Undoing Conditioning

Preventing M*rd*r

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

Yesterday while working with one of the Magdalene training participants, I received the best possible testimonial and endorsement of my course Into the Wilderness which is the third course in the Magdalene training (and which can be taken stand-alone). Tongue in cheek, the individual shared:

This course has helped me to not commit m*rd*r!

I knew they were joking, but I also get it. Into the Wilderness is based on my Authentic Freedom protocol and on my book of the same name. Into the Wilderness is the cornerstone of all the work I do for myself, with clients and with students. It is an effective process for identifying and finding healing and release from those things within us that prevent us from knowing peace, joy, contentment, and love in our lives.

Into the Wilderness presents us with our shadow and provides effective tools for freeing ourselves of past conditioning and woundedness. Into the Wilderness frees us from the imprisonment of our own fears and creates space in which we can know ourselves as Love more fully and live from that place of love.

And if it helps us not to commit m*rd*r, then so be it!

Learn more about Into the Wilderness and my other online training courses. HERE.

Guarding Our Power

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

I’m inviting you to join me in a purposeful, reflective pause. STOP and closely examine all the places in your life where your energy and power are being drawn from you:

  • Places where you say yes when you want to say no.
  • Situations where you do things out of a sense of duty or obligation.
  • Relationships in which you feel called to help or fix another.
  • Experiences where you can see what would be best and want to offer your expertise.
  • Friends and family, clients and strangers who seek guidance but who habitually disregard that guidance.
  • Situations in which you assume your guidance is wanted but in fact was never requested.
  • Those to whom you run at their first call of distress, hoping to help or take away that distress.
  • Experiences where you continually hope and wish for things to change, but they never do.
  • Those who want more from you than you can actually give.
  • Those who seek your listening ear but do nothing to heal or transform the situation about which they complain.

I’m inviting you into this reflection because you are not alone in this. I am woefully guilty of falling into the trap of co-dependency where I believe not only is it my job to help others, but believing I actually can.

We cannot help others who are unwilling or incapable of helping themselves.  We cannot help those who don’t believe they need help. Every time we try, a hole is drilled into our soul and a piece of our power is drawn out. That power, then is no longer available for us to access, as it is held in the others hand. I call this entanglement. There are certain relationships and experiences in which we become so entangled we may not even see how much of our power we’ve given away.

Contrary to the way in which we have been conditioned (women especially), our power is not meant for others. Instead, our power is meant to serve the purpose of our soul – to know and be Love in the world. This Love is not co-dependent, seeking to help or heal others. Instead, Love is meant to provide an example that others might follow. In witnessing the Love that we are, they may ask us how we came to know that Love. We may share with them the tools that helped us get there, but we cannot do the work for them. The danger with this Love is that it is magnetic and many are drawn to that Love – not to understand how to achieve that themselves, but to draw a bit of it from us. Do not let them.

The power of Love that we are is a precious thing. It is what feeds and sustains us. It is what allows others to be awakened and to seek out that Love for themselves. This is the Love that Jesus spoke of and the Love that changes the world. This Love is not for us to give, but for others to find within themselves. We may provide inspiration, but we are not the source.

For those who have uncovered this Love within themselves, we know how hard the journey is to know that Love more fully. The power of this Love is ours to protect. Protecting that Love requires a reprogramming from what we have been taught about what it means to Love. Love isn’t doing harm to ourselves to care for another. Love is not doing for another what they should be doing for themselves. Love does not intrude on the journey of another, but allows people the freedom to live their lives, learning their own lessons and making their own mistakes.

For me, protecting the power of Love begins with identifying those places in my life where that power is being drawn from me through co-dependent entanglements. Next, it is my job to STOP participating in that entanglement. This is no easy task due to the trigger response that is engrained in so many of us to want to help another’s distress. In order to stop this response, I have had to learn the signals in my body that let me know my co-dependency has been triggered. For me, it is a feeling in my solar plexus (gut) or on my left shoulder of energy being drawn from me. I literally feel as if I have to run to the individual expressing distress. Instead of running, I STOP. I repeat a silent mantra (“it’s their shit not mine”) and then I STAY PUT. I cannot express the strength it takes in me to stay put and not run after the distress.  And I am not perfect in this practice. I repeatedly fail and continually find myself in entanglements. But I’m learning and I’m improving. Every day, I’m a little better at guarding my power and taking back that which I have given away.

