As we slide into 2024, I want to invite you today to truly consider what would radically change about your life if you were to give yourself permission to be messy?And I'm not talking about dirty dishes, unfolded laundry, or dust that you can write your initials in ;)
I'm talking about the same kind of messy that Anne-Marie Marron refers to in her article Permission To Be ‘Messy’.
One of the things I'm constantly exploring with my clients is how we must put to bed the idea that "healed" equates to "I've gotten rid of all of the stuff I don't like about myself".
Instead, I offer them the concept of wholeness, and I would say Anne-Marie captures this idea beautifully when she says,
"When we embrace the view that our shadows are as significant as our joy and passion we are on a different journey than the traditional one of ‘avoid feeling and exploring your fear, create illusions of control and pretend to be what you think is acceptable’."
Beloved - you (nor me) cannot eradicate our humanity, but we can give ourselves the grace to embrace all of the human experience.
Be in it. Be, as Anne-Marie says, "exactly as we are".
It's an ongoing practice to be able to be with ALL of it. This past year, I have been doing a lot of grieving, and so I've had a lot of opportunity to practice being present with whatever is so in the moment - whether that be deep sobbing or full belly giggles.
I have noticed that I am less and less and less distressed by my distress!
In years past, I would have been immediately consumed by anxiety, thinking I was doing something "wrong" or I wouldn't be feeling bad, or I'd be over it already it.
What great joy and freedom arrives when we are no longer afraid to embrace the mess, and, as Anne-Marie encourages,
"...remove these subtle ways we limit our full expression; to meet, welcome and love our way back home through a direct engagement with our present experience."
Whatever you are experiencing today - live it. Don't wait!
To quote Magic from the TV show Quantum Leap,
"Be true to your present, Addison, and not some future you’re wishing for that may never happen, because waiting isn’t living."
If you're ready to take the next step towards your wholeness and would like to explore enrolling in the Beyond Surviving program, start by applying for a Discover Your Genuine Self session.
Here's to full permission to be your WHOLE self,
