Our collective obsession of identifying with Do more. Be more. Achieve more. Own more.

Nothing ever stays the same, and evidence of this is everywhere.

From the rhythms of the seasons to the orbit of the planets and the cycles of birth and death all around us, we can see the cyclical nature of all existence.

Unfortunately, in today’s world, this sacred cyclical nature of life is often ignored. We push ourselves to go, go, go. Do more. Be more. Achieve more. Own more.

We live in a world where productivity is often valued and praised above all else, and as a result, we are sorely disconnected from the rhythms that are inherent in our lives… the natural cycles and phases that are part of what it means to be human.

As I shared last week, I’ve been reflecting on the importance of living fully and authentically each and every day.  In addition to what I shared last week with self-care, one of my most powerful life learnings, especially at present, is about slowing down and honoring these phases even more deeply and intimately in my life.

I continue to remind myself that just like everything else in nature, I too need space and time to grow. I need space and time to be barren, to strip down to the bones. I need to take a moment, or a season, to pause. And in those moments, I need to resist creating out of some urge to fill the empty space and to trust that when it’s time, new growth will come.

The tree that sheds its leaves and becomes barren in winter doesn’t resist those leaves falling.

It doesn’t hide or cover up its barren nature in the winter.

It doesn’t say “oh now that my leaves are not all full and bushy, I guess I must give up and pack up and go home until it’s spring and summer again and I look pretty to the human eye.”

No.

It stands there—vulnerable, open, and available.

The tree allows itself to be barren. To be bare. Without resistance. It trusts that this too shall pass, honoring the truth that it needs this time of rest and allowing to support its next burst of growth. The tree gives in to the medicinal wisdom of winter, slowing down, releasing all the parts of itself it no longer needs.

In this space of darkness, bare to the bones, things are happening beneath the surface that allows the next season of natural creative expression to blossom.

I know—and have experienced time and time again when I’ve given myself the space to be bare and vulnerable—that like the tree, I too will rise up again, and that in the meantime, I require patience and allowing of what is.

This experience of acceptance can be challenging. It’s a journey of coming home and befriending the mystery.

Being willing to walk with the unknown.

Being willing to unwind years of conditioning and patterning that says “the more you do, the more you will be valued” or “if you give yourself this space, you’re going to miss out somehow or others will leave you behind” or “you must care and tend to everyone else first before yourself.”

Regardless, I believe it’s worth it. One of my commitments this year—to myself and to you—is to honor the medicinal cycles and rhythms of life and to be an advocate for others doing the same. Because it’s my belief that in allowing space for these energies to work within us—in honoring the spaces where we need to slow down and surrender–we are actually harnessing a greater power than we’ve ever known. 

It’s time to shift our collective obsession of identifying with the cultural norm of push, push, push.

It’s time to talk about what’s real and what’s here.

It’s time to learn as a community how to honor the darkness and how to begin talking about the sacred parts of ourselves and our lives that, in many spaces, are considered taboo: women’s menstruation, shining bright and taking up space, shame, self-doubt, grief, anger, how loving all parts of yourself isn’t always rainbows unicorns and charging your crystals, and how to work closely and intimately with all the natural rhythms of life.

I really feel it’s in honoring ALL of these parts in yourself that we truly will be the change we wish to see in the world.

I invite you to play with these energies inside you and see what emerges as you, too, give yourself space to be in the mystery.

xo,

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