there is no such thing as failure

Sometimes I feel like I sound like a broken record. At other times I believe it's worth repeating:

Finding yourself here, in this moment, where you can let go of your past and trust the unknown, takes practice. Daily practice. Even years of practice.

At least that was the case for me.

Trusting the unknown means you know four things:

1. Everything, no matter the outcome, will be okay.

2. You are being guided to live your highest potential.

3. There is no such thing as failure, only learning.

A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with cancer for the second time in my life. Three of my kids were teens and one was a tween. From the moment of diagnosis to the day of the surgery two months passed. Every day for those two months I would breathe into the moment. I knew, with every ounce of my being, that everything would be okay. Even if that meant transitioning. That knowing - that everything would be okay - is what I kept returning to. This practice doesn't guarantee fairytale endings. It just gives you the tools to breathe into each moment of your life knowing that no matter what, everything will be okay.

Every challenge, every success is guiding us to living our highest potential. Every experience, if you choose, can be a guidepost. The failing marriage, the job you hate, the sick child, they are all guiding you to make changes. All you need to do is pause and notice what life is trying to tell you. Then you can take the next inspired action leading you closer to where you need to be. My experience with cancer this second time around allowed me to let go of my fear that I was the only one who would be able to guide my children to their best possible lives. As my fears came up about what they were going to do without their mother and would they learn all the things I wanted them to learn, I began letting go. I began seeing their journey as their own, with or without me. I knew in my head that they were being led to their own personal journey but now I really got to feel it and believe it in my heart and soul. This feeling of "my kids are going to be okay" was the biggest gift I received from that time. As much as I write about trusting our children's inner guidance system, I'm still learning how to do that as well. And this was the perfect culmination of years of hard work.

Which leads me to the most powerful aspect of stepping into the unknown - YOU CAN'T FAIL.

Even death is not failure. Everything is an opportunity to learn. Even from your successes. When we are able to embrace this notion that we are always discovering more of who we are as we step into the unknown the more exciting the unknown becomes. When you transform your relationship with failure, you transform your life. The thing we need to heal and let go of is what failure means to us? When we can be with that part of ourselves that is afraid of failure, then we create space for our children to fail and learn.

Making peace with failure will free you to experience the unknown in new and exciting ways.

With Love, Maria