Hey y’all! How are you holding up in these last few days of Summer? Where we live, Summer is doing what I hope is one final stand before starting to (pretty please?) relent to the shifting of the seasons.

It never fails that when I start to notice those first few cool mornings and that sense of the coming change that I also begin to itch for making some changes in myself. This year, I’m going to do a September Reset of my own making. I’ve been inspired by other challenges like a modified 75 Hard, Sober September, and Dr. Mary Claire-Haver’s Challenge for peri-menopausal body changes. Maybe you’ve done something similar? Like a Whole 30 or something?

I need something to be very different this go-around. I realized through some self-reflection and morning pages that I need to do something for myself not from a place of pressure, being hard on myself, or even working toward a specific outcome or challenge - instead, I need to approach this reset from a place of love and self-compassion.

If you’ve been around for a while, you know I experienced a transformational experience of self-love at a Natalie Merchant concert in April 2023. When I said I would never be the same, I was serious. I’ve continued to build on the love for myself since that moment, and it’s transformed the ways I relate to myself, talk to myself, the decisions I make, and the ways I will and won’t allow people to treat me. And now when I know I need to make a change for my health, wellbeing, or to expand myself – I do it from a place of love. I haven’t done any big resets or challenges like this since before a major surgery I had in August of last year. So this will be a whole new experience for me at practicing self-love in this way.

Today I listed everything out I want to focus on in September, and above it I put the statement: “For the next 30 days, I am giving myself the gifts of…”

It got me thinking – how often do we give ourselves a gift? How often do we make changes in our lives from a place of truly loving ourselves instead of punishing ourselves?

That self-punishment narrative is a hard one to shake – especially thanks to the messages I received growing up in a fundamentalist tradition and then amplified by the experience I had when I was part of a cultish and abusive church. And well, the whole being LGBTQ+ thing certainly didn’t help with this idea that I somehow am unworthy and flawed, that I deserve for things to be hard or deserve to be punished. I know I’m not the only one here.

In fact it’s an ingrained belief I see a lot in the work I do, and one we tease out together in my cohort-based program “Free Spirit.” It’s a deeply rooted message impacting how we see ourselves, and how we see the world, and how we see the Divine. And that flows over into how we treat ourselves as well as other people. It’s just one of the many reasons it’s so important to do the work of detangling those messages from our identities, deconstructing or closely examining the beliefs we’ve swallowed hook, line, and sinker and starting the work of reframing or rebuilding a more helpful and healthful belief system.

One helpful tip you can do now is to start noticing when you are coming from a place of self-punishment. And when you do notice it, offer yourself a self-compassionate response instead. A simple “of course this is hard, but you can do it” or “you are ok, and you’ve got this” can go a long way in helping you shift.

Offering ourselves the gift of cleaning out toxic beliefs recalibrates the way we live. It increases our awareness for how we’ve been impacted by those beliefs, and it allows us to see ourselves and the world with renewed clarity. Then we can build on those new perspectives into taking actions like setting boundaries, opening ourselves, and making long-needed changes.

So how about you? What gifts will give yourself in September?

Sign up for the next Free Spirit Cohort? (Starts the week of September 15th - info below) Take a break from alcohol? Increase your water intake or eat more fresh foods? Take a walk outside or go outside to hear birdsong for a few minutes each day?

Whatever you decide to do, I’m rooting for you and celebrating the gift you’re giving yourself.

With love,

Charity

Important Updates & New Things!

1. Free Spirit Fall 2024 is now enrolling, and since you are a subscriber, I’m offering a coupon for you. Save $50 off the one-time payment plan with the code GREY50 Space is limited, and enrollment ends on September 14th! Students of Free Spirit also get my new mini course “Beyond Belief” for free!

Sign up here: https://embodied-affirmation-school.teachable.com/p/freespiritfall2024​

If you have any questions, you can email me at charity@charitymmuse.com​
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2. Last week, I put the final touches on a brand new condensed but powerful course called “Beyond Belief: Reimagining Faith & Doubt” – In this completely self-paced course we look at the ways we’ve considered doubt and faith in the past, how we might reframe or shift perspectives, and how we might move forward - beyond belief into a way that reimagines how faith and doubt can play a role in our lives. And through that reimagining we will look at how we can experience life more fully, no matter our beliefs and spiritual practices. It's fantastic for getting out of spiraling that often comes with doubt and questions. The first 15 to sign up get the course for only $27!

More info here: https://embodied-affirmation-school.teachable.com/p/beyond-belief-reimagining-faith-and-doubt​

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3. I quietly released 2 new songs over the summer. “Let Justice Flow” and “Psalm 23” – you can listen to them anywhere you stream or buy them where you buy digital music. I hope you enjoy them! Here is a link to my Spotify artist page: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4j6SAGBRjliIfx5Yg5xdqE?si=WTCLIv53SIKfbGQrhEU2qw​

See you soon!

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