Sing yourself home to your Authentic Life
(at Imiloa Institute in Costa Rica, Feb 2024)
As soon as my feet hit the ground in Costa Rica last February I started singing. Softly, a song hummed through and stayed with me for the entire trip.
Likewise, in the heart of the woods with my Nature Coach training cohort in 2016, a song arose and accompanied me as I built my fire. Later, as we were crafting a colossal nature mandala yet another song sang alongside us.
In Braiding Sweetgrass, indigenous author Robin Wall Kimmerer writes that she listens for her graduate students to start singing when she takes them into the woods to gather roots. Inevitably, given enough time in the cradle of the forest, they find a song and lift their voices together.
Life Singing Through You
None of this is on purpose. I’m not trying to sing. I simply can’t help it. Kimmerer’s students don’t set out to sing camp songs - they arise.
The songs come when one is aligned. The songs come when one is open. The songs come when one is listening. The songs come in response to what one hears. The songs come when one stops holding back. The songs are waiting to come.
The question is - When is the last time a song sang through you?
Out of Sync with your Authentic Life
I recently told my husband that I feel like I’ve been chasing my life. Always just a few beats behind, I’m unable to keep the pace. As a coach I’d ask my client to remember the last time she felt like she was in step with her life. The last time she felt the songs coming through. My husband was shocked to hear that for me it’s been since the end of my last teacher training - TWO YEARS ago.
I know people go much much longer. Much longer out of sync. Much longer since a song found them. Much longer since they felt like dancing.
There’s a lot of life in modern life, isn’t there? So many things that want attention. So many ways to keep oneself busy and distracted. So many ways to forget what it feels like to be in alignment with the course of one’s life. So many ways to push away the nagging feeling that something is off. One could go their entire life feeling that something is missing - and, sadly, never bothering to slow, stop, and figure out WHAT.
I do not recommend this course of action.
Go Looking || Go Listening
If you wake up one morning with a dull ache, the longing for a song that used to be yours, I recommend you go looking for it.
Like anything you’ve lost, it starts with remembering where you last saw it. It’s like listening inwards for a melody you heard long ago and are trying to recall. Once you catch some notes, ask these questions: What was happening in my life then? What has dropped out of my life since (purposefully or accidentally)? What has entered in?
Then move towards. Towards what used to be important. It may be that you need exactly what used to be part of your life -a yoga practice, morning pages, solitary time, community, or nature walks. It may be that you need to drop something that’s distracting you - an over-busy schedule, doom-scrolling, doing everything for everyone. It could be that the moving towards is moving towards something that’s similar but not the same. In my life, I don’t need another teacher training, but I do need to be in a community of learning and exploration . Same idea - new form.
One can’t really turn back the clock or return to who one was once upon a time. That’s not even the aim with this. Only, how can anyone know which way their Authentic Life wants to lead if they’ve forgotten what it feels like to have it sing in their bones?
Re-Align Here and Now
The movement back is a re-collection of oneself. A remembering of when one was different - and a hope to find alignment again. The re-alignment starts with what worked in the past then flows into presence with what’s here, now. It’s about listening for what’s alive now.
Perhaps one will release everything from the past and forge a new way. Perhaps one sifts and sorts - keeping and releasing along the way.
Your Authentic Life is waiting for your return. Turn towards, listen closely. Let her song guide you home.
A contemplation for you:
Spontaneous singing is a way that I know I am deeply aligned with my Authentic Life. But your authenticity may come through in another way: laughter, dance, hugging people, spontaneous poetry… something else.
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE ALIGNED WITH YOUR AUTHENTIC LIFE?
I would love to have a collection of our most aligned authentic expressions - would you leave an answer in the comments below? Thank you!
If you’re curious this is what we do in 1:1 coaching. I’m opening 2 spaces in my coaching practice for 2025. If this resonates with you and you want to know more about it - sign up for a free connection call. Let’s talk.