All of us are very afraid of failure. We have been taught to believe that we are good enough, smart enough, worthy enough and worthy of enjoying life only if we are successful – successful as defined by the parameters of society.
These parameters are often governed by the profits we generate or the salaries we earn, the volume of sales or the number of customers we acquire, by the goods we can buy and accumulate and money we can spend.
While these parameters are okay to live a comfortable human experience, we forget to define how much is enough really. We forget to introspect whether the desire is fuelled by our comparison with others and hence arising out of our innate insecurities and deep rooted feeling of being not good enough or whether it is fuelled by our passion to fulfil our true potential and eventually to contribute and be of service.
If we are unable to meet some or any of the above definitions of success, we consider ourselves a huge failure. We compare ourselves with our peers, neighbours or competitors and MEASURE our success by these benchmarks which we often assign to our own self.
Not only do we wallow in misery because apparently we failed, we also take a dig further in our self esteem and sense of self.
The definitions of success and failure that exist are not only superficial and irrelevant, in my opinion, but they also bypass a few very important facets of the human and soul experience.
We are taught to feel shame when we do not succeed. We are not taught that every so called failure is a huge teacher – a teacher who can lead us to a deeper exploration, understanding, healing and awareness of the SELF, should we see it that way.
If we do not label the incident or experience as failure or success, it has the potential and the possibility to lead us through a process of death and re-birth, deconstruction and reconstruction just like nature that is born, that dies and rebirths itself over and over again.
Deconstruction and reconstruction is such an integral part of nature but even though we are embodiments of nature, we have moved away from nature and forgotten to view our life experiences as just that: an extension of death and rebirth. Death and rebirth keeps happening in our bodies too, intermittently.
Similarly our definitions of success and failure can either nourish us or create more shame and hence more toxicity in our lives.
Picture as shared by Michaeal Meade
Needless to say that the kingdom/treasure that awaits to be discovered is more often than not, not just overlooked but often not considered worth looking into at all.
Could we allow our so called successes and failures to seed in us just as an experience that leads to:
(a) Deconstruction of facets that we do not need anymore? (b) Reconstruction and reclamation of facets which we might have ignored or buried deep within the self out of fear of rejection or retribution?
I leave you with the thought that we do not have to DO something to PROVE that we matter and that we are indeed worthy.
Thousands of years of programming that has been fed into our cells, will obviously take time to disintegrate and shed. Perhaps it may take many births and lifetimes to understand and embody the ultimate truth: I am whole and complete and worthy just because I EXIST.
While we mull over on these thoughts, the kingdom within us waits to be unlocked. Will we begin this journey?
When a woman raises her voice, we call her direct, blunt, harsh, unkind, arrogant, aggressive and yes, even A BITCH.
Why is a woman’s voice so judged? Why is a woman always expected to be lovey dovey and goodie goodie?
We say that a woman is Shakti, she is Prakriti. When prakriti, mother nature, showers us with her fury, we never judge her roar. When mama ocean throws a storm we bow down and pray.
When the wind hurls we pay attention.
This is why mother nature raises her voice. So that humanity pays attention. When soft gentle winds and waves don’t work, nature raises her voice and draws our attention.
There is power in her roar. Her rage is her medicine.
Yes a soft voice also has power and strength. But that doesn’t make a loud woman any less soft or less feminine.
Women have historically been judged for their rawness. Their wilderness is often sought to be tamed or has been shamed or judged or labelled as unkind or harsh or ‘unwomanly.’
So who is a woman really? Is she to suit your tastes because it makes you feel inadequate when she calls you out? A mother tries and tries to soothe a tantrumy child but when the child doesn’t pay attention…it is here that she becomes firm. That firm approach to some can seem loud or unkind or harsh or direct.
But why is directness so bad? Why is a woman only supposed to behave the way it suits your tastes?
You don’t take permission before treating her like this or that. So then why does she need YOUR permission to be her SELF?
Why do women look for validation from their men and when there is no validation but only judgement, why is her sense of self so shaken?
She begins to question her identiy, her core, her magnificence, her essence.
Who is a woman? What is her power? Is she only a soft lovey dovey motherly energy?
What all facets encompass her womanhood? Have you ever wondered and connected to the woman within and what is it that she really really wants and desires and longs for?
Does she voice herself enough? Does she scream when she is not heard or when she feels betrayed or abandoned by the patriarchal man?
What is her pain? What is her longing? Have you ever connected to the woman inside you?
In this 2 hour exploration, we dive deeper into connecting with the woman inside of us and her various facets and selves and what they mean to us and what gifts each one of them brings.
Join us for a FREE WEBINAR on The Gift of Womanhood.
When the ocean is in chaos, when the ocean is stormy, we do not judge the ocean. We do not blame it for not being calm. We do not criticize it for not being still.
We worship it. We pray to it. We surrender to it and try to understand and accept its undercurrents.
A couple of years ago when I was enquiring about what is next in my purpose to serve and contribute, there was a guidance to work with young adults.
I didn’t know how and what to specifically contribute to young adults. Although our workshops have been attended by all age groups from as young as 8 year olds to 80 year olds, I didn’t know how to simplify the teachings and bring it to the doorstep of young adults who were not seeking the path or were not into any healing per se.
