maintaining sanity and silliness

making space for ritual // week 4

a weekly anchoring practice to stay rooted in seasons of change // week 4

Welcome to our second segment of making space for ritual. As I set out to make space for our Intuitively Wild home IRL (SIGN UP FOR THE WAITLIST HERE!) I am committing myself to staying present, intentional, and soft.

Devoting ourselves to a life of spaciousness amidst a huge life change and the chaos of a crazy world takes daily commitment and remembering. So here we are - showing up and making the space for that intention, together. (Make sure to check out the other posts in the series for context and depth: announcement post. week 1, week 2, week 3.

This week:

Honestly, this week I am tired.

I’m going to blame it on the full moon in Capricorn but I’ve been feeling some underlying pent up frustration, anxiety, overwhelm and unease following me through my days and it has been exhausting.

It’s made grounding & then re-grounding & then recommitting to grounding & then re-grounding again extra important.

So here we are, making space for that.

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HOW I MADE SPACE

🫖🕯️

—> LESSONS LEARNED

I’m about a month and a half out from when I am hoping (🤞) to have my launch event in the space and oh boy does that feel very ambitious right now.

If you walk into the space today it looks… almost exactly how it looked when I signed the lease three months ago. So much has been happening behind the scenes - so much so that sometimes I feel like surely we must be done by now? - and the fact that that isn’t represented in a physical sense can feel so defeating that you just have to laugh about it, you know?

This week we finally made some progress that will result in tangible changes very soon:

• The paint colours have finally been finalised which allowed us to lock in the start date with the painter

• almost all the furniture has been selected which is allowing us to put it into our final budget sheet and image board, double check all the numbers line up and everything looks good together, and then start ordering

• the millworker estimates are coming in so we can solidify the start date with him and get started on the pieces (think: custom apothecary bar, custom tea table, shelving for products and herbs etc…)

I am learning: things are happening and they are happening in the perfect timing and all will get done exactly when it needs to. I am learning: life is all about the process. all of life is a process. I am learning: there is nothing that some time in nature can’t fix.

I am talking to myself and I am calm, grounded, not at all anxious, yes.

—> CHALLENGES NAVIGATED

The biggest challenges I navigated this week were how to stay sane and silly despite my tendencies to take everything so seriously.

Sane: my sanity has been tested. There is a lot! happening! I am learning it is okay to not tick off every item on the to do list, to move things to tomorrow, to laugh when things don’t go according to plan, to in fact let plans be written in pencil instead of red ink and to pack in as many moments of pause for presence as possible.

Silly: my silliness has been tested. Silly is probably one of the first things to go for me when I am on my own and spiraling, and I’m trying to rewire that. I want to have fun with this process! I want to let this business be infused with the intention of joy and laughter! I want to stay silly and sane!

I promised myself I would not get caught up in the conditioning that being an entrepreneur means burn out and hustle, that starting a small business means pain and defeating sacrifice, that you haven’t worked hard enough unless you’re stressed and depleted.

I can create new narratives for myself.

I can take my joy and pleasure seriously amidst this phase of life.

I can show up for every aspect of this process with ease and joy and unapologetic confidence.

So I’m learning how to navigate life differently, from this new narratives.

—> (SELF)APPRECIATION

There are a lot of decisions that are needing to be made in this process. A lot of meetings to show up for and relationships to navigate. In the past I would have felt that others had more authority, knowledge, power, “cool factor”… than me and in turn handed my authority and power over to them. But, actually, I am the boss - this is my business and no one else’s. I get to make it exactly what I want it to be and do it exactly how I want to do it. I have the main authority, I can trust my knowledge, I can step into my power, I can be confident in myself.

I can trust my intuition to birth into reality the perfect business for Intuitively Wild.

And so, I am (working on) - owning my authority, power, intuition, knowledge, self-trust - and I really got to witness that in myself this week. I appreciate myself for being the type of authority (in my life and in my business) that I am proud to be.

—> GRATITUDE FELT

I do have to take a moment to express my gratitude for the connections I’ve made online. After years of identifying with the tech free, off the grid, need to be uber mysterious part of me that deleted all social media before moving to Hawaii, I’m grateful I found my way back (sometimes). For the sole reason that it has connected me with some truly life changing communities and people I am proud to be associated with.

One of those people I was lucky enough to have on the most recent episode of the podcast:

sierra mcdaniel

. Sierra cuts you to the core with the raw and honest way she lives her life, with her unbreakable commitment to show up in the world with a presence so quietly grounded it is unmissable.

