So what do willful ignorance, life purpose and the health of our world have in common???
Why talk about the health of our Earth and its creatures in an empowerment blog for women meant to ignite them to their feminine brilliance and life purpose?
Well, my answer begins earlier today when I saw an eye-opening video that left me in one of those speechless, stunned states… In short it is a video of a food marketing expert divulging the trade secrets on how the food industry tricks customers to buy products created through cruel mass factory farming of animals… the most potent of their methods being you, the consumer willing to look the other way. (link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKTORFmMycQ)
Now I have to be clear, my speechlessness was not about the factory farming… While that makes me utterly sad, that information was not new to me (yes, I was that “vegetarian teenager” in the student courtyard at FSU preaching to every student with a big “Save the Animals” sign!)…
What left me speechless was the perfectly harsh reminder on “the power of willful ignorance” and how much of a force it is in marketing and our world… Now, I’m not one to be glum and most of my posts are always inspiring and joy-filled, but acknowledging the current reality (even if its ugly) is a crucial step in creating the life (and world) of our dreams and so I’m going to lay it out in its brutal ugliness for just a moment….
This willful ignorance has been vastly and masterfully used throughout the ages (i.e. Hitler’s Europe), industries (i.e. sweat shops for every kind of good, the blood diamonds industry and even for the often mind-numbing educational system) as well as other unbelievably tragic occurrences on our planet (i.e. human trafficking or defamation of women). Wow, yes, I know, this post seems anything but your typical Shirly Joy uplifter aimed to empower you… but the empowering goods are coming… promise!
You see, an Empowered Woman, recognizes such things “out there” and before rushing out to change it, be the catalyst for the other to transform or the creation of great social reform, first and foremost she takes responsibility for what it is mirroring “inside” of her.
In other words, she firstly says… “Where is there willful ignorance inside of me?”
“Where am I looking away from the deeper self care my body and soul yearn for?”
“Where am I looking away from hurtful actions towards myself; be they when I allow someone to mistreat me, when I settle for a relationship or job that is other than my highest choice, when I overeat, undersleep or call myself names….?”
You see, if I’m not willing to be honest with myself and treat myself with utmost reverence and care, why would I do it for animals, for other people, for the Earth?
At the core, a lot of the time, simply, this is why we don’t.
EVERYTHING BEGINS WITHIN
What I have found is that when we take greater care of ourselves…
When we understand the deeper layers that led us to mistreat ourselves and allowed others to mistreat us (one and the same) and then choose to exercise deep compassion, understanding and care…THEN we naturally become that way for others because we’ve claimed such love, tasted such compassion and have become more understanding in a real, embodied way. We’ve touched and expressed more love and nurturing where it all begins, within, and now being caring for what’s “out there” is simply a natural, effortless expression of what we truly are and have finally allowed ourselves to be.
I have seen it time and again with my clients that as they reconnected with themselves and their nurturing feminine essence… As they compassionately held their wounded parts inside that had allowed them to betray themselves (be it over drinking, over eating or over working) or allowed them to be betrayed by others, and from that place of love were finally able to choose in an empowered way to stop that insanity and author, feel and experience a new way in their own lives… They naturally became that much more compassionate, caring and conscious for others, animals and our world.
This is simply how it works, we act who we are.
What we see out there, is who we are in here.
If I see cruelty out there, there is some cruelty in me.
If I want more love and compassion out there, I have to claim and feel more love and compassion in me.
And suddenly they came to me to teach them all I know about food (Including where it comes from and the subtler energetics of what we are eating… READ: stress hormones from brutalized animals that may make us feel icky or life-enhancing nutrients from consciously farmed products).
… to teach them how to best relate to the “other” be it men, coworkers and family in a way that is empowering and loving to all.
… to teach them how to be connected to and nurture our sacred Earth and land. So with that my dear ladies, lets bring this to the practical and take a moment to ask yourself…
1. What is one are of my life where I am practicing willful ignorance with myself? (i.e. some time ago, I had to be really honest with myself and notice I was overspending time on social media under the false excuse of it being a message-spreading medium for me and recognize where it was also perhaps procrastination based on something else…)
2. What is the payoff of my ignorance? (i.e. I got to experience the short term gratification of the social media and got to avoid dealing with whatever fear or insecurity may have been causing me to delay spreading my word…)
3. What is the underlying feeling running this action and the meaning I made up alongside it? (For me, clearly, it was fear of putting myself out there…. that people were going to think I was too much or that my efforts would be done in vain as I had seen occur time and again with my parents and family of origin)
4. What is a new, empowering belief system I can take on instead? (For me it was first about a deep forgiveness of having taken on that old family tale and now telling a new story about being fruitful with my service, about enjoying and offering my service unattached to the results and most importantly about having faith in myself and my universe for my service to reach exactly who it was meant to reach and for me to be directed in the perfect way to whom I was supposed to serve.)
Claiming this new belief now not only allowed me to step forward in my mission more fully but allowed me to stop a self-sabotaging action that in the subtlest of realms, was sending me a message that I was too much, not capable, etc. This allowed me to more consciously live from a place of love… Or said another way, the love I truly am was now allowed to flow more beginning with me, at the center, and now out to my entire world… be it the chickens in the farms or the soil underneath my feet. Talk about win/win/win. Just my kind of dynamic and play. 😀
So here’s to you beautiful woman and all the empowered people who are choosing to care for the world “outside” of us but know it always and only begins “in here”. And here’s to all the beautiful women who get that there our gems in our willful ignorance, procrastination or any other self-destructive patterns through which we will become healthier and finally step into our greatest life purpose and the life our soul longs to live…
Sending you tons of blessings for joy, empowerment and of course (consciously manufactured) chocolate,
Shirly Joy
PS… Tell us what willful ignorance you may have discovered in the comments below… your sharing is one of the keys to healing and exercising deep self love… and gives others permission to also love their entire selves!!! <3
PSS… And as always, if you feel moved by this important message, please share it and forward it to a friend!!!
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