Embracing the Lotus...

I know in my bones that becoming a mother truly alchemized who I really want, and have always wanted, to be.  My son’s birth ignited a transformation processes that deeply connected with routed hopes, dreams, and traits…parts of me that had only begun to see the sunshine.  These aspects of my persona were hidden away under fear.  The fear which was a true manifestation other people’s stories.  Removing myself from the dried up lakebed of my ownership of thoughts & actions and being planted into a nutrient rich atmosphere where my wholeness could rise through the muck into the sunshine.  The recognition, acceptance and release of relinquishing the burden of carrying that which did not serve me, has cultivated a level of self-cleaning.   Connecting with the ability to truly filter what and whom I let in.  Learning to let the toxicity roll off.  To no longer “take on” others' stories.  Yet to understand that my journey thus far has created who I am.  To pay homage to all of the muck that has occurred within my life, because it from this place, that I have truly grown and connected with the sunshine.   

I am truly fortunate that my husband and son have embraced living a slow lifestyle; where we try to remain open to each new experience. We balance being a low technology household with being truly present with each other and ourselves.  By creating this boundary of slowness, we are able to filter through what is significant to us and what is not.  We are able to utilize the muck in order to nourish ourselves toward the sunshine, toward what we need.  And for the moments when we are exposed or over-technologized, we take a moment to reconnect, reassess, and determine what to own and what to clean away.

I feel that connecting with our stories and truly rumbling with them, as Brene Brown teaches, is the path to living resiliently and in the present moment.  Truly embracing all the sadness, pain, disappointment, regret and really sitting in it & feeling everything we try to bury.  This cultivates ownership and cleansing on the other side.  Connecting with the concept of filtering what you let in is not just from others, but from yourself.  My husband and I have found it extremely empowering to say “the story that I’m making up in my head is…” (thanks Brene!!!) and the concept of naming the emotion to tame it.  We take on the ability not just to self-clean the negative thoughts within our minds, but to navigate through the emotional storms that we can get so easily lost in again and again.  Once we have navigated through to the other side, we realize that those places were such important teachers.

The significance of utilizing the analogy of the lotus is to empower ourselves to navigate an overly congested world of technology, negativity, and marketing that is constantly turning us outward and moving life at a faster pace.   By connecting to ourselves and acknowledging our wholeness, we can filter what information is processed, remain in the present moment and truly show up in our lives.  We can utilize the teachings of every situation as means to step forward into the light and let ourselves truly shine.