How can your healing expand your impact upon the world?

Today, I feel inspired to write about what gets in the way of being greater leaders, teachers, healers, and guides. The short answer: Our deepest , oldest wounds.

It is often our oldest wounds, the ones that feel most difficult to resolve, that can be the key to our greatest liberation, but also in sharing our greatest gifts.

We deeply desire to be of service, and to have an impact, especially when times are tough and the world desperately needs us. But if we are still cycling through old patterns and ways of seeing the world, we limit and diminish what we can offer.

If we are burnt out, we have little to share.

If we are in pain, we shy away from witnessing the pain in others.

If we are angry, hurt, grieving, we lack the energy to reach out and offer what would be useful.

And often, even when we do reach out, it can be motivated by suffering, feeling that we are unworthy, pushing from a place of pain or fear. And this pain clouds our perception and can motivate us to act from unhealthy dynamics and collective archetypes.

We may show up as the wounded healer or the martyr, instead of the peaceful warrior.

We may show up as the shadow of the mother/father, instead of the aligned Elder.

We may try to be the Hero, but react as the Villain/Persecutor.

So I would encourage you today to recognise where you are desperately trying to show up and serve, but fall short because you are still suffering.

We have an opportunity to embody Satyagraha or ‘Soul Force’. The concept of Satyagraha is built on three basic tenets — satya, ahimsa and tapasya. Satya, or truth, implies openness, honesty and fairness. Ahimsa means refusal to inflict injury on others. Tapasya conveys willingness for self-sacrifice (or true service) and patience. And we can begin to really embody these now, through our own healing and deeper awareness.