Waking the Warrior Within

I think I’ve got my mojo back.

Of course, in all honesty, I hadn’t realized it’d been missing. But you can get into a certain life rhythm that over time, and without your awareness or your consent, flattens certain elements of yourself. Some of it seems to happen out of necessity ~ for example, I’d be dappled in oil paint in a room full of canvasses if I weren’t so concerned about keeping a roof overhead; I’d be writing more poetry and making more music and probably doing a lot more for others. And I’m all too aware how much I miss those things – they’re very much part of my fabric, my DNA I guess, and my spirit thirsts for them. And they’ve had to be patient in recent years; they’ve had to “flatten” while my focus needs to be elsewhere.

But that’s not mojo. That’s about time constraints and practicality. Mojo (good mojo) usually describes a someone being “in their groove”, everything going their way.  And that’s true. But to me it’s also an energy that fuels your core, that pushes you to stand up straighter and speak with more conviction and act with more confidence and be more decisive and set more boundaries and to say, “this is my space, my energy, and I will use it well and protect it and respect it and nobody’s gonna mess with it.”  It’s an essence, that feeds all your other actions and behaviors. It means you feel in sync with the strength of your spirit.

So how did I get mine back? I’d been sensing a shift in my world. Perhaps even looking for something to kick that shift into gear. Well, I may have found it, literally, by kicking.

Last week I took my first ever kick-boxing class. Aside from the awesome workout (which I, and my very different set of swimmer muscles survived, thank you very much), as a testament to the many benefits of hard-core exercise, I felt something more than muscles awakening. I felt my inner warrior rising up from what I can only describe as a foggy nap.

This warrior has been there all along, sometimes full-on, sometimes at rest, but I recognized her almost instantly. “Hello! There you are ~ welcome back!”

I’ve always liked this warrior side. She’s staunch in her beliefs about right and wrong, positives and negatives, and fiercely adamant about being true to your best self and letting your light shine. She seems even taller than usual and doesn’t tolerate bullshit. (pardon my French). She’s got your back.

And the lesson for me was simple ~ Sometimes you have to change stride and shake things up to feel your mojo kick in and your inner spiritual warrior step out.

Kick-boxing class, I’ll be back…!