Personal Growth through Self-Love

At the time of this posting, it is the solar eclipse in Leo. Eclipse seasons, occurring about every 6 months, have a way of reminding us that there are bigger changes at work and the only way to work through them is to surrender to the process. Whatever has been set in motion is done and we are to let it be. I remember a few years ago when there was a total solar eclipse and I happened to be in the path of totality, the area where viewers can see the eclipse occur with the iconic “ring of fire” moment. It was a beautiful surreal moment. During the approximate 4 minutes of totality, there was an eerie black sphere with a silvery burst of light behind it, the birds had gone silent, and when you spun around you could see what looked like a 360* sunset. Quite a view!

If you weren’t aware, eclipses occur when the path of the moon and sun cross at two points twice a year. The rest of the year the path of the moon appears higher or lower than the path of the sun. Spiritually we can look at this as a conjunction of the divine masculine (sun) and the divine feminine (moon). When the two come together in this balance like yin and yang, powerful shifts are occurring. Whether we manifest them or not, the energetic shifts will…well…shake shit up. Not for the sake of chaos, but for the sake of rebalancing and righting the paths we are taking in our individual lives. So truly we can be grateful!

So what happened to me that year I watched this eclipse? Well shortly after, I went to a breathwork session. Breathwork is a powerful tool. It’s a pattern of intentional breathing to bring your body into an altered state. With the sharp, deep breaths, the body believes you are in danger and dizziness begins to get you to shelter or relax as it believes you’re going to faint. However, it’s intentional and you are lying down, safe. As time passed during this breathwork, I began to feel tingling in my nerve endings that quickly spread to the point where it felt like my whole body was vibrating. My fingers curled in this contraction. I could hear emotional release from people around me. The state our bodies were in, loosened up the control mechanisms we put in place to protect us from our trauma. After the facilitator brought us back into a normal breathing pattern, it took about 10-15 minutes for the vibration feeling to stop entirely. I sat up, sobbing, and the only words I could get out were, “I love you,” directed to myself. I have never in my life said that about myself and actually meant it. This was the first time, at age 41, after a powerful eclipse in my own sun sign of Aries, ruling personal identity, that I was able to say that I love myself, full stop.

Radical self-love. That’s what I like to call it. Unconditional, no qualifiers, just radical self-love. From this point on, many things started to shift in my career path, love life, friendships, spiritual practices, and best of all, how I began embracing my authentic self. I say self-love is essential for personal growth because if we don’t have radical self-love then we are going to fixate on things we view as imperfect, shameful, or unworthy. Breathwork was my moment that shook me to my core. I knew in that moment something much bigger than just loving myself was happening. By breaking down those barriers, I knew I was opening up space for bigger and better things to come into my life. Without self-love, I would have been stalled and blocked by beliefs that I didn’t deserve the insane upgrades to my life that were coming and are STILL coming.

I’m not saying breathwork will do this for everyone. Certainly if you’re medically cleared for it, then it’s an insanely healing practice. Another healing practice or life event may guide you to the moment of radical self-love. It brings you to a place where you much less hard on yourself and then extend that grace to others. I’m not saying it’s perfect afterwards. There are still moments when I’m faced with old programming that I’m unworthy, unlovable, etc., but there is another version of me that is witnessing that happening and able to stop listening. Realistically, you do not kill off your ego fears, you just learn to recognize it and turn the volume all the way down and move on. To deal with some of that old programming, I created an EFT tapping video for this exact topic.

In the spirit of this new moon solar eclipse in Leo, the sign of self-expression, where can you work on self-love?

What do you notice about your thoughts and emotions when you see this content about self-love? How does it feel in your body?

Who is the one noticing these thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations? If you are noticing them, then you are NOT your thoughts, you are NOT your emotions, you are NOT your body. There is a witness within you, the higher self, the soul. This is where pure love comes from. This You witnesses all of this happening without judgment. The more we get in touch with this higher self, the more personal growth occurs. We begin to notice other things going on within us and around us and feel motivated to make changes. They’re mostly subtle and small changes that amount to us being completely different people over time. Well, not a different person, but more aligned to that inner witness.

If you ever would consider working with someone on this journey, life coaching is a great place to start. You set the goal and a coach like me will help navigate to reach the goal. You can check out my offerings to see if anything looks appealing at this point in your journey.

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