In the last weeks, we have focused on naming, voicing, and deciding on the future of our various parts. Again, I provided a number of categories to work from: adaptations (ways you have had to contort yourself to survive this world); defenses and disguises (ways you have had to armor/distort/protect yourself to survive this world); archetypes (ways of being that reflect your essential nature in this incarnation); hidden parts (the parts of you that have had to deny, repress, hide from view); soul-selves (the parts of you that reflect your sacred purpose in this lifetime. That is, the parts that reflect your essential why in this lifetime); core-self (that which lives—unchangeably—at the center of your being—and reflects who you fundamentally are in this lifetime).
This week, we will engage in a ceremonial process that bids farewell to old parts, says hello to new ones, and that welcomes others as intrinsic to who you really are. In other words, this is the week that we own our relationship to our parts, and grant ourselves permission to embrace those that currently resonate, and to lovingly sever those that no longer serve us. Because every part of us has been a friend to us, at one time or another. Even if it reflected our hardship, our unhealthy habits, our internalized shame, it somehow helped us to remain alive in this mad world. It took up space at a time when we needed something to serve us. And it deserves a proper send-off, or a lively welcome, or a conscious embrace, as a testament to its value within your personal story. If your story is your glory—and I believe that it is—then everything that contributed to it, is as well. Every part of us is worthy of acknowledgment.
*I will formally begin my twice monthly ‘Dear Jeff advice column’ on May 15th. If you have questions about the kinds of things that I write about, feel free to email them to me at soulshaping@hotmail.com. Looking forward to this…