FROM PAIN TO POWER
The quest to overcome adversity and emerge triumphant is the underlying storyline of every epic tale we love.
It's also the quest each one of us is on, right now.
Every day of our lives we are participating in the epic telling of our tale. Whether we're conscious of it or not, we are each striving to raise ourselves to a better place -- greater achievement, better health, joyous relationships, financial abundance, peaceful home... whatever it may be.
Just as unique as our quest, the challenges we each seek to overcome are personal to us.
At times they feel insurmountable.
How can I possibly ever get to the place I dream of from here? I can't even see it.
Our pain, our demons and our dragons (our fears) are always scarier (and bigger) when we hide from them, or keep them at bay.
When we step out in front of them -with the support of your very own Gandalf or Yoda- you discover the strengths, the resources and the power that you had never quite owned.
This weekend, I'll be spending three days with a group of seven people who will valiantly face what right now appears to them as their fiercest dragon. They will emerge with the extraordinary sense of wholeness and peace that comes when you get to the other side of the "battle," having slain a dragon that was never fully there.
Come Sunday, these seven people will be looking at their life story completely differently. They will be feeling stronger and taller. They will be appreciating the entire journey that brought them to where they are. They will cease to wish that their story had transpired differently.
I am so honored to do this work. I have a chance to be their Yoda, their midwife.
I've been blessed to assist people overcoming the wounds and trauma from abuse, from loss and from major life setbacks. The thing they never thought they could overcome no longer feels significant. It's still a memory in the past, but now they feel powerful in the face of it.
What are your personal challenges in your own quest?
What are the sources of pain or difficulty that could stand to become your greatest source of power?
Perhaps it's your health that stands in the way of thriving; or it's a past hurt; or a repeating pattern that vexes you.
Let me give you two simple writing exercises to get you started:
Write all of the ways in which this challenge manifests itself in your life -all of the "symptoms" or external expressions of it. Once this inventory is complete, do the next writing exercise.
What are all of the feelings that you have about this challenge and all of its aspects?
Then the big question:
What do you believe is true about you given the fact that you have this challenge?
What emerges from this question is very revealing in many ways. I'll leave it at that so I don't color your genuine, gut responses.
I'd be honored if you share your discoveries and insights with me.
This weekend, I will be holding all of you in my heart as many people are not able to join us at the retreat while really wishing they could be there.
I can't wait to see what magic that will unfold for the entire group and I know that the ripple effects will be felt far and wide. Everyone will be forever changed, and for that I am so grateful.