Retrieving the Pieces of Yourself You Didn’t Mean to Lose

I’m writing this message to you on my return flight home from Morocco.

I’ve just spent the past week in Marrakech on a retreat.

At the start of the week, I didn’t know what the retreat would be about.

It wasn’t advertised as a spiritual, business, or personal growth retreat. The only thing the sales page said was “luxurious travel experience.”

And from the moment my plane landed in Marrakech, the purpose of the retreat revealed itself to me layer by layer.

To back up, I had a 17-year career in international development and humanitarian response.

At the time my old career was ending, I was drained, cynical, and longing to be my own boss and creating from the heart in service to others.

And when I finally made the career change to launch my coaching business, I decided to leave ALL parts of the old Allyson behind.

I left behind the woman who burned herself out.

I left behind the woman who did work that drained her life force.

I left behind the woman who defined herself by her job title.

And within the span of one year, I quit my job, got married, and went full time with my coaching business while 4 months pregnant. 😜

While this change brought a new level of joy to my life, I decided that my place was now HOME – in my office during work hours and tending to the needs of my family for the rest of the time.

In short, I stopped traveling and adventuring.

But as the plane landed in Marrakech, I felt the energy of that old intrepid Allyson. The girl who lived for the rush of traveling to new places and experiencing new cultures.

I continued to feel this old part of myself simmering inside of me, and then we visited a traditional Berber village and were invited into the home of a Berber family.

This was not a touristy experience. It was an invitation and glimpse into the Berber way of life that was in an energy of loving connection.

And as the Berber women showed me their pink-hued homes made from the “red Earth” mud of the Atlas Mountains, my eyes welled with tears.

In fact, It was all I could do to hold back the sobs.

You see, I was retrieving a lost piece of my former self as I admired their beautiful carpets. A piece of myself that I never meant to lose.

I realized that when I made my career change, I also left behind that fiercely independent woman who loved to travel the world and immerse herself in other cultures.

(She was so badass.)

And as I drank the sweet, delicious mint tea prepared in the traditional Berber way, I retrieved that badass part of myself.

And as I invited her to reintegrate, I felt a new level of wholeness.

At the same time, I was also speaking more openly about my spiritual gifts and psychic abilities to the other amazing women on the trip with me – even though I wasn’t sure how they’d receive me as the “group psychic.”

Normally, I would have first made sure every person was super open to these spiritual ideas before I shared that side of myself.

So the journey to Morocco was not only a retrieval of an old piece of myself I had accidentally lost along the way, it was also stepping deeper into the person I am growing into.

It was my becoming a new level of whole so I can do the work I feel called to do in the world and be the person I feel called to be.

And the next time an exotic trip comes along that calls my name, I won’t default to the answer of: “I should stay home.”

Instead, I’ll check with my Higher Self. And if I receive a “yes”, I won’t second guess it, I’ll start packing.

So let me ask you…

Is there a piece of your old self that you may have inadvertently left behind? Are you ready to retrieve it?

Because the world is ready and waiting for the full and complete you.

Have a beautiful Sunday!