Love is a journey and a process, and the work is never done but in the heart of this work is a great treasure.  As we free ourselves from co-dependent behaviors, we have access to more of our own inner power and the Love that dwells within us. We have no idea the miracles that can come about when fully embodying that Love!

Finding Our Way to Peace

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 3 Comments

We are conditioned in this world to look outside of ourselves for the things we need. In some cases, this is rightly so – food, clothing, and shelter for example. But for the things we need most – contentment, joy, love, and peace – we can only find these within.

Finding our way to peace is solely an inside job. Whereas we may be freer to access the peace that resides within us through a change in the external circumstances of our lives, it is only from within that we can find and deepen that peace. It is also in cultivating our own inner peace that we are able to access the inner resources we need to discern our readiness and make external change when called for.

While peace may only be found within, we continue to seek outside for that peace. We wait and hope for the world and the people around us to change so that we might know peace. We cast our gaze outward for evidence of the manifestation of our prayers for peace. We sit in expectation for the day in which our prayers for peace will be made real.

But the truth remains – those who do not know inner peace cannot be a part of manifesting peace on earth. Conflict and war exist because human beings are not at peace. If human beings knew peace within themselves, then there would no longer be hardship, hunger, poverty, homelessness, or war and the needs of every human being would be met – not just so they might survive, but so they might thrive.

Our own search for peace, however, does not depend on any other human knowing peace. Neither can any other human being infringe on our ability to dwell within (or at least return to) that deep well of inner peace. Our peace is independent of any one else’s peace or lack thereof. We are the sole creator of our own peace.

Creating that peace, however, doesn’t happen overnight. Neither is it a simple task. In order to know the peace that dwells within and to know it even more deeply, we must embark on a deep and arduous journey of inner work.

First, we must create the space in our lives through which we might glimpse this peace. For me, this is my daily spiritual practice. We must create the time and space for our practice and remain diligent and persistent in it.

Then we need Grace. I cannot say how it will happen for you, but for me, Grace arrived in the midst of my practice and showed me a glimpse into my Union with Source. In this experience, everything fell away except for the light of this Union. In this I experienced contentment beyond understanding. This moment of Grace was but a moment, but through that one encounter I have remained motivated to keep going.

The “going” is the arduous part of the journey. The journey becomes our practice and life itself shows us all the places within where we have forgotten Union with Source (what I call “Love”). All comes up for review. The review is ongoing and never-ending. Over and over and in increasingly subtle ways, we come up against all the places where we have forgotten that we are Love – forgetfulness brought forth through our conditioning, past wounds, traumas, etc. In becoming aware of these wounds, we are given an opportunity to heal them. In acknowledging the wounds and inviting their healing, we are again met with Grace, for we are not healing our own wounds, they are being healed for us. Our simple task is to say yes to the healing.

Healing the wounds may be simple, but showing up again and again for them to be healed is not. Our egos and our need to control (a function of the ego) get in the way. We often become impatient with the journey and wonder if it will ever end. It will not – but we must remain diligent, disciplined, and persistent in our task. Yes, we can quit, but as many have discovered, the Universe finds ways to drag us back to the task.

When we are called to know peace, we don’t really have a choice but to continue the search. We continue day in and day out, no matter our mood.  We become angry, frustrated, disheartened, and despairing, but we continue. We continue because our soul will not give us rest, for the rest we ultimately seek can only be found within and the world provides an infinite number of distractions – including the desire for peace in our world.

Human beings will never know peace until we find our own peace within – and that peace begins with me.

Now say this to yourself: “That Peace Begins with Me,” then find and be that peace.

The journey toward peace begins with a single step: starting and maintaining a spiritual practice.

