An Invitation to Awaken

“So often we move throughout our lives, throughout our days, focusing on the needs of others, focusing on satisfying others. But as you move towards finding your fierce and loving, and reconnecting with your purpose, you bring your awareness to an appreciation for all that you are and all that you have.” – Lola Wright

The Find Your Fierce & Loving podcast is intended to support you in your own evolution, awakening, and expansion. Each month, in service of that, I will deliver a powerful interview with an inspiring human being, I will give you a few solo episodes with just you and me, and I will lead us in an immersive experience. In this first immersive experience episode of the season, I invite you into a meditation, a reflection on the aspects of your life that are already completely set on fire, so you can continue to acquaint yourself with your own aliveness.

Personal transformation happens when we move our bodies and awaken our souls. To get clear on your purpose, meditation is an excellent resource you can use to access that place within you that is the keeper of your beliefs and memories.

Oftentimes when we’re wanting to expand or grow or evolve, we focus so much on where we’re going that we miss the perfection and the exquisite nature of where we already are. In this episode of Find Your Fierce & Loving, I want to remind you that what you appreciate appreciates, and what you focus on expands. I will guide you through meditation to put a little attention back to where you are right now, to appreciate that you, and all the aliveness that is natively yours is worthy of attention and celebration. And now I invite you to find a comfortable, still space and to give yourself the gift of slowing down. 

Do you want to unleash your inherent love and goodness, liberate yourself, and free humanity from the oppressive systems and structures we have created? We are here to support you in finding your fierce and loving life. Join us in Our Circle, a vibrant membership community rich in opportunities for personal transformation and our collective awakening. Find out more at lolawright.com/our-circle. This winter consider joining us for the Set On Fire Virtual Retreat from December 30 to January 2 – end 2020 powerfully and enter 2021 creatively, lolawright.com/set-on-fire-retreat.

You can follow Lola Wright, on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and learn more about my work at lolawright.com.

Chicago born and built, Lola grew up in wealth and privilege, yet always sensed something was missing. She sought out aliveness and freedom in music, immersing herself in the hip hop and house music scenes of 90s Chicago. After finding herself on her own at 23, as the mother of two young children, she became determined to create a new experience.

Lola is an ordained minister with a gift for weaving together the mystical and material, she served for many years as the CEO of Bodhi Center, an organization committed to personal transformation, collective awakening, conscious activism, and community-building. 

Theme music by independent producer Trey Royal.

If you’d like to receive new episodes as they’re published, please subscribe to Find Your Fierce & Loving in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help others find the show. 

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

[00:00:01] At a time when protests are sweeping the nation, here’s what I know. Your purpose is your protest. It is the most radical thing you can bring to the world. My name is Lola Wright and this is Find Your Fierce & Loving. This podcast is a wake up call, a road map back to your holy purpose, an invitation to set fire to the box you’ve been living in and watch it burn. 

[00:00:39] I can’t thank you enough for this powerful launch of this digital gathering space. The Find Your Fierce & Loving podcast is intended to support you in your own evolution, awakening, expansion. Every month, as I’ve promised, I will deliver a powerful interview with an inspiring human being. I will give you a few solo episodes with just you and me. And, I will lead us in an immersive experience. 

[00:01:12] A couple things I have upcoming that I’d love for you to join in on include my membership community. It is opening December 1, and we already have a really great group of human beings that are kicking this group off. And, I’d love for you to be a part of it. So if you’re interested in like minded community, if you’re interested in unplugging from the drama of this now moment in the human experience, not denying what’s happening on the planet, but realizing that you have the capacity to create, expand, imagine, dream, raise your energy body beyond this sort of suffering loop, then consider checking out Our Circle. This membership community is intended to be loving, affirmative, radical, supportive, inspiring. We’re going to gather weekly, and you can join us live or on demand. So participate as much or as little as you want and do it when it’s convenient for you. At the end of this December, I’m going to hold a four day virtual retreat. Most of it’s going to be on your own time. We’ll book end this virtual retreat beginning on the evening of December 30. So the eve of New Year’s Eve, we’re going to gather in sacred practice, and then we’re going to have two days of self directed practice. You’ll have a journal, and you can follow the cadence and the rhythm of your life and use this holy and sacred time of transition as a kind of reflection. We’ll then come together on January 2 for an afternoon of high creativity and vision. See you and I can find ourselves in these default patterns, and we want to disrupt those defaults if they’re not working for us so that we can rise into something new, imaginative, inspiring, independent of the circumstances and conditions of 2020. You have capacity. There is no global pandemic, there is no economic crisis, there is no political drama that is the ultimate authority on your existence. So I hope that you’ll consider joining me in Our Circle, my membership community or for the Set on Fire Virtual Retreat. If you do join Our Circle by December 1, you’ll be gifted the Set on Fire Virtual Retreat. 

