I’m still on a MAJOR high from being on retreat with my totally A-MAZING teacher training students a few weeks ago.

And thinking about how doing this powerful inner work using creativity and the expressive arts is an invitation and imperative to shine our most glorious shiny selves.

Sadly, most of us have a lot of dirt and grime occluding that shine. And a TON of that dirt is being brought to the surface during this time of collective transformation. Which means we need a serious dose of spiritual Windex to clear away the crap.

This crap is personal. It’s collective. It’s systemic. It’s an outgrowth of the patriarchy and misogyny and racism. It’s old. It’s been hanging around for WAY too long. And once you make the choice to look this stuff straight in the eye you are saying in no uncertain terms it’s TIME FOR THIS SHIT TO GO!

However, we all have some serious blindspots in our psychological makeup. Personal stuff. Family allegiances. Trauma based lineages. Political attitudes. And these blind spots are called the shadow.

The shadow by it’s very nature is in the dark. We literally can’t see it. Another word for the shadow is the unconscious. And it’s almost impossible to see our own unconscious. Which is why it’s called the unconscious.

The core process of transformation always, ALWAYS involves a shift in identity.

Which means an old version of you needs to die so that a new you can be reborn. You can’t transform and be who you were before the transformation. Otherwise it’s not really transformation. Something has to give. Something has to go. And something that you are often DEEPLY attached to has to be released.

What needs to die in ANY transformational healing process is your identification with being not enough. Your smallness has to be relegated to the trash heap. Your sense of yourself as lacking has to be thrown out the window. Your shame and your belief in your powerlessness has to be given the boot.

This is why we need help. And why doing this work in community is SO incredibly powerful. We need each other to truly awaken. We need other people in our life to help us see what we literally can’t see. And to do that with fierce compassion and deep love.

So if someone in your world is kind enough to point out the grime dimming your shine, instead of getting automatically defensive consider offering them gratitude. Thank them! Profusely. Bend down and kiss their feet. They are offering you a gift of clear seeing into a place where you are blind.

When you find your self reacting out of a place of prickly ego preservation to the gift of being seen for where you are caught in a web of self sabotage consider asking these questions.

How much longer do you want to be in denial around this issue or behavior? How much more energy do you want to waste on posturing and excuses? How attached are you to your shackles? What have you got to lose?

The choice to open to the truth is ALWAYS yours.

But do you really want to be protecting your ancient baggage for dear life? Seriously, what in the name of all that is holy is the point of that?

That stuff is weighing you DOWN. And you really CAN let it go anytime.

And releasing those old and crusty patterns opens the space for our glorious wings to grow so we can claim our freedom to fly.