In this course, you will learn what a spiritual practice is, dispel myths around meditation, and be instructed in a myriad of spiritual practices so that you might find the one or two that speak to you and begin your practice.

Learn more and enroll here.

Seeing Beyond Appearances

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 1 Comment

As 2024 draws to a close, I have grown especially fond of the memes that identify this past year as one of the most difficult ever!  I don’t need to get into the details for you to know what I mean. While things could have been a whole lot worse, 2024 was a year I would not choose to relive!  I’m weary. The whole world seems weary.

Despite what we might see on the surface of things: the conflict, the wars, the politicking, perceived division, etc.; a much greater movement is happening. That which has been born out of fear and rooted in power and control is breaking apart. On many days, it may not look like it, but it is.

Perhaps the best way to see this breaking apart is to look at the political conflicts in our world, in particular, the men with large faces and even louder voices who seem to be leading us all toward our own destruction. Interestingly, those who are the most boisterous and who garner the most attention are those who perfectly represent and embody the dying system. These are the men who have thrived in a patriarchal and hierarchical system and who are clinging and grasping after the control they believe they need to maintain their power. Damn the rest of humanity, what matters to them is their power.

While we may look upon these men as our enemies, what if instead, they are the vehicles through which the dying world will finally die so that a new world might come forth. What if, as my mom used to say, “the kitchen has to get dirtier before it can become clean.” What if what seems to be humanity moving backward, we are simply being pulled back like a sling shot so we can be hurled to our new futures?

Things are not always as they appear to be. As human beings, we see our lives and our world through the limitations of our judgment which has been formed by our preferences, previous conditioning, and societal expectations. In order to survive the breaking apart of what has been and the temporary discomfort of that breaking, we have to see through different eyes. We have to lay aside our own judgments and perceptions and allow for another view. For me, this means turning to my highest self (what some might call God) and asking to see the truth beyond the illusion. In every instance where I have asked for help in seeing so that I might understand, I have been surprised at what I’m shown and in that surprise, I have found comfort, along with the courage to keep on existing while the entire world seems to be falling apart.  

As we timidly move toward 2025, let us be open to seeing beyond appearances and to the Love that is ultimately guiding it all.

Seeing through the Lens of Love

The Order of the Magdalene Formation Program provides you with resources, knowledge, and tools to support you in your own journey of self-discovery and empowerment. Through this eighteen-month training program, you will:

  • Become rooted in scholarly and intuitive knowledge of the Magdalene, her role in the ministry of Jesus, and her example in the ongoing mission of Love.
  • Discern your own unique giftedness and how you are called to use these gifts for the sake of your own fulfillment and in service to the world.
  • Learn practical skills for uncovering and healing all that separates you from Love and from living as your most authentic self.
  • Rediscover ancient knowledge and practices for self-healing.
  • Cultivate and deepen your contemplative life while growing in contentment and compassion.
Enroll in the FREE Preview Course

Created and facilitated by Lauri Ann Lumby

64 weeks of content

7 individual courses

6 private mentoring sessions

Why Do We Celebrate Christmas?

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 2 Comments

This morning while standing in line at the grocery store, the checkout man explained to me that the reason we celebrate Christmas is because “Jesus died for us.” I smiled and nodded, allowing him his personal beliefs while disagreeing with every fiber of my being.

What I always learned and what is true for me is that we celebrate Christmas, not because of Jesus’ death, but because of his birth. Isn’t that why we decorate with nativity sets and sing songs of joy?  Never do we sing about Jesus’ suffering and death on Christmas. Instead, we sing only about his birth – and the great miracle that Mary and Joseph agreed to bring forth in the birth of their son.

I do not believe that Jesus came into the world to die. Neither do I believe his suffering and death was for the sake of our sins, or the forgiveness of our sins. First off, to believe this, I would have to believe that there is such a thing as sin from which we need God’s forgiveness.  If God truly loves us without condition, then what is there to forgive? Yes, we need to forgive ourselves of the shame brought forth from our non-loving actions and we need to do the work of healing from the non-loving actions done to us by others, but nowhere in this do I believe God standing in judgment or condemnation.