[00:03:47] So today I’d love to invite you into a meditation. So take a few moments, get yourself gathered and find yourself in a still position. We’ll have the opportunity to close our eyes, turn within, and I’m really going to invite you into a reflection on the aspects of your life that are already completely set on fire, where you’re beginning to acquaint yourself with your own aliveness. Oftentimes when we’re wanting to expand or grow or evolve, we can focus so much on where we’re going that we miss the perfection and the exquisite nature of where we already are. What you are working with right now, as you are, is enough. And so we’re going to put a little attention on that, appreciate it, and you know, as cheesy as it may sound, it is the absolute truth. What you appreciate appreciates. What you focus on expands. And so today we’ll have the gift of really honoring and celebrating the aliveness that is native to you, that is already in you, and we’ll be able to amplify that. So I hope that you’ll take a little bit of time today and give yourself the gift of slowing down with me. 

[00:05:16] I invite you to take a deep breath and find yourself in a comfortable position. Allow your body to feel the support of the seat beneath it. Bring the breath into the belly. 

[00:05:30] Deepen the breath. Soften the belly. Invite the shoulders to fall. Invite the jaw to relax. Create space between your top and bottom teeth. Very often when we’re gripping and bracing in life, we will have our tongue resting on the top of our mouth. For this practice, invite the tongue to rest on the bottom inside of the teeth and do a scan of places and spaces in your body that typically hold constriction. 

[00:06:07] Oftentimes our brow, our chest. Invite those spaces to soften, to relax. Leave whatever recycled thought patterns that may be seducing you. Leave those alone, if for only a few minutes. You can always pick them back up when we’re complete. But as we deepen the breath into the belly, and we bring to your mind’s eye your purpose, the big idea for which you are on the planet now to be in service of. You know what that is. It is not a job title. It may seem nebulous or distant. But in the spirit of appreciation, we’re going to tap into this practice of gratitude. 

[00:07:21] This practice of gratitude is generative in nature when we place our awareness on acknowledging and celebrating, honoring and appreciating that which we have, we quite literally create more of it. So as we deepen in our practice today, bringing your purpose to your mind’s eye, I want to invite kind of radical act of appreciation forward.

[00:08:02] Very often, we can find obvious things to be appreciative of, and I’d love for you to go beyond the obvious today. I’d love to place your awareness on you. So often we move throughout our lives, throughout our days, focusing on the needs of others, focusing on satisfying others. But as we move towards finding Your Fierce & Loving, reconnecting with your purpose, we bring our awareness to appreciation for all that you are and all that you have. 

[00:08:57] So as you breathe into this now moment, I invite you to bring to your mind’s eye one of your holy gifts. Allow yourself to feel in your physical body, in your emotional body, in your mind. What is a unique contribution that you make on the planet already? Perhaps it is your truth telling. Perhaps it is your entertaining capacity. Perhaps it is your analytical mind. Perhaps it is your generous heart. 

[00:10:01] What are the gifts, the talents, areas of genius that you’re already aware of, that you contribute to yourself, in your relationships, and to varying degrees in the world? As you allow yourself to feel into these areas of genius through appreciation, begin to feel in your physical body a kind of amplification of these qualities. 

