The beginning of 2021 sparked something magical in me to become more in touch with my divine feminine. This is actually a journey I’ve been slowly approaching for a while now and over time I’ve been toying with different routines and such to dip my toes in the water. I’m currently at a place in my spiritual journey that asks me to deprogram myself from a lot of cultural, societal, and family norms that have been ingrained in me my entire life. This type of reflection is typically called shadow work, and while shadow work looks different for everyone, mine includes analyzing the lineage of women who have come before me in this lifetime: my mom, my grandmother, great grandmother, so on and so forth. It also includes a lot of inner child work for me, finding my younger self through meditation and meeting her with love and validation, which takes a lot of strength to be able to do. Shadow work is not easy and in my journey, it requires a lot of preparation: mentally, physically, and spiritually. I’ve begun to incorporate many exercises that help me reach a place of vulnerability. Shadow work does not work until you are able to have intimate, honest, and sometimes heartbreaking conversations with yourself. Preparing yourself to go deep into your existence is a big deal and having grounding practices to do beforehand or alongside are so important.
Depending on who you are, it might take longer or more steps to reach that state of vulnerability. Do not judge yourself if you do not reach that state immediately, it might take days, months or even years. I have always been an incredibly sensitive soul, so it does not take me much to “get in my feelings.” We are all on our own journey, no need to compare each other’s timelines.
These practices can be done independently or altogether, take what resonates and leave what does not.
Creating Mantras: Mantras are powerful proclamations of self-worth. I find them to be so sacred and I personally love taking time to create my mantras so I truly feel a deep connection to them. When writing my mantras I will usually do so before or after meditation to help me be in a compassionate state of mind. I visualize my highest self and examine all the qualities of her I admire and want to remind myself that I am!
A few of my favorite mantras:
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I am a divine being of light.
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All the answers are within me.
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I trust myself.
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The universe has my back.
Meditation, Reiki + Journalling: My intentions are constantly shifting depending on the course of my life at that given moment. Somedays I feel more called to delve into my “Mother Wounds,” other days I want to embrace my divine sensual energy and sometimes I want to work on speaking my truth. My intuition is loud so the area of healing is usually very apparent to me, but sometimes I use other sources like tarot or oracle readings to confirm what I need to be working on that day. Once I’ve found an area of my existence I want to approach I do so through meditation, reiki and sound healing.
Each chakra in our body is linked to physical and mental blockages and I use my given intention to help guide me to a chakra I can work on. Ie: The throat chakra would be related to “speaking my truth.” I then look for music with the healing vibration associated with that chakra. There are thousands of different sound baths and healing music on youtube which has been a massive resource of mine. I will often meditate or simply just sit with breath, then when I feel ready, turning to my journal to document any takeaways from my meditation. Meditating followed by journaling shortly after has been a favorite practice of mine and has brought me a lot of healing. It’s my version of going to church—when I am so deep into a meditation I often talk to my higher self or angel guides.
Eventually, in my journaling process, I usually end up closing my eyes for a little bit, oftentimes crying or having to audibly release the emotions built up in my being. An important reminder to hold with you during this process is that your emotions and energy blockages will release themselves in different ways for different people. My release is usually through crying or writing, for others it might be through physical movement, calling a friend, closing your eyes, yelling, etc.
Dancing: Dancing as a spiritual practice was introduced to me at my very first full moon ceremony in 2017. I kind of felt like a crazy person the first time I did it, but it eventually gave me an insane amount of freedom like I had never felt before. I also like to refer to this part of my female embodiment routine as “intuitional movement.” In my trauma-informed yoga trainings, I have learned that trauma and emotions truly do live within the body. The jaw, shoulders/back, and hips/pelvis are incredibly common locations on the body where this happens. Dancing or moving intuitively can allow you to let your body have a lot of freedom that we are not usually afforded in our everyday lives. Hunched over, closed hips and crossed legs is how we live the majority of our day so you might not be surprised when you allow your body to just move or dance, even if it looks really random, how freeing it feels. Dedicating even a few minutes of your day to putting on liberating music or flowing to the sounds of nature truly encourages your body to release points of stuck energy in your body. The key to this practice is doing this in a physical space that feels completely free of judgment. For me, most days this happens in my kitchen every morning as I make my daily smoothie. I’ve also had incredibly intimate moments of enlightenment when I’m in a candle-lit room, late at night when I know no one will ever see this moment except me. You don’t have to do this alone either. I encourage practicing intuitional movement with other souls in your life who you feel safe with. Collective energy is POWERFUL and doing this with others around you might take you to a place you would never have found doing it solo.
My intuitional movement ceremony often makes its way into my yoga practice when I allow my breath and spirit to guide me through my asanas. Free flowing / stretching on your yoga mat also has a similar effect to intuitional movement. In these moments I truly try to envision myself handing over all my worries, stressors, problems to my mat. Letting my mat hold me and support me is incredibly grounding for me and lets me go to vulnerable places in my heart.
I truly hope one of many of these practices find their way into your own life. They are so sacred to me and I am honored to be able to share them with you. It should also be said that you don’t have to be seeking out a spiritual journey to do any of this, these practices are available for anyone and everyone.
Sending love + light,
Morgan