Christmas, to me, should be a time of celebration – a time to give honor to a man (and the loving people around him that helped to form him) who came to know his own Oneness with God and in that Oneness, came to know peace. This man, then went on to teach others “the way” to this Union. This was the Truth about which Jesus taught and by which he lived his own life.

It is this Truth that we celebrate on Christmas – the Light that sets us free from the suffering and fear that are the consequences of choosing the human condition. In choosing this Light we are able to navigate the horrors and tribulations of the human experience and still find peace. When we are disturbed by the terrors of this world, through this Light we can see beyond the limitations of our fears and into God’s greater plan, and maybe find comfort. Through this Light we are able to be compassion and mercy for ourselves, and for others. We are able to exercise kindness, understanding, and to celebrate the great diversity of all that God has made.

These are my prayers for you as you celebrate Christmas (or whatever you celebrate this blessed season): That you too may know Love, experience the Light, embody Truth, and like Jesus, become a beacon of Peace and Kindness in a world in such desperate need.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays with Love,

Lauri

What if there was no sin?

Into the Wilderness supports you in unraveling and healing from the conditioning that taught you to believe in sin, and that God’s love has to be earned or could be taken away.

  • Heal from shame.
  • Learn how “sin” is merely a symptom of something deeper in need of healing.
  • Learn to love yourself.
Learn more HERE

No. I Can’t Help You

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

Confession:  I’m a fixer. Part of being a fixer is a gift. The other part is a defense mechanism and a curse.

The gift part of being a fixer is the ability to see what could be improved in an environment so that it might more successfully thrive. It is also the ability to see what could cause a situation, environment, relationship, etc. to fail and to offer course-corrections that would help to prevent that failure. This improvement-oriented gift has been further developed in me through years of education and experience in a wide range of professional fields. Those who have sought me out for these gifts and applied my guidance have benefitted greatly. I have benefitted by applying these gifts to myself.

The fixer defense mechanism, on the other hand, rises up in me when I feel unsafe in an environment thereby triggering my own survival instinct to seek out ways to restore my feelings of safety. With the energy of hyper-vigilance, I seek out the “wrong” in the environment and then I attempt to fix that wrong. These efforts almost always blow up in my face.

The challenge of being a fixer is that there is no clear line between gift and defense mechanism. Often, these bleed into each other, usually resulting in catastrophe – if not for “the other” then most definitely for me. As a fixer, it is sheer torture watching institutions, individuals, humanity, making the same mistakes over and over and over while refusing to apply the actions that could help them.  Many don’t really want to be helped. Even when they ask for help, they may not really want that help. Most often, they are unwilling to take the necessary actions that would help them.

In the past several years, my “fixer” tendencies have come up for review. Where and how are they helpful? When are they problematic? The answer is complicated, but to put it simply:

  1. When someone invites my professional support and guidance, offer it, but with no attachment to outcome. They may apply it.  They might not.
  2. Identify those who continually ask for support but who really don’t apply it and learn how to disengage. It’s ok to say, “No, I cannot help you.”
  3. If they haven’t asked for my professional support, KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT.

The reality is that there are three kinds of people:

  1. those who want help and will do the work to help themselves,
  2. those who say they want help but really don’t,
  3. and those who definitely do not want help.

For my own mental and emotional wellbeing, I have had to learn (and relearn, and learn again) how to tell the difference while also caring for myself when overcome by the frustration and grief that surfaces when witnessing humans walk the path of their own destruction.

(PS: Being a fixer is also a form of co-dependency. Alanon, ACA, and AA principles have proven helpful in healing myself of this pattern. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change….”)

Helping You Help Yourself!

Soul School with Lauri Ann Lumby provides the basics of self-discovery and personal development. Rooted in embodied educational practices, mindfulness, and creativity, you will be supported in discovering your unique giftedness, healing the obstacles to living out those gifts for the sake of your own fulfillment, and empowered to enjoy a life of authentic freedom.

