The Meaning is IN the Experience

The year just started and already we find ourselves entering the second month. I can’t believe how fast the river of life moves us along.

I’m super excited to be launching a beta program next week called:

‘The Embodied Soul’: How to feel fully alive, deeply connected, and create a life that (truly) matters!

The development of this program really took me on a journey the past 6 months. As part of a mastermind that I’m in, I was tasked with looking at my life’s experiences and distilling those “lessons” into a framework and program to work with others who have had similar challenges along the way.

The high level concept is that we each have a unique ‘life code’ that is perfectly designed by the infinite intelligence all around us to stretch, challenge and direct us into a specific path for being of service and delivering our gifts to the world.

Our ‘Hero’s Journey’ is filled with the perfect people, situations and opportunities for us to develop the tools to overcome any limitations we encounter along the way. At all times, life is supporting and guiding us even when it feels like we are all alone in a chaotic world.

Understanding my life code process was very trying. My inner rebel came to visit many times to push against my need to get naked, real and vulnerable. “I’m here to guide people on a spiritual journey by using my intellect and intuition”, I thought, “Not by coming more fully into my body and feelings.”

In truth, this was not the easiest exercise for me because over the years I’ve focused on intellectual pursuits, buying into perfectionism, not wanting to be seen and avoiding the residence of my heart.

For a lot of my life, and definitely throughout the first 18 years, I wanted to be anywhere but where I was.

I was a sensitive child growing up in a chaotic environment and was bullied by my oldest sibling. I felt powerless, weak, and extremely guarded because I did not see the world as a safe and secure place that I could trust.

I disconnected from my emotions, which were often pain and sadness, and my thoughts became my refuge.

I had a challenging relationship with my mother who made it obvious that she didn’t like females. As the only girl, middle child, that made being me an uncomfortable experience. Along the way, I decided that if I did things perfectly, I would be above the criticism and judgement so prevalent in my childhood.

However, my 20’s and 30’s were filled with more painful experiences – life’s way of guiding me to learn to mother myself again, to embrace all of the shadows I had built around needing to be strong, independent and wielding my shield of protection.

Of course, the coping skills we develop do have an expiration date. The depth of our pain equals the depth of our capacity for joy. When we disconnect and numb ourselves out – we do avoid the pain but we also cut ourselves off from the pleasure and ecstasy of life. (You can read more about this in an interview with Lissa Rankin in Conscious Life Journal).

Cut off from our emotions, we feel like the walking dead stuck in ground hog day. Life becomes a dulled experience of repetition and routine. We are able to handle the maintenance of everyday chores but we aren’t connected to our purpose, passions or creative expression.

Life feels like a black and white movie.

And so, walking the path of the Embodied Soul meant developing a presence in my body, the heart, solar plexus, sacral and root chakras while I reconnected all the pieces I had rejected to include my emotions, pain and unexpressed energy.

It meant coming back into my heart, power and passion.

I reconnected to the truth that my soul’s expression is to be fiercely passionate, vibrant and playful. I am here to make love to life, to be fully alive and deeply connected. And I’m here to share this experience with others who also feel disconnected and stuck in their heads as they think their way through their existence.

To be embodied, I have to feel safe to be and express who I fully am. I have to re-embrace the weakness, vulnerability and the softer feminine side of myself so I can connect to my whole being.

We live in a very masculine society. Masculine energy resides mostly in the head. The masculine is about building structures and maintaining them. A focus on doing, fixing, making things “right” and looking good.

Feminine energy comes down into the body and the womb, the sacred place of creation. It brings in unconditional love and vulnerability. It is about connection and holding a space for others with compassion.

Disconnecting from our feminine essence has major consequences that are playing out all around us in politics, the environment and in our own sense of health and well-being.

My life’s code is about being fully in the human experience, not doing the human experience.

The Embodied Soul is a journey of bringing Heaven to Earth. It is about engaging with the full arc of embodiment.

EMBRACE the PRESENT as you get honest and present with where you really are in your life and what you’re really feeling.
EXPERIENCE the PAST as you take an introspective look at the events of your life to reveal what you’ve been missing and what it’s costing you. Uncover your barriers and blocks to being deeply connected and fully alive.
ENDURE the PAIN as you understand the Alchemy of turning your wounds into wisdom and your pain into power.
EMPOWER the FUTURE as you explore your purpose. Who are you? What turns you on and lights you up? Who do you really want to be? How do you really want to express yourself and show up as you?
ENGAGE the PLAN as you create an Embodiment Plan for grounded, daily action.
EXPRESS the Embodied LIFE by asking what does it take to live a fully expressed life? How would you show up every day? Who would you want to be if you were connected to the eternal aspect of you?