This is an extract from a Facebook post by the brilliant Elizabeth Gilbert.

“This is a map of the Mississippi River, created in 1944 by a cartographer named Harold Fisk. It’s called a “meander map”.

It demonstrates all the various paths that the Mississippi has taken over the millennia. The different colours represent moments in history when the river jumped her banks and changed her course dramatically. Native Americans used to move their settlements along with the river’s constant shifts and changes, but Americans saw things differently. In the 1940s, the Army Corps of Engineers decided to lock down the Mississippi River into a certain course. They built walls and levees and declared: “These are now the official boundaries of the Mississippi. She doesn’t move an inch from HERE.”

Nature, of course, has had different plans”.

Elizabeth goes on to write:

“I’m bringing this up today, because I’ve been thinking lately about the ways that I keep trying to control my own nature. I see the rules and boundaries that I have set for myself over the years, and how often they have failed. I think about the vows I’ve made to myself and others about where I’m going to be next year, or who I am going to be next year. Endless, expensive, stress-inducing efforts to civilize the river of my being.

But if you were to look at the history of my life, it looks a lot like this map right here. This map could be a portrait of my heart’s own journey. “

This post resonated so much with me.

When I made the decision to write a book about healing from cancer holistically at the end of last year it felt like an exciting challenge, a heart-focussed goal with a very clear purpose behind it; to process my experience, to release it and to heal.

And it’s been a powerful and healing experience; writing and journaling my thoughts, feelings and perceptions in order to process and release stuck emotion or trauma.

The process of writing enabled me to bring memories and experiences to the surface so that I could feel and release anything that I hadn’t already released, either through transformational coaching work with peers or my Coach Supervisor, Inner Child timeline therapeutic work or energetic healing work.

And the purpose of the writing kept me motivated to write, despite the time commitment involved, but also the hope that I might inspire someone else kept me motivated to write; to inspire someone to take back their power in a situation where they’ve felt disempowered.  To change their mindset or challenge their perception about what was going on for them, in order to create the conditions for their body to heal itself.

But back in February I experienced a series of events that lead me to turn the page on the cancer-chapter of my life.  Moments of powerful clarity from my intuition about why I’d created the dis-ease in my body in the first place (as I believe we, unconsciously, create our own reality) and why it was finally time to let it go.

And so I did.  I let it go.

In the process of turning the page, moving into my new chapter and taking full responsibility for how this one is going to map out, I started to question why I was still writing the book if it had served its purpose.  Why was I still writing it if I had healed?

So, as I started writing this blog, my intention was to share that I had pressed pause on writing the book as it had served its purpose and wasn’t currently a priority in my life.  My priority was now to build my business and help more people by doing the work I absolutely love.  

But before I knew it, I’d written three pages and still had more to say, and my intuition went “hang on a minute, this isn’t a blog, this is a book chapter!”

So a bit like the Mississippi river, I had set my goal and my purpose for writing and I had achieved the purpose without necessarily achieving the goal.  But as with any goal, it’s only ever a direction of travel, not a destination.  I could have ploughed on writing my book with the topic I had set out to write about, as that was what I’d committed to do, and the little girl within me was questioning whether I’d be letting people down if I stopped writing it.  But that wouldn’t have been going with the flow and I very much doubt the Mississippi would have done that either 😊.

So just like the Mississippi I’ve changed course and gone with the flow, rather than ploughing down a path I no longer needed to travel.  I’ve listened to my intuition.

And as I’m typing words onto the page right now, I’m realising that I do still want to write the book but the book is no longer solely about healing from cancer holistically, although that is clearly a rather big chunk of it.  It is now much more about coming back to ME; reconnecting with my whole self and my intuition and the infinite wisdom that is stored in the physical body.

As to when I’ll actually have time to write, that is another story (a story I won’t be writing)!  I will write it when my intuition tells me I need to write it and I will trust that I’ll hear that message.

And one final thing…the title of the book will now be “Trust” 😊.

Go with the flow.  Be more Mississippi 😊

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With love Sarah xx