How Do You Know You’re Living Your Sovereign Story?

If someone asked you "what were you born to do?" would you have an answer?

For a long time, I thought I did. It’s all about the writing, I'd say.

I would count myself lucky to be so sure. Some people take years to figure it out, and some may never know it all.  I was one of those kids who understood why I was here, and all it took was putting words on paper.

"Writing" was the first answer and the easy answer. Sometimes we need to stick with the original impulse. Sometimes we need to celebrate that things really can be easy.

But, sometimes, we need to keep searching and honor the complexity that urges us to go deeper.

Writer is a tidy word to claim, so compact and understandable. (It can be a long journey to claim it, I know, but we'll get to that.) 

It was harder to get my head - and my words - around the greater truth:

Writing itself wasn't ever the end goal. The act of writing didn't define or even fulfill me. It was about everything that writing made possible within me. 

Ultimately, writing has always been about discovering what I really cared about, worried about, and wondered about. Writing is there to help me talk to the divine, to figure out my stand on social and political issues, and to help me sort through my feelings.

Writing is the sailboat, the sexy car, the horse drawn carriage. It's the vehicle that takes us where we long to go. This vehicle may offer great joy, but the whole experience is about so much more than the thing that transports us there.

But this “writing vehicle” certainly has carried me a long, glorious way

Last January, the Sovereign Writers Circle was formed. This was the digital gathering place where healers who loved to write discovered how they could use their words to heal others. We’ve gotten together to write every week in 2018. And it has been awesome.

But that's not all we did.

We laughed and cried. We shared stories that we'd barely ever spoken aloud. We talked about business strategy and what it really meant to care for and nurture ourselves. We explored spiritual beliefs the weight of our ancestral line. 

We have always used writing to get us to the place of sovereignty.

Writing is our vehicle. Sovereignty is our destination. (And the most important part of the sovereignty journey is realizing we've already arrived in so many ways. There's never one destination anyway, we realize.  We'll never fully arrive until this life journey reaches its end, and it likely keeps going on well after that too.)

The more complex, hard won answer to "what were you born to do?"

When the words flow through you like they’re being channeled from some cosmic source, it’s never as sudden as it seems. Something powerful has been incubating within, disguised by doubt and anguish and all the feelings of “everyone else has this figured out but not me.”

This fall when I recorded The Sovereignty Manifesto while driving to pick up my little one from preschool, I was a little stunned when I named myself “Word Witch, Story Healer, Priestess of Sovereignty.”

The first title was fun to say. I’d been playing with the second title for a long time after long study in energy medicine. The last thing? The whole “Priestess of Sovereignty” thing? That was as surprising as it was natural and inevitable.

Leading this group changed me. Leading this group named me.

Holding space for so many brilliant women who wanted to make writing a tool for personal discovery, professional growth, and deep, meaningful evolution helped me see my own evolution more fully.

And so, the group has been renamed too.

The Sovereignty Circle is here

This group is intended to help you write your way into “what is it you were born to do?”

To engage with this question is to begin to write your Sovereign Story. When healers, coaches, and creatives know and embody their sovereignty, the world begins to shift.

Really.

As I said, the Sovereignty Circle is built on a the strong foundations of the vibrant community we have built over the last year. The best aspects of the group remain unchanged. We still meet for weekly writing practice dates (Wednesdays at noon ET) with new prompts each time. We still gather for monthly writing coaching & story healing sessions. We still bring in guest experts each month who talk about self care, publishing, marketing, the spiritual journey, and more.

Now, the title is simply more honest and more complete. To call this group of brave, brilliant souls The Sovereignty Circle conveys the truth of what the mother of writing practice Natalie Goldberg once said:

To do writing practice means to deal ultimately with your whole life.

And so, I invite you to consider joining us for the next season or the next half year.

The details about the group are all here, along with kind words from many of our members.

