This is that powerful moment when I finally gave voice to feelings of disappointment, fear, anger, grief, blame, shame, rejection, and guilt.

I so often swallowed all of these feelings, cramming them down, walking them off, getting over it, and comparing myself to others that had it worse than me so that I might feel better about myself. Talk about denial! I did this for so long that my struggling became suffering.

In many shamanic societies, if you came to a Shaman aka medicine man or woman complaining of illness, they would ask 4 simple questions. The key question was, “when is the last time you told your story”? They knew that holding it within would block the flow of energy and create dis-ease.

My next obstacle was the push back, that self-acceptance means I am accepting that this will always feel as it does. That is not the case. It means that this is how I feel, right here, right now, and I acknowledge and accept this to be the truth as it exists in the present moment. That does not mean it cannot or will not be changed. But without this step of self-acceptance, there is no moving forward without the weight and toll of dragging these feelings along with me.

“It is what it is, and I am ready to continue on my journey of healing open to all possibilities”. Thank you for joining me on this journey! To be continued…