She who's seeking growth.
She who is seeking answers.
Where's the silver lining.
Inside a secret room?
How do we find the way, and not get lost in forests?
How do we sweep away the cobwebs?
Oh, with our witch's broom.
Hello.
Oh, you mystics and seekers.
I am your host, Meena Melissa Leigh, and this is the She Who Is Seeking podcast.
Today She Who Is Seeking Growth, through parables and myths and fairy tales.
Since we're a few episodes in, I thought I'd remind us of all the incredible
potential we have to learn and grow.
From a young age, we're able to learn from parables, myths, fairytales and stories.
But when we grow a bit older, we're able to learn from archetypes,
self-reflection and realizations made while we're in community.
Many cultures stress the importance of storytelling and community.
We have touches of that in our culture, but I think it's a very
important part of the human experience.
And I think we need more of it.
I believe that many of the themes are universal, and what we do
is we all learn from each other.
The place I share from is embodied in my experience.
And it's woven with challenges and triumphs.
I see that the lessons that I glean from these trials and tribulations
are actually the treasures of my life.
Nothing lasts forever.
In this game of life, we get a mission.
We complete the work.
We get the next mission.
We complete the work.
However, I want us to slow down and appreciate what we
receive when we complete the challenges that life gives us.
In a way where we're present and paying attention.
We are learning deep and universal life lessons all the time.
And I can really sense that many of us are listening to the same whispers
and allowing the same downloads and information and I've noticed
this thing and I bet you have too.
When someone is telling you their personal story,and you're listening,
and you're like, oh my God, me too!
Even if you don't say it out loud, you're thinking it.
It's very easy to see ourselves in that situation.
And we draw parallels, even if we're trying to have on our best listener
hat and listen with our full attention.
It's really easy to think.
Yeah.
Same.
And not every story we share is full of hardship.
And yet this place when you're pressed up against the flames
really quickens the transformation.
It would be great if we could just learn and have these lessons
and easy breezy situations.
But most of the time, that's not where the real lessons of growth stem from.
The best advice I have on the good times is to appreciate them.
Welcome them with open arms eagerly and often.
Enjoy the flow side of the ebb and flow.
And I'm all for gratitude.
Enjoy every minute of the good times.
Relax into them with your whole heart.
And take snapshots for your memor just to look at when times are tough
and filled with more challenge.
Because that time will come.
There's no expansion without the contraction.
So when the times are an ebb, we can look for our lessons and we
can ask for them to be gentle.
We can learn from them in a way that is deep and life-transforming.
However it requires us to pay attention to what we are experiencing.
And often it requires surrender.
That's the tough thing for a lot of us.
It requires trust and vulnerability.
Which can feel like some major bullshit.
Sometimes it seems that there's more discord than peace.
More opposition than teamwork.
And in this world that has chaos, it's important to have community.
Like-minded ,maybe.
But the more important piece is that you have a safe space.
The community which I've built and continue to build is a safe space.
It's supportive.
It honors my struggles and wins.
My gifts and shortcomings.
It's a place that allows me to branch out and unfold, mature and blossom.
And my life wasn't always this way.
It's been years of cultivating the right relationships.
And bringing to a close the ones that sucked more energy
than I was willing to give.
My experience is we help this process along.
With every decision we make, whether intentionally or not.
It draws the line for us in the sand.
And strengthens the boundaries around what is or isn't okay with us.
Sometimes we may have conflicted feelings.
About the people who just can't stay near the heat "that is your flame".
There are the people who just can't stay in your inner circle.
We have memories and ties that are not so easily dismissed.
And so it's challenging to let go of those.
Connections on both ends really.
And that's okay.
Growth can be uncomfortable.
And loss can be uncomfortable too.
But if you're making way for those who see you for who you truly are, and
love you for that special spark that you bring without needing to dim your
light, to feel okay with themselves.
Then you can really grow in a most amazing version of yourself, and so
can they, if they're so inclined.
Other times the growth gleaned from experience has nothing to do with
any forces outside of yourself.
It may be more about stepping into the greatest version of yourself.
And the only person in your way, is you.
And oh, how many times I've had both those scenarios be the case with me.
Too many to count.
What about you?
Do you see yourself on the precipice of the next great version of yourself?
I can feel it.
I think you are.
I am too.
So what is standing in our way?
