Shake It Out

"Let yourself be gutted. Let it open you. Start here." -Cheryl Strayed

The body is a garden bed, rich and earthy, seemingly simple yet actually a whole universe unto itself. Our human experience burdens our bodies with all manner of trauma and garbage, leaving debris tucked in between muscle fibers and in deeply carved neural pathways. For better or worse, what happens without changes what happens within.

As adults, we are in charge of tending our own gardens and of asking for help when we undertake a project which is beyond the scope of our expertise. We all have different ways of taking care of ourselves, each offering varying degrees of healthfulness. Regardless of when and how and with whom, there is work to be done if we want to be able to grow and nurture anything in our bodies. We have to till the soil, reaching deep into the darkness to root out the unconscious hurts that still sting, even though we've forgotten why we wince.

All our stories and secrets are there, written on our bones, waiting to be held to the light and examined. When they resurface, we have the chance to test the validity of what we know to be Fact, to clean up the messes that were made and immediately buried in pain and shame. It takes a powerful, inner earthquake to shake the detritus from the dark corners it clings to. Confronting these ghosts is an exercise in courage- sitting with them and stifling the ego-driven desire to banish them once again.

This is the only way. Ignoring and denying our darkness doesn't light it up. Pain and shame and anger cannot live in the body forever. Eventually these feelings will present themselves to you in hair loss or cancer, some weird, undiagnosable autoimmune disease or depression. They poison our garden beds, making them inhospitable places for anything to flourish, least of all Love, which of course is all there is.

Courage is the only way. If you cannot be courageous, you can shake in your boots until you get stronger and braver. Shake for how frightened you are to see into your depths and shake at the far worse fate of living so burdened for any longer. Shake so hard that you dislodge the mac truck of bullshit you've been dragged behind for so long and let that sucker go. Till the soil long and deep until you've uprooted all the winding roots and rocks and weeds. They belong in the past. They don't have to live in your body or mind any longer than you'll allow. Are you ready to let them go?

The Solar Eclipse is a golden opportunity to look deep into our bodies and unconscious minds to unearth the wounds and unproductive habits and thought patterns that linger unhelpfully. It is a point of completion and awakening, transformation from one way of being to another. It's a reset button. If you'll let it be. Allow this powerful energy to catapult you beyond who you were so you can become who you really are- authentic, eternal and so worthy.