I am a joyful being of light (dragon), but for much of my life was afraid to show it.
Last week, I did the Come Home to Your Body Challenge in The Lasting Love Movement Facebook group hosted by Orit Krug in which we shared a video of ourselves dancing each day.
It was so much fun!
But when I noticed some of the other women moving with sadness, anger or fear, I began to question my experience.
Am I supposed to be this happy when other people are not?
I saw it come up again and again in the days since, the feeling that it was somehow “inappropriate” to express my joy.
There was more to see.
Then Michael Neill asked me the question, “When was the last time you felt the way you wish you could feel all the time?”
I remembered myself dancing, just a few days before.
Exuberant joy.
Aliveness.
The boundaries between self and other dissolve.
There is no thinking, only being.
The joy wells up and overflows, and I am moved to express it as creation.
Life is moving me.
Giving my answer, I noticed that it isn’t just in dancing where this happens. It’s listening, writing, speaking, meditating, walking…when the joy of being alive flows through me.
And I saw something:
That’s me being me without all the crappy thinking that isn’t.
All this time I’ve been holding back the life in me, and I finally saw that it’s beautiful. I’m a beautiful being of light.
Since that glimpse, the universe has given me dozens of signs:
“What if the only thing you have to offer is joy? What if being sincerely and unshakably you is all that is needed?” (from a post by Marnix Pauwels that could have been written for me.)
A fellow coach saying, “I want to be joyful like Stephanie. I just want to rub up against her.”
A client reflecting, “Your ability to stay present in the essence of who you are is so f*cking remarkable and I want a little to rub off on me.”
A dear friend writing, “…your joyful and positive nature is inspiring, infectious, and aspirational. The dance seems to be when we feel joy, BE JOY. When we don’t feel joy, be whatever that is. Don’t hide any of it.”
I didn’t ask for it, but it was exactly and perfectly delivered. In fact, I wonder if it had been all around me all along, but invisible, because I didn’t have the eyes to see it.
And now I think…
…this really isn’t about me, is it?
It’s about YOU.
You are a beautiful being of light.
Somehow this message from the universe found you.
You are an expression of the divine and it shines through you — even when you don’t feel it — in the perfection that could only exist as you.
What if you saw yourself that way?
You. Perfectly You.
Yours in creative play,
Steph
(This is a screenshot from the end of my #unapologeticallyme dance, and I was.)
