Inner strength is not just about how much you can lift or about having a strong core. For me, it’s no longer a casual word I toss around to describe my spirituality.

Inner strength requires the courage to take consistent steps toward something or someone that brings up intense, in-your-face fear, fear that won’t let you or the other person hide.

Increasing your inner strength requires you to move beyond where you think your edge is…then go further. It requires trust in something much bigger than yourself – something that is felt and known, not seen, held or touched. This something is within YOU, not outside of YOU.

The following is a journal entry from my past that illustrates how far I’ve come…

Emerging from my cocoon

Written August 21, 2015

Today I am consciously aware of the changes afoot in my life. I sense I am almost at the top of a roller coaster – a monumental hill I have been climbing for a very long time. I anticipate the fall, the release, and the momentum that starts once I hit the downward slant of this mountain. Once things are in motion, I know there is no going back.

I have been living in a cocoon of safety, stagnation and dormancy.

And even though I have prepped for this time, I am still attached to my inner protected world – blind to the extent of this attachment. As my spiritual “skin” separates from these walls, there is pain and intense fear. This pain and fear have stopped me before – pulling me back into the seeming comfort of my conventional surroundings. But support from the unseen sees me through as I release the brakes of my longstanding and traditional roles as wife and mother. To move out into the world – vulnerable, naked and unsure of where I am going.

Trust is my staff as I prepare to make my way forward onto the path of my long-awaited destiny.

The wind whispers to me in a soft gentle roar. Birds soar above me, sending me the message that I can do the same. Mother Earth supports me from beneath. The clouds take the forms of Angels, giving me the sense that I am safe; I am supported, loved and all is perfect and well.

Journal excerpt ends here…

When I wrote this first section of this journal entry, I was feeling quite fragile and vulnerable and about to step out of my “safe space” for the first time in 30 years. If I had had to go through the events of the past two years back when I wrote this journal entry, I would have most likely ended up in a mental hospital on heavy anti-depressants…maybe even considering suicide. I didn’t have the strength and fortitude back then that I do now.

I used to shudder looking back on my life, cringing at all the insanity and craziness I experienced growing up. Now, I am thankful to see how those experiences were all a necessary and integral part of my education. Instead of a college degree, they represent a kind of doctorate of life, enabling me to master the things I am now being called to support others through.

You may feel this too.

Figuring out what your path is or is supposed to look like can be a process of sifting through different experiences that either feel completely wrong or amazingly right. It makes it even more difficult to say yes to the things you feel in your heart will bring you unhappiness when your existence on this physical earth requires you to have money to survive.

And, even when you have stumbled upon and shifted to your Divine path, it doesn’t mean you won’t be challenged. In fact, the challenges come harder and stronger – something like the progression of contractions during childbirth. This is because you have accepted the assignment of being and living in integrity, no longer glossing over untruths to keep peace.

You have surrendered to the process of clearing up the messes from previous times, forgiving relationships despite your fear, and facing down difficulty with courage.

I have now discovered the tools and tapped into the support that helps me (and you, by extension) build this inner strength. These tools have enabled me to move through challenges with a little more grace, a deeper level of faith and understanding than I was capable of back when I wrote that journal entry I quoted from earlier. Instead of trying to find a way around these “fear inducing” opportunities, I am now able to face them head on.

These awareness’s, courage and strength come from my daily practice of meditation. My attention is continually focused on how my thoughts, words and actions not only affect and drive my experiences, but also the experiences of those around me. I believe that we, collectively, affect the entire planet.

Everything we do and are and say really matters!

Now back to my journal…

Reflecting back

Written October 6, 2017

I have been reflecting on my numerous feats over the past two years, ones that have pushed me well beyond my edge and out the other side, each time bringing me to a new level of faith and triumph. Looking back has helped me to see how much ground I have covered, my newly found strength and my deepening connection and life line with the Divine.

This reflection has shown me how much I have un-covered the true essence of ME.

Some might think these adventures quite unnerving and far too edgy for their comfort, but that’s okay. I know my calling is to overcome this discomfort in me and the reactionary behavior that results from that discomfort and to “BE” the example of possibility – no longer sitting back, observing from a safe zone. Each time I have listened to my intuition and gone well past this zone has added another building block of faith. This faith saturates the deeper landscape within me as I continue moving forward – a gentle guiding force ever behind me.

Journal excerpt ends here…

I hope you can see, when you compare the 2017 journal entry with the August 2015 entry, that I have grown into those words “inner strength”. And meditation has been the tool that has helped me build my spiritual muscles. The word “strength” is no longer a word I toss around casually; it is woven into my actions. This is what I believe I can do for you: Support you in using meditation to help you connect with your Divine and discover your “new level of faith and triumph”.

I invite you to become a part of my community. Join the conversation and share your story as it relates to the ideas in “our” blog.