A couple of days ago I had a lightning bolt of inspiration, I had to share the idea that has driven me most, and changed my life drastically. So, I made a really quick video and uploaded it to Instagram. It was bold, straight from the heart, direct and it felt risky.
Within a few minutes messages started arriving in my inbox, from women; brave, radiant, beautiful souls, saying it had made them cry and that they wanted...needed to do the exercises I had mentioned in order to bring their light out and feel able to sing their song.
The video is here if you want to get up to speed on what I'm talking about. www.instgram.com/yogacornwall
Within a few hours women I didn't know were writing me messages telling me how I had just inspired them to make a change and start caring for themselves and speaking up. It moved me so much, it moved me because these women were providing the very proof that what I had said in the video was absolutely true beyond any shadow of a doubt. When you step in to your purpose you change the world for the better.
Now here we come to the really interesting bit, and the nitty gritty of the very first step in the process of uncovering our ability to sing our song.
Do you know what my husband, Tom, said when he came in that night from his surf and I shared with him my lightning bolt video and said how moved I was by these sincere messages? He watched the video sitting on our bed, holding my phone in one hand, with his eyebrows slightly contracted. I couldn't tell, was he proud of me for finding my voice, was he moved, inspired, curious as to what practices I would suggest? The video ended, I felt like I was walking out at the end of a school play to face my parent., "What do you think?" I ask.
He smiles a bit bemused. "It's very long." He says, and he picks up his towel and goes and gets in the shower.
Now what would happen if I was waiting for Tom to be behind me, cheering me on, before I took my message of love and yoga out to the world? My message, my SONG, would NEVER be heard. I would NEVER have inspired those women to make changes, I would NEVER have been the catalyst for those positive changes that took place in the world that night.
I read a book called The Big Leap, By Gay Hendryx, quite a few years ago now. It took a bulldozer to my life, it smashed through vails and vails of perceptions I had amassed about what I deserved and what I was worthy of receiving. The greatest, most life changing take away this book provided for me was that I was never going to get my family, parents and siblings behind me on my quest. Not because they don't love me and not because they don't want me to be happy. I realised that in order to live my best life, not only was I going to go it alone, but I was actually going to seriously ruffle some feathers on the way. When you drive a bulldozer through your own life, your nearest and dearest might be pretty uncomfortable. Just because you want to dig it out and examine the dirty toxic ooze that prevents you from shining, doesn't mean your family want to!
You will NEVER be given permission to live in the light. You HAVE to write that permission slip for yourself. I am inviting you to step into your purpose, but just like when your friends invite you to go on holiday, or to the pub, you have to give notice, and not wait for it to be convenient for those around you. It is never going to be convenient for your family for you to alter the status quo. But believe me, it is your family who reap the most benefit when you do. At times it has felt like the story of The Little Red Hen, While I grow the wheat, the family don't help, when I water the wheat the family moan that I have to go and spend time watering, when I want to cut the wheat they are using the sickle, or have left it at the end of the garden and it's gone rusty, when I grind the wheat they complain that I'm making too much noise, but when I have made the bread, they all say 'Wow, this bread is delicious! Can we have some more!" The proof is in the pudding, just keep giving notice, it will pay off.
The first exercise is below. I hope it helps you. I did mine years ago and it still lives in my knicker draw now. What I drew then, is nearly exactly the life I live now.
As with anything I write, teach, or show, if it moves you let me know.
Sending piles of good wishes, love and sunshine.
Leah
THE PRACTICE
The first exercise seems easy at first, but it does immediately throw up your own limiting beliefs.
Get a stack of paper and some colourings pens or pencils. If you don't have any colouring pens you are going to have to go and buy some. Think of it as an investment in you... if you struggle to justify spending money on your own self work, you have just highlighted something useful!
Now, on the first page, just using the pencil, draw you in the centre of the page living in your light. Now around you draw your life in 3 years. What would your life look like if you were living your dream life? Now when I say your dream life, you need to draw the life of your heart song, not the life of lottery winners. Your heart doesn't give a monkeys about private jets, remember the purpose of all these exercises is to make sure that on the day you die you feel like you have sung your song, like you have shown up as YOURSELF in the world. When you get down to it, your heart song probably doesn't have a need for a six car garage. That's not to say it won't bring you one, but it would be very strange if you shed tears on your death bed because you wish you could take your cars with you.
The reason you have a stack of paper is so you can revise your vision, as you do the exercise you can scrap the top sheet and start again, as you come closer to your purpose, to your truth. DO NOT let practical limitations, like money, friends opinions, work or family commitments come into it. Just draw you, radiating love and light like a beacon from heaven connected to the divine in the centre of the page and all the positive things you have bought into your future life around you.
When you have it, when you are possibly weeping because you have just realised how profoundly you know it to be your truth, you can colour it in. Make it vibrant, real, electric. Put your all into this picture, like your life depends on it. As you colour, fill your hear with the conviction that with this sacred act of colouring it in, you are breathing life into this dream and it WILL become your reality.
Now, when you have finished, hug it, value it, honour it, close your eyes, hold it to your chest and feel gratitude for all that is in the picture as if it is already your reality. Fill yourself up with the feeling of gratitude, because you have just taken the first MASSIVE step on your way to this being a reality. ❤️ Now put the finished version in your knicker/pant draw so you see it everyday, like an anchor to your purpose.
If you need a bit more help here is a little video.
LIVE IN THE LIGHT 🙏🏼