This Saturday, I started a 6 week mentorship program with the amazing Octavia Raheem called Held. There are 9 of us in varying stages of our yoga/healer/artistic journey and it is a group of powerful, formidable women of color. It’s going to be an amazing 6 weeks y’all. We have three in person sessions together, and the first one was around the process of clearing. Before we dig into what all of this entails for me in this process, let’s look at the definition of clearing:
clearing noun clear·ing | \ ˈklir-iŋ \ Definition of clearing 1 : the act or process of making or becoming clear
First of all, I categorically reject that the word clearing is a noun as related to the definition above. Clearing takes action. It’s hard as fuck. That shit is a verb. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about this weekend.
Fam. This weekend, we had to confront our personal lies, face to to face, and wrestle them. Everyone was brave enough to speak them aloud. When I spoke my personal lies aloud it was jarring. “I am fat an unattractive. I am not smart. I am not worthy.” As each of the brave women in the room weathered the storm of sharing their personal lies and baring their souls; Octavia had a profound and right on time epiphany “Your personal lie illuminates your REAL truth.” I meaaaaaaan…. WOW. I am beautiful. I am brilliant. I am worthy.
We left with homework. The homework for the weekend was to take a salt bath and rest (yes, please!). The work for the rest of the week was to clear something daily. Either from your space, your calendar, your life etc. The call to clear is an invitation to get real about the shit you’re holding on to that no longer serves you, and to compassionately let it go. Today was my first day of clearing, and I chose to clean my dresser. I went through and organized my clothes and cleaned off the top of my dresser (it was covered in unread books and dust). After I spent an hour going through this exercise I just took a moment to stand there and look how beautiful it was to have this clean new space. I even made a little altar on top of the dresser with a sage smudge to burn every night before bed, which also represents clearing.
Clearing is a powerful and necessary practice when embarking on any new journey. And it’s not just a one time “Oh i did this so I’m good!” type of practice. Until your last breath leaves your body, there will always be room to clear and redefine who you are where you are going.
What in your life needs clearing? What are some of the personal lies and stories that you hold on to about yourself? What would it look like if you cleared something out of the way and turned those lies on their head? The only way to make room for greatness is to clear your space of things that do not serve you.