One of the main reasons that I do “this,” a.k.a. bother to write or put ANYTHING out there in my social media posts or blogs and that I must always recur to when I start to question, “Well, what is the point?” is what indigenous wisdom taught me as the biggest lesson about spirituality that I know.

My life was forever changed when I was 20 and I was asked to teach at the university a class about the agriculture in Mexico from pre-hispanic to the current times. My Western-trained eyes that had even gone to an Ivy League school were opened to the wonderful world of the indigenous and how SMART they actually really were, rather than the primitive, rudimentary portrayal I was oft given through high school. I learned that the Mexica (what the Aztecs are wrongly called) were actually able to support over 20 million people with their agricultural practices before the Spaniards arrive. They had amazing systems that even in present-day, Japanese & other cultures come to Mexico to understand, as they were so advanced. My world was shaken in the best of ways. If their agriculture was so much better than the European agriculture that was introduced, could this concept apply to so many other things that we take for granted? For example, could their way of viewing their world or cosmovision actually be more accurate than the Western way of understanding the world?

My very experiential or empirical research proved YES!! By all means, yes!! When I tuned into the indigenous ways of Mexico, I found that their practices revolved around COMMUNITY and were all about CEREMONIES & RITUALS which HONORED the EARTH, the ANIMALS, the SPIRIT that was in ALL THINGS, as well as the inherent CONNECTION BETWEEN ALL THINGS. They asked the Earth for permission to do things, they considered her prior. They treated one another in ceremony as if each person present was a SACRED BROTHER OR SISTER whom merited 100% attention and respect. They honored their elders and what they had to share, for what they could glean & learn from one another’s lives was TREASURE.

I realized that a lot of what we learn in Western society, to WIN over others, to COMPETE & to fight one another was not really what I was interested in. I ended up quitting law school & pursuing my newfound interests with full power, including the Mayan Calendar, the arts (music-making, dancing), as well as the indigenous traditions of ceremonies and rituals, for example the sweatlodge.

Putting all of our energy into things that beautify our minds, our hearts, our spirits, our Earth, holding sacred this one life that we KNOW we have, and everything and everyone in it is really the only way we can ever feel satisfied because we BECOME A LIVING PRAYER OF GRATITUDE OR THANKS TO THE UNIVERSE FOR THIS LIFE. I felt convinced 100% that THIS WAS my path. It was not an etheric revelation…I FELT it through to the bone, soaking in to my life. I could understand why the indigenous often called this the “Beauty Way” or “Walking in Beauty”.

And I started realizing how this SIMPLE thing, channeling energy positively, was the sort of LEADERSHIP that was being called for in this Planet at this time, in the midst of so much fighting, war, ignorance, forgetfulness, laziness, etc. etc. This simple yet awake way of living is what today is commonly called, “Being a leader.” It was completely clear to me why it no longer made sense to pursue being a lawyer or to pursue fighting a system: rather, time was to be filled creating beauty with what one already had, with one’s relationships, honoring, serving them, honoring the land one lives on, honoring the sacredness of all of life through one’s offerings like dance, music, painting, ceremonies, rituals, or, in sum, making of one’s entire life a ritual or ceremony offered up in gratitude for this gift called life.

_{“Living the Beauty Way” by Shelby Sanchez (www.livingthebeautyway.com)}

There’s yet another way to view it all that takes another perspective, not from the indigenous, yet still taking essentially the same view of life. In Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” she puts that when we are artists or creative beings and we are not actively putting our energy into our art or creations, we start getting a little too creative with our lives, a.k.a. rather than write that dramatic written piece, we start fighting with our spouses, or being impatient with our kids. When we feel satisfied with ourselves and our work, we feel satisfied with our lives and are less likely to pick fights or create family drama with our sisters, brothers, etc.

I don’t know about you, but I sure chose to learn the hard way about that one!! I still do. I chose time and time again to chase after the externals in my life and try to manipulate those; to fight; but the more and more time goes by, I am much quicker to realize what I cannot change (outside of me) and and I channel a lot more of my energy into the passions that I have, my interests, my writing, dancing, creating a business that serves women, thinking about my own life and how I am the creator, how I want to tweak it, where I want to go with it this year and the next, etc. The more time goes by and I mature and grow, I also hold a lot more compassion for myself~~ my younger self~~ who so struggled with this in her earlier life.

We may ask WHY that is…and I will be talking a lot more about it on my “Why Wednesday” in the Feminine Empowerment Lounge on Facebook. In fact, each day of the week I will be presenting a different aspect of this (Tip & Tools Tuesday, Why Wednesday, and more). But for now, the theme is LEADERSHIP, and what I mean by LEADERSHIP is HERE: are you channeling your energy in a positive way? To be filled with gratitude? Grateful for your connections? Uplifting them? Grateful for the sacredness of all of life? Walking your life in such a way that you gift things to others everywhere you turn? If not, I don’t want you to be shamed, I have been there, too, and I am there too, in my own way, still, and write this to remind myself of the path I choose.

This is an invitation to feed the Leader in you with Soul Sisterhood, with uplifting & inspiring Community. Find your Communities that remind you of this and uplift you to choose to walk in the Beauty way…And if you need help doing, so, feel free to grab a Clarity Call with me and let’s work it out. Because in my definition here, if you’re over 35, if you’re a mom and have “little” time, not “on top of your field”–none of that matters in my seeing you as a leader.