Sister, I made something for you...

(Click to listen to me read this piece to you, or scroll down to read it yourself)

There's the woman you were taught you should be... and the woman you really are.

The woman you were taught you should be is always on top of her game, and never makes a mistake.

She's never afraid and always does the right thing.

She takes care of everyone and everything - never letting a responsibility slide.

She's the perfect mother, lover, friend, sister, daughter and partner.

Everything she makes is magic. Nothing she creates is mediocre.

She's always got her shit together. There's no area of her life that she doesn't have a handle on.

She's a pillar of perfection... because she's a work of fiction.

She does not exist. She is not real.

The woman you really are is all things and no things.

She is fierce and loving and scared and strong and ordinary and flawed and beautiful.

She's on top of her game and muddling through life. All at the same time.

She's smart and petty and powerful and selfish and kind and interesting and dull.

She makes mistakes every single day.

She carries shame and guilt from things she has said and done in her life.

She gets upset over things which aren't worth worrying about.

She over-analyses and makes things more complicated than they have to be. She's hurt the people she loves.

She often speaks unkindly about herself to herself.

She sometimes lets people take advantage of her.

But she's also wise and able to soothe people's fears with just her presence.

She treats people with kindness and respect.

She has natural strengths and gifts which have the ability to transform people's lives.

She inspires and empowers. Not because of anything she does or achieves. But because of her pure essence. 

And everyday she's learning how to speak her truth, own her sovereignty, reclaim her power and love herself exactly as she is.

She is a leader, even though she doesn't always believe it.

The woman you really are cannot be pinned down by any description.

Because unlike the woman you were taught to be, who lives in a world of dualistic absolutes, the woman you really are is a Wild Mystic Woman.

She is chaos and order and everything in between, and because of that, she is magnificent.

The woman you were taught you should be is a shell of a woman.

She is the woman that patriarchy would have you be: perfect, predictable, self-denying and controllable.

The woman you really are is a real and whole person: wild in spirit, beautiful in her flaws, ever unfolding, messy, mundane and magical.

Give up the woman you were taught you should be. She is holding you back.

We love you exactly as you are, Wild Mystic Woman.

Big love,

Image Source: Artist Unknown

Dear Sister,

Where to even begin? This week has been overwhelming in so many ways, for so many of us.

Watching from afar as the events unfold day to day in the US is like watching a scary historical documentary.

And I don’t say these words to add more negativity or fear to what we are already witnessing. However I do think that before we jump into positive action, as priestesses we have a responsibility to acknowledge the truth of what is happening, so that our hearts can break open in compassion, and we can access that deep conviction within to do what we can to turn things around.

Long gone are the days of, ‘just focus on keeping your vibration high, and everything will work out!’.

We cannot run away from darkness and expect it not to follow us around. We cannot live in a world where we ignore the fact that the law of attraction applies differently to you, depending on your level of privilege.

We cannot ‘wait and see’ how things will play out and hope for the best.

I’m not a US citizen, but I don’t need to be in order to feel severely affected by what is happening there.

And while I live in the Middle East, I don’t live in any of the predominantly Muslim countries that have been banned from entering the USA. But still, all the parts of my heart ache as I see how my Syrian, Iranian, Iraqi, Sudanese, Libyan, Somali and Yemeni sisters and brothers are being treated by the new US administration. And how as Muslims as a whole, we are being demonized by the executive orders of the most powerful country in the world.

And it’s not just US politics that are shaking the world, is it? It’s everything, everywhere, all at the same time.

I feel all the different parts of my identity screaming out in righteous rage.

The Black Woman in me.

The African-Arab Woman in me.

The Muslim Woman in me.

The Feminist Woman in me.

The Mother and Wife in me.

The Daughter of Immigrants in me.

The Priestess in me.

All of these women are begging me to Do Something! to stop all of this, and they are simultaneously feeling the horrific fear of Whatever I Do Won’t Be Enough.

It reminds of the recurring nightmares I used to have for years about the ‘dark man’ who would chase me in my dreams, trying to physically harm me and the people that I love. No matter how fast I ran, or how much I tried to hide, he would always find me. I could never see his face as he always in the shadows, but he was unrelenting in his insatiable hunger to harm and destroy me.

Later on, I realised that the dark man represented oppressive patriarchy and toxic masculinity.