What's that old BS that you're ready to kick to the curb.
And who is waiting to come out of the flames.
We all have hard things happen.
And there's no way to skip it forever.
We may get a free pass sometimes,but then it's time to pay the Piper.
So that is part of why I'm sharing things in this way.
We all have our own experiences.
And sometimes it's easy to just see them as shitty.
Best case you think- I'm glad that's done, and you move on.
However, if we can learn to sit in the discomfort and ask ourselves what
is transforming for me right now...
then we can see the gift of it.
And take it with us like a medallion.
But sometimes we just can't.
It's too much.
We're in physical, emotional, or mental pain.
That is so great.
That it's just impossible to see through.
So that's why I am here.
And I will ask you or remind you to ask yourself.
What is this gift?
I'm that annoying friend in your ear.
Who can always see the silver lining.
And maybe you always see it too.
But if you don't.
I can help you make the connections.
The responsibility of a life well lived.
And a journey well-traveled contains multitudes.
As do we.
And sometimes it's very complicated.
And I may not know the exact details of what's happening for you, but
I know the feel of what happened.
The archetypal imprint of the thing.
Just like how so many great stories can be overlaid onto Joseph Campbell's
blueprint of the Hero's Journey.
It's hard to find an epic tale that doesn't link up with that in some way.
And that is because there is these deep universal truths.
Universal lessons, that we all go through at one point or another.
It doesn't make us any less unique or less individual.
You're a human, having a human experience.
You can have the exact same experience as a hundred other people.
But your takeaway can be the catalyst for your growth.
The thing that makes you realize that you're a hundred times
stronger than you thought.
It's something that could even change your life.
Sometimes we're so eager to get through the whole affair.
That we may miss the magnitude of the lesson.
The diamond that was created from the compression of our
life collapsing in, on itself.
Or less dramatically, the bullshit that we deal with on the daily.
And why am I so sure of this?
Well, It's trust.
I know that I'm supposed to be doing this right now.
And so here we are.
And the skills that I bring to this journey.
Have been long in the making.
And a lot of them have come from exactly what I'm talking about that
pain and just truly deep learning.
And I didn't see it unfolding in quite this manner, but...
Spirit tells me to do things and I listen.
And this next bit is something that you may or may not know about me.
People who know me in real life, often comment to me about how
positive and optimistic I am.
And how patient.
And how resilient.
And all of those things are true.
Even when it was in what my mother referred to as the long period
of me being tragically, Gothic, I still had this undimmable spark.
And my uncle told me one time that he saw me as a burning flower.
And that undimmable spark is probably attributed to the
fact that I'm very contrary.
And I hate to be defeated.
And I'm not fond of wasting my time.
Or doing pointless things.
So I'm willing to look harder.
And I'm even willing to look in the deepest and darkest
and most terrifying places.
To find something to make the whole thing worth it.
I'm just not willing to leave without some gem or nugget.
I stay in the discomfort for however long it takes.
It's not that I like it.
I'm not immune.
To the potentially smothering heaviness of it, and feeling all of it, but I'm
just not going to leave without my lesson.
My wisdom.
My triumph.
Or my treasure.
I want to share the easy and challenging bits, both with supreme honesty.
I believe going deep.
And sharing deep is how you make the connections for yourself.
Or at the very least it will be that thing that we all like to do
when we're out for a walk, and somebody has their curtains open...
and we all look.
We all want to know what it's like inside places that we can't see into.
So when I share these experiences here with you, I don't shy away
from the tough or difficult bits.
And I don't try to gloss over them.
And make it seem as though I win every battle.
And come out on top.
With little bits of wisdom to share.
It's actually usually very murky and mucky.
But, I know that you go there too.
Maybe you have the gift of seeing.
The gifts yourself.
And you're just here together on this journey because you like being here.
But if you need help in seeing the silver lining when you're in
the middle of the stickiness or anywhere in between, it's okay.
If you're here and listening, because you just don't want to
be alone right now, it's okay.
Or if you're stalling, because you have something that you don't want
to start and you're procrastinating.
It's also okay, but maybe you go and do it after.
And if you're a lawyer and you just like to be that person who looks in the
medicine cabinet, when you're at a party.
Confession, that is me, I do that.
..Then this is a great place for that, because this is sort of like the
medicine cabinet of my human experience.
But, regardless of the reason why you're listening.
