Tanya Valentin's Blog, page 11
September 23, 2021
Episode 003 – The Rise of Feminine Wisdom with Lysa Black
In today’s episode, I talk to Lysa Black. Lysa Black is a Feminine Business Mentor, with 13 years of experience and 5 re-niching pivots behind her. Lysa’s journey into authenticity required her to shed her past identity and embody the potency that she is sought after and celebrated for in business today. With 4 published books, and a monthly series of Feminine Business Connection Events – Lysa is a Teacher, Facilitator and Leader who initiates everyone near deeper into who they truly are to become a force for good in the world!
Today we talk about:
Healing through adversity.How our early trauma provides us with sacred heart medicine to heal ourselves and others.The rise of Feminine Business and Feminine Wisdom.Contact Lysa:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lysa_black_/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LysaCBlack/
Website: http://www.lysablack.com
As an Archetype Mentor, I offer support and guidance for Mothers of tween and teen girls who are navigating change in their lives. So that you can have more choice, freedom and possibilities to create the life that YOU want.
Feeling stuck and overwhelmed? Buy My Book When She Wakes She Will Move Mountains – 5 Steps to Reconnecting With Your Wild Authentic Inner Queen.
If you would like to share your Awakening story with others please contact me to be a guest on my podcast.
The post Episode 003 – The Rise of Feminine Wisdom with Lysa Black appeared first on Tanya Valentin.
What Is Your Most Dominant Feminine Archetype?
According to Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, archetypes are universal, instinctive models or personas that influence human behaviour. Since ancient times, archetypes have been uses as a teaching tool. Because they seem so familiar to us, as women, the use of feminine archetypes helps us to develop a greater understanding of our behaviours and ways of being.
What is Your Most Dominant Archetype? In her book, Goddesses in Everywoman, author, Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen, describes these archetypes. She discusses how they can compete for the “golden apple” of the woman’s psyche. These archetypes’ can have nurturing effects as well as destructive powers in our lives.
Myths are facinating stories that become even more intriguing when we realise that they can reveal intimate truths about ourselves and others
Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen MD
Archetype psychology describes how we all have a natural masculine called the “animus”, (which is our projection of what it means to be male and how we perceive male energies in ourselves. This is influenced by our dominant male figures in our formative years.), and 7 feminine archetypes: the Maiden, the Huntress, the Mother, the Lover, the Wild Woman, the Wise Woman, and the Queen. These are the most common, however, there are many variations.
Goddesses and Divine Feminine ArchetypesOne of the earliest sources of archetypes is classical mythology. In fact, many of our modern archetypes are based on the Gods and Goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome. Myths and legends outline behaviours and traits that are associated with the various Gods and Goddesses. Many of the traits and behaviours of these Gods and Goddesses are still alive in traits and behaviours that we see in ourselves and others today.
For example, Artemis, (Goddess of the hunt) is considered to be the representation of the Huntress Archetype.
The Huntress represents the independent woman on a mission. She is courageous, competitive, and self-assured. A woman who ascertains Huntress characteristics relies on herself and doesn’t need a partner to feel complete. She’s a natural activist and stands firm in what she believes.
Archetypes are EverywhereYou may be wondering what this has to do with you and how this affects your life. However, once you learn about the fascinating world of archetypes we begin to see that they are everywhere.
Archetypes are in the fairytales you grew up with and the books that you read now. We can find them in our television shows and movies that we watch. Marketers use archetypes to sell us things. On an unconscious level, we all understand the familiar behaviour patterns of the self-sacrificing Mother, the impressionable Maiden, or the seductive temptress – the Lover archetype.
As discussed in my blog on the Personal Legends, stories shape who we are and who become as human beings.
How I think about myself is how I see myself. How I see myself is how I treat myself. How I treat myself is who I become.
Filipa Hope
Archetypes Alive in UsAll of these female archetypes are alive in us. We are extremely complex creatures. At one moment we could be the nurturing Mother and then shift in an instant to the seductive Lover.
We do tend to relate more dominantly to one or two archetypes, depending on our stage of life and the culture that we are part of. Women by nature move through cycles in life and so we naturally shift our energy to associate more strongly with different archetypes as we move through our lives.