My fears on global events became so overwhelming in the last few days that I had to take a break from social media. I was feeling completely exhausted and numb. Facebook was particularly challenging. Every time I opened the app up on my phone, there was a new article, news analysis or announcement that shook me to my core. Like many of you, I have spent a lot of the past week crying.

Somewhere deep inside, the little girl inside of me was still waiting for us all to be rescued from the dark man of my nightmares.

Making the decision to step away from social media for a couple of days, and giving myself the grace of a slow business week, has already done wonders for me. I’m feeling more nourished and a sense of wisdom and perspective is returning.

Having this ‘white space’ time to myself to process what is happening, to feel my feelings, and to consciously decide how I want to show up as a spiritual entrepreneur is so important.

What I am seeing is that the events that are happening in the world today feel like being in a never-ending thunderstorm or tsunami.

The minute you think you’ve come to terms with the latest shocking news, another devastating tidal wave hits.

A new executive order. The threat of war. More injustices being legalised. More rights being taken away. More power being given to people who should not be anywhere near power. More hate crimes being perpetrated. More refugees trying to escape the horrors of their homeland only to find that they are being turned right back.

It is never-ending, and no one is coming to rescue us.

So what do we do?

We can’t escape the world we live in. And we can’t pretend that we still live in the old world, either. (And let’s face it - there was a lot that was wrong with the old world, which is exactly why we are here in this situation today).

But we also can’t accept that there is nothing that we can do.

These times are calling us to rise up as Priestess Activists.

The reason why I no longer have nightmares about the dark man is that I chose to confront him in my dreams. I stopped running away from him, and I turned towards him instead, daring him to do something to me. I embodied the fierceness of a mama lioness standing to protect herself and her pride. When I stopped running and stood my ground with conviction in my own power, the dark man lost his power over me. And ever since then, he has never returned.

This is our work now.

We must become consciously grounded and stand firm in our sovereign power, our inner wisdom, our connections to each other and our continuous acts of resistance.

We must stand for those whose voices have been suppressed, and whose rights are being revoked. We must stand for our human family.

I’m currently reading Andrew Harvey’s book, ‘The Hope: A Guide To Sacred Activism’. Books have always been the primary way that I try to understand myself and the world. In the book, Andrew shares a 1966 quote by Robert Kennedy, which I think is so apt for our current times.

Robert Kennedy said:

“Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he or she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Each one of us is here to contribute to the whole by sending forth these ‘tiny ripples of hope’ through our sacred activism.

It is time to realise that our entrepreneurial work does not exist in a vacuum outside of what is happening in ‘the real’ world.

When you say that you are here to make the world a better place or to positively change people’s lives, then that can’t just apply to the people who have the privilege and the resources to work with you 1:1, in your group programs or through your digital courses.

If you believe that you are a modern priestess, then now is the time to take your priestess-ing out into the real world and turn what you have learned on your personal spiritual journey into sacred acts of resistance and healing for the collective higher good.

Don’t separate your role as a priestess from your role as a member of the human family.

What does this mean?

It means that if your spirituality is restricted to only helping you and the people who can afford your services to ‘ascend’ and live better lives, then your spirituality is self-serving and dripping in privilege.

It means that if you are afraid to speak up about political injustice in your business because it might ‘hurt your brand’, but you claim that you are about women’s leadership and women’s empowerment, then you’re not being honest with yourself or the people you are serving.

It means that if you spend hours of your day doing all the spiritual practices that get you into alignment, but you won’t spend time speaking out, protesting, volunteering, donating or any other small or big acts of radical action, then you are still stuck in the old paradigm.

You’re in the paradigm that says this doesn’t apply to me and this is someone else’s responsibility.

No sister. This is OUR responsibility.

Let me repeat - no one is coming to rescue us. We must become our own rescue.

The new paradigm that we are entering is about grounded spirituality meeting radical love-in-action.

Andrew Harvey says,

“A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history. On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions. When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic, and social institutions, a holy force – the power of wisdom and love in action – is born. This force I define as Sacred Activism.”

Andrew Harvey calls it Sacred Activism.

As a wild mystic woman priestess, I call it Priestess Activism.

It doesn’t really matter what you call it, as long as you understand that it is what you are here to do at this time of our human history.

As spiritual entrepreneurs growing sacred businesses, I believe that we are here to be at the forefront of the sacred activist army of love.

We have platforms and communities that we are here to lead in sending out more and more tiny ripples of hope, which will begin to create the waves of change that we need to see in the world.

We can inspire and empower those in our communities to step up and create change in whatever ways they can - whether big or small.

