Good Morning

Before we begin, I want to share something deeply personal with you. It’s a letter I wrote to my son, Canon. It’s for him to read one day, when I’m no longer physically here. It begins…

“My sweet Canon,
There’s no map for what I’m about to say because the path we’ve walked together was never paved with easy choices or straight lines. It was built on fight, fire, and faith.
If you’re reading this, it means we’ve come to that part of the story where I step out of sight… but I never step out of your life. Not even for a second.
You are my greatest legacy.
Not my degrees.
Not my books.
Not my healing rooms.
You.”

I start here, with you: my fellow healers, counselors, coaches, and ministers; because I know you understand this in your bones. I know that the work we do isn’t a job. It is a calling. It is a sacred ache to create something that outlives us. It is the deep, cellular knowing that our true legacy will not be measured in accomplishments, but in the love, we give, the patterns we break, and the light we pass on.

This morning, we are going on a journey together. It is the most sacred journey a human being can take: the path from our deepest wounds to our most profound wisdom. We will explore how this personal transformation is the only true foundation for the legacy of light we are all here to build.

The Unseen Self: Recognizing the Landscape of Trauma

Before we can ever hope to guide another soul through the dark, we must first become intimate with our own inner landscape. The path requires us to map the territory of our own trauma; the patterns, the beliefs, and the brilliant survival mechanisms that have shaped us. This self-awareness isn’t just a tool for a healer; it is the tool.

Defining the Disconnection

On our path, we come to understand that we each have two selves. There is the True Self-our Divine Essence, the eternal, unchanging part of us that is one with Source. And then there is the ego self—the fear-based, reactive identity born from the illusion of separation. Trauma creates a profound disconnection from our True Self. It’s a spiritual injury that forces us, for the sake of survival, to identify with our wounds instead of our wholeness. We forget who we truly are and begin to believe we are the pain we have endured.

The Echoes of Pain

There is a truth that saved me, and it is this: “What doesn’t heal, repeats.” Unhealed trauma doesn’t just stay in the past; it echoes into our present. This disconnection from our True Self creates a void, and one of the most common ways we try to fill it is through what we call “love addiction.”
This is where unresolved relational trauma causes us to unconsciously crave chaos because it feels familiar. We begin to “mistake intensity for intimacy,” chasing partners and situations that re-enact our original wounds. It is a perfect, painful example of the shadow trying to protect us by recreating what it knows, all while believing we are searching for love.

The Survival Capsule

For so long, we were taught to see the hidden parts of ourselves-our shadow-as something monstrous to be defeated. But I want to offer you a new perspective, one filled with compassion. The shadow is not a monster; it is a survival capsule. When you endured trauma, pushing parts of yourself into the dark—your anger, your needs, your vulnerability-was not a sign that you were broken. It was an act of intelligent survival. You packed away everything that was unsafe to express, and you kept yourself alive.

This survival capsule is what keeps us identified with the ego self. It’s why we forget our Spiritual Power and believe our prosperity is limited. The journey back isn’t about destroying the capsule; it’s about remembering the True Self that was powerful enough to build it in the first place.

The Compass of Truth: Reclaiming Your Authentic Power

The truths I am about to share are not abstract theories. They are a practical, powerful compass for navigating the journey back to yourself. They are the source of authentic power that allows us to move beyond mere survival and into the conscious co-creation of a life aligned with our soul.

Redefining Power and Prosperity

We’ve been taught to see power as force and control but the truth that sets us free is this: Spiritual Power is the inner force we derive from our conscious alignment with Divine Source. It doesn’t control; it uplifts, heals, and transforms through love.

Similarly, we are taught that prosperity is about wealth. But on our path, we come to know that true Prosperity is a “State of Soul.” It is a holistic sufficiency in health, purpose, relationships, and peace that radiates from within when we are attuned to our spiritual power. It is not something you get; it is something you remember you are.

The Mind as the Builder

Our mind is the creative faculty of the soul, the bridge that connects the formless realm of Spirit to the world of form. This happens through a partnership between the two parts of your mind:

• The conscious mind is the chooser, the gardener that selects the seeds of thought.
• The subconscious mind is the garden, the fertile soil that manifests whatever is planted within it.

This is why mastering our dominant thoughts is the key to creating a new reality. The universal law is unwavering: “what you hold in mind will eventually manifest in form.” When we consciously plant thoughts of wholeness, abundance, and love, our reality has no choice but to reflect that truth back to us.

