Know Your Truth

The journey continues! In month 7, I delved into exploring my divine expression – it was a month of quiet reflection. In month 8, the focus was considering and putting into place strategies to stop boom or bust cycles. I am still working on it but have made some big steps in the right direction (woohoo!). This last month marked a convergence of the work done over the past two months.

What emerged using Soul Star and the spray mist is a clear sense of purpose. I have always wanted to be in service, to support and hold space for others to heal and transform. Soul Star oriented me to focus on my work as a naturopath, teaching and being part of the team of women at HeartRadiance, cutting out other projects / roles that were taking my energy away from this. I am grateful I get to do what I love.

Soul Star also works on releasing dependency, and I shocked myself by giving up coffee! This was hugely significant for me. Coffee has been a constant in my life, a daily source of pleasure for a long time. It also had a dark side – the stimulating effect being a bit too stimulating on a regular basis and in recent years my first morning cup being associated with a bonus hot flush. I always said I could and often did live without red wine and sugar, but coffee was my stalwart. So why the change? I read an article a few months back about coffee its impact on the way we think, and I was intrigued. The article discussed the idea that coffee promotes linear thinking, which can have benefits but puts the brakes on emergent thinking. This piqued curiosity. Working with patients in pain, I regularly discuss ideas about linear versus emergent pathways when discussing the complexity of chronic pain.

Linear thinking is structured and sequential, following a step-by-step process where each step logically leads to the next. It is often goal-oriented, methodical, and relies on established rules, patterns, and past experiences to predict outcomes. In contrast, emergent thinking is dynamic and open-ended, embracing complexity and ambiguity (much like the experience of chronic pain, it is not straightforward). It allows ideas to arise organically, often in a non-linear, interconnected manner. This type of thinking is adaptive, exploring multiple possibilities simultaneously and valuing intuition, creativity, and spontaneity.

Emergent Thinking

Allows ideas to arise organically, often in a non-linear, interconnected manner

So how does this apply to me and my coffee drinking. While I appreciate linear thinking, I value emergent thinking in my work as it provides me with the ability to integrate diverse perspectives, foster new insights and breakthroughs that might not be achieved through a linear approach. In this context I wanted to see how my coffee free brain functioned.

So how did I go? After two days of fatigue and headaches, I emerged from the coffee detox and while I can’t say that I have suddenly been able to embrace emergent thinking, I notice the difference – less busy / looping thoughts, better sleep, which surprised me as I only had 1 cup a day, easier to just stop and have a moment, relax into the present. Thus far, the benefit has been more personal than professional, but I can imagine that more creative free flowing thought processes will also emerge in other areas of my life.

Do I miss it? No, I realised it was the taste and ritual I was after so when I feel the need I have a decaf but otherwise I have been embracing chai and herbal teas.

Coming up, I am starting Earth Star, which focuses on the tapping into the Divine Feminine energy, which is alignment with the rhythm of Mother Earth. It also grounds us in our physical body & the life process of living in the physical world. Stay tuned. xx