Stripping to our bones

We have a tendency as humans to soak in the stories others have for us. The expectations of our families. The long lists of how we should act, look, be. These stories are told to us over and over and at some point we start to believe they are actually our stories. We make decisions about our lives heavily influenced by these stories that live in our unconscious, in our blood, in our bones.

We strive to do better, become more. We look to the future and outside and around for what our life should be like. We go-go-go. We soak in the stories and expectations more and more. And like a hamster on a wheel, we just keep going and going and going, long after we are tired and weary.

What happens when we let go of these stories? When we get quiet and listen? When we connect to our gut, our intuition, our own innate wisdom?

What happens when we connect to who we are? When we strip down to our bones? Taking off the masks and protective layers. Taking off everything that has been handed down to get to who we were when we were born.

Stripping to our bones is uncomfortable. It is terrifying. It means letting go of what we have allowed to define us most of our lives. It means stepping into the unknown – our Self. It means connecting fully to our body, mind and spirit. It means learning to trust our Self.

This is not easy work. It is challenging and messy and requires us to look deep within. It moves us from a place of looking to others for answers to a place of our own knowing. This is not “fun” work or glamorous. You won’t get an award for this work from the outside world and in fact the outside world may fight you every step of the way. And once you begin this work there is almost no going back.

And yet, I believe this work is worth it. It is worth the time and energy. It is worth the tears and screams. It is worth the grief and anger and every other difficult emotion that arises.

Moving from a place of reaction, a place of doing things because that is how they have always been done, of doing things to please others at any cost, to a place of conscious and mindful intention, a place of our own deep knowing and wanting, allows us to have more authentic and honest relationships with others and with our Self. As we dig into this work we begin to walk more confidently in the world, to feel more at home in our own skin. To know, deep in our bones, that our voice, that we matter.

What would you do to feel good in your own skin? What would you give up to connect to you?

I talk more about this idea of stripping down to our bones in this video below. It’s about seventeen minutes long, so go ahead and get yourself a cup of tea or a glass of wine and settle in.

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