Most of us walk around thinking our thoughts are our own, but often the seeds of our beliefs and mundane thoughts are planted there by the culture, governments, news outlets, teachers, preachers, friends, family, advertisements, social media feeds, institutions, corporations – by people we love and people we don’t, by people who care about us and people who do not. The intentions behind the planting of those seeds range from well-meaning to straight up nefarious.
 
Discerning what is true – what you want to keep and what you want to weed out – is the daily, moment to moment, work of a lifetime.
 
I consider this a cornerstone of spiritual practice and the very foundation of rewilding.
 
Back in the very early day’s of The Wild Woman Project, I was inspired by Walt Whitman’s guidance: re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul.
 
It became my central practice to question everything, over and over again, until I had a sense of what ideas I wanted to let blossom within me and what untruths I needed to pull out.
 
I wonder what Whitman would have to say about the re-examining process needed in today’s world, where most everyone is walking around with computers in their pockets, interfacing with so much corporately curated information, constantly in relationship to so many thoughts, opinions, and feelings of others. There is so much more to re-examine.
 
I wonder how many people realize just how pervasive outside influences have become in their own heads and hearts.
 
I’m currently running a year-long personal experiment in the name of weeding out the influences of other people, institutions, and corporations. I’ve been off my personal social media for all of 2021 and part of 2020. I make offerings to our Wild Woman Project channels, but hardly ever go on there myself. I’ll have a lot more to say about the experience when the year is over, but I can say now, the effect of this social media fast has been dramatic.
 
Social Media, by its very design, is a place where people meet ego to ego. “Here I am, here’s what I think, here’s what I did, here’s what I’m selling, here’s a picture I took of myself.” Now, egos aren’t all bad, an ego in service to the heart is beautiful. However, an ego running the show can be corrosive to relationships, society, and to our own psyches. Because social media, again, by its design, invites and encourages ego expressions, feeds are often filled with advertisements, boasting, opinion announcements & unproductive arguing. Those kinds of idea-seeds are exactly the kind I, personally, want to weed out, because they so often insult my soul.
 
There are so many ways to re-examine, so many experiments you can invent for yourself to make sure you are clear in your head, in your heart, and in your Soul.
 
These are times of loud, alarming voices coming from every direction, while mind-bending, unprecedented changes are taking place in society. In my whole 37 years on the planet, discernment, it seems to me, has never been more important.
 
So, I’m calling on ‘ol Walt to help me with it, repeating the words: re-examine all you have been told…dismiss whatever insults your own soul.
YOUR TURN
 
What about you?
Are you taking time and finding ways to re-examine what you’ve been told? If so, how?
Please share in the comments below.
 
Can’t wait to read ‘em.
 

On the Horizon

Join us for an hour-long New Moon Meditation Adventure on December 30th!

Online, from anywhere.

Using a dynamic meditation journey, we will tune into the New Moon, to your own Inner Guidance, synced up with wild-hearted women from around the world. This offering will include music, storytelling, meditation, journaling prompts & intention-setting.

Can’t make it live? No worries. All participants will receive a copy of the recording with 24 hours of the session.

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Wild Woman Underground Logo for the online Wild Woman Project community

Join the WILD WOMAN UNDERGROUND.

Keep your Spirit Lit with weekly Circles & join an international, intergeneration group of weird and wonderful wild-hearted Women.
 
The doors to WWU will open briefly in January 2025 under the Wolf Moon on the 13th.
 

Make your dream to facilitate a Women’s Circle come true in 2025.
 
Join us online, from anywhere. Spring 2025

"The Circle Leader Training Program at The Wild Woman Project was one of the most transformative and healing experiences of my life. I have received many tools, resources, support, and connections that I will carry on with me forever." ~ Hannah Devin, Graduate

Part part skill-building, part wildish personal-development, this course is sure to give you a deeper look into the Wild Woman Archetype, Moon Wisdom, Intuition and Inner Guidance, Circle Facilitation, and community building. With hundreds of graduates in 26 countries around the world, this course has been cultivated over 13 years to be our very best in Feminine Leadership Training.
 
 

We have Wild Woman Project-trained Circle facilitators is 26 countries, and 44 out of the 50 United States.

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