Resting in a new beginning

The birth of Finding Stillness

You can listen to me read this newsletter aloud by clicking the play button above.

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Hello sweet friends!

On Thursday I had the very last class of my coaching training, and yesterday I “birthed” the website for my brand new business Finding Stillness! Oh my goodness, I am feeling all the feelings! It’s big and expansive and terrifying and vulnerable. Like a heart-wide-open declaration to the universe saying, for the first time ever, ”This is me, deep down at my core. This is what I believe in every cell of my being. This is what I desire for myself and the world!” And, wow, if that isn’t one of the scariest things that I have ever said out loud, in public, even if it is virtually.

I first came across the idea of birthing a business as a metaphor in Jennifer Armbrust’s magic little book aptly titled The Business Birthing Handbook — A Theory of Trimesters. The book walks you through the three trimesters of birthing a business and offers many supportive questions to engage in as you venture through the tender process of developing and nurturing what was once just a seed of a dream. It also offers a full reframing of a world that’s usually steeped in masculine patriarchy, a world that I never wanted to venture into until I saw other women building businesses in this way that felt supportive not only of those they were creating offerings for but of themselves in the process.

Then, in April of this year, I came across Chelsea Call’s Creative Doulaship offering just as I was beginning my coach training, and we started working together. She guided me through the many stages of what became my own nine-month business-birthing journey. The timing and synchronicity of it all, though entirely unplanned, seems undoubtedly divinely guided.

One of the questions that Jennifer poses in the second-trimester section of her book is, “How can your business be a healing for yourself and others?” For me, this has manifested through seeking support, which allowed me to find the space to sit with and move through the discomfort and vulnerability that has been an inevitable and ongoing part of this process. The safe, grounding, and nurturing container, that I found in working with Chelsea, allowed me to look at the fears that were previously holding me back, while also envisioning, experiencing, and practicing a whole new way of being with myself and in the world.

In the final chapter of Jennifer’s book, she asks, “How can you let it be easy?” So today I’ve been sitting with this question, as I write to you in the tenderness that comes after birth. My answer seems to be best expressed in the following piece that I wrote a few weeks ago during a writing group with Dina Varellas, in response to a poem called “Imagine a Woman” by Patricia Lynn Reilly.

I wrote this as an ode and prayer to the woman within me and to the light within each of us. It’s become my anchor during these last few weeks as I’ve walked through the porthole of this birth and into a new beginning. And that’s really what this is, another new beginning, with so much more to come.

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Imagine a woman who rests in the womb of her own spirit. Imagine how she relaxes with effortless abandon, knowing her worth is inherent, knowing she has nothing to prove, knowing that her very existence is divine and that by simply being she is healing the world and countless generations past.

She’s broken free from the prison of should, have to, and can’t and she lives freely from the expansive joy of desire and choice. She understands that when she follows her desires the universe opens to receive her and miracles unfold in a fabric of synchronicity.

Imagine a woman who has faced the darkest of her shadows, who’s dared to listen closely to the cutting criticism of learned self-hatred. Who’s sat with herself long enough to untangle the knot of lies sewn into her by the world at large. Imagine her diligence, courage, and vulnerability as her hands patiently disentangle the knots, uncovering her core, a light so luminous that it dissolved the last threads of lies in the shimmering truth that she is whole, she is enough, she is loved and always has been.

Imagine this woman within you. Imagine how she holds your heart gently in her hands as it cracks open in the unfolding of your own truth, that you are whole, you are enough, you are loved and always have been. You have nothing to prove. You have nothing to fix. Your job is not to change or transform, but to rest in the womb of your own spirit. The wisdom within, the wisdom that’s always been there.

You, my love, are a miracle and a gift.

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So, with that, I’d like to introduce you to:

You can take a peek at the website by clicking on the image above!

I’ll be sharing more in the weeks ahead, but for now, thank you for witnessing me in this!

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1. At the risk of exposing just how “woo-woo” I am (as if I haven’t already), a little love song from myself to the spirit of Finding Stillness. I am grateful that we found one another and so honored to be on this journey together ♡ Here’s to a gentle, connected, and grounded unfolding.

2. My dear friend Melanie, is hosting a free event next week called The Chillest Winter Festival! On Tuesday morning, she’ll be leading us through a guided visualization to help us connect to the magic of the coming year. Then on Wednesday, there will be 30-minute coaching sessions available. I’m one of the coaches offering sessions, so if you sign up for the event you can choose between me or one of the other amazing coaches! I already know it will be a really sweet and supportive experience and a lovely way to connect with yourself and others. I’d love to see some of your faces there! You can register for free here.

With endless love and deep gratitude,
Raina

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