All year, we can take cues, on how to raise our personal power, from the face of Nature around us.  When we look at what the earth is doing right now, in late November, She is shedding her leaves.  She is dropping off the past year.

This isn’t usually a news flash to those of us who feel connected to the natural world.  But how can we use this to our advantage? 

The funny thing that I have learned from my years as a doctor and now as a Transformation Expert is that we are all doing things that we don’t want to do, all the time.  If you want more energy, more freedom, more power, and more joy in your life, examine this part of your life like a treasure map.

We can categorize these dreaded activities in 3 ways: illusion, habit, and “adulting”.

“Adulting” is a millennial word that means “things that you do when you are an adult”.  When you do the dishes, pay your bills, take out the trash, or buy toilet paper, you are adulting.   These are tasks that require us to put on our grown-up undies and do it. 

Next, we have our oh-so automatic thoughts and deeds that we have deemed as habit.  Our habits often come from the modeling of our parents or other authority figures.  (Mother wound, anyone?)  Sometimes they started as a survival mechanism.  Here is a harsh truth: when we are doing something that we don’t like and blaming it on habit, we are essentially saying that we are a victim here.  It is like admitting helplessness.  Let that sink in for a moment.

My 5 year old son has found that if he goes up to the lady in charge of the lunch line at school, and gives her his name, she will give him hot lunch.  He is thrilled!  I send a nutritious lunch with him every day, in his Lego Batman lunch box (this lunch box has a cape…can you stand it?).  He prefers hot lunch because he gets “hot squishy chicken”; which I think means that it isn’t dry.  We have discussed that he is to eat the food that I send for him, but sometimes, he still doesn’t.

Last week, I sat him down to ask, “Daniel, what happens in the cafeteria?  Why aren’t you eating the food that I send?”

His reply?  “My mind and my body just switch on me.”  I didn’t see that one coming.

I gently remind him that he is in charge of his body and his mind.  His take on it? “My brain doesn’t know that!”  I think that this is his way of saying that he does it because he wants to but he chooses to act helpless so that he can get away with it.  This is exactly what we grown-ups claim about our own habits.  We think that we are at the mercy of things like instant gratification.  Maybe hot squishy chicken isn’t your thing, but you get the point.

Now ask yourself, “What am I blaming on habits so that I can act like I don’t have any control?”  Is it the fast food drive thru? Going to bed too late?  Not flossing?  Blaming others?  Working until you drop?  Everyone has something.

Illusion, however is way sneakier.  We do things because we “feel bad”, but then doing them doesn’t alleviate the bad feeling.  Underneath the illusion is the sense that we will be more worthy, more loved, or more secure.  Basically, we are engaging in an illusion if we do things with the hope for a specific reaction from another person or group, which is essentially giving the other person all the power.  Talk about shackles…

So, here is my challenge to you.

What would happen if you listed all the things that you do that you hate, then categorized them as habit (H), illusion (I) and adulting (A)?

If you wrote an A for adulting, that is your signal to not stress about it.  Just do it, delegate it, or hire someone, and move on.

If you wrote an H for habit, ask yourself, what would I rather do instead?  Because, dear one, we hold the power to change our habits at any time.  How freeing is that?

If you wrote an I for illusion, this one is more complex.  You might have even left a few items blank because you weren’t sure.  Chances are that if you left if blank, it is a darn good illusion.  For that reason, detecting your illusions might be something that you need some help with.

Our illusions can have a strong hold because we subconsciously think that they keep us safe or ensure that we will be loved.  

Tune into your inner wisdom for a minute.  I’ll bet that it is saying, “Get these off of me right now!”

Shamanic wisdom tells us to dig out these old illusions and drop them like shackles so that we can be free and happy.  It is our Divine assignment to keep allowing more freedom, more peace, and more power by ushering out why this doesn’t already feel easy.  Shamanic healing shows you how and brings all the personal power back into your hands.  Although truth be told, it never left.

And, I’ve got good news.  Inside you lives a rebel soul, a free, vibrant, truth-telling soul.  Your rebel soul asks, “Why do I do this?  Who says that doing things that I hate will win me points?  Does anyone else see that this is ridiculous?  I’m the one in charge here and the Universe has my back!”

Take a moment and put your hand over your heart and ask…

What actions or thoughts have shackled you to a life that you don’t exactly love living?

What have you told yourself is the reason why you are still doing things that you hate?

Who have you blamed for this?

If you are the creator of your life, what do you plan to do about it? 

You may need to take a good look at your illusions.  This path isn’t usually lined with roses.  It might include healing your mother wound, being honest about where your energy is going, and creating radical personal accountability.  All of this will allow your rebel soul to emerge.  The most free, most confident, most sovereign version of yourself is just under the surface.   Time to drop the shackles and arise!