Slow Down to Speed Up

HOWDY, BRAVE & DARING LEADER —

As always, it’s my hope that this newsletter finds you thriving as well as you can in the face of all the challenging and transformational opportunities that are present. 2020 is an invitation to heal, to love, to raise awareness, to dismantle, to grieve, to rest, to Be…

About a month ago, I went on my first solo trip, and I rented myself a small cottage in the mountains of Hendersonville, NC. While I’ve travelled alone plenty, I’ve always done so to meet someone somewhere, to go for training, and things of that nature. This was the first time it was just going to be me, myself, and I on a road trip for a weekend all by my (not) lonesome.

Here are some highlights from my mountain experience that will make me a better leader. Because we are mirrors for each other, my invitation is to look for what there may be for you to see in my share.

⛰ I had been getting the sense that I was ready for a mountain getaway for a bit, and some of the healers I had been working with had been suggesting it as well. After a very powerful past life regression, I woke up a couple nights later compelled to go to the mountains by myself. The course of the next day gave me signs that pointed to doing the bold thing, so I reserved a place in Hendersonville.

Because I made the choice over the summer to scale my business back so I could do some deeper work, a story appeared that it wasn’t “responsible” to take a spontaneous trip away. By now, I know that’s b.s., and the irresponsible thing is actually to not listen to my soul when it speaks. Y’all, I know that the money convo can be a pesky one, but there is so much freedom when you can break out of that.

⛰ The biggest awareness I walked away with was in regards to expectations. When we expect things to go a certain way, people to be a certain way… It’s a great way to be left disappointed.

The work to be done isn’t necessarily about letting the expectations go. In some cases, that won’t actually serve us and so the thing to do may be to have a conversation with the person we are putting the expectations on to see if it’s possible to have them met, how that might look, what sort of expectations they have on us, if we can met them, etc.

It also requires us to take a good hard look at our own space to see what’s up. As a recovering overachieving perfectionist, it’s not a surprise that my expectations are high, and when this ends up in my blindspot, life isn’t as awesome. I disappoint myself and feel disappointed in others.

Fortunately, I have the tools and the support to lean into my next level of reinvention and transformation with this one. If you can relate to this and you don’t have a way to source a breakthrough for yourself, consider seeking support. You’ll find that your relationships are much more fulfilling when you do.

⛰ I also got to see how I still try to control and manage the experience around me so I can feel good (safe) — even in my own home! What this looks like for me is not minding my energetic business, if you will. I’m always reading the energy of the room to try and moderate the vibe if that makes sense.

This allowed me to see the importance of getting away on trips completely by myself so I can let my system rest in a way that I still can’t seem to let it rest when there are others around.

⛰ Some structures I have put in place for myself moving forward to keep the learning in tact are regular solo trips, as I already mentioned, check ins with those I’m in partnerships with, if necessary, to ensure that expectations are being met from each side and readjusted, if and when necessary. I’m currently a participant in a Love Revolution program, so I’m looking at what will be taking the place of that. There are benefits of group programs and there are benefits of solo programs, and it’s important to know which one we need and when and sometimes it’s both. Transformation is a lot like hiking in the mountains…

What I know to be true for myself to show up as the type of leader who can see what there is to see and get support to make the appropriate shifts is that self-love and self care have always been and always will be the most important piece, and that’s why I began creating fall retreats.

Three years ago, I began offering a fall retreat as a way to support people in slowing down and turning inward like the fall and winter months invite. Because we live in a society that is inviting us to speed up, it’s often tough to do that. The annual retreat focuses on slowing everything down and preparing for those upcoming months in a way that will serve you to speed up and bloom during the spring like mother nature invites. This mini retreat will be a two hour workshop format sneak peek into next year’s fall retreat with the intention of leaving you slowed down and committed to who you get to be in spring 2021 and who you get to be and what you get to do this fall/winter season to become that.

In lieu of this year’s fall mountain retreat since it has been rescheduled to 2021, I was invited to created a mini retreat experience. I’m so grateful to share that the first offering sold out quickly, so I created another.

During our two hours together, you will:

• Practice restorative yoga, which will include grounding pranayama aka breath work.
• Be led through a guided visualization meditation so as to connect to who you get to show up as in spring of 2021 and who you need to be and what you need to do to prepare for that during these upcoming fall and winter seasons..
• Be given space to journal so as to capture the gold of what is presented to you in your restorative practice and visualization. Prompts will be given to unlock the unconscious and subconscious mind as fully as possible. You may feel called to continue journaling for the remainder of the weekend after this workshop.
• Have the opportunity to declare out loud to yourself, group, and source who you get to be and what you get to do this fall and winter so you can nest best to rest best so you get to bloom even bigger in spring of 2021. Through these experiential exercises, you will create new neural pathways, and the practices you will take out of the workshop will allow you to continue building that out on your own.
• Be given a complementary 30 minute follow-up session as my gift if you are interested in receiving support to further all that we’ll be doing in the workshop.

See the flyer below for the rest of the deets!

Will you travel with us on the morning of the 25th? Or, will you take a different path?