The Inner Work

Doing the inner work is the hardest most rewarding thing we can ever do for ourselves. It takes diligence, acceptance, love, encouragement, discipline, bravery and courage. Most of us want to bypass this part and just keep on going. We always think that we can just show up, do the work later and skip the tough parts. The more we put the inner work off, the more we lose ourselves. 

Inner work - diving deep into ourselves, into the darkest, into the lightest, into the parts unknown and the parts we think we know. Showing up for ourselves even when we don't want to. Participating in the bettering of ourselves and doing the work. 

The more we get to know ourselves the more we find out about ourselves. If we push things aside they'll keep showing up for us as little lessons until we have learned the bigger lesson. Things from our past will keep repeating itself, mistakes we have made will show up again, relationships and people will keep repeating old patterns. In order for us to break those habits and patterns we must show up. We must dive deep and do the work. 

The inner work will be a lifetime of lessons. It won't be something you can do only once, it'll be something that you are dedicated to for the rest of your life. Guess what though? It is so worth it. I find things popping up for me lately and I realize as they pop up through thoughts, or old repeated patterns that it is something that as a child, teen or young adult didn't deal with at the time. Perhaps I pushed down, set it a side or ignored it. All of those pieces make me who I am today. However, if I don't show up as they show up and do the inner work it'll keep circling back. 

So how do you do the inner work? I can't promise you it will always be easy in fact I can guarantee you there will be tough days but the work you put into yourself is so incredibly important and worth it. My suggestion to you is create your own daily practice. It doesn't have to be a long event it can be something from 15-60 minutes long. You create it and you define it. Include movement any type of movement from yoga to walking to running. Add in your breath because your breath work will set you up for a meditation and allow your body to calm its central nervous system. Sit and meditate. Focus on your breath and let go of any mental chatter. It is there that you will find the toughest but the more you practice the easier it becomes. Not every day will be the same. We spend way to much time being busy and doing and we forget about the most important part - the stillness. 

Show up, do the inner work.