We can become the examples of conscious leadership in action.

That is what it means to me, to be a modern priestess. It’s not just about sitting in our temples performing rituals at our sacred altars and talking about the Divine Feminine. It’s also about going out into the world and channeling our spiritual wisdom into compassionate action that can positively transform the world, one person at a time.

It’s about having one foot grounded in the spiritual realm, and the other foot rooted firmly here on Earth.

So how can we start to channel our priestess activism?

Our activism will look different depending on who we are, what our sacred medicine is, where we live in the world and how we are guided by the Divine to be of service.

Here are 8 guiding principles that I am going to be working with as I step into my own priestess activism:

1. Prioritise sacred self-care.
   We cannot serve from empty vessels. We must put our self-care first. That means getting enough sleep, eating healthy foods, drinking water, breathing right, moving our bodies, tending our relationships, giving ourselves social media breaks, spending time in nature and making sure that we are clear and strong channels for the Divine to work through us. Things are going to get a lot worse, before they get better. Make sure that you are in this for the long-haul by prioritising your self-care.
    
2. Choose 1-2 causes to pour your energy into.
   There’s a lot going on around the world and in our local communities. Each crisis needs our attention. But we have to remember that if we try to focus on everything, we will burn out and won’t be as effective in creating change. So rather than trying to put out all of the fires with one hose, decide what 1-2 causes are most calling to you at this time and pour your energy into them. Speak about them, donate to them, create movements for them, protest for them and do whatever you are called to do to defend them. 
    
3. Leverage your priestess powers.
   What are your natural strengths? Where do your natural priestess healing powers lie? Find ways to channel your natural priestess powers into sacred activism. I like to think of myself as a warrior woman, and my metaphorical sword is called Truth. I use truth-telling in my writing and truth-living as a way to heal the world. What is your sword or your priestess power? Is it Kindness? Is it Bitchcraft? Is it Gathering Community? Is it Sensual Embodiment? Discover what your unique priestess powers are, and then find creative ways to channel them into activism.
    
4. Activate your throat chakra.
   In other words, use your voice. Whether through speaking or writing, use the power of this chakra to let people know exactly what you stand for and what you stand against. You might only be one voice, but as each of us adds our voices to each others’, our tiny ripples of hope become an unstoppable tsunami of revolution. We need you to not be quiet.
    
5. Become a vessel for conscious leadership.
   Now more than ever, how you run your business must be from a place of consciousness and spiritual wisdom. You cannot be a priestess activist, and at the same time use business growth strategies that are completely disconnected from your spiritual values. Be intentional about how you are growing your business. Don’t just follow what the crowd are doing if it does not resonate with your deepest truth. We need business leaders who foster collaboration, who use integrity-based marketing strategies, who trust their intuition, who create opportunities for others to grow and who find ways to give back through donations, volunteering, scholarships or other compassionate acts of service. It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is. As a priestess activist, there’s always something that you can contribute, even if it is simply shining a spotlight on a person or a cause that you want people to know about.
    
6. Balance righteous rage with wise and compassionate action.
   Many of us are burning with Kali-like rage right now, and we have every right to. But remember, if we stay in our anger and don’t channel that fire into wise and compassionate action, then we will end up burning ourselves out. Get angry - YES. That is an appropriate and necessary emotion to feel when you see what is happening to our sisters and brothers around the world. And then ask yourself, ok so what action can I take right now to do something about this? How can I channel my rage into acts of resistance or change? Kali didn’t get just angry. She channeled her anger into radical action.
    
7. Deepen your spiritual practice.
   As a priestess activist, your activism has to come from a deep well of inner connection with yourself, and with the Divine. So continue to deepen even further into your spiritual practice and healing. Now is the time to reclaim more of your power and embody of your truth so that you can become an even stronger activist for change in the world. Being active in the outer world does not mean neglecting our inner world. On the contrary, becoming a conscious leader means that our actions must be even more strongly informed by our spiritual connection with the Divine. Deepening our spiritual practice also gives a greater capacity to channel compassion, forgiveness and understanding, while still doing everything that we can to resist and take radical action against injustice and prejudice.
    
8. Look to your guides.
   Think about who your most loved spiritual guides and teachers are and how they carried out their sacred activism in the world. Whether it’s gods, goddesses, prophets, warrior/esses, teachers or civil rights leaders - think about the principles they stood for and how they took radical change for change while holding steadfastly to their spiritual values.Use their example as an anchor to ground yourself back into your sovereign self when you are feeling completely swept and overwhelmed by what is happening in the world.