Learn More HERE

First World 2.0

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

During an online conversation related to imports and tariffs, I was reminded of a piece I had written originally titled, “Hope at the End of the Industrial Age.” It seems this piece originally penned in 2015 is just as relevant today!

I have had several in-depth conversations with people who are concerned over manufacturing jobs leaving our country, wondering if in this mass-exodus the United States would cease to be a first-world country and will revert into third-world status. As these concerns were raised, I turned inward and instead of doom, saw before me a new world in the process of being born.

The industrial revolution created rapid growth in the Western world and ushered in the distinction between first, second and third world status. With the advent of industry, Western culture emerged and thrived (or so we have said), while developing countries lagged behind. The industrial age supported advancing technology and assembly-line based manufacturing allowed us to meet the growing needs of Western society. Soon, we could produce everything the world would need to survive. The industrial revolution provided people with jobs and a regular wage which provided some with sense of security.  Eventually employee benefits such as insurance, paid time off, vacation, retirement plans, etc. were created to further support the illusion of security.

While industry has provided workers with perceived surety, there is an insidious side to modern industry.  Industry’s primary concern is not for its workers. Instead, it is driven to provide wealth for the corporation owners. At the height of the industrial age when production met the common needs, industry owners sought to create more demand. Advertising was born which purposefully manipulates people through their deeper-seated insecurities, compelling them to believe they need things they don’t, thereby causing them to spend more money. This has created a vicious cycle of misplaced needs and outward expenditures, where in the end…..nothing is ever enough.

While the industrial age has provided many benefits and has supported advancement in technology, there is much that was left behind. Previous to industry, people worked to provide for their own needs through their own unique talents and abilities. Some farmed. Others were craftsmen. Some were teachers. Others provided medical care and support. Some served the households of the landowners. Others governed the land. Some maintained peace. Others upheld the law and presided over questions of the law. Some were artisans, musicians, storytellers, poets, writers, builders. And in all of this, there was time for leisure. Things weren’t perfect as many went without, but the same is true today, in spite of our “first world” status. With all the advances we have made, poverty and violence country are at an all-time high. Many go hungry. Many are without basic healthcare. Education is floundering. Racism, sexism, orientationism, prejudice, discrimination and ignorance still reign. And more than anything else – the vast majority of those living in our culture – no matter how much wealth they possess – are unfulfilled and despairing over a life that has no meaning. The industrial age has been both a blessing and a curse.

The good news is that as our manufacturing jobs flood toward developing countries (Mexico, China, India, etc.), something new has already taken its place. We just need to see beyond our attachment to industry to perceive it, specifically looking to the youth (millennials and beyond) who are already living it. The new world that is in the midst of being born has moved us beyond the industrial age into a world that is comprised of the perfect marriage between information, technology, creativity, entrepreneurialship, old world knowledge and craftsmanship, and (let us not forget!!!) leisure. It is a world that combines the best of the old world with all the advantages and benefits of the information/technology age.

While it will be a struggle for some, it is time to step beyond the industrial age and welcome in the new world, not one that plunges us into third-world status, but one that moves us beyond even the first world into First World Version 2.0 – a world that is already here and filled with blessings beyond imagining. If we open our hands and hearts and release what we have known and be open to the new, amazing things will begin to happen. We will find enjoyment in simpler lives defined by the satisfaction of our more basic needs.  We will find fulfillment in what creatively nourishes us. We will grow closer in the more intimate connections that will be required in the new world. We will return to the wonders of nature and begin to care for our world. We might even learn how to take better care of those who are not able to care for themselves.  As the industrial revolution in the West dies a natural death, a new and promising world is in the midst of being born.  Welcome First World Version 2.0!

Lauri Ann Lumby, OM, MATS is an internationally known leader in the human-potential movement, specializing in the self-actualization of individuals and society.  She has been providing transformational education and empowerment since 1995. She is also a prolific writer and published author.  You can learn more about Lauri and her work at http://www.lauriannlumby.com.

