You May Say I am a Dreamer....but I am Not the Only One!
Never has there been a year where FAITH has been more critical to my well being than this year. Faith reminds me to surrender to all the things I cannot control and yet also reminds me of the importance of commitment to holding possibility close to my heart. Faith does not come easy, it is hard work and is often uncomfortable.
Faith allows me to continuously grow.
When 2019 came to an end, I dove into reflection on who I was, who I was not and what I felt was missing. As a huge fan of Danielle Laporte, I completed my annual run of Core Desired feelings and I landed on: Spiritual, Purposeful, Prosperous, Luminous and Faith.
2020 was a stellar year for testing all of these words in practice. As I lost my yoga studio to a global pandemic, I leaned in to my spiritual tool box for guidance. I chose to remain a bright light in a time of chaos, not by only showing highlights, sunshines and rainbows but by vulnerably sharing the entire cyclical process of birth, death and eventually re-birth (still getting there). I redefined what prosperity meant to me and it held me when abundance went by the curb and my business crumbled before my eyes. I had Faith take the reins and remind me that I have a purpose and encourage me to keep moving forward no matter how hard I wanted to quit. I couldn’t have known in November of 2019 how much my life would change but, I knew how I wanted to feel. Those feelings became my compass and they held me afloat through some of the roughest seas known to mankind.
As I sit in reflection, my favourite way to honour the Winter Solstice, also known as Yule, I am reminded of how different of a year 2020 was and as such why I feel the need to shake up my annual ritual of choosing a word and core desired feelings.
Amidst the major transformation that occurred for me last year (breakthrough comes the other side of break down for me) I realized that one major aspect of my life was out of alignment: Value. With the slowed down rhythm I was having more time to ponder and reflect and with each deep thought and feeling, I became clear that my love of words and feelings was just the top of the iceberg. In order for the iceberg to float, buried beneath are the guiding principles or values that help me make decisions. Google defines a value as “a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life.” Without understanding what lens I am using to judge, I can’t possibly understand my feelings.
I sat with this for some time. I leaned back into John Lennon’s lyrics “ imagine all the people living for today” and I felt a foundation form at the base of the iceberg that any Utopia could be built upon: values. I knew I was on to something, this is not a new way to think, it's just that throughout my life the values I have been asked to follow were never quite for me. This led me down a rabbit hole of exploring my Metis Heritage and the value systems of the original Metis Nation and the more I learned, the more I became alive. I am still very much learning my heritage, which was lost to my family for many colonial reasons, but many elders in First Nations communities have kept teaching of Values alive and made them publicly available for all who care to walk an ancient way of being. I want to walk that way upon the Earth.
As I played with words and values and explored the Indigenous 7 Grandfather Teachings I wrote my own value statements based upon what was already available in words that resonated for me and helped me build a solid foundation, a lens from which to walk forward in true soulful alignment.
Once I honed in my value statements I returned to the work of Danielle LaPorte and began my core desired feelings reflection. The foundation changed the lens and I feel more calm, strong and resilient as I move forward into 2021 with my feeling compass. This year my main word is FIERCE, followed by faith, unity, reciprocity, and celebratory. I am choosing fiercely to be the powerhouse that reminds me to go all the way with my commitment to my values and the way I truly want to feel in all things I endeavour this year.
For years now, choosing feelings first has helped me set goals that matter and are in true alignment with my highest good. The feelings allow me to set goals based on how I ultimately want to feel in life.
This year, adding in the values has honed in not just how I want to feel but how I want to turn up for my son, my business, my community and humanity. I feel so confident that this compass is set to have me in control of the only thing I can control: me. This brings me peace, a peace that on this dark solstice night reminds me the light always lies within peace. As I stoke the fire of feeling Fierce in 2021 I welcome the return to light and the many seeds I will sow under the lens of combined feelings and values.
Have you ever considered values and core desired feelings as a tool to guide you? I invite you to a free workshop for some helpful ideas on how to form your very own foundation for the best version of yourself in 2021. It does take a certain amount of dreaming to breathe a new way of being into reality, I don’t mind if you call me a dreamer anymore because I have come to recognize that my dreams are the very seeds of beauty I look forward to bringing to the returning light. “I hope someday you will join us, and the world will live as one” - Imagine John Lennon
Tawny Stowe
Nurturing Curiosity
