On Being Deeply Honest With Yourself
Let’s have a talk. A real talk. A heart-to-heart, honest talk. Pour yourself a coffee, tea, water, juice or other beverage of choice and let’s go.
Are you allowing yourself to see the parts of you that maybe aren’t so sparkly, pretty, and social-media worthy?
Are you carrying around someone else’s dream? Someone else’s “shoulds” and reasons why you can’t do/be/have the life you’re truly meant to live?
Are you afraid of what you might find if you were truly honest with yourself?
Never before have we lived in such a time where we can so carefully select what people see about us and what they don’t.
If you look at our lives online, we all look like perfect, happy, successful people with hardly a problem in our lives.
We don’t let people see the parts of us that we think are ugly or that we think will make others turn away from us, judge us, abandon us and even hate us.
We even go so far as to refuse to see these parts of ourselves, shoving them way back, deep into the recesses of our beings, until some crisis comes up, and it all comes tumbling out in one great, tangled, confusing mess.
Maybe this isn’t you. Maybe this is an old version of you, and you have learned how to see and integrate these shadow parts of yourself. To you I say, congratulations! Tell us your secrets. How did you do it?
To the rest of you…
…to those of you who know, deep down in your being, in your gut, in your innermost knowingness, that this is you, there is hope.
Some part of you is whispering to be heard, to be acknowledged, to be given attention and love. Some part of you wants you to know your true power. Well, you asked for it, and here it is.
If you don’t know how to begin an honest dialog with your shadow side that leads to reintegration and standing tall in your true power, then listen up.
Start with the simplest method: ASK.
Ask your inner self, your connection to Source/Divine/God/Goddess, and your spirit guides and helpers for protection and support with being gently and clearly shown one place where your power is locked up in your shadows.
“Guides, Divine, Earth, please protect me and support me in being gently and clearly shown one place where my power is locked up in my shadows. Thank you.”
Now pick one or two of these questions to journal about without censorship. Just let it all come out.
Where is my power and truth waiting to be seen, acknowledged, accepted, loved and reintegrated into my awareness of myself as whole?
Where have I been deceiving myself?
What have I been trying to hide?
What attitudes or beliefs do I have a strong emotional attachment to?
What have I been forcing myself to believe, even though I know it’s not right, not true for me?
What habits, judgements or expectations from others am I carrying as my own that I have not been willing to acknowledge or let go of?
Click here to get a typeable pdf of these journal prompts.
Make sure you download it before you start typing, so your answers will be saved!
When it shows up, you’ll know it. It might hit you in the gut, or send a river of tears down your face. It might make you want to throw up when you realize how much energy you’ve been using to keep this lie in place.
Honesty lets energy flow.
It takes more energy to hold deceit and lies in place than to face the consequences of honesty.
And with the realization of your deceitfulness, you will be removing the dam that’s keeping the flow of your power, truth, energy, and clarity blocked.
Honesty doesn’t have to be harsh.
It doesn’t have to come through these ways. It could show up as a HUGE RELIEF. The trick to this is to be willing, to ASK for it to come through gently and clearly, and to trust it when it shows up.
When you realize you no longer need to hold onto this belief, or that you can love even this shadow side of yourself, then you are stepping into your power.
When you can see your shadow for what it is, simply a part of yourself that you were unwilling to love or accept, then you can see its gifts.
Every shadow comes with a gift. Thank it. Accept the gift and use it. If it’s not apparent what the gift is, ask that you are gently and clearly shown what it is.
Honesty doesn’t have to be brutal.
Brutal honesty is often thinly veiled aggression. One of my teachers has a saying, “Speak the cold, hard truth with soft, round words.”
See yourself (shadow side and all) and love yourself just as you are. It’s that simple. It’s THAT simple. And yet we make it so complicated.
You may be brand-spankin new to this, so give yourself some time.
Give yourself compassion if you don’t get it right away.
When you were a baby did you go from crawling to effortless walking? No. You learned first by holding onto a table and walking around it. Then you took some wobbly steps on your own. But soon, with consistent practice and an undying desire to get it, you were walking and then running and jumping and playing and woooow!
You are that baby right now, learning how to see your shadow side, reintegrate it into love and OWN your power.
Be in your power. Love your power. Use your power.
You’ve come this far. Your soul has been asking for this, and now the method for support has shown up for you. This is you walking around that table, about to take your first wobbly steps.
You can ignore this or not do this if you’re not ready.
Opportunities will keep showing up for you to take these first steps. But the sooner you start the process, the sooner you really will “level up” into a life that reflects what it’s like for you to be in your power, to be clear on every level and step into the life of truth that you’re meant to be living.
It’s true. It’s real, and I invite you to begin.
Comment below on what came up for you, or hit reply and share with us in an email!
xoxoxo
Natalie & Shawna
PS - You can get a typeable pdf of the journal prompts here.
Make sure you download it before you start typing, so your answers will be saved!