An example of this may be shifting our energy from our independent Huntress archetype to activating the Mother archetype when we have a baby. In my blog 5 Stages of Spiritual Awakening, I describe how the archetypes become activated during the stages of a woman’s spiritual awakening.
Often we learn through the programming of our culture to value certain archetypes and avoid others, which is something that I discuss in my book, When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains.
Shadow ArchtypesEvery archetype is beautiful, powerful and important in her own right. They also have a shadow side where we may be in the repressed, wounded or unintegrated form of these archetypes. As I mention in the chapter Whole Woman, in my book When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains, “shadow” does not mean “bad” or “unworthy”.
Nevertheless, I mention them to give you the power of knowledge as the “shadow” can represent blind spots, woundings, emotional baggage, or the ways that you self-protect. Whenever we encounter a feeling of being lost or trapped it is generally because we are living in the wound or the shadow of these powerful feminine energies, sometimes without even knowing it. We allow them to control us, and we have not yet learnt how to integrate them and live into the healthy, empowered expression of these feminine forces.
In When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains, I guide you through my own experiences to see where these shadows may show up for you. I give you practical exercises to help you to reflect and heal these shadow archetypes so that you can have more choices and freedom in your life.
What is Your Most Dominant Archetype? In my book When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains, I explore each of the 7 Feminine Archetypes, their shadow archetypes and how they play out in our lives. I have created a FREE Feminine Archetype Quiz, to support you to identify what your most dominant feminine archetype is. Once you have completed my quiz I will send you a PDF all about your most dominant feminine archetype.
Are you the adventure-seeking Maiden, the magnetic Lover, the independent Huntress, the nurturing Mother, the intuitive Wise Woman, the untamed Wild Woman or the majestic Queen?
What is your most dominant Feminine Archetype?
Take my quiz to find out.
As an Archetype Mentor, I offer support and guidance for Mothers of tween and teen girls who are navigating change in their lives. So that you can have more choice, freedom and possibilities to create the life that YOU want.
Curious to find out more about Archetypes? Buy My Book When She Wakes She Will Move Mountains – 5 Steps to Reconnecting With Your Wild Authentic Inner Queen.
If you would like to share your Awakening story with others please contact me to be a guest on my podcast.
The post What Is Your Most Dominant Feminine Archetype? appeared first on Tanya Valentin.
What is Your Most Dominant Feminine Archetype?
According to Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, archetypes are universal, instinctive models or personas that influence human behaviour. Since ancient times, archetypes have been uses as a teaching tool. Because they seem so familiar to us, as women, the use of feminine archetypes helps us to develop a greater understanding of our behaviours and ways of being.
What is Your Most Dominant Archetype? In her book, Goddesses in Everywoman, author, Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen, describes these archetypes. She discusses how they can compete for the “golden apple” of the woman’s psyche. These archetypes’ can have nurturing effects as well as destructive powers in our lives.
Myths are facinating stories that become even more intriguing when we realise that they can reveal intimate truths about ourselves and others
Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen MD
Archetype psychology describes how we all have a natural masculine called the “animus”, (which is our projection of what it means to be male and how we perceive male energies in ourselves. This is influenced by our dominant male figures in our formative years.), and 7 feminine archetypes: the Maiden, the Huntress, the Mother, the Lover, the Wild Woman, the Wise Woman, and the Queen.
Goddesses and Divine Feminine ArchetypesOne of the earliest sources of archetypes is classical mythology. In fact, many of our modern archetypes are based on the Gods and Goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome. Myths and legends outline behaviours and traits that are associated with the various Gods and Goddesses. Many of the traits and behaviours of these Gods and Goddesses are still alive in traits and behaviours that we see in ourselves and others today.
For example, Artemis, (Goddess of the hunt) is considered to be the representation of the Huntress Archetype.
The Huntress represents the independent woman on a mission. She is courageous, competitive, and self-assured. A woman who ascertains Huntress characteristics relies on herself and doesn’t need a partner to feel complete. She’s a natural activist and stands firm in what she believes.
Archetypes are EverywhereYou may be wondering what this has to do with you and how this affects your life. However, once you learn about the fascinating world of archetypes we begin to see that they are everywhere.
