I've received healing and lessons from the mountains, desert, plants and animals again and again. I've shed tears of despair on the earth and they were received without judgement. I've danced in joy on the earth. When backpacking in Death Valley last year, I was struggling with some stories coming from old, old stuff. There's no hiding in the desert - the desert has a way of bringing things to the surface fast. Each step was a struggle to stay present and finally I stopped walking, frustrated and emotionally exhausted, and asked for guidance. What do I do? How do I make this stop? This is what the desert shared with me:

"Start by going inside. Quiet. Listen to the whispers of the winds - therein lies your answer and follow that. Yes - follow what comes forward and always you will be guided to that which is to come next for you - in beauty and in love. Stop the questioning of self, the questioning of others and focus on what is in front of you, what wants to come forward through you.

This week I’ve come back to the question: why The Great Round? I write on the front page that “The Great Round is the quiet space that calls to us, the emptiness from which all things flow.” 

It is. And it’s so much more.

It’s the feminine, the dark, the nothing that births the everything, the creative source. It’s home. It’s where we go in meditation, in sleep, in death. It’s where we start and where we return. It’s the formless energy that births form and receives us back again when form falls away. It’s the mystery.

Several weeks ago, I noticed that every time I was out and about, I saw a hawk. Every. Single. Time. Cooper hawks, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks. 

I commented on how strange it seemed to see so many hawks. I pointed them out to my partner when we were together, him glancing up seconds after we passed the bird(s) and rarely catching sight of them. 

It is truly magical to have them show up in my daily life. And I was curious.

Today, after what felt like my hundredth viewing, I decided to connect in and journey to understand why Hawk was showing up so often. 

This is the 3rd post about ways we lose our power and how to find our center. In addition to giving away our power, we lose power through negative self-talk.

When we experience repetitive negative self-talk, or when we are in environments where there is an abundance of psychic litter (other people’s negative thought patterns), we can lose power. Negative thoughts create their own energy and affect us, others and the environment, depending on where we send the energy. When we target ourselves with that energy, or absorb others’ thoughtforms, the misplaced energy leads to a leaking of our life force. Instant power drain!

Have you had days when you feel fatigued, but don’t know why? Or you may feel like a part of you is missing? If this sounds familiar, you may be giving away your power.

There are many ways we can lose our power and get knocked off balance. We explore 5 of them in the next 5 posts, with easy tips to begin to get your energy back and find you center again. The first way of losing our power we explore is...

We give it away!  It’s true - giving away our power is common. We give it away by:

• Looking outside of ourselves for answers.
• Pouring ourselves (read: our power) into our work, especially people in the helping professions.
• Leaving a part of our heart behind when leaving a relationship or when a loved one passes.