Do you ever get that feeling of “uh-oh, here we go again”?

I call it “the beast-y feeling.”

No, it’s not just your garden variety AFGO (Another Freakin’ Growth Opportunity) where you’re challenged to step up and grow up.

The kind of feeling I’m talking about is probably best described as “The Mother of all AFGOs.”

Everyday AFGOs are a pain in the ass (nevertheless, they are growth opportunities not to be underestimated) but The Mother of all AFGOs is the beast you came into this life to slay.

The crazy thing about this beast? It’s invisible. 

It hovers.

It lurks.

And worst of all, it hides itself so that you can pretend your work is done, sometimes for years. (Gee thanks Universe!)

Even if you’ve never fully come face to face with your brand of beast – mine has bulging eyes, pointy yellow fangs, a forked black tongue and a putrid stench – you can rest assured the beast is not dead until you actually slay it.

Otherwise, it makes you think it’s gone. Yay, look at me, I’m freeeeeee. Ignore that feeling at your peril.

Not so fast… the beast is just doing what beasts do when they go off to cavort elsewhere. (I do not pretend to know what that is.)

Until, it hears the siren go off – something’s derailed you, someone said something, something unexpected happened – the beast smells it and it pounces.

Proving… that beast-y feeling cannot be buried.

To be sure, it’s a feeling that’s hard to explain. It’s not unease. It’s not fear. It’s not worry.

It’s a sixth sense we get that uh jeez, there’s more inner work to do. 

I used to try to bury the feeling, rush off and distract myself. It worked, sort of. But distraction never kills the feeling – it only allows us to pretend it’s not there.

Until we decide…

There can be no more pretending.

The bandaid gets ripped off and there it is: nameless, invisible, painful.

And you wonder… When? Where? How? Why? 

It doesn’t matter how smart you are. It doesn’t matter if life is good most of the time. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a coach, a therapist, a doctor or lawyer; it doesn’t matter if you thought you were “done with it already.”

Everyone has a beast. Not everyone chooses to slay their beast.

We can try to point to events in our lives in an effort to pinpoint exactly when-where-how-why but that doesn’t heal anything.

The healing comes in the unburying.

The healing comes in the unpretending.

The healing comes in the refusal to use distraction as a salve.

Most importantly, the healing comes in the willingness to go inside and poke around with an abundance of radical self compassion.

When you come face to face with the Mother of all AFGOs you can either turn your face to the unconditional love bestowed by the sun or bury your head in the sand of distraction.

Look UP, my dear GirlFriend, look UP.

This is how we Woman UP.

L xo

Hey GirlFriend, are you running low on VITAMIN G?

Click HERE for a free dose of GUTS and receive my Woman UP Wednesday newsletter each week.

Think of it as a gentle nudge to become the gutsiest version of YOU that you can be.