[00:10:48] You might begin to notice emotions rise as you focus your awareness on what you appreciate about yourself. We oftentimes don’t create much time and space for appreciating ourselves. We’re so often seeking a kind of affirmation or approval from others. But as you breathe into this now moment, I want you to feel a kind of radical appreciation for the gifts that you bring in this kind of earth school we’re in. Bring to your mind’s eye an exchange that you’ve had over the last few weeks that you know has altered an experience. Perhaps it was a conversation. Perhaps it was a text exchange. Perhaps it was a meal prepared. Allow yourself to notice a moment where you were a kind of catalyzing presence for the expansion of good. As you allow yourself to feel into the appreciation you have for yourself, you might choose to place your hand on your heart and another hand on your belly and allow your breath to move your body up and down. Feel the rise and fall of you. 

[00:13:25] Now begin to roll back the hand of time and allow your consciousness to fall on any series of experiences, moments, exchanges that you’ve had inside of your purpose. Perhaps go back 10 years. What were you doing? Where were you? What did your purpose, you alive, on fire, look like then? What were you doing 10 years ago where time and space disappeared? Notice in your body where you feel that sense of aliveness as you tap into that moment. Roll back the hand of time another decade, and invite into your awareness another moment, another exchange, another encounter where you were in your purpose, alive, on fire, unapologetic. Who were you with? What were you doing? What were you dreaming of and imagining? Where do you notice that in and on your body? What sensations are here now? 

[00:15:40] Again, roll back the hand of time another decade. Your younger self, alive, on fire, aligned. What qualities do you notice within yourself? What contributions are you making? What holy gifts are you bringing to the world? As you sense into that, where do you notice that feeling of aliveness in and on your body? Now roll back the hand of time to somewhere between the age of five and ten, and allow yourself to feel the innocence that lived in you then. Feel your innocence now. Connect with the young one in you that dreamed, imagined, played. 

[00:17:17] As you sense into the innocent one in you, what brought you alive? What gifts did you contribute to your family system, to your neighborhood, to your school community? What were you known for as a little one? As you sense into the innocent one in you now, what is the gift that you offer the world? What do you know to be true about you? Making ourselves open to the wisdom that lives at the center of our being. Allowing yourself to expand your sense of appreciation, of gratitude for all that you know about yourself. 

[00:18:29] Loving, celebrating, affirming the brilliance and the wisdom, the creativity, the imagination, the capacity that is right where you are. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Allow yourself to feel the creative genius that is in you. Rest easy in the knowing that there is a right and holy contribution that you are already making in this plane of existence. Trust that in this now moment, you are expanding, magnifying, amplifying your purpose, the gifts that you bring to the world, the gift that you are to yourself. 

[00:19:55] Say to yourself, I am a portal for all things good. I am a unique contribution. I know my brilliance. I trust my brilliance. I am ready to contribute my brilliance even more boldly. 

[00:20:43] Breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth, imagine with every inhale, you are sourcing and supplying this creative capacity that lives within you. And with every exhale, you are releasing, detaching from, discarding any energy that no longer serves your holy purpose, your contribution. Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, I am a holy contribution. I am uniquely skilled to contribute me to all that I meet. I rest easy in this now moment. I bow deeply to the brilliance that is at the center of my being. I give great thanks for all that I have. All is well here. 

[00:21:59] Take a few deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. Give yourself the gift of an audible exhale. Begin to roll the shoulders and shift your seat in the chair. Allow yourself to familiarize yourself with the still space at the center of your being. Perhaps open your eyes if you haven’t already done so and bring your mouth to a smile. Turn the corners of your mouth upwards and begin to celebrate you. 

[00:22:40] Everything that is occurring in your life in this now moment is rightly and perfectly designed for the gift you are, for the contribution you’re here to make. You are a glorious demonstration of life itself. Your purpose is needed and wanted on the planet. I trust you to bring it forward. 

[00:23:08] Rest easy and allow yourself to bring yourself forward so that the world can celebrate you. You are worthy of that. 

[00:23:26] So thank you for joining me in this immersive experience. I hope it was restorative, and I hope that you carry forward a sense of stillness. And to all of your encounters and activities throughout the day, at any time, you can access this inner peace. It’s always available, and it becomes easier to access the more we place our attention on it.