Coming out of the COVID-COCOON of self-isolation

How do I emerge?

First, we all needed to learn our way of going from being the caterpillar, roaming around our world, to adjust to a new normal of being in the cocoon. Soon we all need to learn how to emerge from the cocoon and create our new normal once again. Nature, more specifically butterflies, teach us to emerge with an ability to soar. This requires three things.

Butterfly Flying Free
  • Patience: if the emerging process is too fast, the wings don’t develop, making flying free impossible
  • Practice: learning the ability to soar after crawling requires perseverance to practice the new again & again
  • Play: finding the sweet nectar of life to refuel, requires ongoing curiosity

From January 2010 through to January 2013, I lived a similar version of self-isolation with my son who had a rare autoimmune disease caused by a virus. He is now cured. For three years I learned how to be separate from the world, then suddenly we were given the “all clear” and time to emerge. I vividly recall how:

  • The excitement of being finally allowed out, slammed against the uncertainty of trusting, was it all actually “safe”.
  • The excitement of reconnecting with my social circle slammed against how to connect with people as I was forever changed.
  • The excitement of fully living freely again, after overcoming so much, slammed against the uncertainty of do I want to live as I did before.

What I learned was that the same process that happened when I went into self-isolation, happened when I came out. I experienced denial, sadness, bargaining, anger, and then as I applied the Patience-Practice-Play, I emerged into acceptance of what was. I found meaning in what was behind me and chose a playful way to soar, bringing what I learned into service, in my unique way.

7 Stages of Grief
7 Stages of Grief

Patience

Astrologically 2020 is a foundational year of shift. That means for the entire year we will have our foundations shaken. The gift of shaking a foundation is to ensure its stability to build upon. Before we launch ahead, we are getting CLEAR on what we truly NEED & DESIRE. Missing something is how we learn its value and priority, so we can choose to apply our energy to it. In self-isolation, we are revisiting our foundations. All we learned and all we believe about how we are to be, are being shaken so the uncomfortable parts can be set free allowing ALL of you to come back to full vitality.

YOU don’t GROW when you are Comfortable.

With each change of habit, belief, behaviour, thought that was given to us in our earlier years we up-level in awareness, healing, and begin to live our full self. With each choice we find ourselves making naturally in our “new normal”, that we were too afraid to act on before. This new connection to our courage, our unique inner power, is liberating. Every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to return to my heart and get creative to manifest my desires, with the respect that who I am emerging as is much more than the one who went into the cocoon.

In self-isolation, we learn to pause REACTION to everything out of our control by sitting with our emotions, respecting them, finding a way to honour them, and surrendering to our center again, then moving forward from that centered space.

If you take the “C” in reaCtion (C for center) and move it forward to the start, you get:

Creation

The act of moving forward from centered space of what we truly need and desire

We learn to FEEL the Real…then get creative.

Once we slowly expand our circle of experience, we need to check in with this new set of needs, desires, and unique inner power. It is NATURAL to emerge and not feel clear about what comes next. In the cocoon, we learned to accept this moment, as tomorrow was a complete mystery. There will be a back and forth while emerging where the new normal of acceptance bumps up against the old expectations to “go back to the way things were, move on from the isolation period, take back my job, control, income, way of living“. Patience with self is required when expectations begin to come back. Patience is required to live with feelings of uncertainty as we emerge into a new world. Patience is required to be comfortable with the uncomfortable of all that is new, all that is shattered, and rebuild a more vibrant experience.

Astrologically we will be supported with patience as five out of eight planets (Venus, Mercury, Pluto, Saturn, and Jupiter) will be retrograde from mid-May to late September. A retrograde planet is a resting planet that withholds it’s best powers. As we emerge our progress will be slow, and we will be given the space to patiently review our progress and adjust what we have recently learned of how things can be versus how things were.

Practice

The world literally stopped and shifted FOR YOU to get clear on your needs, desires, priorities, and choices of how you invest your precious life force. It often takes a dramatic, chaotic environment for creativity to emerge and bring out the best in people.

In self-isolation, we learn to practice self-care, self-nurturing, self-love and self-respect. The self-care began with the retreat into self-isolation and the medical clarity on handwashing for unseen bacteria, changed sleep patterns from less travel, and home created meals. The self-nurturing expanded as we re-engaged hobbies and past times to “fill the time” until we remembered how much time disappeared when we did them. Then in an act of self-love, continued to engage in what felt good, natural, aligned, in-flow with our heart. Self-respect applies when we continue to choose to nurture the bliss of our soul and creatively practice it in the outer world.

As we emerge, we need to focus on, “How do I take all I have become, out into the world again?” This requires practice of the VISION of self-love we got clear on while in self-isolation. It requires practice of self-care through the daily investment of energy into our needs and desires. It requires practice of the pause we learned in self-isolation to center and self-nurture, versus the urge to “make up” for lost time. It requires practice of the self-respect we gained to maintain our own choices versus following the social conditionings. It requires practice to reframe our self-isolation experience as the growth of our soul and the family of humanity.

Play

When we play, we are our Authentic Self. Our muscles are relaxed, breathing is full, the mind is peacefully in the present moment. This is who you are. This is your soul stepping forward to meet you and fill your heart. All creativity is born from this space of play.

In self-isolation, we learn to return to the authentic self and get curious about what play means to us. Whether it is creatively cooking, creatively teaching, or creating music, self-isolation directs us to what authentically lights us up.

Play is the natural state of expressing to the world, what lights us up.

Play is an essential part of assimilating all we are learning about being a medical advocate, extreme shopper, chef, hairdresser, teacher, fitness advisor, DIY fixer, zoom master, gamer, hobbyist, the list goes on. When we play, we are in our open, vulnerable, defenseless state, this is when we are in our greatest power.

Play re-calibrates fear to love.

As we emerge, we need to playfully celebrate to honour what we moved through and what we have grown into. We need to playfully extend our self-love, compassion, kindness, and respect to our outer community, to our sisterhood and brotherhood as we have learned how interconnected we all truly are. Play is our greatest way to assimilate that I am changed, other people are changed, organizations have changed, society has been changed. Albert Einstein wrote, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” You are a unique miracle who has come here because only you can be you.

There is a perfect spot for your unique self as you emerge into this new world.

  • Patiently follow your bliss living in FLUID TIME by following what aligns to your heart and soul
  • Create your SPIRITUAL practice of being intuitively aware of self-care
  • Play with the FAMILY who intimately co-creates with vulnerable truth
  • Invest in the WEALTH of your vitality by receiving all you need and sharing all you are inspired to share

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