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As we embark upon the Spring season in the northern hemisphere - a season of planting and nourishing seeds for our lives, a season held by the elements of earth and water, a season of growing roots and exploring the mud - the following 10 week newsletter series - Roots - explores concepts for knowing ourselves deeper. Through this exploration, a foundation can develop that perhaps allows us to choose our relationship with ourselves, to those around us, to our daily lives and to our biggest dreams with more intention.
Welcome to you who hear a gentle whisper that there might be more to this earthly experience than surviving, than numbing, than navigating life going through the motions. For those courageously seeking to know themselves deeper through a deep reverence to the seasons of our inner and our outer worlds.
The ask is to be present with these upcoming letters and to ask yourself if there is something here calling you to walk deeper into the great mystery. There are endless teachings, courses, gurus, workshops, practices in this world on these topics (some of which I will share with you and many that can be extremely supportive throughout our journeys on a more intentional path)… yet my hope is for you to stoke your own flames, to see what teachings arise from within you as you contemplate these themes. This can happen through a willingness to grow your own capacity for self inquiry, to peek into the possibility of radical love towards self and where that may lead, to sit in initial discomfort in order to ultimately open your wings. I nor anyone can grow this capacity for you, but I believe and know that you can.
Avoid thinking of this series as a checklist of tasks to help “improve” your life… improvement, in whatever form that means to you, can often be, and will likely be, a byproduct of this sort of exploration, especially if you feel called to really dive in; however the invitation is to drop down a level deeper… to see the relationships that we currently have to the mind, to the body, to the breath, to the voice, to love, and to our days - this layer is where we then get to discern what tools may even be useful to us…. which tasks, which rituals, which practices, which forms of support we truly value and thus choose to carve into our days.
I see many folks in the self improvement world, I being one of these people at different periods of time, that are checking boxes of what other people are telling us is good for us. Often this advice changes every 2 years, depending on many things… some are truly beneficial insights based around updates in data and science and other times they are simply coming from which companies have the loudest cash. It’s time to check in with what truly feels good for us, what works for our path, which often starts with exploring these relationships.
I have also come to recognize that there is a thin line between an underlying compulsion for self improvement (checking boxes) driven by the ego and a deeper pull and intention from the heart simply to be free, at peace and to contribute to the world around us. The later, this deeper pull is what will be reflected here.
Yes, there is magic in the deep mystical spiritual path…AND there is magic in the foundations, in 5 minutes of willingness to not distract the self but rather see what truly is in the present moment.
So let’s weave some magic into the mundane. Or rather, open our eyes to it, choose it.
I leave you today with this quote from Clarissa Pinkola Estés from her book, Women Who Run With the Wolves, and perhaps a contemplation of what door in your own world is beckoning you…
“The doors to the world of the wild self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.”
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves
Next week, we kick off with exploring being a witness to our thoughts. From there, a new spark in your inbox weekly on Wednesday mornings. See you there.
With love,