Archetypes are in the fairytales you grew up with and the books that you read now. We can find them in our television shows and movies that we watch. Marketers use archetypes to sell us things. On an unconscious level, we all understand the familiar behaviour patterns of the self-sacrificing Mother, the impressionable Maiden, or the seductive temptress which is the Lover.
As discussed in my blog on the Personal Legends, stories shape who we are and who become as human beings.
How I think about myself is how I see myself. How I see myself is how I treat myself. How I treat myself is who I become.
Filipa Hope
Archetypes Alive in UsAll of these female archetypes are alive in us. We are extremely complex creatures. At one moment we could be the nurturing Mother and then shift in an instant to the seductive Lover.
We do tend to relate more dominantly to one or two archetypes, depending on our stage of life and the culture that we are part of. Women by nature move through cycles in life and so we naturally shift our energy to associate more strongly with different archetypes as we move through our lives.
An example of this may be shifting our energy from our independent Huntress archetype to activating the Mother archetype when we have a baby. In my blog 5 Stages of Spiritual Awakening, I describe how the archetypes become activated during the stages of a woman’s spiritual awakening.
Often we learn through the programming of our culture to value certain archetypes and avoid others, which is something that I discuss in my book, When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains.
Shadow ArchtypesEvery archetype is beautiful, powerful and important in her own right. They also have a shadow side where we may be in the repressed, wounded or unintegrated form of these archetypes. As I mention in the chapter Whole Woman, in my book When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains, “shadow” does not mean “bad” or “unworthy”.
Nevertheless, I mention them to give you the power of knowledge as the “shadow” can represent blind spots, woundings, emotional baggage, or the ways that you self-protect. Whenever we encounter a feeling of being lost or trapped it is generally because we are living in the wound or the shadow of these powerful feminine energies, sometimes without even knowing it. We allow them to control us, and we have not yet learnt how to integrate them and live into the healthy, empowered expression of these feminine forces.
In When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains, I guide you through my own experiences to see where these shadows may show up for you. I give you practical exercises to help you to reflect and heal these shadow archetypes so that you can have more choices and freedom in your life.
What is Your Most Dominant Archetype?In my book When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains, I explore each of the 7 Feminine Archetypes, their shadow archetypes and how they play out in our lives. I have created a FREE Feminine Archetype Quiz, to support you to identify what your most dominant feminine archetype is. Once you have completed my quiz I will send you a PDF all about your most dominant feminine archetype.
Are you the adventure-seeking Maiden, the magnetic Lover, the independent Huntress, the nurturing Mother, the intuitive Wise Woman, the untamed Wild Woman or the majestic Queen?
What is your most dominant Feminine Archetype?
Take my quiz to find out.
As an Archetype Mentor, I offer support and guidance for Mothers of tween and teen girls who are navigating change in their lives. So that you can have more choice, freedom and possibilities to create the life that YOU want.
Feeling stuck and overwhelmed? Buy My Book When She Wakes She Will Move Mountains – 5 Steps to Reconnecting With Your Wild Authentic Inner Queen.
If you would like to share your Awakening story with others please contact me to be a guest on my podcast.
The post What is Your Most Dominant Feminine Archetype? appeared first on Tanya Valentin.
September 16, 2021
Episode 002 – Horse Whispers with Stacey Milich Smith
Today we welcome Stacey Milich Smith to the podcast. Stacey is a photographer, an author, a mum of five, a wife and an avid horse lover.
In this episode, we chat about finding gratitude in hard times and the value of forgiveness for our own well-being. The magic healing power of horses and how horses can make us better people and better parents.The power of choosing connection over control.Celebrating being the woman you are in all stages of your life and viewing yourself in a new more beautiful light.You can find Stacey’s beautiful books and find out about her Warrior Goddess photoshoots at: http://www.staceymilichphotography.com/
Connect with Stacey:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/staceymilichphotography
Insta – https://www.instagram.com/rise_up_warrior_/
As an Archetype Mentor, I offer support and guidance for Mothers of tween and teen girls who are navigating change in their lives. So that you can have more choice, freedom and possibilities to create the life that YOU want.
Feeling stuck and overwhelmed? Buy My Book When She Wakes She Will Move Mountains – 5 Steps to Reconnecting With Your Wild Authentic Inner Queen.