I'm so glad that you're here.
And I am going to continue to try to share whatever I can in a way that is
down to earth and connects to something that makes sense to you, even if it is
a little bit circuitous and amorphous.
Which is kind of my favorite way to describe everything recently.
I'm doing this thing, and I hope that you're receiving the
gift that you need from it.
The way that I see energy interacting with the world in the clearest way is to ground
it into the physical or into the tangible.
And our experiences are tangible.
They carry the emotions and reactions forward.
Everything is energy.
So what would be more charged then the huge events in our life.
Our voice is also tangible.
We interact with the voice.
Using our sense of hearing and it hits the mind.
Or the heart.
Or even the stomach.
And that words could go straight to a lot of places in our body.
And words, echo.
With the power of our response.
It's this chemical reaction of our hormones.
And we are in it and the somatic experience of our
bodies as we feel into it.
And it really tends to get our attention.
They transfer our consciousness from the inner dreamworld, to
the communal intermingling of the energy waves that we call "life".
When we are so deep in the moment and navigating the complicated situations in
our lives, it makes perfect sense that we don't always see the silver lining.
But, there's a funny thing about us humans.
When we connect with one another and share our stories in a way that is
open to flow and to giving, when we're listening with an open mind and heart.
Then we are in the energy of receiving.
And in that space, that's where we make connections for ourselves.
And for our own personal experiences.
And we weave them together, and we allow them to fall into place.
When we're open, it's impossible not to learn, and evolve.
Most stagnation in our growth tends to come from trying to
fold in,and be self-protective.
Sometimes this protective stance is warranted.
And sometimes it merely serves to block fresh ideas and
perspectives from moving in.
When we clench, nothing can come in or go out.
There's no flow, no movement, no interchange.
And that is often where pain and discomfort and dis-ease come in.
But this is about trusting and relaxing into the discomfort.
Settling into a safe surrender, and allowing yourself to be receptive.
And it's easier said than done, I know.
But that's the goal,and this is about progress, not perfection.
We can still move forward in our growth from a place that feels safer to us.
And we're still in charge of her own experiences.
We're learning and growing any time we're open to it.
So if some of this background, some of this blueprint for why sometimes I share
in this way, with this podcast, on the surface just seems to be about me and
my own experience, it isn't always.
Really sometimes.
It's more, in fact.
Like a parable from this deep collective.
And, so why didn't I just say that in the first episode that
I would be sharing in this way?
Well, I felt as though you would know.
And you would make the connections yourself.
Because you're a smarty who navigates the world intuitively.
And you took the lessons you needed with you.
And I could feel it.
And it was the feedback that I was getting from those of you who let
me know how some of the episodes have affected you and helped you.
But it also was me inviting you into my world, just by having you jump in.
I just started showing you around before even told you that you were on a tour.
But I knew you knew.
And this is your confirmation.
I am she who is seeking.
And I think you're seeking too.
My guess is we're going to come out of this as total
badassess,doing this together.
And I'm so happy that you were here for this kind of weird,
kind of funny, hopefully.
Interesting way of explaining my method.
So, thank you so much for joining me and I will see you again in two
weeks for another interesting topic.
And that was my dog snorting.
Her name is Stella
. So, this is the She Who Is Seeking podcast.
And it is the love child of me, Meena Melissa Leigh, and all of the views,
ideas and thoughts regarding the topics in this episode are pretty much, uh,
widespread and standard ..They're mine, but also, I'm guessing they're yours.
And, that's kind of the point on this one.
The beautiful song is Snake River, by Siren and the Sea.
And as always, I am so rooting for you, and I'm always advocating that
you create a life that you love and you live it every single day.
And if you have any thoughts, Come and find me over on Instagram.
Over there I am @shewhoisseeking, or you could go shewhoisseeking.transistor.fm
and there, you will find all the episodes as well as show notes and transcripts.
Or you could come over and find me at shewhoisseeking.com.
Which as of now, currently, which is August 2022, is getting a little showy.
So if you were to go today, it might look a little different than
if you go next week, et cetera.
But please come and find me.
Let's talk.
Let's chat.
Let me know how things are hitting your ears, where
you're feeling it in your body.
If any of this is ringing true to you, or if I just kind of kept you
company on the way to Trader Joe's.
So, go in peace and power and Victory to the Goddess.
Blessed Be.