Wanna rest? Close your eyes and listen to the smile in my voice 😘
I recently started a journey with the Gene Keys. For those of you that don’t know it, it is a beautiful and empowering system for seeing into your own personal challenges, and unlocking your gifts and essential qualities using the art of contemplation. To describe them is complex, but if you’re curious, I highly recommend you check it out and get your own free profile at https://genekeys.com/
Anyway, part of the magic is the “art of contemplation” -> learning to observe your shadows with a smiling awareness. These shadows could be anything from bodily tension or pain, to behavioural patterns, to emotional reactions or triggers, or just negative beliefs or thoughts. For all of them you will feel a bodily response and can dedicate part of your awareness to ‘looking’ at that response with a smiling energy.
And that smiling energy is surprisingly potent. It can really break down barriers. The same way a smile from someone else can bring just enough light to a bad day to blow away desperation and hopelessness.
With eclipse season fully underway now, you may, like me, be experiencing heightened sensitivity and vulnerability. Maybe some old pain, triggers or difficult experiences have been arising. This season is a powerful invitation to release and shift self sabotage, pain and resentment, particularly around relationships. And to do that we need to dare to see our shadows. Because like an upset child, they don’t go away by being ignored or repressed. In fact they get more demanding as they seek new ways to get your attention.
But it can feel scary to look at your shadows. They can feel overwhelming. So practicing having part of your awareness stand by you like a close friend, smiling lovingly, is so powerful and transformative. Because ultimately your shadows are not your enemies. Like a friend who’s been hurt, they deserve your love, encouragement and understanding. They are just the vulnerable parts of you calling for your embrace.
So this week, that’s what I’ve been practicing. Noticing when a shadow is calling for my attention, and taking a little time to smile at it. Sometimes I feel the shift immediately. I can feel a knot of tension inside me dissolve and I can respond to life with balance and trust. Other times I still need to find an outlet to release emotion, like crying or shouting or dancing. Yet through it all, it feels comforting to have this ‘smiling close friend’ holding my hand and reminding me I’m not alone. Reminding me I am loved, and I am able to release the pain and the beliefs and behaviour that make me feel like shit. It’s like self parenting.
Every moment truly is a new opportunity to choose new beliefs or behaviour. To step into my gifts and my soul’s essence.
So if you are experiencing some shadows, firstly I send you compassion. And I invite you to find a part of yourself that can smile lovingly, even if only with the eyes, and gently hold yourself. Knowing that beneath the shadows are some beautiful and unique gifts and fulfilling experiences waiting for you.
Much love, x Cathy.
PS. Just as it’s transformative to look at your shadows with love and tenderness, the same goes for others. When we feel sensitive or triggered, it’s easy to make others into our enemy and feel the victim. So I invite you also to look at your fellow human beings with a little more softness, knowing they too are probably going through some turbulence right now, and they can no doubt use your humanity too. When you start opening your heart with a smile, you will find it is infinitely powerful. 💞
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