As I sat with this month's Soul Growth Reading from Pause at the Well, one message came through again and again: Something new is birthing.
The Phoenix appeared.
The Butterfly appeared.
Rebirth appeared.
Transformation appeared.
THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR: the question is not whether transformation is real. The question is, "What do I need to stop doing and being to ALLOW it to be."
So often, we think growth requires adding something - another class, degree, strategy. healing modality or plan. The invitation from the message I received from this reading is much simpler.
Just stop - doing and being what no longer fits with who I have already become - like and pair of jeans that's time have come and gone.
Stop carrying burdens that are ready to be released.
Stop rehearsing stale stories that perpetuate stuckness and old, outdated ways of being.
Stop assuming that because something has always been as certain way, that must be the way it actually is. Consider -"it ain't necessarily so!"
This month's reading points toward a shedding of identities, beliefs, and unconscious patterns that once protected me but now limit my expansion. Like the snake sheds it's skin to allow for transformation and new growth to unfold and expand, I must shed layers of skin ready to reveal new levels of being.
Just Stop Resisting
Many of us spend enormous energy resisting change. We even cling to familiar discomfort because it feels safer than an unfamiliar possibility.
We argue with reality. We negotiate with endings. We try to preserve versions of ourselves that have already completed their purpose out of fear of uncertainty. Consider this - what if the things falling away are not evidence that something is wrong? What if things falling away are evidence that something is working?
What would happen if we simply stop fighting the process?
Just Stop Defining Yourself by Old Stories
Perhaps the greatest invitation this month is to release attachment to labels and old stories that perpetuate those label. These look and sound like stories that begin with certain identities:
- I am someone who always struggles.
- I am someone who gets overlooked.
- I am a caretaker.
- I am wounded.
- I am someone who needs to do everything alone.
- I am too much.
- I am not enough.
Honoring the past and how these stories and identities may have helped us make sense of our experience is critical. BUT they are not who we are - for real. Transformation requires creating space for new ways of being to emerge.
Just Stop Pushing Through... this looks like letting go of forcing outcomes.
The card of Perseverance offered an important distinction. Perseverance does not always mean pushing harder. Sometimes perseverance means staying present long enough to receive what is already trying to arrive. Many of us have become experts at effort. We've learned how to grind and survive. There is time and place for pushing through - like in birthing. But perhaps this next chapter requires something different. Perhaps it requires trust, allowing and ease.
One of the most beautiful messages in this reading was the repeated invitation to become and remain open. Open to possibility, surprise, joy, and most of all, to miracles. Like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, we do not become all at once. Transformation unfolds in layers and requires letting go so that the soul can create - as it's meant to create.
Reflection:
As you move through this month, ask yourself:
What burden am I willing to put down?
What story am I willing to stop telling as if it's true?
What identity am I willing to shed?
What fear am I willing to no longer feed?
What pattern am I willing to stop using reasons to justify and explain?
What would become available if you allowed transformation to unfold?
The Phoenix does not rise while holding onto its ashes. The butterfly does not fly while remaining inside the chrysalis.
My invitation to you is to LET IT HAPPEN.
Just stop holding on to what no longer belongs in your becoming. Rise and be who you're meant to be.