While it will be a struggle for some, it is time to step beyond the industrial age and welcome in the new world, not one that plunges us into third-world status, but one that moves us beyond even the first world into First World Version 2.0

The World Needs You

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

Desperately!

As we are finding our way through the great collapse, I am reminded of how now is not a time to shy away. Instead, “all hands on deck” is imperative. But not necessarily in the way that our capitalistic conditioning would have us believe. Instead, we are invited to look deep within ourselves to be reminded of our true uniqueness and how we are called to bring that forth.

Each and everyone of us is uniquely gifted to participate in the collapse of the empire. Some are being hospice for the dying world- tending to the grief that comes when things are coming to an end, providing comfort, hope, and pain relief. Some are visionaries – imagining what a new world might look like. Some are prophetic messengers – pointing out the truths that no one wants to admit. Some are revealers – pulling back the veil of illusion so that the sometimes difficult truth can be seen. Some are healers, providing care and support for those who are hurting. Some are beacons who simply by their presence are leading and guiding people to truth and love. Some are gatherers – bringing forth community for a common cause. Some are builders – creating something new out of the ash of the old. Then we have our artists, writers, poets, musicians, dancers, etc. – all those who communicate despair, frustration, rage, beauty and hope through their arts so that all we are feeling in the midst of the collapse might be given expression.  

These are the gifts we want to acknowledge. But, beyond perceived separation there is unity and wholeness. From the perspective of wholeness, even that which we might judge as evil or destructive is also playing its role in the story of the great collapse. These men and women are showing us what is in need of healing among us. They are showing us the lies and deceptions upon which this empire was built. They are showing us our greed, our gluttony, our lust for power, and the truth of our envious natures. They are reflecting back to us corruption, prejudice, and hatred. They are living out their pre-ordained roles as harbingers of truth – the truths we don’t really want to see or acknowledge about ourselves. It is only in seeing the truth of our woundedness as a species that we can begin to bring forth healing.

The journey is difficult, but the destination is the same. No matter what role we are playing in this drama, it is all leading to the same place.  The place and the destination is LOVE. Whether that Love is something we uncover within ourselves, or something we come together to build, it is all the same. We came here for the purpose of Love, to come to know Love, to heal all the barriers to that Love, and then to live out that Love. Experiencing life is how we get there – each in our own unique way.

Uniquely Gifted:

Uniquely Gifted, was created to support you in knowing the truth that YOU are uniquely gifted to experience meaning and purpose in your life and to find fulfillment in the use and engagement of your gifts, first for yourself, and then, in service to the betterment of the world.

  • 13 lessons
  • online at your own pace
  • Choose your own pricing
Learn more HERE.

Being Love in a Divided World

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

We live in a divided world. Divided by gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality, religion, and politics – to name a few. When viewed as sacred differences that make each of us uniquely special, these differences serve us. When treated as something to be judged or feared, these divisions cause us harm, leading to prejudice, hatred, violence, and war.

Our differences are meant to be our gifts, instead humanity has turned them into the cause of hate. Hatred, however, is a choice. We can continue to choose hate, which leads to the devolution of humanity, and our eventual extinction; or we can choose Love and be witness to and participants in the grand evolution of human consciousness which would lead to all kinds of miracles – the likes of which we can hardly begin to imagine.

I choose Love.

Choosing Love, however, is no simple task. In fact, it has taken me a lifetime to even come close to being the Love that I truly want to be in the world. My version of Being Love is by no means perfect. There are people I continue to despise. There are experiences and situations that hurl me into a rage. There are times I want to say or do the unkind thing. I’m still human after all.  I don’t, however, act on the surface feelings of my unhealed wounds, neither do I purposefully cause harm. Choosing Love is a moment by moment task.

Choosing Love is also a lifetime process. This process begins by learning to identify every obstacle in front of, and within us, to love. Then we are invited to enter into the arduous task of clearing those obstacles. Sometimes these obstacles are the result of human conditioning – the ways in which we were taught to be and act in our family systems, our communities, our culture, our society, our world. Sometimes identifying our conditioning is simple and the choice to move past that conditioning is easy. Other times, it can be quite complicated as our conditioning is often subtle, even unconscious.

