Fear-releasing workshop and lantern release!

About a week and a half ago, on a Sunday evening, I held a Fear-releasing Workshop at my home. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now- I felt compelled to teach what ends up coming up with a lot of my coaching clients on a bigger level- but it took me a while to finally get around to setting the date. The funny reason why I finally did was that I saw that a friend was planning on having a paper lantern release at her wedding (I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do one!) and I figured having a fear-releasing workshop would be the perfect reason! At the end of the workshop, we wrote either fears we wanted to release or intentions we wanted to set on the lanterns and set them off into the world!

I’ve been wanting to write about this and couldn’t find the words to encapsulate how I felt having these women show up with open hearts and eager to expand their awareness. We talked about our backgrounds, the fears and stories that hold us back, and 5 different strategies for overcoming fears or processing difficult emotions.

To give you a sample, one of the things that kept coming up in our fear-releasing workshop was the limiting belief that we need to worry about the important things in our lives in order to adequately plan/prepare (ex: if we don't worry about finances, we are being irresponsible or not properly preparing for the future). The truth is that our worrying gives us no control over the outcome. You can still do the things to plan/prepare but there's a HUGE difference between doing them with or without worry. The worry makes us no more likely to thwart whatever it is we're trying to prevent. Instead, it drains us of precious emotional energy. So we focused on replacing those worry thoughts with thoughts about what's going RIGHT in our lives!

If you are interested in hearing more of what we talked about, the workshop was recorded in 3 parts, which I posted below:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

So many of the women shared that one of their biggest take-aways was knowing that they’re not alone. How important of a message is that for all of us?? In the midst of a struggle, we tend to think we’re the only one who feels this way (or sometimes has EVER felt this way). It’s so important to remember that not only are their others who feel the same way or have gone through the same things, they are willing to walk with us in our journey. THAT is powerful.


I am so so SO grateful to this amazing group of women who joined in my Fear-releasing Workshop last week! There is truly magic that happens when a group of strong, open, beautiful souls come together to support and encourage each other!!!

The lantern release was a big part of why I wanted to do the workshop in the first place haha! The lanterns were WAY harder to light than I expected but the EXPERIENCE didn't disappoint!! Cheers to the wonderful women who braved the cold and the winds on the Hot Metal Bridge to cast away our fears and release our intentions into the universe!!!

 

My friend, Sam, was recording some of the lanterns releasing and magically caught what we think might have been a shooting star in the video! So cool!!

Gratitude for the tough stuff

There is always room for improvement, but I have to say I am proud of the point I’m at in my own growth. Instead of being impulsive and reactionary in tough situations, I can handle them with peace and grace. I mean this relatively because I am far from perfect in this regard, but I can FEEL my own progress. And that feels good :)

One practice that has helped me develop this and keep the big picture in mind when handling, processing, or reacting to any tough/sad/disappointing/frustrating situation is to be grateful for the tough stuff that comes along. It instantly pulls me out of fear and reminds me that these labels (“tough,” “sad,” “disappointing,” “frustrating,” “bad,” etc) are only the meaning I’m giving to it by thinking the situation *should* have unfolded in a different way. When I can pull myself out of the emotion of it and into observer mode through this gratitude practice, I am able to remember that EVERYTHING is happening for my greater good and expansion. If it’s happening, it’s because on a soul level, I needed it to happen.

While it is often initially difficult to utter the words, “Thank you for [insert difficult situation/person/outcome],” the resistance seems to fade almost immediately once the full thought is expressed and given a voice and it is replaced with a peace and awareness and understanding and calmness once the bigger picture is allowed to come into sight. I sometimes can even start to feel the tingly excitement of my energy and vibration raising as I do this. I urge you to give it a try too!!

Here is a video where I explain more. I also included some pictures below of the lake I was at when I recorded this. They instantly make me feel peaceful :)

Having gratitude for the tough stuff

Pictures from the lake- enjoy!