A few weeks ago, I hit a real low point. It happens to all of us, no matter how spiritually advanced we are. Despite the number of Downward Dogs I may have done that morning, I was still not immune to having a bad day.
I felt overwhelmed. Anxious. I felt I couldn’t put one foot in front of the other and complete the tasks of the day, because my mind was reeling. The pandemic. The Black Lives Matter movement. The uncertainty of all of it got to me. The tears came with such force I had no choice but to hunker down and let them flow. My attention moved from overwhelm to intense feeling and all I could do was feel my emotions with every inch of me. I didn’t have words to describe these emotions, and I didn’t need that, I just needed to feel it all.
Luckily, I have an amazing partner who witnessed all of this and gently suggested I take a little venture out to the river with a hammock, to feel all the feelings while the sun kissed my body with healing beams of love. I complied, and of course, that was a genius idea.
I perched in my hammock, listening to the river flowing effortlessly underneath me. My pen moved organically in my journal under the warm embrace of the sweet sun. What came out on paper shocked even me! I wrote about the river, the sun, the priceless nature of that calming moment in nature. How I knew everything was okay.
I took a black river rock, and infused it with my anxieties and worries. I thanked it for the lessons, and ceremoniously threw it in the river.
These simple actions changed the course of my day.
I was able to enjoy the sun, the river, and my sweet partner. If it weren’t for my foundation of ritual and journaling, I would have spent that day crumpled on the floor of my house, crying and feeling my feelings. Neither is right or wrong, or better than the other.
It is so important to feel feelings, but they also need an outlet, so they can be expressed and so we can learn from them. In this way, we can thank them and move on with our lives, rather than staying hostage to them, stuck in the quagmire of shadow exploration.
It’s not meant to last forever. Those shadows are meant to teach us lessons so we can move on, feeling, and spreading joy once again.
You will find breakthroughs in the pages of their journals all the time, but not always in the way you might think. The breakthroughs may come later, after things are written.
By Dia Michelle Smith
I have found this combination of Ritual and Journal to be so powerful, that my business partner Sarah Brianna Smith and I wrote a book on it! This is a choose your own adventure path which leads you to break through the limitations of your mind and to live the life you’ve always dreamed of, but never thought possible. We are also offering a 30-Day Transform Group Coaching Journey for a limited number, where you can achieve the breakthroughs that come from speaking your truth aloud to other humans. We will begin on the New Moon of July 20th! The perfect time to set your intentions for what you want to release and create in your life.
Check out the details of the Transform Book and the Group Coaching program. And for added support, join our Free Facebook Group, called Soul Healing Sisterhood!
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