If you would like to share your Awakening story with others please contact me to be a guest on my podcast.
The post Episode 002 – Horse Whispers with Stacey Milich Smith appeared first on Tanya Valentin.
September 9, 2021
5 Stages of Spiritual Awakening
Spiritual Awakenings can be amazingly transformative experiences. They can be the conduit for joy, purpose, greater understanding and creativity. However, they can also be lonely, messy, confusing, depressing, overwhelming and trauma-filled.
“This is terrible,” a friend said to me recently. “I feel emotional all the time.” “I feel as if there is something more that I should be doing with my life, but I don’t know what.” “I just don’t know what to do.”
If you would like to read more about what a spiritual awakening is and whether you are having one read my blog – What is a Spiritual Awakening?
The Lonely PathAnd she wouldn’t be alone. So many women as they navigate from Maidenhood to Motherhood to Midlife go through this rite of passage. Throughout our lives, we are in a constant life-death-life cycle. Mid-life is a potent time of letting go and rebirth as a woman transitions from her Maiden/Mother years and reawakens her Wild Woman. As we age archetypes such as the Huntress, the Lover, the Wise Woman and the Queen are activated in us and call to be healed and embodied as we birth a new version of ourselves into existence.
This can be an overwhelming, lonely, confusing and terrifying experience for a woman. The women in our ancestral line lived in communities where these life-death-life cycles were witnessed and celebrated. A woman in these communities would have had the support of other women from her tribe as they cooked meals together, created handcrafts and sat around the communal hearth sharing rituals and stories.
However, this is no longer the case. In our western culture, we often only make space for the Maiden and the Mother archetypes. Our Wise, Wild selves are rejected and ostracised. Many women feel these powerful energies swirling around in them but have no one to speak to, no one to listen.
You may feel as if you are going crazy as if there is something fundamentally wrong or broken in you.
But, you are not alone and you are not broken.
Like the miraculous butterfly, you are simply in the process of a magical transformation.
The Awakening StagesAs an Archetype Mentor, I offer support and guidance to Mothers of tween and teen girls, who are navigating change. In my book When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains I take your hand and guide you along your own hero’s journey back to your true self.
Below are the 5 Stages of Awakenings as described in my book.
Read my blog on Archetypes
The FoothillsThis is the beginning of the journey (sometimes called the Caterpillar stage). During this stage, you will start to hear the whispers of your Wild Woman Archetype waking up inside you. The pain of staying the same becomes so uncomfortable that you start to question your thoughts, beliefs and agreements. This is where you begin to awaken to the fact that you are ready for something more. When you are at The Foothills of the journey it is common to feel confused, emotional and stuck.
The CaveThe Cave (sometimes call the Cocoon stage) is the descent into the “Special World” where you activate and come face to face with your Wild Woman archetype.
This transformative place is where you discover the healing power of solitude. The Cave is often dark, lonely and uncomfortable, as your Wild Woman – your shadow teacher, helps you to strip back the layers of your cultural programming and other peoples expectations. With the shedding of each layer, you start to see your true self more and more clearly.
The Cave is where you are reconnected with your Wise Woman archetype. The Wise Woman helps you to integrate your stories and learn their lessons. The Wise Woman balances out her sometimes erratic Wild Woman sister as she gifts you the regeneration of your intuition.
The Boulder ChokeAs you journey through The Cave you will come up against areas where you will encounter obstacles and resistance. These are areas where you need to excavate and mine for the treasure that is YOU. What was unknown or hidden from you is now brought into the light.
A Boulder Choke is an opportunity for you to meet the shadows of your most dominant feminine archetypes, test your lessons, and your newly reawakened intuition. The Bolder Choke is where you learn to trust yourself again.
The Return to The Ordinary World.As you leave The Cave you are met by your Huntress archetype. The Huntress archetype represents your focus and your independence. It is through the sheer determination of the Huntress that you find the inner strength to ascend the mountain so that you can take your rightful place as the Queen of your life. This is the stage of the Butterfly and a beautiful and liberating stage of the journey. But it can also be overwhelming and confusing as you rediscover who you are. Your priorities may change as you decide what is important to you and what you want to invite into your life.
The Return to The Ordinary World is a time of recalibration. You may find that your relationships change as people in your life are introduced to the ‘new you‘.
