There is a saying I have heard throughout the years of my personal journey – “our outer world is a reflection of our inner world” or, a similar version of the same sentiment; “our inner world is expressed in our outer world”.
In my personal experience, this is true.
The transformational coaching work that I do looks to uncover hidden patterns that create obstacles in a person’s life. One core approach I use to discover those patterns is to build a connection to your inner world; your internal wisdom.
Through that inner connection, people are able to clearly see how patterns:
- From their ancestry play out in their career, finances, and relationships
- Influence and are highlighted in the ways they interact with themselves, and the ways they take care of their health and homes
- Are conveyed through their relationships with others, and reveal deeper insights into the ways they value themselves, and do, or do not invest in themselves
At times, patterns in our inner world are reflected in our outer world as things that are incomplete, or as I call them, “dangling threads”. These “dangling threads” can show up as unfinished projects, interactions that negatively impact our energy, or they can be reflected in the clutter in our homes.
During the past year, I have had the opportunity to facilitate a group program that includes a look at the area of incompletions/dangling threads in our lives. In Meeting the Shadow one specific session focuses on completing a few key items from the past to open more space for what we want to step into in the future. During the most recent program series, I was personally inspired to implement an approach I had heard about for clearing out my closet.
While the inspiration came during a Meeting the Shadow session, decluttering has been an area of focus in the work I am doing in my home (my outer world) as a participant in my friend and colleague Dorena Kohrs’ year-long Love Story Program.
Dorena’s work focuses on looking at our homes as a reflection of our lives. Through her 1:1 and group program, she supports people to make changes in their homes which lead to positive changes in their inner world and creates momentum in different facets of their lives.
Dorena knows the importance of doing her inner work and was inspired to participate in my Meeting the Shadow program after a conversation where she told me there was no place in the world for meanness. Here is Dorena’s experience:
“At the beginning of the program, I simply wanted to eradicate the quality of meanness from my life. In the middle of the program, I discovered the board game, Risk that was tucked neatly away in a closet. For me, it was anchoring the energy of meanness in my outer world. It’s a game based upon conquering land from one’s opponents and was at the heart of a devastating family vacation where meanness took center stage”.
“Knowing what we resist persists, I came to see that in resisting meanness in my inner world, it persisted through energy in my outer world. By participating in the Meeting the Shadow program and releasing the game of Risk, I was able to shift my story around meanness and shine a light on a quality I had previously disowned”.
There are certain commonalities in the transformational work that Dorena and I do:
- Different aspects of our lives need attention (i.e. career, relationships, health)
- There are layers to what is uncovered and change occurs at a different pace for each person
- In working through the layers you may encounter resistance to change
What if being kind to yourself through change meant creating shifts in both your inner and outer world? Start creating changes in your home to create momentum in your life by signing up for sign up for Dorena’s Love Story program or schedule a House Whispering Session with her. Then also look to create changes in your inner world by signing up for my Meeting the Shadow program. Together they allow you to see how your outer world is an expression of your inner world and how your inner world is reflected in your outer world.
© 2021 Systems of Change, LLC