dharma development
I do believe that we all have a unique purpose that we are here to uncover during this lifetime. When I started traveling full-time in a school bus, I started to develop this deeper connection to nature. Nature teaches me that life exists in all different types of environments. There is no landscape that is exactly the same. The plants, the animals, the weather, the trees, the colors, the textures, they are all different. Nothing in this world is exactly the same, including us. To take it a step further, each landscape is supported by its environment. Meaning that, we won’t find a rainforest in the desert or a beach without an ocean. We are designed to fulfill a specific purpose in life just as nature does. We each have our own unique gifts that we were born with, and we each have a role to play in the bigger picture of this reality. This is the path of dharma, to be the fullest expression of who you are. Once we have spent time understanding our own awareness, focusing on self-development and learning to dance with our darkness, we are ready to dive deeper into our own passions. To develop our own dharma and hone in on our own unique gifts.
This is when we invest in ourselves by diving deep into research and perfecting our crafts. We commit to a path that fuels us with energy and passion, then we find our own unique expression within it. The way we express becomes the biggest lesson in this stage and most of us are met with blocks that we must confront. These blocks are held deep within our subconscious mind that have been keeping us playing small. The fear of failure, perfectionism, unworthiness, imposter syndrome are all common blocks that come up and hold us back from becoming the fullest expression of ourselves. Most of the time, these blocks are tied to the past and have become part of our identity. We forget we are products of our own environment and whatever we expose ourselves to consistently becomes part of us. This is how the mind works. It stores information, picks up on patterns and organizes that information by themes. So, when we come to this stage and we are ready to become the fullest expression of who we are, most of the time we are met with some resistance.
For me, I had to let go of this belief I had of not being good enough the way I was. My life has been a constant struggle of loving and accepting myself and life has repeatedly brought this theme up again and again. I always felt like in order to receive love I had to look a certain way, dress a certain way, or act a certain way. So over time, I developed this belief that I wasn’t good enough as I was. Instead of embracing all the ways I was different, I tried so hard to fit in. Dimming my own light for love and acceptance. There were so many layers within this theme alone and I’m sure as I continue down my own path, there will be more to uncover.
When I started to really step into my own dharma, I had to develop this deep sense of love and acceptance for myself. I needed to begin expressing my truth in a way that felt natural to me. So, I started practicing what I was learning in 1x1 coaching sessions. I wrote about my own experience and shared my writing with family and friends. I started writing astrology articles and sent them to classmates. I talked about what I was learning in astrology to fellow nomads on the road. I told people that I was a Spiritual Life Coach and Astrologer. I started to create my own new moon and full moon rituals and invited my partner to participate. I developed a mantra practice that helped activate my throat chakra. I spent time healing my inner child that didn’t feel good enough the way she was. Before I went to bed, I listed out all the things I was grateful for that day. I was showing up for my Dharma Coaching Course each week and dedicating time to my astrology apprenticeship program. Over time, these little acts gave me more confidence in expressing myself. The voice in my head shifted from who do you think you are talking about these topics to who are you not to share your gifts with the world?
Developing your own Dharma is like body building. If we want stronger biceps, then we have to work that muscle to grow it. It’s the same with Dharma, if we want to show up each day as our fullest expression then we have to start being that version. Step into the person we are becoming. We have to make peace with the fact that the timing will never be perfect. There will always be more to learn. We aren’t going to know everything and not everyone is going to like us. You reach a point where it becomes absolutely impossible to keep playing small. You realize that it’s actually selfish to gatekeep your gifts from the world. You start to feel tension inside when you are not aligned soulfully. We are retraining our brains in this stage. Shifting from scarcity to abundance. When you are living your fullest expression, you are magnetic. People feel this energy because ultimately that is what we all want. Your fullest expression inspires others around you to be theirs. When we are living from a place of truth, we are connecting back to the reason our soul chose this experience and this allows us to navigate life’s challenges with more grace and love.
