviours do I use to avoid dealing with my own stuff?
  4. What am I so afraid of here?
  5. What am I stopping myself from doing?

Oh, the Shame!:

  1. The incident I am most ashamed about is…
  2. The thing I still hate to have people bring up about me is…
  3. The thing I still feel most guilty about is…
  4. The most embarrassed I’ve ever been is…
  5. I feel such a failure because…
  6. I could never be that thing I so desire to be, because…
  7. The one thing I wish I could erase from my life is…
  8. The powerful and painful learning burned into my brain like a Lightning Strike about this is…
  9. I could reframe that learning into something good and wise by seeing it this way…
Image from GalleryHip.com

Image from GalleryHip.com

And now for some healing and expanding life energy. Be informed by the writing you have done with your exploratory questions. Choose one or do them all. Let yourself step into the energy of possibility and growth. Let your own inner knowing be a healing force of good in your life. Write at least a paragraph. Be detailed and specific where you can.Turn pain and suffering into wisdom. Let yourself be lit up with Lightbulb Moments and Lightning Strikes.

If you’re uncomfortable, then write it as a wise fairy-tale that might be good advice for someone else.

1. The lesson my self-sabotaging behaviour teaches me is…

2. As I embrace this lesson, with love and compassion for myself, I can see my life becoming…

3. My resentment is a powerful voice inside me showing me what’s truly important to my heart and soul. This resentment has taught me that what matters is…

4. I will overcome or deal with my fear by…

5. These painful things have taught me some beautiful lessons about myself. I can now become wiser, kinder, more uplifted and more inspired because I understand that…

6. The parts of myself that I lovingly reclaim are…

Do pop over to our facebook page this week. There will be some rune guidance for you. I’ll be giving away some lovely surprises and there will also be an online party next weekend where I’ll be available to answer your questions and have some fun!

I have so much faith in you. We have a big year ahead in 2015 – full of opportunity and possibility – and I know you’ll be well positioned to make the most of it by doing all of this self-work!

Big hugs to you and lots of love, Nicole xx

Your Strength as a Wounded Healer

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“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
~ Rumi

 

Have you ever wondered why stuff happens to you? Why you’ve had to suffer, and endure the things you’ve gone through?

I have no good answers for the WHY, but I do have some advice based on having suffered and endured on my own journey.

Don’t let that suffering be wasted. Don’t waste it on vengeance or anger or being stuck as a victim. Don’t get stuck in your story. Don’t become the object of suffering and the receptacle for pain.

You have a choice. And whenever you have choice, power, in that moment, resides in you and that power to choose.

So, this is my advice, based on my own pain and suffering…

Use your wounds to grow. Use your path of suffering and pain as a force to transform you. Make your suffering MEAN something. Take everything that you are, everything that you have, everything you have endured and work that suffering and pain into wisdom.

After that, the road will fork.

Image from JackeyBackman.com

Image from JackeyBackman.com

You can take the first road. That road allows you to take your inner wisdom and strength as a shining light and courage within you that helps propel you forward in the world. No-one else might ever learn of the suffering that transformed you, but in that place of transformation you will strive and thrive and become a success at whatever calls you BECAUSE of that guiding energy and force within you. You’ll know that you can rely on yourself, you’ll know that you can all on that strength. You’ll trust your resilience and your ability to endure and overcome. That suffering will no longer define you – instead, in a strange way, it will have liberated you.

For some of you, though, you’ll feel the calling of that second road.

That’s the Path of the Healer.

Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. Your feet will be shuffling onto that path, cautiously walking that path, that heart-drawn path, and you’ll be so very aware of the suffering and the brokenness that has happened in your life. I know, you’ll be looking back over your shoulder and thinking ‘What right do I have to be here? I’m wounded.’ And then you’ll think that maybe you should turn around and go back…

My friend, I just want to embrace you. I want to cheer you on. I want to sit down beside you, offer you a deep refreshing drink from my water bottle and whisper something in your ear.

Image from Rebel Thriver

Image from Rebel Thriver

There’s a secret power in being a wounded healer. You’ll be able to identify those who are ready to invite the light into their wounds. You’ll be able to hear their pain. Feel their anguish. Identify with them, as both and equal and a teacher. And most importantly, you’ll be able to help them to step out of that dance they do with their pain and into a place of using that pain for transformation.

You’ll be able to look them in the eye and say ‘I know you. I see you. I understand you. Because I have my own wound. We walk this path together.’

Wounds can heal. The scars they leave behind make us stronger. They are a tangible reminder that none of us are perfect, and that life is a hard road, with many obstacles which we shall seek to overcome.

That you are further along the path, still upright, wiser… well, that gives hope to others. Your compassion and understanding, having walked that difficult road yourself, becomes a powerful force for helping others to transform.

Please, if you’ve held yourself back BECAUSE of your wounding, your scars, your history, your imperfections, I ask you to reconsider.

Let me share with you the story of two of my clients who were weight-loss coaches. One of them was a young girl who’d excelled at everything she’d ever tried. She was an exercise physiologist and nutritionalist, an elite athlete, and a stunning beauty. The other was a middle-aged overweight housewife. Who had once been morbidly obese. Who was still holding a few pounds. And who, bless her, had little fashion sense.

One of them is still an outstandingly successful weight-loss coach.

The woman who was once morbidly obese, who has lost over half her body weight and maintained that loss, is now successfully leading many other men and women with life-long weight issues back to a place of health and balance. She can look you in the eye and know that you are binge-eating frozen cheesecake through your tears in the dead of night. She knows the shame, the anguish, the self-loathing, the total lack of self-worth. She’s been there. She’s walked that path and she still walks that path. She knows that path well, and she’s learning more all the time. And you’ll trust her because of that. She truly has your back because she IS you, in a way.

The young elite athlete? She changed her focus and now she rehabs injured athletes and corporate-type individuals with a burning need to succeed and with strong competitive instincts. She trains winners. She trains go-getters. Because that is who she is, and the mindset and values with whom she most relates. She knows what it is to push herself, to feel completely driven, to give herself to her goals one hundred percent. She knows what it is to be eaten up by self-induced stress. To get completely out of balance and to burn out or injure yourself through over-training. To have no social or family life because your world has become too narrow. Or that you need that narrowness in order to reach a goal, and for some people, that the goal is what matters. She also knows how it important it is to be sustainable, after having been so unsustainable herself. She knows the beauty and the thrill of that control and that desire to win. She’s incredibly successful now, and so are her clients. She’s getting incredible results.

Both of them are.

And both of them are wounded healers, walking their talk and sharing their passion, their wisdom and their light.

Healers come in all forms. Yes, there are traditional healers. Doctors, naturopaths, counsellors, nurses, massage therapists – the list goes on. But healers are also teachers. They are mothers, fathers, writers, cab drivers, hairdressers, tax accountants, musicians, waitresses, gardeners. They share their compassion, their advice, their support, their wisdom and their lessons in so many, many ways.

Don’t tell me that you’re somehow LESS because you are imperfect.

Tell me how you can help others be MORE because of your imperfection and the knowledge that has been gained on your journey.

Your wounding is what makes you whole. It’s what makes you beautiful and precious and valuable. It’s what makes you real.

I have faith in you.

Go do this, if it’s calling you. We need more big, open scarred-up hearts, souls and minds in the world. It’s time.