You know how you sometimes feel like the road ahead is long and does not look hopeful, and you can’t see where you’re going, and can’t see what will turn it around?
That’s the way I felt for a long time, having lived in fear and efforts to control that eventually lead to chronic illness. and seeming to have given up my dreams as a result of that illness–losing my marriage, job, and in living in a state of anxiety and victimhood.
If that’s where you are now… you may not know it yet, and I don’t want you to believe me but come along and find out for yourself, that what shows up and what you see yourself doing in reaction is your perfect path–as it is the only path–and the simple questioning of that thinking will bring you, one act of self-love at at time, to look back and see how far you’ve come, with graitude as you stretch into allowing the next iteration of yourself.
While I call this using whatever upsets you to wake up, this Law of Happy Symmetry, “the Missing PEACE We Were Never Taught,” you can learn it. You can build the muscle that lets you risk acting on behalf of the littlest parts of you; you can consciously cultivate the ability to meet life with curiosity and openness to what looks ‘bad’ as well as what looks ‘good.’ And as you do, there will very soon be times when you will look back at your life and see how far you’ve come.
That is what this video–and this blog post–are about. A celebration, even at an uncertain time and a time when I am leaping with faith into [READ MORE] the next vision, that I stop to look back and enjoy how far I’ve come. As you stay the course of letting life show you what you are doing to yourself and others that is completely an inside job, your projection of victimhood turns into a projection of support. So that everyone and everything shows up as your “Perfect Peeps!” And periodically you will look back and see–as the folks at this retreat (many who are 4-time repeaters) looked back on their year in our Mastermind Group, The Symmetry of Self-Love, and saw how far they had come. You, too, will see that by putting one foot in front of the other, you have actually arrived at a place that you could not have predicted.
I had one of those “Oh my goodness!” days recently, and so I put one foot in front of the other as I walked around this property and reflected on the incredible prosperity it seems to reflect, and the openness and flow in my heart and in the vents and people that surround me with love, as I see the results of investing in myself–giving myself what I needed when I needed it, to nurture myself and others, which allows us to collectively move to the next level of thriving…. It’s a muscle.
My friends sometimes fear for me–even try to dissuade me–when I take these great risks just because they look like the next thing I’m supposed to do, even when I don’t know how it will work or where the money is coming from. More and more, I take in their concern as love, use what I need from it, and return to keeping my own counsel, which creates a very unique and seemingly limitless path. This creative way of letting life and your body and your spirit guide and show you what is beyond your stories is a muscle that you can build up. I call it “free fall into fearless faith” (one of my 6 Keys to Dependable Peace and Delightful Connection”). I also learned through the school of hard knocks and the undoing of codependency to use what now can’t the Win-Win decision matrix, a step-by-step way of checking in first with my heart so that what emerges is the best for all concerned.
As you really learn this SCIENCE OF TAKING LIFE AS IT COMES (which I like to call Happiness Hacks: Shortcuts to Feeling better fast), and start to practice and integrate the skills to help the fearful thinking so that what is left is the truth (i.e., whatever emerges–us you and others always showing up at the highest level of evolution we attained, but no higher) and letting that be okay.
Following the thread of what ever feels GOOD to you, and waking yourself up to whatever HURTS, ends up in the freedom to show up according to your vision. Here are some pictures of the property but when we first got it, when people told me it was just a money pit (and it is but the more I acted to help it and me–investing in whatever we needed next, the healthier and happier I became). My husband, who came along kicking and screaming but did agree to buy it with me, was out of the picture after about a year and a half… It always did feel like a matriarch–that I didn’t yet know how to act on my own behalf and keep my own counsel in the context of others’ needs. And no matter what we THINK we are going to do, the real counsel we need to keep to thrive is the “Counsel with a Capital C” of whatever shows up. Learning to let reality (God) rule, including taking action when you see a higher vision (that vision is also part of the moment’s reality… don’t discount it!) is that fearless faith muscle you can build, and that has great payoffs for where ever your life want to go.
Much love on your journey.
I’m here for you, as I was for the nine women at last weekend’s retreat – – many of them on their 4th retreat and already signed up for the next one! I just offered an amazing discount if you want to come on November 3….grab yourself a spot. There is lots of support here.
XOXO
Shawn
PS–If you’d like to sign up for the fall retreat, it’s half full already–partly cuz I’m running the most amazing special. Check out the retreat page at www.shawnmahshie.com/waterfront-retreats/ and then write to us at support@shawnmahshie.com to let us know you want to get in on that extra percentage off on the super early bird price. Only available till Sunday, May 14 (Mother’s Day! Guys welcome too–it’s an amazing way to mother yourself!)
