Being an entrepreneur means putting yourself out there. It means working through your “stuff” and it means opening yourself up and being willing to go places you never wanted to go. I started my healing journey long before I became an entrepreneur and I thought I had done a lot of healing. And I had done. But what I am learning is that there is always a deeper level.
Some people describe it like peeling an onion. You have to peel off the outer layers of skin to get to the flesh of the onion. However, I think it is a lot more difficult than that. It came to me today that it is more like a jar of all natural, organic peanut butter. When the peanut butter is first made, it is a lovely, blended, creamy concoction that spreads smoothly across your bread. But by the time that peanut butter gets put in a jar, sorted, labeled and shipped to your grocery, it has separated. It has become two distinct layers. However, when you dig into it you find that there really are more than just two layers.
When I look at my healing journey, I now realize that the first layer of healing and reconnection came pretty easily. It wasn’t fun and it did make a bit of mess as the oil slopped down the sides of the jar. But before long, I had something that resembled peanut butter. I was put back together again and reconnected to my main body.
The second layer of work was a bit more difficult. As I kept stirring and digging into my hurt places, I found that there was another thicker, more protected layer that needed incorporated back into the rest. This layer caused a little more sloshing and probably some of the oil and even now some of the butter itself got spilled down the sides of the jar. But in the end, I had a nicer version, a more connected version of myself to show for the effort.
Finally, you get into the heart of the matter, the most difficult part of a healing journey. You dig down into the bottom of the jar and get to the parts that have no oil left. They are hard and tough and just don’t want to budge. They like where they are. They like curving into the safety of the bottom of the jar. It is too scary, too much effort and not at all comfortable to be scooped up out and reconnected with the rest. But if you keep digging, little by little you get those pieces out. But, it takes a lot of work. A lot of stirring to get the reconnection you desire. Those pieces are the most protected, and the most hidden. But they are what make the peanut butter so delicious; they are the core of the peanut butter.
With us, they are the core of who we are. Life’s trials, the lies we believe and the things we go through builds up a protective barrier that is hard to penetrate and not easily moved. But if we keep digging, if we keep stirring, if we keep trying to reconnect, we will find that the final result is this beautiful human being who is exactly what we were meant to be. Just like the peanut butter becomes this rich, delicious product that spreads across our bread in a delicious layer of goodness; we become this awesome human being who spreads goodness across the pages of life.
I am sharing this analogy with you today in the hope that it speaks to you and gives you hope. Hope that the discomfort you go through as you work through your pain points is worth the effort. You are worth the effort. Have you experienced this sort of layered healing? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
Sherry Parks is a Rediscovery Coach who helps women rediscover themselves and reconnect to the core of who they are.
To contact Sherry for more information about coaching join her women only Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1412224992154642/.