Going from “noteworthy” to “I’m worthy”

Feb 16, 2016

Going from Noteworthy to I'm Worthy | www.nalumana.com

There’s a little bit of self-awareness that I’ve earned in my 30-odd years of being an introspective seeker/navel-gazer on this earth.  One of the things I’ve learned is that I have a fairly immense drive to be special.  To get the “gold star.”  To do things that are important, different, noteworthy.

And so it goes:  in the last ten years I’ve climbed a really big mountain, ran a marathon, played on a tackle football team, broke a long distance swimming record, got a graduate degree, started a business, dyed my hair pink (and then purple), and a host of other feats that satisfied my desire to feel exceptional.

To be noteworthy.

 

It’s infinitely more complicated than that.  It’s intrinsically linked to my personal history.

But lately I’ve wondered if I really need to be noteworthy.  Perhaps, just by doing the very regular, everyday things that make me happy, I can show myself and the world that I am worthy.

Just, simply, worthy.  Of praise and love and delight, all for the low, low price of being good enough.

 

Could you be *just* worthy, instead of noteworthy? Worthy of love, praise & delight, just for being good enough?

The Becoming Podcast has been on a short hiatus while I focus on writing my book, but oh what a comeback episode I have for you!

This month, I spoke to Toko-pa Turner, who many of you may know as the unofficial patron saint of many of my circles and gatherings because of the sheer number of times I’ve quoted from the wisdom of her book, Belonging.

Toko-pa is a Canadian author, teacher, and dreamworker. Blending the mystical teachings of Sufism in which she was raised with a Jungian approach to dreams, she founded The Dream School in 2001, from which thousands of students have graduated. She is the author of the award-winning book, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home, which explores the themes of exile and belonging through the lens of dreams, mythology, and nature. This book has resonated for readers worldwide, and has been translated into 10 different languages so far. Her work focuses on the relationship between psyche and nature, and how to follow our inner wisdom to meet with the social, psychological, and ecological challenges of our time.

Here’s some of what Toko-pa and I talk about in this episode:

> The dream that changed Toko-pa’s life, causing her to question her career and, ultimately, her identity

> How we can court our dreams to support us during times of radical transformation – and the reasons so many of us have a hard time remembering and working with what shows up in our dreamscape

> Toko-pa’s perspective on the message of Belonging after the divisiveness our society has experienced in the years since it was published

> What happened for both Toko-pa and I when we fell out of belonging from the ideologies of the “wellness world”

> How to build community when you’re under-resourced

> “The Big Lie” when it comes to belonging, and how we can reclaim a sense of belonging to the greater family of things, as Mary Oliver so famously wrote

Listen to the episode on iTunes

 

Show Notes

Toko-pa’s Website

Belonging:  Remembering Ourselves Home, Toko-pa’s book

The David Abram video about animism mentioned in the interview

Toko-pa’s self-guided program, Dream Drops

Companion, the program that accompanies Belonging

 

Also, while you’re at it, if you enjoy The Becoming Podcast, I would be so grateful if you would rate and review, and even subscribe to it on iTunes.  That goes a long way to helping more and more people find and benefit from hearing these interviews!  Thank you so much!