We need the Huntress archetype’s strength during this stage of our spiritual awakening. It is through her drive for personal freedom that we learn to stand on our own two feet, make our own decisions, find our voice and start to take responsibility for our own lives.
The Empowered Queen.This is where at the top of the mountain, we step into our power and sovereignty (dominion of who we truly are). When a woman steps into her Queen is no longer waits to be saved by someone else. Nor does she wait for something outside of her to change in order to have the life that she truly wants. The Queen recognises that she can choose herself, for herself. She gives herself permission to be her own hero. She knows her own worth and accepts and loves herself. The Queen invests in herself and gathers a team of advisors and like-minded Queens around her. She lives her life with intention, purpose and a desire to be of service to others.
Take my FREE Archetype Quiz and find out what your most dominant Feminine Archetype is
Who is Your True Self That You Are Waking Up To Be?A Spiritual Awakening can be a painful, uncomfortable process. However, it is also an exciting freeing time in a woman’s life as we get to meet the person we were truly meant to be and open up to what we were meant to do. Many women after their Awakening have found new-found meaning in life, changed careers and studied. Some women have embraced travel and gone on adventures, started new fulfilling hobbies and or become part of new communities of people.
She is still there. The person you were before you became a mum, a wife, a partner. That person still matters.
Over to YouWe do not become healers. We came as healers. We are. Some of us are still catching up to what we are.
We do not become storytellers. We came as carriers of the stories we and our ancestors actually lived. We are. Some of us are still catching up to what we are.
We do not become artists. We came as artists. We are. Some of us are still catching up to what we are.
We do not become writers.. dancers.. musicians.. helpers.. peacemakers. We came as such. We are. Some of us are still catching up to what we are.
We do not learn to love in this sense. We came as Love. We are Love. Some of us are still catching up to who we truly are.
Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Are you on an Awakening Journey?
What has the experience been for you?
What stage are you in your awakening?
Please let me know in the comments below.
As an Archetype Mentor, I offer support and guidance for Mothers of tween and teen girls who are navigating change in their lives. So that you can have more choice, freedom and possibilities to create the life that YOU want.
Feeling stuck and overwhelmed? Buy My Book When She Wakes She Will Move Mountains – 5 Steps to Reconnecting With Your Wild Authentic Inner Queen.
If you would like to share your Awakening story with others please contact me to be a guest on my podcast.
The post 5 Stages of Spiritual Awakening appeared first on Tanya Valentin.
September 8, 2021
What is a Spiritual Awakening?
One of the top questions I get asked about my book or podcast is, “What is a Spiritual Awakening and how do I know if I am having one?”
This is often followed by, “What is the difference between a Spiritual Awakening and a Midlife Crisis?”
And so I thought that I would write a blog to answer these questions.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog is entirely from my experience. I am respectful of other people’s truths and experiences about spirituality.
What is a Spiritual Awakening?Many people upon hearing the word “Spiritual Awakening” conjure up images of Buddhist monks, psychics or witchy types. They may think that a spiritual awakening is reserved for a select group of people such as people who are devoutly religious. However, regardless of our religious beliefs, we are all capable of and do experience awakenings at various stages of our lives.
According to the author and Toltec teacher, Don Miguel Ruiz,
“As children we didn’t have the opportunity to choose our beliefs, but we agreed with the information that was passed to us from the dream of the planet via other humans. The only way to store information is by agreement. The outside dream may hook our attention, but if we don’t agree we don’t store the information. As soon as we agree we believe and this is called faith. To have faith is to believe unconditionally. That’s how we learn as children. Children believe everything adults say. We agree with them, and our faith is so strong that the belief system controls the whole dream of life.”
Don Miguel Ruiz
Spiritual Awakening refers to the process of “waking” from the humdrum dream of the planet. This causes us to step back, reflect on and re-evaluate the agreements that we have agreed to and our sense of being in the world. This process is sometimes referred to as returning to your true self or developing a higher state of consciousness. Spiritual Growth refers to the process of shedding the layers of beliefs, thoughts and agreements inherited from our cultural programming. It entails becoming more conscious of our inner spiritual being and our place in the wider universe.
What is Spirituality?Many people confuse spirituality and religion.
