There’ll always be another level you can reach, another call-and-response to uplevel and upgrade. But your response to that call shouldn’t always feel like you’re not ‘there yet’.
I’ve been there—to the place where you don’t feel ‘there yet’—so many times, and it’s not the hippest spot in town; it’s a place where you don’t acknowledge yourself, your hard work, or how far you’ve come.
Being ‘not there yet’ is about thinking you’re not good enough to be there today; thinking you need more; thinking someone else knows some secret you don’t; self-sabotaging yourself with negative, spiralling thoughts, that tell you you’re so far away from what you desire.
When we constantly look forward to ‘one day’, we don’t see the beauty of today; the beauty that says our past self would have backflipped to be here today (or, in contrast, that can’t believe you’re here today and knows that, on some level, you’ll get through this).
We want to believe in ourselves to help us reach our dreams, and we’re allowed to. We’re allowed to believe in ourselves; we’re allowed to want more for ourselves; and we’re allowed to reach our dreams (or something better).
For each new step we take, for each new level we reach within ourselves, for each time we (re)claim our power, we then need to anchor into it. We can do all the expansion our soul needs, but if we don’t anchor into it, we’ll never truly feel grounded in our expansion. We’ll never truly rise.
When you think about what you’re wishing to call in next, do you feel able to hold onto it? And by ‘hold’, I mean: do you feel able to not just let yourself receive it, but also let yourself make space to keep it?
There’ll be a time when you must uplevel your work. You’ll begin to feel too comfortable within the container you’ve created; you’ll know it’s time to adjust, adapt and alter what you’re doing, what you’re creating.
The process of growing, of creating something new, and of pushing out the boundaries we’ve previously built for ourselves can feel really uncomfortable—and that’s kind of what you want.
When you allow yourself to feel uncomfortable in the process of growth, you allow yourself to grow.
This doesn’t mean you have force yourself to do things that don’t feel right for you. In fact, it means the opposite. It means you must follow the path of least resistance, which can often take you down the path you initially resisted with all your might.
When we talk about following the path of least resistance, this means to surrender. Surrender to what you can’t control, so you can focus on where you can invest your power and energy for the most impact, joy and evolution.
This means you allow yourself to move through a phase of growth that calls on you to feel uncomfortable, albeit for a little while. For soon that stage will feel comfortable too, and your next level will await you.
You’ll outgrow your current ‘home’; what feels safe, and what feels right. Something new will come to you; something else you must make, or work on, or show up for.
If you hide from the discomfort, you might never experience the joy. And the joy is always worth it.
Imagine taking your own container to a cafe and asking them to fill it with your favourite salad. But when you get there, you realise the container you brought already has food in it. So you might be able to get a small amount of your favourite cafe’s salad, but not enough to fill the whole container. You leave feeling conflicted. (Yay for salad!) But did you leave with what you wanted? Or will you just make do with what you have?
To anchor into what you’re calling in, you have to make space for what’s to come. You have to let go, declutter, reshuffle, release, move on and leave behind things that just aren’t serving you anymore, and that won’t serve the next level, layer and version of you. You need to make space now, even if you can’t yet see what’ll rush in to fill the space.
Some ideas to help you do this, coming up next.
When we’re feeling called to go to the next level, we can’t always see what the outcome of that will look like. This doesn’t mean we can’t sense it with all our being; it doesn’t mean we aren’t crystal clear on what we wish to call in. This is often when overwhelm and a sense of rushing come into play; we can feel and envision what’s next, but we simultaneously know we can’t control the timing or the exact details.
We have to trust. Allowing the intangible to become tangible is about trusting that you can call in and hold what’s next (or something better), without forcing and controlling, but by taking action, dreaming, envisioning and creating. It’s about expanding what you believe is possible for you, so that you can expand into this next version of you.
My yoga teachers often say ‘root to rise’. They often say this as we’re flowing into a pose that requires a balance between grounding down and rising up.
To find this equilibrium, we must be able to root into what we’re calling in, as well as rise to meet it. We must ground into this next version through breath and intention, through trust and alignment, through believing in our vision and in ourselves.
Rooting into your vision looks like:
Rising to meet your vision looks like:
Have you ever thought to yourself: When this or that happens, then I’ll be more [insert positive attribute]?
By first holding the thought within, you allow yourself to make space for what you’re calling in, even before it has arrived. This sends a message upwards, inwards, outwards and downwards: I’m ready.
This calls on you to believe in yourself today; to clear self-sabotaging thoughts first, releasing any remnants of a defeatist attitude that tricks you into thinking the external world needs to change before your inner landscape does (as we discussed earlier).
You’ve probably heard this already, but it’s paramount to feeling grounded and allowing yourself to expand: breathwork will help you come out of your head, and get back into your body.
When you’re in your body, you feel more grounded, peaceful and at ease; you can listen to the wisdom of your body, instead of the panic of your ego; you create a sense of ease that supports your flow, momentum and uplevelling. This helps you feel safe even if (or when) things around you feel shaky, or when uncertainty threatens your sense of forward movement.
It can be as simple as placing one hand on your heart, and one hand on your belly. Then breathe in through your nose, so that you feel the hand on your belly rise. Hold it for a moment or two, breathe out through your nose, hold it for a moment or two, and repeat.
Close your eyes and focus on your breath, being and body. Continue to do this as often as you need.
Do it when you’re calling in what’s next for you; when you’re ready to receive more; when you’re releasing and shedding old skins.
Do it when you need to calm your mind and reclaim your power; do it when your mind starts ticking over too quickly; do it when you feel that sense of champing at the bit—wanting to be further ahead, wanting to move faster than you need or ought to.
Let yourself integrate and recalibrate, learning lessons and letting go, making space and grounding into your power, truth and alignment. Let yourself integrate the shifts, changes and awareness that each new stage, dream and creation brings to your body, mind and spirit.
When you allow yourself to surrender to this—thanking the energy and vibration of what’s already been—you can then anchor into the energy and vibration of what you’re calling in. You often have to surrender before you can see tangible evidence of what’s coming; that’s when you allow yourself to be supported by something greater than yourself.
Allow yourself to expand, rise and ground; expand, rise and ground; expand, rise and ground again.
Here are a handful of easy-to-implement tools you can use to integrate all you’ve received, learnt and embodied, in order to deepen this in your body, mind and spirit:
These affirmations will help you anchor into what you’re calling in (or what you’ve already received):