Stop Striving…The True Glow Up Comes from Being Content

I went through a season of life where I was striving like a hungry ghost to be seen.

I would look at women like Glennon Doyle and get upset. “That should be me,” I’d say to myself.

I’d latch on to her words “First the pain. Then the rising” like gospel.

Why wasn’t it like that for me?

There would be pain, and then I’d rise and then another pain, and then I’d rise and another pain and then I’d rise.

I felt like I was that serpent eating its own tail in a never ending cycle of birth and death.

The hungry ghost in me was hell bent on fighting to be seen whereas God seemed pretty hell bent on keeping me hidden.

In retrospect, I’m happy for every hungry ghost dream that got blocked,

Had the cloak of invisibility been removed back then I don’t think I could have handled it.

The truth is that the hungry ghost in me was in a need of a couple humble sandwiches.

So I began the painstaking work coming face to face with both my strengths and limitations.

I began to let that serenity prayer that hangs in front of my bed to sink deeply into my Spirit.

I acknowledged and accepted the gifts that I have been given, got real about the areas where I needed help and got to work.

I kicked the hungry ghost to the back seat and I actually began to inquire into the the nourishment my Soul actually needed.

What did it need?

It needed permission to be utterly ordinary.

It needed to feel like there was an actual grown ass woman in charge of protecting and caring for little Dina’s most deep & tender sensitivities.

It needed a spiritual friend who could show me that it is ok for two people to be separate beings and that love is actually respect.

It didn’t need to be on some list of 40 women under 40. It needed a work environment that actually appreciated my Soul’s gifts.

And with that level of nourishment, what I am realizing now is that sometimes our incessant striving comes from deeply wounded places.

You see when that phoenix rises from the ashes, you must simply allow it to rise with nothing to do at all but be in perpetual flight.

And when you do that the hungry ghost will finally surrender the keys to the Kingdom and in that moment you will realize that the most revolutionary act in life is being content.

Dina Gregory is the author of Love at the Threshold, A Little Book of Questions, and the Co-Founder & Puppeteer of La Befana and Friends. When she is not running around with a one toothed puppet on a mission to spread a message of love and unity she is writing, speaking, & teaching on topics pertaining to the messy beautiful journey of becoming who we truly are. Connect with her at her website or follow her on social media @iamdinagregory.

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