Religion is a prescribed set of organised beliefs and practices usually practised by a group or a community of people.
Spirituality is about yourself. It is about your relationship with yourself, your sense of peace, purpose and how you fit into the wider universe.
What Causes a Spiritual Awakening?Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning, and purpose to our lives.
Brene Brown
Spiritual awakenings can happen to us at various stages of our lives. Awakenings are often triggered by life-altering traumas such as pandemics, the death of a loved one, our children leaving home or losing our job.
Our awakening may also be triggered by something completely mundane or by a life stage. This is often why spiritual awakenings are often attributed to the term “mid-life crisis”. For many women (and men), the changes and regrets that occur in our middle years can activate a powerful awakening. This is why the two are often associated with each other.
I do, however, believe that we are offered natural invitations throughout our lifespan that trigger us to pause, evaluate, change our previously held beliefs, thoughts and behaviours and evolve to a higher state of consciousness. Life is a constant flow of discovery, creation and unfolding. We are constantly awakening to new parts of who are as we let go of old versions of ourselves that no longer serve us.
Awakening Invitations Could Include:Early Childhood – This is a period where a baby recognises that they are a separate person to their parents. They test the boundaries of who they are and how they fit in the world. This is an important time in a person’s life as this shapes our identity, our belief system, and our sense of self-worth.Teenagerhood – The shift to the stage of adolescence causes us to see our parents as fallible human beings. During this stage of our lives our peers become vitally important to us as we are challenged to think about how we fit in our wider culture. This is a confusing, hormone-fuelled and emotion-filled time of shedding old beliefs, exerting our independence and reinventing who we are. Early Adulthood – During this stage of our lives we begin to recognise that we are responsible for our own lives and decisions and we start a process of defining who we are as individuals outside of our family of origin.Parenthood – The activation of our Mother archetype is yet another stage of transition as we shift our perception from being egocentric to caring for our young children. Many women start to question their identity as we start to identify with the struggles of our parents. We might question the how we were parented and develop new beliefs and strategies for mothering our children, which are different to how our parents did it. Motherhood is often a call for us to heal old wounds from our childhood and to mother ourselves.Midlife – As our children start to pull away and enter their teenage years, our focus shifts back to ourselves. This is a powerful invitation to us to shed the weight of other’s expectations and allow ourselves to meet our own needs. Many women feel a deep yearning to return to their true selves – the self they were before they were a parent. We can become filled with a sense of urgency as we start to pay attention to our natural biological clock and cycles. Midlife is a stage of reinvention. We may change careers, pursue new interests, spiritual practices, and passions or rediscover long forgotten ones. Our relationships may experience a shake-up as we demand more out of our connections with others. Midlife is a time when we explore our existence, purpose, and the meaning of life (you know the simple stuff). It is also a time of emotional upheaval as we grieve past versions of ourselves or say farewell to versions of ourselves that we will never be. Elderly Years – As we advance in years, we can experience a change in priorities. Things that seemed so important to our younger selves don’t seem to matter as much. Our Wise Woman archetype integrates our stories, and we start to see the value of our hard-won life lessons.
Signs That You May be Experiencing a Spiritual AwakeningHere are some of the signs that you may be on an Awakening journey.
You feel stuck, emotional, depressed, dissatisfied, confused, overwhelmed and detached as you reflect on, challenge and re-evaluate old agreements, beliefs and priorities.Your relationships with yourself and others start to change and you start to recognise when others are being inauthentic or trying to control you.You develop a stonger sense of self-worth and you are becoming more comfortable with creating and maintaining boundaries.You are becoming less concerned with what others think of you.You start to shift from feeling as if life is happening “to you” to life is happening “for you”.You experience vivid dreams, synchronicities and de ja vu.You have a newfound curiosity and become more interested in spirituality.You start to experience “downloads” of inspiration and creativity.You become more intuitive and you start to trust yourself and your decisions more.You have empathy and compassion for others and their suffering and you recognise that everyone is on their own path.You feel a pull to experience more time outdoors and out in nature.You seek out solitude and start to become more comfortable with your own company.You feel the awakening of psychic gifts in you.You feel alone and wonder if you are the only one if feels as you do, or sees life the way that you do.You have physical symptoms such as heightened senses, sleep disturbances or bodily sensations.You develop a new world view and start to see how we are all connected.You want to be of service to others.To read about the 5 stages of spiritual awakening please click HERE.
