2018 was my year of the sacred no. I worked on establishing and upholding boundaries with my time and energy. I learned how to pause before responding or automatically saying yes to something I would later regret.
2018 was a year of honoring my limits.
2019 was my year of the holy hell yes (you can read about its wisdom here). My sacred no led me to make way for my yes. Only saying no makes our lives smaller if we forget that its true role is to create space for new energy to come in. I learned to say yes to the opportunities that truly lit me up, even when they stretched me outside of my comfort zone or made me quake in my boots.
2019 was a year of breaking free of self-imposed limits.
Life sure is a dance, isn’t it?
Over this holiday season, I sat with what feels true going into 2020, not only a new year, but also a whole new decade (no pressure…). What is my overall intention or theme for this coming year?
What has come through not only in my conscious ponderings but also in my night dreams has been the following:
Attuning myself to the WILD RHYTHM.
Wild rhythm. I even like the way it sounds. I am only half sure of what it means (which is probably more open and honest anyway…my year of yes did not turn out exactly as I imagined it would anyhow), but it fills me with excitement to find out more.
What I can sense thus far is that it means attuning more deeply to my wild body. Basic rhythms of movement and rest. Things that sound so simple, and are somehow still difficult to align with in modern times. Resting when my body is tired instead of muscling through my to-do list. Moving when my body feels crunchy from spending too many hours stationary in front of a computer. Finding and prioritizing ways to help my body feel good – Flexible, Soft, Strong, Calm, Relaxed – whether that be acupuncture, stretching, certain foods, etc.
It also means attuning more with my feminine cycles, and allowing them to provide my life with a natural structure. Those of us who are menstruating experience the cyclical quality of the feminine nature in our bodies at all times. In my experience, I am not exactly the same person when I am ovulating as I am right before I get my period. There are times when I lean more heavily towards extroversion, feel extra bubbly and light, and am hungry to spend time with other people. There are other times when I am much more introverted. These latter times also correspond when I do my deepest and poetic writing, as I seem to have a foot in the otherworld.
Self-care, and what feels most nourishing, does not always look the same.
I know this about myself, and yet I continue to put things on my schedule all willy-nilly. Why not work with my wild and natural rhythms, rather than pushing against them? Why not allow my internal experience to help shape the external form of my life? Of course, there is always room for spontaneity and making space for what desires feel nourishing in the moment, but I want to make the building blocks, the basic structure of my weeks, feel more aligned with the cyclical rhythm of my own feminine experience.
Beyond the realm of my body, wild rhythm also corresponds to aligning more with the natural cycles of the earth and the heavens. The cycles of the moon. Of the seasons. Of astrological happenings. We are all of this natural world, but still try to mold ourselves into manmade, mechanical, and linear structures that often feel constricting and unnatural. We live and breathe and exist in soft animal bodies; we are not meant to live like machines.
In the more soulful, metaphorical realm, it also means dancing between my masculine and feminine energy. I have had several dreams over the past weeks that have been showing me a newly discovered masculine energy within me that actually springs from, and is in service to, my feminine being. (On the morning of my 37th birthday, I awoke from a dream that I had grown a penis and was ECSTATIC about this new development!)
I have also been shown how this masculine energy within me needs the feminine to revivify it, to rock it back to life on a regular basis. Otherwise, with overuse, it grows weary. It needs the depth and darkness of the feminine; it also needs her playful, sensual, and embodied energy. When I ignore the weariness and push on despite it is when I start to grow brittle. To help ensure that my masculine energy continues to be able to show up in healthy ways, I need to give it times of restoration.
After my experience the last couple of years, I am sure that 2020 will have much more to teach and show me about WILD RHYTHM than I can even begin to imagine right now.
Do you have an intention or a word for 2020? It never ceases to amaze me to see the wisdom that can arise when we filter our experience through the lens of our conscious intention. It gives us a different perspective and way to look at the world that allows even the difficult experiences to reveal their hidden gifts.
For those who are looking for support with your dreams, your intentions, and bringing your unique soul medicine down and out into the world of form, Wild Woman Sessions are open. Fill out the contact form on my website or email me at singingbirdhealth@gmail.com and we will set up a time to chat to see if working together would be a good fit.
With immense love,
Linda
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