The Source of Healing

Perhaps the most empowering truth of all is this: all healing is self-healing. As healers, we are not here to “fix” anyone. Our sacred role is to facilitate, to hold space, to remind others of a truth they have temporarily forgotten. True healing is the restoration of our alignment with the “Healing Presence” within us-the divine blueprint of perfect health that is our natural state. Our job is to help our clients remember the wholeness that already exists within them, just waiting to be reactivated.

With these truths as our compass, we can now turn to the courageous work of putting them into practice.

The Work of Illumination: A Healer’s Sacred Toolkit

A compass is useless if you are not willing to walk the path. This section is about the practical, courageous work required to illuminate the unseen parts of ourselves. And let me be clear: these are the sacred tools we must first use on ourselves before we can ever authentically guide others. This is the non-negotiable work of integrity.

The Core Practice: Shadow Work

This next part is where the real work begins. It’s not easy, but I know the cost of avoidance, and I know you do, too. We have to be willing to turn and face what we’ve hidden in the dark. This is Shadow Work: the courageous and compassionate process of turning to see what lies within us not to banish it, but to understand and integrate it.

This work is most powerfully done in community. The shadow thrives in isolation, but in “The Circle,” it can be healed. A well-facilitated circle provides a container of:

• Safety: A space where vulnerability is honored.
• Witnessing: The profound healing that comes from being seen without judgment.
• Perspective: Hearing others’ stories, which allows us to see our own patterns with fresh eyes.

Deconstructing Spiritual Bypassing

In our field, there is a dangerous pitfall where spirituality is used to avoid, rather than heal, our pain. This is spiritual bypassing, and it often appears as Toxic Positivity or Denial. The antidote to both is Radical Acceptance.

Avoidance Tactic	The Pitfall (What it is & What it sounds like)	Authentic Healing (Radical Acceptance)
Toxic Positivity (The Mask)	It’s slapping a smiley face sticker over a bullet wound. Invalidates authentic emotion. Sounds like: “Just stay positive!”	Acknowledges that you can hold multiple truths at once. Example: “I can be grateful and still be grieving.”
Denial (The Blindfold)	It’s pretending the bullet wound doesn’t exist at all. Blocks all insight by refusing to see a painful reality. Sounds like: “It’s not that bad.”	Holds space for the truth of a feeling or situation without shame. Example: “This feeling is valid and deserves my attention.”

Healing is when you remove both—face the mirror—and get honest about what hurts.

Uncovering the Gold

The most empowering part of this work is discovering what Carl Jung called the Golden Shadow. This refers to the brilliant, positive traits and untapped potential we suppress because we were told we were “too much”—too loud, too smart, too passionate, too bold. We often project this gold onto others. The people you admire, the leaders you idolize… But what if I told you the reason you’re drawn to those people is because they are reflecting your own hidden brilliance back to you? The work here is to stop projecting and start reclaiming. It is to finally own the light, the leadership, and the power that has been yours all along.

When we commit to this sacred work, we become healers who have walked the path ourselves—healers who are ready to build a truly lasting legacy.

The Legacy of Light: Becoming the Lighthouse

Our personal healing is not the final destination. It is the fuel. It is the raw material from which we build our ultimate purpose: to become a beacon for others and to leave behind a legacy of light that ripples out long after we are gone.

The True Inheritance

I want to circle back to that letter to my son. I told him that his greatest inheritance was not my achievements, but the “fire” he carries in his bones. That is the legacy we are here to build. It’s the resilience, the wisdom, and the love that we embody so fully that it gets passed down through generations. It is the story they will tell. As I wrote to him, “Tell your children about the woman who never gave up.” Tell them I was a bit wild. A bit witchy. A bit too honest. That is the inheritance that changes the world.

The Healer’s Ultimate Calling

I challenge you today to see your work through this lens of legacy. As a Metaphysical Minister, a counselor, a coach, your highest calling is not to have all the answers. It is to serve as a “lighthouse for those in dark nights of the soul.” Your purpose is to be a walking, breathing example of what is possible. It is to turn your own scars into a map that shows others the way home to themselves.

Final Call to Action

So I leave you with the same mandate I leave for my own blood, the same charge I live by every single day. This is why you are here.

You’re not here to be small, polite, or perfect.

You’re here to shatter patterns.

To break generational chains.

To speak truth into places where silence used to live.

This work is not easy, but you were built for it. And you are not alone.

You’ve got this. And you’ve got me. Always.

Thank you.

• Healing & Recovery