We’re closing the doors at midnight ET on January 1 because our first meeting of 2019 is on Wednesday, January 2, so don’t wait to apply!

Your Sovereign Story is a Cardinal in the Snow

The deep northern freeze still seals the Christmas Day snow to the ground. Winter feels like it’ll be a permanent resident on this earth. We tender-skinned beasts can only huddle on the warm side of a window and try to remind one another of spring.

And yet, there are tracks in the yard. This patch of land is a crossroads for unseen hooves and paws. The squirrels are gray ghosts haunting the treetops. Whether they’re playing, trying desperately to keep their blood pumping, or searching in vain for a nut that’s not frozen through, they remind us that there is life out there in what is only a temporary tundra.

It’s worth it to keep looking, then. In truth, I’m always looking. Even when I’m not aware of it, I’m always asking for a sign and I’m always seeking their blessing. I need these tough little birds to show me that there’s spark and lift in me too -  even when the light in me just wants to hibernate and the flight in me wants to help me escape to some fantasy land of perpetual summer holidays.

Somewhere in those woods, there’s a pair of cardinals keeping each other company in the January chill. I linger at the breakfast table, hoping this will be the morning they flit by.

It’s not like wishing for hummingbirds in a hurricane, they’re out there. Constant creatures, mated for life and non-migratory even in the furthest reaches of their range, the cardinals endure. They are flashes of inspiration waiting to be detected in the white-gray winter sleep.

The cardinal speaks to us of love, equality, the true voice, and the right to be seen… The female sings as loudly and sweetly as the male. When it’s time to breed, the daddies mute their bold colors to better keep the nest safe and share in the care of the young.

The cardinal is a harbinger of creativity who sparks the inner fires. They offer you direction - a red flare to follow into your own story.

Photo by Daria Shevtsova on Unsplash

In the midst of the noise and the distraction, the suffering and the silencing, it can feel impossible to recognize the story that you’re here to tell. Dedicating the time to tell it and standing certain that you have the right to do so… That’s even tougher.

But this isn’t just any story you long to explore and share. This isn’t some social media status crafted to get a bunch of likes and shares or make an impact as a “sponsored post.” It’s so much more than that.

It’s your Sovereign Story, the story that you’re meant to tell. The story that you’ve lived through and struggled for and are still healing and reshaping  every day.

This Sovereign Story of yours is a cardinal in the snow. It’s unbelievable that it thrives in such weather. You just assume it’s fled like all of the other delicate creatures who need optimal conditions to thrive. But it never truly leaves. It’s lingering at the edges of your vision and daring you to catch it in its flight. It’s a beacon that shines with the same enduring strength that you’ve shown every step of your own journey.

The cardinal is still here. You’re still here. Notice that. Tell the story of how and why.

This is the way we spread light in the darkness and welcome fellow seekers to the hearth after a long trek in the cold.

Not sure where to find your cardinal or if you'd know what to do with your Sovereign Story when it finds you? Apply to join the Sovereign Writers Circle where you'll write and grow with other healers and transformation professionals on a quest to follow the signs and tell the stories that matter.

No matter what your 2018 intention, these two words will help you embody it

This new year is breathing down our necks with the icy whisper of a frigid New York winter.

On the other hand, this is a great big world with all kinds of weather… The new year just might be caressing your skin with the sweetness of a Carribean breeze.

No matter what, the new year tends to bring chills of anticipation.

We can count the hours until we can sit down with sparkling new, soul-defining day planners. We’re so close to cracking open these wonderful books that we entrepreneurs SO love to buy and creating a fresh 365-day collection of plans and affirmations and visions and promises and appointments that will make this year different…

If you’re anything like me, you’re shifting back and forth between “yes, finally!” and “no, I’m not ready!” as the sands of time drain from the 2017 hourglass… There’s all of excitement for a fresh start mingled with the worries that a new calendar won’t necessarily make for a whole new you. 