Lastly, take heart from the many big and small acts of resistances that we are seeing happening each time an act of injustice or prejudice is committed.

People marching, protesting, lobbying, donating, collaborating, volunteering, speaking out and doing what they can to stand for those who are being oppressed.

Take heart from these tiny ripples of hope. And start adding your ripples through your own activism.

Big love,

Image by Derrick Senior

Dear Sister,

In last week's Temple Letter, I shared that I would be opening up enrolment to the second round of the Wild Mystic Women's Circle today. 

I was getting all the pieces ready and in place for the launch, however, something wasn't feeling right.

In the past, I would have pushed through this niggling feeling - focusing instead on wanting to bring in income or convincing myself that it was just self-sabotage. My ego (I call her my SHEgo ;)) would have screamed at me: “See! You’re doing it again! You’re screwing things up again!”

However, my Inner Wild Mystic Woman would not let me do that. She asked me instead to slow down and pay attention to what was going on. She asked me to get honest about what I was really feeling about the launch.

When I tuned in, I discovered some interesting and uncomfortable truths.

Here are a few of them. I felt that the launch was…

1. Being done too soon (especially straight off the back of the new website and podcast launch. I'd barely had time to celebrate and catch my breath, before I was running to the next thing.)

2. Being rushed to get other people’s approval (because I thought other people had expectations that I needed to launch an offering... or that if I didn't launch something, people would lose interest in me. Ouch.)

3. Not giving me enough white space time to evolve the Circle (I really wanted to make some upgrades to improve the Circle experience. I started to realise that this Circle was a key part of my work and I wanted to give it my all. More on this below.)

4. Not allowing me to feel my Core Desired Feelings (especially a sense of Expansive Grace because things were so rushed, and Sacred Connection because I was going for speed over depth.)

5. Not giving me the space to connect to my inner wisdom (again because it was so rushed, it felt like I was operating from a place of simply ticking off tasks, rather than intuitive creation.)
 
6. Prioritizing my business over the other areas of my life (particularly my mind-body-soul well-being. And not having any quality time with my husband and our children. The launch felt all-consuming and more like a prison than a playground.)

Can you hear the unworthiness and fear here? Can you feel the misalignment? Can you see how I was setting myself up for achievement, but not Sovereign Success?

I share this all with you because I want you to know that sometimes we procrastinate or delay things not because we are afraid, but because there is an internal wisdom that is trying to speak to us.

Sometimes we are so caught in the Doing, that we become disconnected from our Being.

And when that happens, our Being will always try to warn us by giving us niggling feelings, warning signs and sometimes even crises to get us back into alignment.

Now, there is definitely MUCH to be said about taking action before you are ready and diving in before everything is perfect.

In fact when I launched the first round of the Circle back in October, I had never run a women's circle before and I had only decided I wanted to do it 2 weeks before I launched. I put perfectionism and overthinking aside, because I knew I just needed to start somewhere.

I put something together that felt really resonant and exciting to me, and I put an extremely low price tag on it so that I could experiment with allowing the art to become what it wanted to be, instead of trying to make it into a money-maker straight out the bat.

And I'm so glad I did because it turned out to be one of my favourite experiences of 2016.

And because of it, I was able to really support some incredible women, gain confidence in myself as a spiritual mentor, and find out that I freaking LOVE this work.

But now as we go into the second round of the Circle, I'm realising that this offering is not just a women's circle or a group program.

It’s not just a ‘thing’ to ‘launch’.
It is my art.

I had forgotten that. I had forgotten that my whole business is my art.

When I originally started Wild Mystic Woman in 2016, the idea of ‘Business As Art’ was a huge part of my drive.

I was tired of trying to become this idea of what a coach should be like. I was already busting through a lot of the ‘rules’, but in many ways I still felt beholden to them.

What I was really craving was a place for authentic and full self-expression. A place where I could feel like an artist, rather than an expert or problem-solver.

A place where I could experiment and make mistakes and create beauty and build an empowering legacy of work.

A place where it wasn't about creating formulas for success, but instead a place to empower myself and other women to break all of the rules of business and life, and create true art.

I no longer wanted to be seen as smart or wise or successful by other people’s standards. I just wanted to fulfill my own heart with this art, and encourage others to do the same for themselves.

