A common experience that comes up in my work is grief and self-judgment when a client or community member feels that they have gone backwards in their growth. But we can’t go backwards; it’s impossible. We may feel like we’ve circled back to an old wound, or to something we believed we had already learned, once and for all.

But we are all in progress and we need repetition to truly move a new truth from head into heart and then deeper into the body until it lives in our bones or becomes embodied truth. We travel deeper, not wider. Life is more circular than linear. We learn how to practice a new skill or pattern in new circumstances. We take it to the next level. But we don’t go backwards. 

SHOW NOTES

We're all simply practicing. We're all in progress, going deeper not wider.

There's so much pain and shame when we believe the story that we 'should' be better/different/further along than exactly where we are. This keeps us stuck in unhelpful patterns and robs us of living awake and present to the very real - imperfect and beautiful - reality in front of us.

With each repetition or encounter with a particular struggle/skill, we deepen our roots and our wisdom grows too. And as we go deeper, slow and steady, we encounter True Self hidden beneath layers of hurt, trying to get our needs met, and behavioral patterns constructed to help us feel safe and loved in this messy world. All the work we’ve done to get to this place in our journey, none of it is wasted. It’s all here with us as we face this new season or circumstance.

In this episode I share four gifts that come from accepting that we're all simply practicing and help us shift from shame or despair into agency.

LINKS/RESOURCES

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