If you take a second to reflect on the last few months, what comes to mind?
For myself and the friends I’ve been talking to up here in Canada, it’s felt … heavy. Seeing and feeling the effects of the climate crisis, oppression, recession, inflation, and what our fellow humans in Iran and Ukraine continue to battle with are a few of my least favourite things of 2022. It’s especially hard because we feel like we need to DO something to try and fix it all because we try to control what we don’t trust.
I’ll say it again because it’s important … we try to control what we don’t trust.
Some days, when you look at the world, it’s hard to trust that everything is going to work out and we’re going to be okay. It’s hard to trust that we’re personally doing enough when we care deeply about a broken world that expects us to give beyond our capacity.
And I don’t know about you, but Scorpio season with its 2 eclipses kicked.my.arse!! It felt like all the personal lessons and growing pains in my life crashed together to cause the perfect storm of fear, scarcity, uncertainty, and emotional upheaval. And while the shadow always appears with an invitation for more love and more healing…surrendering fully to this process can be hella terrifying because (say it with me) we try to control what we don’t trust.
If we remember back to the Cycle of Life we’re deep in the separation phase full of dismemberment, disillusion, uncertainty, and chaos.
We’re butterfly goo!
The separation phase of the Cycle of Life is like being tucked into a cocoon. We’re not a caterpillar anymore and not yet a butterfly.
We’re individually taking apart old patterns and beliefs and collectively we’re challenging systems and the status quo … and it’s a lot. We’re beginning to see the world through new eyes and maybe we feel the push to be out of our cocoons and out in the world before we’re ready. Spiritually, it feels like we’ve hit the awkward middle school years.
I know first-hand that feeling of wanting to burst out of the cocoon before you’re ready. One of my biggest takeaways from 2022 was learning to stop swimming upstream – let me explain. I had just moved and was frantic to get settled in and go, go, go but I kept hitting that proverbial wall. Then I realized the wall was there for a reason – to slow me the F down – to be still and get properly settled. To enjoy my new surroundings and slowly navigate my way in my new neighbourhood. And wouldn’t you know it when I honoured my own cycle I had the most abundant late spring and summer ever! I needed to slow down before I could speed up.
And nature, with her cozy winter nights, is asking us to do the same right now. To acknowledge the heaviness and where we are in the Cycle of Life. To slow down. To pause long enough to appreciate the magic of freshly fallen snow and savour hot chocolate with marshmallows, to gather with family and friends so we remember we’re not alone. To just be present with what’s in front of us.
To allow those heavy and anxious need-to-control-it-all feelings to move through us and soften.
It feels like the darkness before the dawn.
I believe with my whole heart that we will move through this cycle, integrate what we’ve learned, and emerge with bright, beautiful butterfly wings ready to taste the nectar of life.
But you can’t rush through this process even though it can be a wild, uncomfortable, uncertain ride. When you’re in the goo – all you can do is surrender and trust.
And take REALLY good care of yourself.
How do we navigate waiting for the light to return?
Reach into your self-care toolbox. Nourishing doesn’t have to cost much. Maybe it’s a bowl of warm soup on a cold winter day. Or curling up under a blanket to watch your favourite holiday movie. Or maybe it’s connecting with your inner child through snow angels, tobogganing, and catching snowflakes on your tongue. Maybe it’s meditation and deep rest or catching up with a friend over coffee. Take good care of yourself, you’re a gorgeously flawed human that is navigating the world as best they can.
Trust. That you are enough. That you’re doing enough. That as chaotic as the world seems right now GUS (God, Universe, Soul/Spirit/Source) loves you and has got your back. Make time to remember and dwell on the positives. Your accomplishments, connections, wins, adventures, and the people who love you and supported you this year and let you do the same for them. Because when we remember all the beautiful moments it can be a little bit easier to trust that GUS has a bigger plan.
Give up some control. Ooooh, this can be hard! And the holidays can give us lots of opportunities to practice. Maybe you’re always the one to organize the holiday menu or New Year’s Eve plans and you could let someone else give it a shot this year. Or if you look back at your Wheel Of Life – what would it look like if we aimed for 8s instead of 10s? And if we slooooowed down enough to really get clear on what an 8 looks like and feels like rather than racing towards a vision of how life is “supposed” to be.
You’re welcome to join me with your possibility wheel on Tuesday, January 3rd at 12:noon EST and together we’ll look at how we can create more ease in our inner and outer world. How we can simplify and DO less so we can BE more in 2023. We’d love for you to join us! You can register here.
And in the meantime? Remember you’re in the cocoon of winter. Be gentle with yourself. Because the dawn is just around the corner.