It’s why I chose to build my website myself instead of hiring it out. It’s why I am constantly sharing my truthful writings on Instagram and Facebook. It’s why I will be writing a book. It’s why I started the Wild Mystic Woman Podcast.

ALL of it is my art.

It’s not a marketing system or a branding technique or a way to convince you that you should buy from me.

It’s all just art that lights my heart up.

And the amazing thing about treating your business as art, is that when you do, you release any need to please, manipulate, convince, formulize, compare or plead.

You drop the desperate energy of pushing and hustling, and call in the heart-expanding energy of inviting and evoking.

Your kindred clients and community members want to be around you and buy from you because they love your art and they love seeing just how much fun you are having with it.

They love that what you are creating is a truthful and powerful expression of who you are and what you believe, and that it resonates so deeply with who they are and what they believe.

This isn’t just true for me. I have seen it with my business mentoring clients too.

For example, my incredible past clients Maggie Giele and Rachel Shillcock have turned their businesses into beautiful works of art, that are inspiring everyone around them.

Maggie, who is a business and marketing strategist, went from having a business that was highly effective but quite generic in it’s branding and offerings… to a business that is overflowing with her geeky, cheeky, colourful personality and imagination.

Now, instead of naming her programs things like ‘Digital Strategy Sessions’, she has offerings called The Content Quest, Slay Your Strategy and Battle Plan.

As you can tell, Maggie is fairly obsessed with video games and Lord Of The Rings!

But it wasn’t until she started pouring that passion into her business, that her business became a true work of art. Not only is it inspiring and exciting to her to create offerings which are totally unique, but it’s inspiring and exciting to the clients who are now flooding in to work with her.

Maggie said to me today, “I am working my butt off, BUT I LOVE this brand and positioning, and I’m being myself.”

She then confessed, “Can I tell you something? I’ve made more money in the first ten days of 2017 than in the first six MONTHS of 2016!”

YES. That’s what happens when your business becomes your art.

When we first worked together, I asked Maggie what she was passionate about, and she told me she loved video games. I suggested that it would be amazing if she could bring that into her work and make all of it a big game. To be honest, I think at first she thought I was crazy. I mean, what does digital strategy have to do with video games, right?

But guess what? Right now, Maggie is working on her Dragon Slayer’s Circle launch, which is a 4-month mastermind all about combining business strategy with video games.

A R T.

And what about my business bestie and past client, Rachel Shillcock?

Rachel is a website developer and brand designer (among many other creative things). She was the genius behind my LaylaSaad.com brand. Rachel has always been incredible at what she does, and yet she felt that she wasn’t expressing her full creativity in her business.

Like Maggie, Rachel is also a #proudgeek, but she felt like she had to hide that part of herself, so that she could be taken more seriously and (much like me) grow a successful business according to other people’s standards.

Our work together helped unleash Rachel’s creativity (and geekiness!) into the world.

And now she is an unstoppable force.

In addition to evolving her brand aesthetic to be even more creative, she has also launched her own Mandala Colouring book, designed her own fonts and is currently working on launching a Creative Market shop which will feature all sorts of design resources including digital mandalas, hand-drawn textures, watercolour textures, photo textures, stock photos and more.

I should also mention that by the end of 2016, Rachel was already fully booked out with client work until the end of March 2017 - designing brands, websites and books that allow her to flex her full creativity.

A R T.

As I reflect on why I wasn’t feeling comfortable with opening enrolment for the next round of the Circle today, I realized that it’s because I haven’t been treating this next round as art.

I was staying where it was comfortable, and doing what I had already done instead of taking the time to develop into something even more impactful.

Some people might say: If it worked the first time and it was a success, why do you need to change it?

But this is what artists do.

We don’t just stay where it is safe and known. Every time we come to create something new, we dare ourselves to step out of our comfort zones and create something that neither we nor the world has ever seen before.

We take risks.
We experiment.
We cut things up and rearrange them.
We get rid of what feels stagnant, and bring in fresh and new elements.
We challenge ourselves to express ourselves in even more true, deep and evocative ways than ever before.

We do this not because what we created before wasn’t working. But because we know - there’s even more where that came from.

I heard a quote by Todd Henry, author of Accidental Creative a few days ago that said: “Building a body of work you can be proud of takes time.”

I couldn’t agree with this more.

You’re not here to just create offerings that look like those of other people.
You’re not here to just throw idea after idea out onto the internet, and hope for the best.
And you’re not here to settle for mediocrity or the comfort zone.

Sister, you are here to be an artist.
Your work is here to evoke hearts.

