When Self-Development and personal growth becomes Self-Recovery

What is soul gardening and why has it got more to do with self-recovery than self-discovery?

We are taught that the spiritual path is one of 'Self Discovery', that if we search, we will find.

A broken system has made us believe that we are lost. And that we must go on a journey to uncover and unearth to discover the truth of who we are.

I know you’ve read a few (or more like numerous) ‘self-development’ books. I know you’ve tried to adopt new habits, in the hope they will help you to feel better and I know you’ve felt the pressure to discover who you truly are, and why you are here, through constant exploration and doing. 

But, this process of unearthing only leeds to us feeling even more uprooted, stuck and alone, and like we will never feel the comfort of being ourselves and knowing who we truly are. Does that sound familiar? 

We spend so much time questioning ourselves and our creativity we forget that our intuition pulls us to what is meant for us.

We are not ‘out there’ to be found - the truth of who we are is within us. But we deny it by questioning and not trusting it.

From years of cycling through my own journey, I’ve understood that the path to our truth is not one of self-discovery, but self-recovery. That we already know who we are, and that we are on a quest not to discover, but to recover our truth, and in doing so we heal.

This is a path of RECOVERY, not discovery.

You read me right, we are not here to find ourselves, denoting that we do not know who we already are. We are here to recover. Recover from everything that has led us away from our true nature.

Yes, you might need to let that sink in. 

When I finally understood that I was on a journey of self-recovery, not discovery I felt so angry. I felt cheated that I had wasted so many years, so much time and so many precious moments, gone. Gone because I had been adhering to an outdated mindset that we 'find our purpose'... that way of thinking lead me on a one-way path to burn out and unfulfilment.

Of course I felt relieved that I had started to recover the truth of who I am, and could now reorient myself back to my ease, but oh my goodness I vowed that I would find my voice and guide others through this journey so that they would not get as lost as I did.

'Self Recovery' is the process of nurturing our needs, nurturing the person we already are, so that we can remember the comfort of feeling like ourselves again and cultivating a more meaningful life in which we feel purposeful. It is a journey guided by emotion, and driven by intentional action.

I call this process 'Soul Gardening'

Soul Gardening is a practice of truth telling, taking responsibility for ourselves, the work of self acceptance, awareness, compassion and care. Nurturing ourselves towards our truth, nurturing who and what is ALREADY there.

Soul gardening and self recovery is a process that ebbs and flows through seasons and cycles.

As we open and commit to rooting ourselves in our truth we go through a process that sees us returning to our truest selves, that looks like…

RETREAT: We find ourselves feeling lonely or discontented in the life that we have created. We often crave the quiet, time and space to be alone with ourselves, away from the noise.

REMEMBER: In stepping back and allowing ourselves to be, we often remember parts of ourselves that we have forgotten.

REVIVE: Hopeful in our remembrance we breathe new life into these parts of ourselves that were often buried under people pleasing, expectations and shoulds.

REBEL: At feeling something renewed in ourselves we learn to protect those parts of ourselves that we have revived and learn to put ourselves first for a change.

REORIENTATE: In embodying those parts of ourselves that we had forgotten we start to orientate our way back to our truth.

RECOVER: As we head towards our truth, we come back into ease.

RISE: In the ease our soul can expand and take up more space.

RETURN: We return to ourselves and as nature takes its course we often return back to the beginning of the cycle as our soul craves to seen and heard.

During this process of Self Recovery we awaken to the fact that we never needed to be more, we always have been enough.

Let me tell you what the grounding principle of soul gardening is, and what I firmly believe.

You are already enough, that your purpose is innate, and that you serve your purpose by serving your needs.

The culmination of our unique needs is who we are.

In abandoning our needs we abandon who we are.

When we serve our needs we recover who we are.

When we tend to our garden we create the right conditions to heal, when we tend to our roots we restore our faith 

You deserve to feel the freedom of being who you truly are.

You deserve to feel fulfilled.

You deserve to fulfil your creative desires.

You deserve to simply, be.

As a Soul Gardener I support you in creating the optimal conditions for you to heal in. I create an accepting environment and guide you towards the parts of you that need to be healed and help you to understand what you need in order to bloom, flourish and thrive where you have been planted. 

I’m here to support you in overcoming your limiting beliefs and the negative patterns that are holding you back from becoming the woman you are meant to be.

I know how exasperated you are right now, I know what it feels like to experience all those feelings you are going through, the exhaustion, stagnation, failure, sadness, overwhelm, isolation, weariness... I need you to know that there is HOPE and you can self-recover. 

To help you get started on your soul gardening journey I created my foundation course, Back To You - where you will learn how to start trusting, believing in and embodying the woman you are becoming so that you can live life with more ease and presence.