What is Warrior Spirit?
I have a saying hanging in my office that reads: “The life you live is the lesson you teach.” It reminds me that in order to be a thought leader in the women’s wellness space, the words I write and speak matter. The actions I take matter. And the daily choices I make matter. They matter not only to me, but to those who give me the privilege of their attention as part of the Athena Wellness tribe, through reading my writing, listening to my podcast and being a student or client.
This doesn’t mean I have to get it right all the time. The people I’ve learned the most from, whether I’ve met them in person or studied them from afar, embodied the qualities I wanted to enhance in my own life. And I learned as much from their missteps as I did from their successes. Witnessing their growth gave me permission to expand my own inner horizons and possibilities. It’s a lifelong practice – one that honors my Warrior Spirit.
When I honor my Warrior Spirit, my mind, body and spirit are in alignment. That is, I live from the heart, which is another word for spirit. So how I feel (spirit) is working in harmony with the thoughts I think (mind) and actions I take (body).
But how do you begin to connect with this Warrior Spirit energy?
It’s been my experience that when I quiet the noise, I can hear my own wisdom. I call this place the still point. The following simple practice begins to create a still point where you can engage in relationship with your Warrior Spirit.
Try this: Since Warrior Spirit is built on commitment of honoring the self, I suggest you commit to five minutes a day. This is a great way to start a practice because it’s doable and trackable – the cornerstones of creating positive habits.
The practice is simple and I call it “Hand Over Heart Breathing.” I suggest you do it first thing in the morning, but you can adapt it to fit your current life circumstances.
Here’s how to do it:
Upon waking, set your alarm for 5 minutes.
Lay in bed, get comfortable, and place your right hand over your heart.
Say to yourself: “For the next five minutes, no one needs me and I don’t need to make any decisions.” This creates space just for you.
Breathe naturally. Let thoughts come and go, they will.
Focus on the energy you feel emanating from your heart area. Just feel that Warrior Energy – that’s all you need to do.
When the timer goes off, go about your day.
Give yourself a little checkmark in your calendar or on a sticky note.
Try to do this for 30 days in a row without missing.
This simple exercise helps you connect with your own wisdom and create a center of calm in your being – with your inner Athena. Sitting in this stillness helps to develop other capabilities, such as blocking out societal expectations that no longer apply, dropping deeper into your experience, increasing capacity for acceptance and recognizing opportunities in challenges.
As a result of this honoring, of feeling your way forward, a deep presence and a lightness of being is cultivated over time. This has been called “The Road Less Traveled” – the life lines we follow that are off the beaten path. These are the routes that may be harder yet more rewarding, certainly less crowded and definitely more scenic.
This is deep, vulnerable work – reclaiming our Warrior Spirit. It means honoring our truest self and deepest desires. It means showing up in life as who we are at our essence. And it means allowing ourselves to be seen as the imperfect humans we are.
It’s the kind of transformation that doesn’t happen overnight. But it’s been my experience that once you step onto new life footpaths and put distance between yourself and the others, there’s no going back. That’s when life itself becomes the lesson you teach.
Journal Reflections: What do the words “Warrior Spirit” mean to you? How does it feel to connect with that inner energy? How might you honor that part of yourself?