Book Club
I am kicking off a new book club with some besties this week. We are diving into a 7-week journey around manifestation. The premise of the book is that as we turn inward and find the blocks within us that are making it difficult to receive what we are seeking to attract, we can make conscious decisions to remove those blocks and begin to attract what we desire to our lives.
For the next 49 days, we will have a short reading each day with an activity to help us explore the concept we read about. This is not my first time at this rodeo. I completed the book two years. I had a very specific thing I was wanting to attract into my life. I was certain that it was going to happen for me at the end of the 49 days. Long story short, none of the goal happened.
I am going to be honest, I was pissed! I had a session with my coach where I was asking, “WTF?! I did each reading and activity faithfully and believed in my heart it was going to happen. Why didn’t it?” She paused and replied, “Was this book an opportunity to learn about yourself and grow or a means to an end for what you wanted?”
I sat in silence. It hit me. I completed 49 activities to earn what I felt I deserved. Though I did learn some things about myself, my focus was not on self-exploration and healing.
I have spent so much of my life working hard to achieve success. My primary means of moving through the world for so long was completing tasks to hit SMART goals. That formula doesn’t work for achieving big audacious dreams that do not fit the norm.
My coach gave me space to grieve not receiving what I felt was due to me. I tucked the book away inside my nightstand and decided to let it go. In the back of my mind, I knew at some point I would circle back to the book with a new mindset. The time has come.
Yesterday I opened the book and reread the introduction. I’m sure I’ve told you before that my books are my journals. They are covered in underlining and crammed words throughout the margins. As I returned to the book, I had new parts to underline and new ideas to squeeze into the margins. I also reread some of what I wrote last time.
It was an opportunity to observe how I have evolved over the last two years. I decided this time around I am not attaching goals to the 49 days of exploration. I want to truly give myself the freedom to explore what lives within me, what I am ready to shed, who I am today, and who I want to be moving forward. I am trusting the process this time to reveal to me what is meant for my life.
One of my strengths is that I am visionary and can see what is possible 5, 10, 20 years from this moment. In this particular instance, living in that future vision was a strategy to not have to sit in the discomfort of the unknown.
Investing time and emotion into change is uncomfortable, so oftentimes we want to know we will be rewarded to make exercises focusing inward feel worth it. The best we have at the beginning of a new healing journey is trust in the process and what is possible on the other side.
There is no goal for the next 49 days. There are no expectations of rewards on the other side of these 49 days. This journey is beginning with trust that I will have the gift of exploring new layers within myself. As I evolve over the next 49 days, I will show up differently in the world and attract to myself what I need in this new iteration. I don’t fully know what that means and that is okay.
The community of trusted people I will engage with along this journey will be the accountability I need to stay true to the intentions I have set. They will hold space, listen, reflect back to me who I am (the rough and the refined), and celebrate with me when I break through a new layer of understanding myself.
This journey we call life is full of surprises. We can convince ourselves that we have some control over what is happening. That will lead to constant disappointment when life is not what we planned for it to be.
May we all find spaces for self-exploration and community to support that process.
May we find comfort in allowing life to unfold before us without expectations.
May we set the intention to do our inner healing to be able to show up as our authentic selves to manifest the people, experiences, and resources that create a life better than we can imagine.
Quiero saber de ti. What expectations can you release this week to remain open to what life has to offer you?
Un Abrazo,
Michelle
P.S. The information page for The Chingona’s Sabbatical is now live on my website! All of the details for the next group can be found there. If you are interested in joining the next group, you can sign up here for a call with me.
An exclusive bonus for email subscribers who sign up for a call before the announcement on social media this weekend is that I will add a second 30-minute coaching call to your group coaching program. Schedule a call with me asap and let’s see if this group coaching program for Latinas is the community space where you will grow into your purpose-driven life.
