The gift of personal awareness

I've been a part of a new Mastermind for 4 months now.  It's strongly focused on personal development, recognising, claiming and leveraging more of your own power and innate gifts so you can serve at a higher level through your business.It's one of the most invigorating and exciting experiences I've had and as I tend to curate most things I learn, I'm enjoying sharing the insights with my clients and community. An example of this is what I am calling the "Inner Growth Continuum" that I developed at the retreat I went to a few weeks ago. It captures what I see as the stages we move through as we become more of who we are in our businesses and lives, and I'll be sharing more about this in the coming weeks and months. I'm pretty clear on what you'll experience in chapters 1-3, having worked with a great many women who are moving through these stages. But until recently, the Embody stage was more conceptual than concrete.

The breakthrough came last week

I was woken at 5.30 am on Friday morning and felt drawn to watch the sunrise... it was simply beautiful. And I found myself writing, writing what feels like an observation of what was happening inside of me right at that moment. I can't really do justice to how it felt. But it was something rather significant and it's an experience I want more of us to recognise as I believe it's the destination where we are all heading on this journey of ours.

This is what I captured.

I want you to know the brilliance of your capacity. That you’ve stepped through the door that we’ve held open for some time. We knew you’d take the step. We were patient. And now that you’re here, there is so much available for you. You’re brimming with knowledge and understanding to download and share, All you need to do is remain open and aware and it will be available to you. As has been said, “keep the channel open”.Confidence has blossomed into trust.The need to follow and compare, to judge and find yourself wanting has dissolved. Left in its place are calm certainty and a delicious, expansive sense of freedom. The feeling has both wings and an anchor for you. And there is no sense of urgency. That’s gone, replaced by a sense of grounded actualisation.The impact I’m here for, the contribution that is my both my responsibility and delight to make is without question, already taking place. I am living it. I always have been – that’s the key awareness that has landed. The realisation that it’s always been here. I need not have reached or strived for it. I can now see that I was already in the place that I thought I had to travel too. I was already home. The truth settles around you like a beautiful loose garment. You were always here.

It's a realisation, not a becoming

The process is not one of becoming at all. It’s one of realisation. Acceptance of the gifts that have always been available to you, through you. It’s actually been about removing the layers of misbeliefs from your eyes, mind, and heart that hid the truth about yourself. That’s why this process began with awareness – the very first step towards this glorious recognition of who you are, have always been and always will be.I’m here.Here I am.I thought it was about arriving.It’s actually about awakening.I thought I had to find my power.I only needed to claim it.The process isn’t about learning more things. It’s about unlearning the stories you’ve unconsciously adopted all through your journey, stripping them back with gentle enquiry so you can get to the heart of yourself and claim and celebrate the depth and expansiveness of you.This is our work in the world, no matter our occupation, our true responsibility, no matter our role. Because when you discover this truth, you cannot help but share it in your own unique way and thus contribute to the unlocking of others. When you’re awake, the natural evolution is to want to awaken others to their own power too. But a word of caution, beautiful as your enthusiasm and pure intent is, this is a personal journey for each person. Though you can certainly facilitate awareness for another, they have their own divine timing to follow. There is a moment in the fabric of their own universe when their truth will become apparent to them and you cannot, absolutely cannot force this moment upon them. You can assist in preparing the soil, help create the environment and experiences that lead towards the breakthrough in understanding. But it is their experience and it will arrive and unfold as a chapter in their story at exactly the time that is right for them.

It goes to your core

This is not a purely mental moment. The realisation is coupled with a deep, tangible physical knowing, a settling into your soul, a lift in your heart. A quiet, bold certainty that radiates throughout your body. I believe there is a change that somehow takes place at the molecular level, your entire body chemistry shifts in a single moment. There’s no doing back to before. This is who you are now. There’s no acting “as if” any longer. You are if!From here your responsibility is to stay effortlessly connected to your intuition, to allow it to guide your path, your decisions, and your actions. It feels as though there is innate wisdom now at your disposal. Because there is! It feels natural and true because it has always been there. It’s rejoicing as much as you are because it can now serve you without limits. Doors that have once seemed closed to you are now only flung wide open, they have actually disappeared. Past present and future have merged onto one plane as you step forward into the pure potential and gentle power that have been waiting, growing and building your entire life.

Oh, the places you’ll go!

That feeling of possibility - can you sense how deep and wide and limitless you truly are? That’s the truth of you. Lean into it and prepare to fly powered by a bold and delighted heart. And so that's the latest news I have to share, the destination and insight that's available for each of us. This gift of understanding arrived for me only last week after 50+ years of life, 16+ years in business & 13+ years of deep personal development that began in a life-changing 12-step program. And I feel like I'm just getting started.If you've been in my world for a while, you'll know that I believe absolutely, that we need to blend our hearts and minds in business. A clear, consistent strategy is essential for growth and impact, but strategy without heart is meaningless. Goals and plans are vital for momentum, but a business without purpose is empty. I believe it's the deep work I've been doing with my Mentor that is helping me to connect my heart and intellect at a whole new level that's allowing me to open up to a cascade of new understanding, awareness and ideas.I cannot wait to see what will unfold in my next chapter!