Blog Post Title 3
“It all begins with an idea.”
🎊 It’s 2023 Y’all.
This is my first Blog post… ever. (Yes the title is on purpose). The idea of a Blog has always been romantic to me. Sharing my thoughts, ideas, & findings with people in hopes that they resonate deeply and profoundly; to make an impact on people the same way the World makes an impact on me daily. I have kept a journal since I was very young, my first journal was green, had Mickey Mouse on the front, and I wrote some very private, innocent, yet scandalous 7 year-old secrets in there, and predominately in the form of a letter to a reader unknown*. I continue to structure my entries this way. As if they will be published or read by future descendants & scholars. 📖 ❗ ✋ *Let’s Un-Pack that real quick:
Where is this coming from?
I want to be important. - why?
Why not? Doesn’t everyone want to be important? - not empirically. - or honestly. - so what else drives this desire/ need to be remembered?
To be Loved is to be remembered. - To be remembered is to be Loved.
I want people to understand me, so they will Love me. - maybe because I feel a lack of both in my life, and am convinced that the former will lead to the latter.
In 6th grade my father gave me 2 black leather bound journals and said, “it’s good to clear out the closet. Do some ‘Spring Cleaning’.” It was a metaphor for not bottling up my feelings to the point they start leaking out elsewhere. I was showing signs of hurting myself at the time. I am the middle child in a large family & (if any of you grew up with more than one sibling), it is real f'*cking hard to get a word in without YELLING OR TALKING OVER PEOPLE! He started journaling during the separation of our parents (which was part of the cause of my cutting and burning). He recognized the need for a processing tool, and journaling had helped him (for a short while anyway). He may not know this, but those journals were my first steps into the Journey of Mental Health, Personal Growth, & Spiritual Healing.
“Don’t worry about sounding professional…
Sound like you.”
These are quotes from Squarespace’s website building template. They are the filler text for various content templates. At first I thought they were cheesy, but they have proven to be somewhat inspirational. That last sentence, “Sound like you”, struck a chord (re: journal entry structure) & there is a level of professionalism that I feel I have to keep in these posts. I don’t think it would be good business for me to air out my “dirty laundry”, but I also believe in radical honesty¹, and as cheesy as this is going to sound “being the change I want to see in the world.”
A lesson I learned while living in an Intentional Community² based on honest and open communication during the pandemic was not everything you think or feel needs to be communicated or expressed. And, we haven’t been taught how to hold space for ourselves or others in moments of vulnerability, or honesty, or things we don’t want to hear. I am still learning how to discern how to communicate my inner world. Often it feels when I give voice to that part of me, it is misunderstood, projected upon, or negatively impactful. Which sucks you know? lol.
Anyway, there’s a lot more to learn there for me.
“Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it.”
“The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself…”
“It always does.”
Building this website has been a toil of love, frustration, anxiety, but also liberation. I know I will endlessly tinker with the design, as well as continue to add products or evolve my services as I grow as a person/ Healer³.
I am excited for the Year ahead. I have lots of ideas brewing already and am grateful to have you to share them with. If this resonated with you at all, let me know? I love feedback, especially when it’s uplifting ;)
Cheers to the Journey ahead 🍻
~Jacqui S, LMT
🦶💫Foot Notes:
¹ Radical Honesty-came to me from the world of Possibility Management (PM) via Confluence². more info on PM
² Confluence is the Intentional Community I lived in from March 2020- July 2022. It was a 2 story house with a Basement (so really 3 stories) in Capitol Hill & ranged from 7-10 people in the House over the course of me living there. We had weekly meetings where we would do workshops/ activities focused on authentic relating (<-link). I’ll write more about my experiences in the house in future posts. 😉
³ “Healer” can be a tricky title to bear for the simple fact that Healers are facilitators. There is a common misconception that Doctors, Medicine Folk, Shamans, Healers of all types, are the ones bestowing the Health/ Healing upon the client/ patient. This is incorrect. We bestow Knowledge & Skill. Healing is an involved & cooperative process, and can require more than passive reception on the part of the patient/ client.