Over to YouHave you experienced or are you in the process of a Spiritual Awakening?
What has the experience been like for you?
Did you or are you experience any of the signs listed above?
Please let me know in the comments below.
As an Archetype Mentor, I offer support and guidance for Mothers of tween and teen girls who are navigating change in their lives. So that you can have more choice, freedom and possibilities to create the life that YOU want.
Feeling stuck and overwhelmed? Buy My Book When She Wakes She Will Move Mountains – 5 Steps to Reconnecting With Your Wild Authentic Inner Queen.
If you would like to share your Awakening story with others please contact me to be a guest on my podcast.
The post What is a Spiritual Awakening? appeared first on Tanya Valentin.
September 6, 2021
The Power of Story in Pursuit of Your Personal Legend
I have always known that story was important to me.
Always known that words were in my blood.
As a young child one was my favourite pastimes was to staple bits of paper together and write stories on the scraps of paper. These were my first crude attempts at being a writer.
You might say, as author Paulo Coelho writes in his book The Alchemist, I have always known that being a writer is my personal legend. And yet, it has taken me till my mid-forties to trust myself enough to sell my sheep as the young shepherd did in The Alchemist, and to pursue the treasure that I have always known to be mine.
And I cannot give you a definitive answer as to why this is.
Perhaps it is that in the history of my family, no one has ever been a writer and so I grew up with no example to look to. It could be the fault of the culture I was born into. The culture valued doctors, lawyers, accountants and held them up as the epitome of wisdom and success.
Or, one might say I was born into a family who long held the belief that people of our family were predestined to do something practical and secure. Predictable jobs like secretary, having a trade or becoming a teacher. It could even have been the message that I received loudly and clearly through a bombardment of stories and sources throughout my childhood, adolescence and womanhood, that women’s voices did not matter or count.
Stories, stories, stories…
As Elizabeth Lesser reflects in her book, Cassandra Speaks;
The past is laced into the present on the needle and thread of stories.
Elizabeth Lesser
(Am I the only one who swoons at the lyrical quality of those words?)
The Curse of an Ignored Blessing in Pursuit of Your Personal LegendWhatever it was, for years I disowned my personal legend.
I purposely stacked armour around my poet’s heart. I packed away my love for prose, my womanly, imaginary flights of fancy in a box and I buried it deep in the attic of my heart. I put my attention and energy into being “practical”, into being “agreeable”, into being “accepted”.
Every now and again my personal legend would nag at me like a frustrated housewife. And then I would allow myself a split second of self-indulgence. However, as I felt the pang of longing, entwined with guilt wash over me as I glanced at my gifts with the regrets of “what if?” I hurriedly banged the lid shut and ignored her once more.
Until I could stand it no more.
As it says in The Alchemist,
“Every blessing ignored becomes a curse… You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it is better to listen to what ithas to say…If it is still in your mind, it’s worth taking the risk.”
Paulo Coelho
I knew that something had to change – that the “something” was me. As a knower of the power of story, I had to change at a story level.
Childhood Story“I’ll tell you right now, the doors to the world of the wild self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door; if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much that you almost cannot bear it, that is a door.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
As I reflect on the stories that shaped me there are many – far too many for me to even remember.
The best clues I have into the girl who became this woman is by looking at old photos from my childhood.
I presume that the photo albums of my childhood are not unlike the photo albums of other girls born in the 1970s. Photos of a father, a mother and three daughters at various stages of girlhood. School pictures of a girl with gaps in her smile. Class photos, photos with friends, pictures of me receiving certificates for academic achievement.
But there is this one photo that always catches me unawares.
It is a photo below. The cast photo of my primary school production of the Jungle Book. I was cast in the part of Sherkahn the tiger. Here I am standing in my tiger costume with the rest of the cast. All the boys and girls beam back at me with the confidence of childhood. All except me. I am clasping my hands anxiously in front of me as I look to the side, downwards, away from the rest of the cast shyly.
Like a ferocious tiger in the guise of a demure kitty.
Every time I see this picture, I am reminded. Even at this early age, I knew that I was different – that I didn’t belong.
