Ready to Reclaim You?

When I first started having the idea of habits for wellbeing, I was tired, burnt out and struggling trying to be the best person I can be. I was working long hours, travelling and craved time for take care of myself and rest. I was living in my head and following this idea of who I thought I was (and who other people were telling me I was).

Some how, I knew my emotions were there, however I couldn’t remember how to identify, name or understand their messages. If I didn’t agree with something, I struggled to find the words to say at the right time. So I remained silent. I rarely talked about my life as a professional athlete as I felt like I wasn’t good enough and had a deep sense of shame around that part of my life. At my core, I really didn’t know who I was and was essentially working against life not with it.

Why Do I Use Reclaim?

I decided to use the word reclaim, as I can see now that when I come in to the world I was a whole being. However over time, experience after experience, situation after situation, I became less and less of Jane (which was due to a range of factors and situations).

As the definitions of reclaim indicate –

• “retrieve or recover (something previously lost, given, or paid); obtain the return of” ~ Google and Oxford
• “to restore to a previous natural state” ~ Merriam-Webster
• “To resume possession of; take back” ~ the Free Dictionary
• “If you reclaim something that you have lost or that has been taken away from you, you succeed in getting it back” – Collins English Dictionary.

Little did I know how much of an adventure the following 20 years or so of reclaiming Jane would be. I can now see it has been a process of discovering and reclaiming my true self.

4 Quotes About Reclamation –

Following are a few quotes I like that relate to the reclamation process –

• “I didn’t change, I just found myself.” ~ Unknown
• “Knowing yourself is first step towards self reclamation.” ~ Amit Gupta
• “Many readers fail to realize this, but ‘The Color Purple’ is a theological text. It is about the reclamation of one’s original God: the earth and nature.” ~ Alice Walker
• “No matter how awakened you are, the conditioning roots are deep; very deep. Reclamation is a constant process.” ~ Bryant McGill. 

Do you have a favourite quote on reclamation? If so, feel free to leave it below in the comments.

Reclaiming Me…

So what are some of the things I have been reclaiming? Glad you asked! Following are some of the things I have been reclaiming about myself over the past 20 or so years. And I say reclaiming as I have found it is an ongoing process 🙂 I have been reclaiming my –

• Joy – yes I know how to connect with the things I in-joy doing,
• Values – yes I know my own values, not what other people want me to value,
• Emotions / Feelings – yes I know how I feel (most of the time) and then decide on the best way to move forward,
• Confidence – yes I know the skills I am good at and the capabilities that go along with the skills,
• Voice – yes once I started to know what I was feeling and what I was good at, I started to express my emotions, what I stood for and my own needs.

Simply, I started to reclaim the power within me in many ways. It is a bit like Clarissa Pinkola Estés says in the following quote –

“The things that women reclaim are often their own voice, their own values, their imagination, their clairvoyance, their stories, their ancient memories. If we go for the deeper, and the darker, and the less known we will touch the bones.”

What Does Reclaim Mean to You?

After reading the above, are their any parts of your life that you have forgotten or lost and are ready to reclaim?

If so, feel to join us in the Toolkit. A place where we support you to be your own best friend and take the next step towards freedom and opening your heart.