Do you do the “word-of-the-year” thing?

We’ve just wrapped up the latest #7MagicWords Challenge, so the potency of a single word is abundantly clear right now.

#7MagicWords takes place at the turn of each season, and, as this is first time we’ve run challenge in the winter, it’s the first time we could use it to help us find a word of the year. Just about every invitation to join the project included: “You can find magic in a word and it can light your way - day by day and throughout the year to come.” And as the last magic words appear in the Facebook group and on Instagram, it’s clear that the challenge fulfilled its promise for so many of the participants.

The #7MagicWords Challenge is always 8 days long (because, why not?) and the eighth prompt is always the same: a word that integrates. Though I hadn’t intended my integration word to be my guiding light for 2018, it seems that it is. It has to be.

Drum roll for something so obvious it’s just gotta be true… 

My word of the year is “writing.”

You could say that every year is about writing for me, but now, as I continue to grow as a writer and as a guide for other writers, I see the word coming into fresh, undeniable focus. And, as I look at my own big, thick 2018 planner full of endless unwritten possibility, I know that I will write my way into just about every accomplishment.

A word of the year or any magic word is special because it's multifaceted and can hold your evolution in many ways. I know my word is the right one because... 

• It’s about writing my Sovereign Story and unpacking what I really mean by my beloved motto “Free the Princess. Crown the Queen. Embrace the Wise Woman.” I know this is the story I must write and tell.
   
• It’s about writing into the fantasy novel that wants my attention and will satisfy my truest truth… I’ve always wanted to write vast sweeping stories like my favorite authors do. 

• It’s about continuing to write the everyday-sized stories because they’re how I connect and serve and teach.
   
• And, it’s about supporting others’ writing, continuing to deepen my story healing practices and finding new ways to support healers who wish to develop their own writing practices. 

How about you… what’s your word of the year, #7MagicWords inspired or otherwise?

No matter what your intention for the new year is, two words can help you embody it

“If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.” One of my favorite poets, Seamus Heaney, said that. I always keep it on my desk as a reminder.

Here are two words I know can help you find the most direct way to your truth and your intention: writing and community. 

That last item on that word-of-the-year list? That promise to support writers in new ways? That’s why I am launching the Sovereign Writers Circle on January 2. 

In this group of therapists, coaches, and transformation professionals, you’ll have the community encouragement to do what can feel like a very lonely thing - writing your blog, your website, your info product, or your book.

Yes, we’ll think about publishing and using writing to build a business, but we’ll also focus on the healing power of writing. You’ll be invited to use the blank page to discover what it is you really want and what you truly know about your own Sovereign Story.

Learn more about the group including the schedule for our 6 monthly calls and other benefits of joining the SWC.

If you commit to a three-month membership before midnight on December 31 you’ll also receive a free 60-minute writing coaching and story healing session with me. (That's a $150 value!)

Could “writing” be your word of the year?

There are new stories to tell, stories you and I have been hoarding and neglecting and allowing to wither away while we were busy striving and coping and growing and losing track of who we really are... Writing is how we find ourselves again and build the stamina to keep ourselves from losing track of what's really important now and in the future. 

I invite you to write with me.  I promise words and magic. I promise to dive deep into the mystery, to help you find the stories that hide within and write the stories that must be shared.

Before the Business Plans and the Paragraphs... the Poetry

What's on the other side of the stuff you need to write, the marketing you gotta do, and the emails you should return?

Desire. Sleep. The passions l that aren't born of what's clearly public, profitable, or popular.

Oh, and poetry.

It was so wonderful to appear on Linda Bonney’s podcast to talk about something as delightfully subversive as poetry. She’s a brave soul on a mission, showing us how verse matters in a world obsessed with prose.

We wrote poems in the margins before we pushed quotes into the Instagram feed 

Once upon a time, phones were used to place calls and recent college grads had jobs at desks without computers. I used to fill legal pads with stanzas that never, ever rhymed.