Beyond conditioning, the obstacles to love are all the places within us where we have been wounded. These wounds include times were felt betrayed, where our needs were ignored or denied, where we were criticized or condemned for who we are, where we felt unloved or were treated in non-loving ways. These wounds include past abuse, rejection, and times our love was met with hate. These unhealed wounds are, in turn, the cause of our own non-loving behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs.

Division is a choice.  So too is Love. Choosing Love begins by choosing Love for ourselves, and doing to the deep and challenging work of healing the inner obstacles to knowing and being that Love. As we transform ourselves, we are more free to be Love and being that Love plants the seeds of inspiration for others to do the same. When we are faced with Division, Choose Love. When challenged by hate, choose Love. When our unhealed wounds are triggered by the unhealed wounds of another, choose the loving thing and heal our wounds.

As our world appears to be increasingly divided, we can choose to participate in that division, or we can choose to Be Love.

I choose Love.

Healing the Obstacles to Love!

  • FREE Preview Lesson
  • Online course.
  • Nine modules
  • Done at your own pace and in your own time.
  • Choose your price!
Learn more and enroll HERE.

Embracing Fallow Times

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

In the natural world, there are cycles to all living things. A seed finds its way to the soil. The nutrients of the soil combined with the sun and rain support germination and growth. The plant flowers and eventually bears fruit. Then the plant either enters a state of dormancy, or the plant dies. Some plants are made to live only one growing season. Others return each year to bear flower and fruit. Some return every other year. And a rare few enter a dormant period for many years, while some require drastic states of nature for germination and growth. The seeds of the Giant Sequoia, for example, only germinate after they have been subjected to fire, and many desert plants sequester underground, often for many years, until the rain comes.

Written in the DNA of every living thing is the cycle of its natural life – a time to live and a time to die, a time to work and a time to rest. The same is true of human beings, especially as it relates to the gifts (fruits) we bring to our lived experience. In the same way that our life has a beginning and an end, so too do our cycles of productivity and creativity.

In a world in which we are conditioned to believe that our value is dependent upon our productivity, when we find ourselves in fallow times, we are prone to judging ourselves and forcing ourselves to produce and create. The harder we work to produce, the more frustrated we become and the more our creativity suffers. Like the fruit of a plant, our creative contributions to the human experience cannot be forced. Whether our creative contribution is parenthood, painting, teaching, counseling, writing, singing, speaking, managing, organizing, healing, providing service, administrating, craftsmanship, or any other outward form of producing, it cannot be forced. This is especially true in the times we are meant to lie dormant.

Dormancy most often comes after times of intensive output – times in which we have been actively producing. As is true of nature, dormancy can also follow times of enormous stress or after we’ve suffered trauma. Like a plant that has finished its growing season, or that has been traumatized by the violence of nature (flood, drought, etc.), we need time to rest and recover before we are able to produce again.

Contrary to our capitalistic conditioning, fallow times are not bad. Instead, they are deeply necessary for our own health and for the good of humanity and the planet. When fallow times present themselves, we do ourselves good by surrendering to them – which I know is quite difficult.

To embrace and receive the fruits of our own periods of dormancy, we need to undo all the conditioning that has told us our value is based on our productivity. We have to exorcise ourselves of the messages that suggest that in surrendering to dormancy, we are being lazy, that we might be depressed, or that there is something wrong with us and with our inaction. We have to silence the voices both outside of us and in our own heads that insist that doing nothing is wrong.

During times of dormancy, the only task required of us is to simply be. To be with the inaction. To endure the naysaying. To dive into our discomfort. To resist the pressure to do and allow our souls the precious time they need to rest and restore. Only in surrendering to the fallow time do the seeds of new life that are waiting within us receive the nourishment and energy they need to come forth in their own divinely-ordained time – and not a second before. In embracing our fallow times, we are providing the foundation upon which our next cycle of life will bloom vibrantly and abundantly – if only we have the patience and trust to wait.