Can Turning Down Opportunities Create More Success

Originally Posted Mar 31 2016

Simple Truth: It doesn’t matter how great it is, if it’s not in alignment with your truest desire.

Hello Wood Energies! I can’t say that I love this energy, if it were a Facebook relationship status it would be “It’s Complicated” for sure.

I have next to zero Wood within my Individual Alchemy Chart at the moment, but I remember what it was like to have some. I can still feel what it felt like to have it move through me at the age of twelve, when it was the driving force to everything that I did or accomplished.

It doesn’t matter whether you have lots of Wood Element in your chart now or if you're like me with next to none, when you were a teenager it fuelled you to get out your room and face the day and probably get a lot of amazing things done in your life.

That same energy probably got you through college and maybe even your Masters as well as kept you upright, reasonably fit, juggling multiple tasks. It allowed you drink your face off and make it to work the next day with no major repercussions (lets not forget its organ system is your liver).

You could burn the candle at both ends and not skip a beat.

Maybe your experience of Wood Energies wasn’t exactly like that but you get the picture. It’s a force.

The Wood Energy lets you accomplish a lot of stuff, it drives you to achieve and put your voice and stamp in the world. If you took even a split second it wouldn’t take you long to come back to that place and yearn for it.

Much of our culture makes us chase it in our pursuit of youth and demands it of us with our overwork, over-stress model of work and commerce.

Except now, other Elements have taken precedent in dictating your current situation, if your in your thirties and beyond you are no longer in the Wood phase of your life. You still have it but it doesn’t have the same level of intensity and your mind and body may not be able to hold it in this phase for as long even when you want to.

Which means you have to become crystal clear on what you are going to use this energy for, when it’s available to you.

And with the arrival of Spring, its that time.

Coming into this season I’ve had some interesting opportunities come up that have been testing me in how and where I put my energies in relation to my career.

Career, Power and Money are big hitters when it comes to the Wood Element and with this part of my chart being quite deficient I have to be incredibly aware when it comes to what I do. The very essence of money, power and ego get the best of me and they're a sure-fire way of me getting off track in a hurry. I know I'm not alone in this.

So this is what’s happened.I was offered my own radio show. Sounds cool, I could create the content on whatever I wanted, I could use it to promote my “Brand” and have another platform to have my voice and work be heard.

I turned it down.

Then just recently, I was asked to be one of the keynote speakers for our Acupuncturist College and Association. They asked if I would do a talk on my experience on TCM and Fertility. This year is a big one with lots of government people attending the event and all of that stuff that allows self-importance and “I’m special and so great” come up. I was truly honoured to be asked, a little intimidated actually.

But again, with some major inquiry I turned it down.

It’s not that either of those things wouldn’t have been great, they just weren’t in alignment with where I want to go. They were fantastic for me fuelling ego and my ability to add more things to my resume which give me even more credentials experience and clout except in putting my energies into the preparation and execution of them they would take me away from the current direction of my work.

I could have done it, but it would mean I would have to delay my timeline for the launch of The Embodied Alchemy Collective that I so want to share with you.

The work that lights up my heart and comes from my soul.

Truth be told, it always takes me way longer than I intend anyways and being swayed by shiny object syndrome doesn’t help it at all.

After I sent my declining emails out, there was a split second where I thought I made a mistake but thankfully my heart spoke up to remind me that this time and season is meant for getting the real work done.

It may look on the outside to others that I'm making the wrong decisions, but my heart knows the path that I'm to take right now, and I'm letting her take the lead on this.

I'm well aware that my drive and conviction only has enough power and will to take me through one thing and it better be the one thing that I want most to accomplish and have out in the world.

So that’s what I’m doing.  This is my current path.  I’m using my ritual and practices to hold me in the space where I can allow the information that I want to share come through and this next few months I’m capitalizing on the energy of Wood with all of its persistence, focus, vision and drive to get it on paper and get it formatted so that it can finally be out in the world and my heart can truly sing.

Which brings me to a question that I have for you. If you were to focus your Wood Energies on one single thing for the next three months what would it be? I would love to here in the comments below.

XO Ashley