The Power of “Who am I?”Wow.
What power these early stories weald over who we grow to become as adults.
Many of my childhood stories I have noticed, thanked, blessed and sent on their way.
However, for me, the story of not belonging is one that I fear will live with me for as long as I live. The insistent voice, my constant companion keeping me in check with the seemingly harmless phrase – “Who am I?”
Challenger of all my biggest dreams. “Who am I to dream this?”
The shusher, who twists my ear like the well-meaning “aunty” in the church pews of my girlhood. The force which seeks to silence me when my voice gets too loud, my opinion too divergent. “Who am I to speak up?” “Who am I to have an opinion of my own?” “Who am I to have a voice?” it hisses.
The great leveller, who cuts me down at the knees whenever I dare to rise out from the shadows and claim my spot in the sunlight. “Who am I to stand out?” “Who am I to lead?” “Who am I to succeed?” it admonishes from the gloomy edges of my subconscious.
In my upcoming book When She Wakes, She Will Move Mountains, I tell the story of how “Who am I?” and its shame twin “I’m not enough” showed up for me and nearly stopped me from writing the book.
Living With FearPerhaps the absence of fear is an unachievable goal. It seems that as long as we desire to lead a creative life or take a risk on something that is as important to us as our personal legend we will encounter fear. The very purpose of fear is to alert us when something is important to us.
As Elizabeth Gilbert speaks to her fear in her book Big Magic,
“Your fear will always be triggered by your creativity, because creativity asks you to enter into realms of uncertain outcome, and fear hates uncertain outcome.”
Elizabeth Gilbert
I know that many people have similar stories of “Who Am I?” and that I am not alone in this. However, I am also aware that although I may not be responsible for the programming I received in my childhood, I am responsible for the upgrades in my adulthood.
Through the lens of my upgraded programming, I am able to accept the past and see the gift of the lessons. From this vantage point I take inspiration from the following quote:
An essential element in the life of a writer is to have been an outsider in childhood, to have been given the “gift” of not belonging.
Unknown
I smile as I recognise that in fact, everything is happening for me in its own perfect time as I claim the perspective my “otherness” gave me. I have learnt that ultimately, true belonging is the gift we give ourselves as we grow to accept love who we are.
What is your personal legend?Can you think or what is the thing that you have always know you were meant to do?
Please let me know in the comments below.
Be sure to check out my When She Wakes She Will Move Mountains Podcast
Take my FREE Archetype Quiz
As an Archetype Mentor, I offer support and guidance for Mothers of tween and teen girls who are navigating change in their lives. So that you can have more choice, freedom and possibilities to create the life that YOU want.
Feeling stuck and overwhelmed? Buy My Book When She Wakes She Will Move Mountains – 5 Steps to Reconnecting With Your Wild Authentic Inner Queen.
If you would like to share your Awakening story with others please contact me to be a guest on my podcast.
The post The Power of Story in Pursuit of Your Personal Legend appeared first on Tanya Valentin.
Episode 001 – Stories, Shame Monsters and Personal Legends
Everyone was born with a personal legend – their zone of genius, the thing that they were born to do. And yet, many of us have forgotten what our personal legend is or have so many stories and so much shame wrapped around and interwoven with the pursuit of our personal legend.
In this episode, I explore why you may feel shame about pursuing your personal legend and how this shame may show up for you.
Not sure or confused about what your personal legend is?
I take you along a short guided journey to reconnect you with this beautiful, joyful creative part of yourself.
To listen to Brene Brown’s Unlocking Us Podcast on FFT go HERE
To read my Blog on my Personal Legend pursuit of being a writer go HERE
As an Archetype Mentor, I offer support and guidance for Mothers of tween and teen girls who are navigating change in their lives. So that you can have more choice, freedom and possibilities to create the life that YOU want.
Feeling stuck and overwhelmed? Buy My Book When She Wakes She Will Move Mountains – 5 Steps to Reconnecting With Your Wild Authentic Inner Queen.
Spiritual Awakenings can be lonely please join my community of like-minded women – you are not alone.
If you would like to share your Awakening story with others please contact me to be a guest on my podcast.
The post Episode 001 – Stories, Shame Monsters and Personal Legends appeared first on Tanya Valentin.
