I think that authenticity
alignment
true-self
feels like home.
My sense, from coaching and holding circles with women who are unearthing their authenticity, is that it’s a feeling, a home base, that, as the Good Witch reminds us, we’ve actually had all along.
(it’s just been conditioned out of us by externally-held notions of what success looks like, of What Women Do, and our own expectations and stories, deeply entrenched in the patriarchy)
Home – a home within yourself – feels like a place you know. It feels steady and unwavering. It feels like the roots that ground you in a storm.
It’s a centre that runs through you, that runs deep and stretches up. A north star, a plumbline, a compass.
I’ve been spending the last couple of months creating a home in my new house, and I’ve been thinking a lot about what it is to feel at home. Here’s what I’m learning about making a house feel like home, and about finding a home within myself.
–> Clear out your shit.
Moving has been the perfect time to get rid of all the things that are no longer necessary in my life – the things that are adding more clutter than utility. I think this is one of the first steps in finding a home within, too. The deeply engrained stories we tell ourselves about success, worthiness, ability, beauty and more need to be brought into the light and questioned for their relevance and utility. Exploring and releasing the doubts and judgements those stories often bring with them can help you to feel a sense of safety and acceptance within yourself. If you think of your authenticity like a child, wanting to come out and reveal herself, then you can see how important it is to show her you can treat her with kindness and compassion before she’ll feel safe enough to be known.
–> Bake bread.
One of my unwritten rules is that a house can’t feel like home until the first loaf of bread comes out of the oven. So too, I think, self-nourishment – the meeting of our own needs and the offering of small comforts to ourselves, is one of the first steps in finding a home within. I offered up a simple heart meditation in Nalu Cafe a few weeks ago to help you hear the whispers of your deepest needs (and not allow them to be drowned out by all the *shoulds*).
–> Meet the neighbours.
When we first moved into our new neighbourhood, the kids and I made a huge batch of homemade granola, poured it into mason jars with cute baking twine bows, and brought them to our neighbours. Having grown up in a small town, I have a deep-set need to know that I can run down the road for a teaspoon of baking powder or, somewhat more likely, someone to play with my kids while I run off to a birth. I think the same principle applies when women are exploring their own sense of authenticity and alignment: it’s important to share in the journey, not just with others who are walking alongside us, but with a trusted mentor or guide to help light the way. Building community is one of the most important steps along this path home to ourselves.
–> Experiment.
We’ve been living in our new place for a little over two months and still, every day, I move furniture and plants and art around until I get the intuitive sense that they’re where they belong. Some days it feels like I have an internalized and innate sense of feng shui – and maybe I do. I feel as though I’m continually experimenting with what feels right in this space. The same goes for our exploration of home-within and authenticity. I’m a huge advocate of what I call Tiny Experiments, of trying on practices, ways of being, and actions to see what feels most aligned. It’s like researching yourself, gathering data to inform your own self-concept in a world that’s hell-bent on telling you how you should be.
I think this is where we start. With a foundation of self-acceptance, self-care, sisterhood and curiosity upon which to build our rising – both individually and as a feminine collective.