It is not possible to expand into the person your soul desires you to be, to grow and evolve without meeting your darkness.
The shadow parts within you that are pain, resentment, raw or angry.
The truth is TRUE transformation work can be ugly. And most often IS.
But that’s often not the picture we are sold.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for activating pleasure, channelling white light + dancing with your soul. But only when it’s authentic.
Sometimes it feels like the majority of the spiritual/self-development world is high on positive-affirmation-infused-goddess-this-divine-feminine-that-crack.
I’m all down with the positive affirmations, goddess + divine feminine. But when it becomes the latest trend that has us feeling like I have to use these words, and look this way in order to be feminine… it loses its depth and risks becoming yet another thing you “should” be/do/have in order to be enough….
We don’t need more boxes to tick.
We don’t need more trends to tell us who we should be.
What I want.
What my soul (there is another trend word) really wants.
Is DEPTH.
Deep fucking connection, deep fucking understanding and radical authenticity for ALL of me + everyone around me.
When we come down to it all – spiritual paths – whether they are feminine (like embodiment) or masculine (like most meditations), whether they are talking about priestesses, shamans or chakras – ALL spiritual paths have one thing in common.
L O V E.
Love is the ultimate force of healing and every single spiritual + self development tool is some incarnation of this essential vibration of LOVE.
And love, true self-love, is only possible when we love ALL of ourselves. The light and the shadow.
Nearly every single block, fear, frustration, pain, limitation or doubt stems from one core issue – a lack of willingness/ability to OPEN OUR HEART and LOVE that part of ourselves.
The mother who resents her child.
Is not a bad mother. She is human.
Yet society punishes her for this feeling.
So she punishes herself for this feeling.
And she suffers.
Because she cannot love her imperfect mothering.
The woman who rejects her body because of this imperfection, or that.
Is not an ugly woman. She is human.
Yet society tells her to fix + at least dress to flatter her flaw.
So she punishes herself for this flaw.
And she suffers.
Because she cannot love her imperfect body.
The coach whose personal life is in a mess + thinks “who am I to help anyone else?”.
Is not a bad coach. She is human.
Yet society says you need to be perfect in order to have something to say. And you need the paper on the wall in order to be an expert.
So she punishes herself for this doubt.
And she suffers.
Because she cannot love her imperfect life.
Resentment. Flaws. Imperfections.
These things don’t make us broken.
They are not blocks that need to be fixed.
They are disowned parts of us that need to be LOVED
“The cure for the pain is in the pain”
– Rumi
Learning to love these parts of us that secretly disgust or shame us is TRUE healing. It’s shadow work, the real depth and raw vulnerability that’s required for true LOVE and thus allow true transformation to happen.
Learning to embrace + express these parts of us that society condemns + that we would rather hide is authentic liberation. (*this is also embodiment!)
So why are we not talking about our shame?
Why are we not expressing our unpolished and imperfect side more?
The time for fearing + avoiding our shadow is over.
All of you deserve to be loved. All your beauty, all your sunshine, all your shadow, all your night.
All of you is ready to be expressed + liberated. For women who are called to live in true depth (and if you are reading this, that’s you!) there is no other way, but down.
Down deep into the heart of who you truly are.
And look, if you want to channel some goddess and activate your inner priestess to get their full-power to you, I’m truly not judging anyone else’s path.
But the point is: Depth woman, depth. Your shadow is beautiful. Please don’t gloss her over.
If this post has spoken to your heart I would love you to join us in The Embodied Woman Private Facebook Group now and share with us your shadow.
To claim something you are hiding, keeping locked away or ashamed of, past or present, and to LOVE that shadow part of you so that it can return to wholeness.
