Let me tell you something curiously significant that I’ve observed about Wholehearted & Courageous women. We have a special love for learning. We are avid book lovers, audible chicks and podcast junkies. I’ll go as far as to say we’re obsessed with it. And naturally, we’re especially ambitious when it comes to learning and understanding who we are as women.
We want to know why we are the way we are and how that ties into the bigger picture of our lives. We seek out to understand the things that peak our interests, like a kid cannonballs into a cool refreshing lake over and over on a hot summer day. Personal growth and the practice of it…it’s our thing. We do it with zest and staccato.
The adventure of this practice is lived out in quite notable ways. Firstly, we love learning alone. We read books, most likely several at the same time. We watch all the Ted Talks, YouTube videos and online classes we can squeeze into our day. We take all the personality, enneagrams, love language, genetic and DISC tests there are. Why? Because we simply enjoy discovering who we are. Some of these topics can be serious in nature while others are enjoyed merely for the pleasure of it. You can’t box us in, we love understanding it all.
This love for learning is what I’d like to parallel to the formation of cannonball. We study the formation (we are learners) but it doesn’t stop there. Nope, because we physically need to jump in for this cannonball to be fully experienced. The practice of moving what we’ve learned from our heads to our hearts to our hands, as Brené Brown says is where we jump in.
How do we do this? We find the lectures and conferences from our favorite speakers and authors and buy tickets to hear them speak. We go to (and we personally curate our own) retreats. We seek out one-on-one mentorship to better develop our skills and crafts. We attend the dance, cooking, singing, yoga, theatre, parenting, poetry, bible, business, marriage, health and art classes. We pay the big bucks for therapy and coaching sessions. Learning purposefully for the wholeness of our minds, bodies and spirits, we’ve found 100 percent of the time (especially as Wholehearted & Courageous women) we’re always a worthy investment. This permission, it is a big and lofty one in the growth process for us.
Surprisingly, this figurative cannonball keeps going beyond learning and jumping in because after that comes the waves. What makes the waves you ask?
The magic answer, community. We grow at an accelerated pace within the spaces of intentional community. This is the sacred place from where we learn WITH and FROM each other. Each woman uniquely adds to the experience of this collective. In other words, our experience is shaped by the character and strength of the women in our circle. This tribal component is where we experiment in the waves of vulnerability, courage, authenticity and finding our voice. It is here where the spirit of God converges into our times together. It is here where we heal, experience belonging and propel one another to fly.
For us, these places of learning are all essential to one another. One without the other is good and great but practiced in tandem? There is a powerful force of impact.
Impact, lasting impact. We’ve found inevitably that within these spaces the layers and beliefs are peeled back and we discover and embrace our intrinsic essence. A God given essence we believe is crucial in helping shape this time, space and place we’ve been born into. We know full well that the things we learn and practice today will most assuredly rise and crescendo into a mighty wave of impact. This is the impact we personally bring to the generation currently standing before us as we also establish new pathways and possibilities for the generations to come.
This at the very heart of it is something we’ve all come to understand. Becoming who we’ve been destined to be and letting that radiate without reservation is the gift we give to ourselves and the world around us. It makes all of this learning a most worthy and priceless endeavor.
You my dear were made to learn, live and take the plunge. You were made to be a perpetual student of your own life, to perform your own magnificent cannonballs. Those waves of impact are YOURS to create. Go forth, keep learning, keep practicing and make a splash.
With love,
Ammie
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