For your heart and for ours: Make your business a work of art.

Big love,

P.S. If you’re wondering when the next round of the Circle will open for enrolment, I’m now shooting for the next full moon, which is around February 10th. In this time, I’m going to be diving deep into making beautiful, heart-bursting art out of this offering. I can’t wait to share it with you!

P.P.S. In the meantime, if you'd like to work with me 1:1 to support you on your spiritual-entrepreneurial journey, I am currently taking in clients for The Sovereign Sessions. Click here to find out more and book your free 30-minute Discovery Call.

Sister-Queen,

A woman who is fully embodied in her own sovereignty frightens both men and women who are still entrenched in the patriarchy.

A sovereign woman is a dangerous woman because she does not need anyone else's validation or permission.

Those who are threatened by your sovereignty will tell you that 'you've changed'. That you've become too weird, or too political or too woo woo. That you talk too much or too loudly or too aggressively.

What they're really saying is that you've become too much for them to handle, and that your too muchness threatens their sense of comfort.

What they're really saying is, can you please become tame and docile again? Your wildness scares me.

What they won't tell you is that it's not YOU who is the cause of their discomfort. It is THEM and the cognitive dissonance and inner misalignment that your sovereignty causes them to notice.

They will ask you - sometimes politely, sometimes rudely - to quieten down, to dim your glow and to go back to who you were.

But you will not and you cannot. Sovereignty tastes too damn sweet to give it up now.

They'll either have to find their own sovereignty, adjust their eyes or move on.

Because your light is only going to get brighter and brighter from here on out.

Layla xo

Sister-Queen,

While everyone around you seems to be excitedly planning what their business and life goals are for 2017, you might be feeling like you're falling behind because, for the first time in a long time, you aren't interested in new year goal planning.

It's been a long year. You're tired. You're still processing. Still integrating.

You're resting and giving yourself time to just...Be.

The transformations you have been through this year have entirely changed your whole approach to living your life and leading your business.

Through your ego being stripped away this year, you have released a lot of ideas about what success and being a successful entrepreneur is supposed to look like.

However, you can still that an old part of you is still active and it wants you to 'get your shit back together', 'get your ass in gear' or 'get back to hustling'.

Well Sister-Queen, this is a sign for you that you can drop that internal struggle right now. The time of pushing, forcing and trying to plan every detail of your success is over.

Give that part of your old self a compassionate hug and ask it to sit down because it's no longer needed.

You see, with your new transformations you have entered a new way of leading your business and life.

This new way is about Listening.
It's about Waiting.
It's about Leaning In.
It's about Receiving.

And then it's about taking fewer but more intentional actions.

In A Course In Miracles there is a prayer to the Divine that says:

"What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go? 
What would You have me say, and to whom?"

This is your new goal-planning system, Sister-Queen.

Asking these deeper, more soulful questions and then listening ENERGETICALLY for the answers that pour forth.

You are not asking human self. You are not looking for the answers which are logical, or the most profitable or that will bring you the most popularity. You are not looking for the first answers that pop straight into your mind.

No. You are listening with your Soul.

You are asking your Higher Self and the Divine. You are saying, without any attachment or expectations:

Dear Divine Source, what are my assigned missions for 2017?

I am listening with all aspects of my Being.

Please tell me:

• How would You have me use my gifts in service to others?
• What lessons and adventures would You have me experience?
• What beautiful creations would You have me birth?
• In what ways would You have me experience my inner most desires?
• In what ways would You have me grow into the leader I am here to be?

Listen for signs. Visions. Feelings. Words.

Listen for your sacred truth and the simple yet powerful answers that will be downloaded to you.

You won't do this in a single goal-planning day. The old ways are gone now. There is no rush.

Use the entire month to Ask and Listen. 
Ask and Listen. 
Ask and Listen.

And make notes of what answers you are given, and how you feel about those answers.

And, this is really important, don't dismiss the answers you are given.

Don't let your ego tell you that these answers are too simple or won't make you enough money or don't fit in with your current reality.

If you are truly going to be a soul-led, new paradigm, awakening feminine leader, then you must learn to trust in the mystery and the irrational nature of the Divine Feminine.

Nothing about THIS year made sense, and yet it brought you to exactly where you needed to be.

Trust that the force that took you to your depths this year also has the same power to take you to your heights next year.

Stay curious.

Ask. 
Listen.

And when the time is right, you'll know when to take action.

Layla xo