There is so much to discover about our healing journeys…. Let's do it together.
Evolving Into A New Phase
This morning, I found myself reading an old newsletter article I wrote back in 2022, The Shackles of Fear. I wasn't expecting it to move me the way it did. There was something about reading the words of my past self that reminded me of exactly what I needed to hear today.
This year has stretched me in ways I couldn't have imagined. I've stepped into new rooms, new relationships, and new opportunities that once felt intimidating. That old article had me recognize an old protective pattern resurfacing. The desire to become more palatable. To adjust how I express myself based on how I might be perceived. To make sure I could be understood, accepted, and respected. Not necessarily consciously. And certainly not all the time. But enough that I can recognize it now.
Here's what I'm beginning to understand.
Growth can awaken old protective patterns. Even as we evolve and become more confident, unfamiliar spaces can activate fears and behaviors we thought we'd moved beyond. Recognizing them gives us the opportunity to respond differently.
Self-protection doesn't have to mean self-suppression. I can be a grounded, capable business leader AND the deeply intuitive, spiritually connected woman I've come to know and trust. I don't have to hide parts of myself to feel accepted or respected.
Belonging doesn't require abandoning ourselves. I can enter new spaces with professionalism and confidence while remaining connected to my light, warmth, and authenticity. I don't have to control how others perceive me to trust who I am.
Perhaps this is one of the deeper lessons of conscious leadership. Learning to recognize when we're responding from our truth and when we're responding from old fears or protective patterns. Not judging ourselves for those patterns, but becoming aware enough to make a different choice.
For me, that choice is to continue stepping forward, allowing myself to be seen, and trusting that I don't need to control how everyone perceives me. I can simply be responsible for how I show up.
I wonder if there's a part of yourself you've been protecting, holding back, or quietly leaving behind as you've grown. Perhaps it's time to invite that part of you forward again.
Fear doesn't have to be the one deciding which parts of yourself are allowed to be seen.
The Shackles of Fear
About Healing Newsletter - By Sheree Buckman - 10/17/2022
We have been indoctrinated to question what is considered not ‘normal’ all our lives. Since infancy we’ve watched the world around us learning how to interact with it, understanding what behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs are accepted and what is not. We’ve learned that if we push ‘normalcy’, the defined line in the sand around us, you get negative reactions, often resulting in feeling unsafe.
Isn’t that the core of all fears? Not feeling safe, accepted, and loved?
Fear is another human based condition and is created by the unfolding of the human mind. We are auto programmed to fear what we do not understand and those who don’t understand us. Instead of learning to understand the ‘different’, our auto programming activates, as if reacting to a contagious illness, creating fear and retreating back to the comfort zone within the safe limits of the line in the sand.
We must learn to bypass this auto response. The key is to understand that our truest power comes from the heart. It is in the place of centered calm and love we can create the greatest weapon fear has ever seen… our light.
I once dreamt about this…
I stood in a frozen state of fear surrounded by a ghostly invasion of something I didn’t understand and could not control. I was overwhelmed with panic, taking short and quickened breaths not fully filling my lungs, while uncontrollable tears blurring my vision, my hands covering my ears to avoid hearing the frightening scene, and praying for something to save me.
Suddenly, I was overcome by an awareness of knowing what to do. Still rendered by fear, I forced myself to take a deep breath, close my eyes, and focused on my heart center, building the light energy from within (love) until it became so full it erupted outward as a BURST of light exploding out into the universe. It felt like a HUGE source of power that made me feel completely at peace and protected. In that moment, all the scary things that surrounded me turned around and walked away, as if it were a complete matter of fact that I was untouchable. I awoke suddenly at that point, so stuck by how real that dream felt. It was at that time, after that dream, that I awoke - questioning everything I knew and began learning and accepting the work I do now.
That dream is the biggest lesson of my life, my own karmic lesson, understanding that I truly have nothing to fear. All of my power is within, it cannot be taken from me and it is not something to seek out because it already exists.
Fear is the shackles that bind us. When you are stuck in fear and the dense energy that is bound to it, you miss the magic that surrounds you. To break from the shackles, take a deep breath, close your eyes, and focus on your heart center. Keep your focus on the heart center and you will create the courage and invisible shield to charge forward into the unknown. Our light (love) is the greatest weapon that exists.
We are entering a new time where more and more people are awakening to finding their own truths and to stop living in fear of doing, thinking, and believing outside the ‘normal’. We are evolving to a new place of understanding that removes fear along with the physical and energetic limitations it carries. We are all connected by light and never separate from one another. Choose to see the light and you will never feel separated again.
Until next time, be kind to yourself.