November 30, 2023

IU's welcoming event is this week, Thursday at 2 PM eastern/7 PM UK time. That is the time that worked for the most people who filled out the availability form. Please RSVP here if you can make it.

We are still a small group so the event should be very introvert friendly. I'm looking at it more as a coffee chat than some elaborate presentation where I do all the talking or try to teach anyone anything. 

I'm looking at it more as I'm hosting a small party, introvert style. Where we can all be cozy and relaxed in our own homes, while still coming together to get to know each other a bit and discuss what we're hoping to do here in the community together.

I've been wondering what I'd like to say to start things off and rehearsing it a bit in my head and in my journal. I'd like to share with you some of what I'm thinking and feeling about what I'd like this community to be, just in case I feel too shy during the event to really speak from my heart.

I want this community to be a heart-centered place. I am personally tired of living so much in my head, trying to figure it all out up there. I've done a lot to stop over-thinking, over-analyzing, over-trying. I still get stuck in my head sometimes, but I also can let it go a lot more easily. And remember to come back to my heart, my body, my gut. To remember that I am more than a brain on a stick. And I don't think it's woowoo or impractical to live from my heart. 

Looking back on some of my biggest adventures, some of the times I've grown the most, when I was able to outgrow my comfort zone, my heart was often leading the way. I didn't really make that connection until recently. That what ultimately gave me the courage to do things I would have never imagined I could do, was listening to my heart. 

There's a lot of talk about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. You have to grow, you have to try things that make you uneasy. But it often leaves out the heart. I'm not for pushing yourself out of your comfort zone just because, just so you can say you did it. I think you can do that a time or 2, but ultimately it will exhaust you and you won't really be getting anything that matters to you out of it. 

But if you listen to your heart, it will often tell you to do something that your mind cannot compute, that doesn't make any sense, that seems impossible. But what if your heart is what you should be following, not your analytical mind? My mind freaked out about some of the things I've done. Came up with all kinds of reasons not to do it. It was impractical, I didn't have any experience, I was too shy. 

But my heart did not give a shit about any of that. It yearned for more than my limited mind could imagine. And somehow, I followed my heart. And that's where the courage came from. Not my mind. Not any analysis. Not any concrete plan to start with. 

My heart yearned for a bigger life, more adventure, more meaningful work and somehow it got through to the rest of me. I, shy little Angela, became adventurous and it would have never been possible with just my mind.

I say all this because that is how I want to run this community, from the heart, from all of me. I want all of us to remember that we are much more than a brain on a stick. There is more to life than absorbing information, following the rules, making a plan. That who we really are is greater than those things. 

And what I'm really interested in, in my own life and in creating this community, is to get back in touch with the magic of life, the power within me. To grow beyond the old ways of doing things, the old ways of being. To remember my wholeness. My heart, my spirit, my wisdom. 

To stop selling myself so short. To stop seeking all the answers outside of myself. To reconnect with that deep part of myself that knows what it's doing here. That isn't lost or confused, uncertain or apathetic. And that is what I ultimately want to foster within this community. 

Yes we are introverts, but we are so much more than any one label can ever capture. We can come together as introverts, but grow together as empowered, creative, wise women who know ourselves and what makes us come alive. Who remember the truth of who we are and allow that truth to express out in the world. We practice here, where it's safe, and then we take it out into the rest of our lives.

I hope you can join our welcoming event and that I can allow myself to speak from my heart instead of only writing from it. And that you will allow yourself to as well.

And thank you to Fiona for joining me yesterday in the Street Wisdom walk and talk afterwards. That really helped me remember to come back to my heart and inspired me to write this article. And for all your support in helping me get this far. 💜