Several months ago, I prayed to the universe to show me the next steps on my spiritual journey. I gave a declaration that from now onwards I am not going to struggle to find my way or struggle to be a conduit for supporting others. I prayed that if the universe wants me to do something for young adults, it should send the opportunity at my doorstep.
It is said, “Ask and you shall RECEIVE.”
In the last several months universe has presented me the opportunity to guide young adults in several ways. The opportunities have indeed come my way effortlessly.
And while I have fretted what will I share with them and how, whenever the time came to be with them, the right words, guidance, teachings, ceremonies have just flowed through me. Divine Grace has poured through me for these young ones and I feel blessed to be a conduit.
One such opportunity was at the event called “RYLA” organised by Rotary in an agricultural college 3 hours away from home.
I was invited to join Rotary Club Deesa (Gujarat) for two transformative sessions
The conversations on “Living and Leading Authentically” seamlessly flowed into a drumming circle where Sprit flowed through me. We had conversations on true self, fears, how and what shapes our emotions and belief systems, the role of our soul and how our human experience is coloured by what we have stored in our subconscious minds.
Living & Leading Authentically
The drum circle ended with a beautiful fire ceremony where these young ones wrote patterns and aspects they wished to release and goals they wished to manifest.
Lastly, we ended the circle by chanting like a mantra the following affirmation, “I choose to be loyal to myself”.
Drum Circle & Fire Ceremony
We closed sacred space by giving our own self a huge round of applause.
It was a humbling experience when so many young adults had so many questions on how to identify what is our true self.
I came back home at 1 AM to be welcomed by the spirit of my home and slept in sweet fondness of how miraculously the universe works its ways should we choose to open our hearts and allow.
In deepest gratitude I wish each one of us a life filled with Authenticity and True to our Souls.
So long 2024 and a warm welcome to the coming year 2025. Aho 🌟
We are an embodiment of nature. Nature lives inside our bodies and minds. We can allow expression of nature and it’s cyclical nature within us or we can bypass its currents that flow within us.
Nature is circular and cyclical. Through her seasons and elements we understand and experience different shades of our own existence. We can relate with our own self better if we understand nature.
Source: Pinterest
Nature in the season of spring brings hope, aliveness, freshness, joy, cheer, inspiration and new beginnings. We seed what we wish to bring to fruition.
Nature in the season of summer brings culmination to what we might have seeded in spring. It is about culmination of our own actions, work, passions, purpose, coming together of what we started and enjoying that. It’s about blossoming and fruition. The seeds sown and brought to life in spring come to full expression in the season summer.
Nature in the season of autumn begins the process of slowing down and shedding. It evokes the sense of reviewing our lives, how far along we have come, what do we need to do next, where do we let go, where do we need to slow down and what closures await us. It begins the process of retreating. Nature in her letting go and shedding phase brings it’s own beauty.
We never judge a tree that has slowed down its growth and is shedding its leaves. We stand in awe of this beauty of nature.
We become admirers and are awed by her magnificence at every turn.
We appreciate this slowing down. We stand in wonderment of this process of dying.
We admire nature in her birthing phase. Our heart sings when she is in her blossoming phase. And our bodies stand in childlike wonderment during her slowing down phase.
After autumn, nature makes her presence with winter. In her nude, barren state, when all the leaves have shed and all the growth has died down, she rejoices and stands tall in her void and emptiness, patiently awaiting her rebirth.
In this void, in this stillness, in this death, there is still a feeling of being complete and whole. I personally have rejoiced barren empty trees as much as I have been in awe of a tree pregnant with hope and desire and birthing new leaves, new life.
Death and Rebirth…new beginnings, life to its full bloom, slowing down and death. Nature’s glory in all her seasons and cycles teaches us humans so many things.
We often tend to question our existence or our worthiness when things take a turn or slow down or don’t go as desired. When cycles end – of work, relationships, money, career, passion or purpose, it makes us very uncomfortable. It makes us question our sense of worthiness and adequacy. We have glorified progress with work and stillness or emptiness as being unproductive and hence unworthy.
Winter may become present in different areas of our lives individually and collectively. Sometimes we experience an ending of a relationship or sometimes a career. The emptiness makes us question our existence. We grieve the death of these areas and we question the little deaths we have undergone all our lives.
We may often look at nature whole and complete, still and beautiful in her barrenness and yet we may question and fight with, be uncomfortable with this emptiness and barrenness inside of us.
We adore, admire and honor nature. We know we are nature. And yet, our yearning creates a sort of friction and perhaps a subliminal resistance to accept our own winter, in its truest sense.
Can we use the winter of our lives to just BE? Can we honor the beauty of stillness, stuckness, slowness, pause, barrenness and emptiness?
Can acceptance of this void – fully, make us pregnant with hope and desire again?
Can we patiently wait and most importantly accept this phase of our cycle without having the desire to rush through or bring completion to this death inside or outside?
Can we grieve fully what we perceive we may have lost and yet rest in the beauty that is, of winter?