As we discuss in the episode - authenticity is a word that has been thrown around so much it’s lost its meaning. It has lost its edge, its spark, its energy. Sierra is the walking talking embodiment of what true authenticity is at it’s core - before it’s essence got stripped and stolen from our modern world.

The living story of what it means to allow yourself to be a human: to change, with self-acceptance and grace. I am so grateful to be connected with Sierra. This episode truly reminded me what it takes and means to be an entrepreneur, to walk your own path, to accept all of yourself. It was a reminder I needed this past week, maybe you do too.

You can listen on apple, spotify, youtube (or anywhere else you like to listen to your podcasts. And can take it in fully by watching here:

—> LOCAL HIGHLIGHT

I considered not mentioning Brooke here because she will definitely be mentioned again (at least once, if not more) but I couldn’t leave her out this week. Brooke is the interior designer I am working with to help me create this space and I am so grateful I found her.

I love interior design (the only thing I watch on youtube are interior design videos and instead of scrolling instagram I scroll pinterest for future home ideas) but I knew I needed someone to help me menage this project and bring it to life in the grounded, structured, magical way I wanted to.

So I did a google search for interior designers in my area, and using my intuition and line 1 researcher gifts (in human design), found the most aligned designer. The first call Brooke and I had she told me she was about to leave for a long weekend to do her Reiki attunement for the second time… I knew it was a match. She also is a Virgo moon and rising (Capricorn moon) need I say more? Brooke has really helped me navigate the aforementioned challenges around staying sane and silly because when we get together I immediately feel supported, and we laugh, a lot.

Brooke and I also have aligned values of sourcing sustainably, ethically, intentionally, & working with as many local vendors as possible.

There will be much more on our work together in the future but for now I will say that working with Brooke has been a real gift.

—> RITUAL

We were also met with the Capricorn full moon on Thursday. Which, for me, brought up a lot of tension and emotions and left me processing this:

So that’s the inspiration for our ritual this week.

Ask yourself:

• what is something you’re holding onto so tightly because you’re afraid of what will happen if you loosen your grip?

  • write out what this thing is and then write every fear, hesitation, thought… that comes up - unedited, unfiltered, unthought through. really go for it.

• after, sit with what came up and process:

  • what would really be the worst case scenario if you let go of this thing and it fell away?

  • what would that reveal to you?

  • how would you support yourself?

  • what tools do you need to put into place to protect yourself?

  • what would it feel like if you loosened your grip and then it stayed?

  • how can you find safety amidst the uncertainty?

    • what do you need to do today in order to take one small step towards even slightly loosening your grip… even if it just means relaxing your pinky finger? commit to it. go do it.

—> INTENTIONS DECLARED

Next week is a big one!!! Not only are some big decisions hopefully being made in the space, I’m also taking a road trip up to Maine on Thursday for a few days. I’ve labeled this trip a healing pilgrimage. It’s going to take me back down some old roads I haven’t ventured to in a while and I’m equally as anxious as I am elated. More on that next week, but my intentions are: presence and self connection.

I want to stay with myself throughout the whole week - no matter what bubbles to the surface.

I want to remind myself it is safe to feel and be with all emotions.

I want to remind myself I can accept and embrace all parts of myself.

& we do that by sitting with the uncomfortable, staying soft in sticky moments, showing up and committing to presence.

I stay present with myself and my life. I am committed to my self connection.

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poems podcasts prompts plants stories songs statements people places ponderings - pieces of life - … that grounded me this week

• I’ve noticed that another way I restrict my joy is by placing rules around when I can listen to music. How much, how often, what kind… so I am letting myself listen to whatever music whenever I want as much as possible and these are some of the songs I have been playing on repeat: this one when I need a reminder that no relationship matters more than the one with myself, and this one when I doubt the timing of my path

• plants: st johns wort is my self-prescribed prescription for the summer season and I’m adding it to my herbal infusions everyday, lathering it on my body via infused body oil and really soaking in all the magic this nervine has to offer. I highly recommend if you’re craving any nervous system regulation or mental health stabilising support

• devoured another ideal summer read (although I have to say I liked last weeks more), and quickly after jumped into this book which I finished just as promptly but held a very different energy (all I can say is, get ready to cry at the end)

• & this quote that I think the world needs a reminder of:

  

Can’t wait to reflect and make space together next week.

See you then xx,

Rachel