8 Steps to Start Exactly Where You Are
Can you feel it? Can you feel the change happening in the energy around us?
In the northern Hemisphere, the Spring Equinox takes place in a few weeks and astrologically speaking there’s a lot happening this month that signify major shifts which impact us both individually and collectively.
We’ve been in the chrysalis for quite some time now and I can feel myself itching to get out and I’m witnessing the same with my clients, my communities and just in general in the world around me.
We’ve been in a cocoon of intense change and transformation and so many of us are ready for that next chapter; that new start.
We are ready to test out our new bodies; fly with the wings that have been growing inside the cocoon for the last 3+ years (or longer).
……..but……..we’re not quite there yet. We’re close, but we’re still slowly making our way out of the cocoon that’s held us for the last couple of years.
But before the butterfly comes out of the cocoon, it must assimilate the changes that have happened to its body and allow its wings to reach their full strength before taking flight.
So much has happened to us and for us and just like the new butterfly must allow for this process, we too must allow for our own assimilation process before we take flight.
As one of my favorite workout instructors, Natalie Kuhn, mentioned in a recent class:
“It’s not just about starting, but how do we start well?”
How do we start with intentionality?
How we start one thing, is how we start everything.
With all of our eagerness to leave the discomfort of the liminal space we’ve been in for so long and begin our new chapter, we can run the risk of not setting ourselves up to actually start something in a way that creates clarity, sustainability, pleasure and aligns with where we want to go…….not where we’ve already been.
It may sound counterproductive because our society hates looking backwards and learning from our past but starting intentionally first and foremost starts with reflecting and releasing; releasing the old patterns, thoughts, beliefs, energies and people that aren’t meant to come forward with us.
When we jump into action and fail to reflect and release, we run the risk of starting a new chapter on faulty foundations that can’t support our dreams and even worse, could perpetuate patterns of suffering & harm (to ourself and others).
However, when we do this sacred work, we set ourselves up to experience more clarity, sustainability, alignment and pleasure in our next chapter.
We’ll be diving more into this with this month’s 90 minute workshop on March 25th: Release & Reset and you can continue reading below for 8 steps to start (well) wherever you are in your journey.
8 Steps to Start (Well) Exactly Where You Are
1.) Acknowledge the Lessons from Your Previous Cycle
If/when things in our life turn out differently than expected, it can be easy to go into a place of “I wish I had done this differently” or “I wasted all that time doing…..”. If we choose to stay focused on how we think things should have gone vs. accepting them as they are, we may miss the opportunity the lessons have to support our healing, growth and evolution.
2.) Release What’s Meant to Stay Behind
When we move too quickly rushing to start the next thing without pause for reflection and releasing, we run the risk of bringing forward the things that aren’t actually meant to come with us. Believing we are starting something new, we can often find ourselves in similar situations just with different circumstances and/or people. Acknowledging what worked and didn’t work and releasing what’s old allows space for something genuinely new to be created.
3.) Integrate the Wisdom
As my dear friend Brionna recently discussed in our lastRebirth Your Business session- it would be a shame to go through all that you went through and not walk away with your reward of hard earned wisdom.
Yes, we survived the experience but did we integrate the wisdom it provided?
When we take the time to integrate the wisdom of what we’ve gone through, we not only honor our healing journey and unique path, we can also use that wisdom to set ourselves up to start something new from a more resourced, clear and stable place (and not repeat the past).
We actually set ourselves up for whatever our definition of success is.
4.) Don’t compare
To compare is to despairand the internet makes that criminally easy to do. But your journey is your own and it’s designed just for you, nobody else. When we get stuck in the comparison trap we discredit our own uniqueness and divinity, the specific lessons and insights we are meant to attain, the way we are meant to create impact in the world as well as all of the larger forces at play that are working to guide and evolve you.
Learn to discern when you are inspired vs. when you are comparing and if you need to unfollow, unsubscribe and/or create distance for the sake of nurturing and honoring your own process,that is ok.
5.) Be Intentional
We may not have the full picture of our next chapter, but we can still be intentional about the energy we want to bring and the energy we want to step into. Everything is energy and the clearer we are about our energetic foundations, the more our actions, the people we connect with and what we build will align with where we’re going vs. repeating where we’ve already been.
6.) Start Small
Starting something new can feel really exciting but if we only focus on the big picture we can find ourselves frozen in overwhelm and never actually take action. We’ll likely never have all the puzzle pieces before starting and the best thing we can do is break it down and just take the right next baby step.
7.) Regulate Your Nervous System
As exciting as starting something new can be, it can also activate a lot of challenging emotions (fear, anxiety, shame, guilt) and cause dysregulation in our nervous system, causing a fight/ flight/ freeze/ fawn response.Learning to regulate our nervous systemallows us to stay present in our body, move at our organic pace and keep us connected to taking actions that are rooted in our truth and not our trauma.
8.) Celebrate Small Wins
Every. Single. Step. is a win. Every step forward is worthy of celebration, even the missteps as they are opportunities to learn and grow. Setting a foundation of celebration honors our effort & journey and creates movement pulled by pleasure vs. movement being pushed by pain.