But that was a long time ago, and I tried to dance away from Linda’s invitation to talk about the role of poetry in my life today. Though I try my best to read a poem rather than get lost in the news feed from time to time, I haven't written purposefully written a line of poetry for years.

Linda has a way of finding the poet within and inviting you to find your own poetic soul in the midst of the distraction and the full sentences.

Returning to the Elements of Writing After Long Silence

I invite you to listen to our conversation, Returning to the Elements of Writing After Long Silence. It was an honor to read aloud from a piece I wrote last month that celebrated the return of my voice. We also dive into W.B. Yeats and what it might mean to welcome poetry into the “real” work.

And tell me... where does poetry sit along your own life's journey? Is it a part of your distant past? A continuing source of inspiration and solace? A language you never quite learned to speak?

What to Say to the Forces and Fears that Keep You From Writing

To every secret shame that silences you, say: “Thank you. I see you.”

To every overscheduled day that squeezes out your writing time, say: “Thank you. I see you.”

To every messy relationship that is too in-the-middle to describe, say: “Thank you. I see you.”

To every stomachache and sniffle and trip to the ER with the kids, say: “Thank you. I see you.”

To every fear that it has all been done before, say: “Thank you. I see you.”

To every Netflix drama whose plot line supersedes yours, say: “Thank you. I see you.”

To every shred of doubt that these words aren’t worth the effort, say: “Thank you. I see you.”

To every story that you’re living too fiercely and fully to pin to the page, say: “Thank you. I see you.”

To every whisper that you’re not clever enough or unique enough or creative enough, say: “Thank you. I see you.”

Our writing gets lost in the forest of shoulds.

Our writing gets drowned in the river of comparison.

Our writing gets scorched in the desert of distraction.

Our writing gets blown away by the winds of everyone else’s agenda.

You are responsible - deliriously, deliciously responsible - for your own stories and your own writing practice.

Your mission as an agent of transformation and a force for good is to share your ideas, your experiences, and your dreams with the readers who need your message. You need to reach out with your stories and welcome those potential clients who yearn for the wisdom and support only you can provide.

It’s time to (re)claim your right to tell and explore your stories

Now is the time stand sovereign at the center of your own stories. All the shameful and the messy ones. All the half-formed and the crazy ones. All the commonplace and mystical ones.

Now is the time to stand up for the time and energy it takes to dream and draft and craft those stories into insights that help someone else.

Now. Now is time to claim the time it takes to do all this righteous writerly reclaiming.

And, it’s time to make the space for the words that want to come through you

Tell every excuse, valid or otherwise, that you understand it has its place, but it exists on the other side of the door to your sacred writing space.

Wait, do you have a your sacred writing space?

It may be a room. It may only be a journal and a pen and an intention to find a chair where you can rest and think without interruption.

Your sacred writing space is a space in time as much as it is a place you can pin on a map. It’s the space when your heart spills open and your mind reorders chaos and your brilliance bashes up against your most foolish beliefs.

In order to find yourself in that space, in order to create that space for yourself, you must first unburden yourself.

Say: “Thank you. I see you,” to every item on the litany of resistance that pulls you away from that sacred appointment with your creativity. Ask all of those shoulds, comparison games, distractions, and demands to sit aside while you do the work that you must do.

This is how you create sacred writing space

Try it. Make your own list of the forces that pull the pen from your hand and slam the laptop on your fingers the moment you try to write into your truth. Can you say “Thank you. I see you” to those forces and politely ask them to wait until you’re done drafting into a piece of writing that matters to you?

You may need to do this exercise again and again. And you might find you need support to keep bravely staring down the hobgoblins of writer’s block…

That’s why I've created the Sovereign Writers Circle.

Learn more about the online writing group for healers, therapists, and transformation professionals. This is how you're doing develop the writing practice that supports you, your creativity, and the brilliant work you’re here to do.