Bending, Not Breaking: My Journey of Growth and Grit Inspired by Bamboo - Episode 384

Access The Episode Webpage here.

Hey Worldchanger! 

On today's episode, I'm spilling the tea on a journey that's been close to my heart for the last five years and has really blossomed in the last 12 weeks. I've been teasing bits of this tale on my Instagram stories, and it's time I laid it all out for you, from start to finish. 

This story has truly been a cornerstone in my life, and sharing it has opened up some deeply touching conversations with friends and clients alike. There's something magical about sharing stories—it's like holding up a mirror to our own lives, isn't it? 

We'll chat about dreaming big, the paths we take for growth, and the virtues of trust and patience. So have a listen, and let it all sink in. And I'm here for all your thoughts and reflections—message me on Instagram or LinkedIn. Can't wait to connect with you! 

Connect with Sheila:

• Download The Seasons Self Care App for free access to The Cyclical Self Care Primer: App Store - IOS   Google Play - Android
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• LinkedIn: @sheilaabotelho

PS: Thanks so much for listening. I would love your review! If you enjoy what I share in this episode, rate, Review & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/connect-with-sheila-botelho/id1527363160 I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

Transcript

Sheila: 0:00

I invite you to think about what is the thing for you. What is the symbolism or a constant in your life that keeps coming up that maybe you can look to as a little bit of like a talisman or something for you to know if you're on track. I invite you to tap into that, because it's really powerful when you do. Hi, welcome to the Connect with Sheila Botelho podcast. I'm an entrepreneur, self-care strategist and creator of the Seasons self-care app. I'm committed to helping you reconnect to your purpose, elevate your well-being and build your version of a happy, successful life. On today's solo chat, I felt compelled to share a story that really began about five years ago. That has been kind of ramping up over the last six weeks. I've been sharing pieces of this in my Instagram stories and I thought this was a neat opportunity for me to piece everything together, for you to hear it all in one shot, because I feel like it's been so pivotal in my own life and, as I share it with others peers and clients, it's very interesting the takeaways they get from this, because there's always something when you hear a story that you can apply to what you're going through in your life. So have a listen, enjoy and I'd love to hear how this landed for you. So feel free to shout me out on the Insta. Take care, hey, I hope your week has gone well. It's Friday and I've got Alicia Keys waiting to serenade me while I cook.

Sheila: 1:31

I wanted to share part one of the story I was talking about yesterday my stories. So it has to do with bamboo and it has to do with this kind of span of my life over the last 30 plus years in the personal growth and wellness space. My first personal growth seminar was when I was 19 and I got immediately into the wellness space soon after and that work has taken on different shapes and forms. And then throw in family and being a mom and all of the things. I've had a lot of varied experience, right, and I've been feeling in the last probably five years something new being birthed in my business through me, and it's a process, right. It's one of those things where I've always said it's like I feel like I'm bamboo where these ideas are coming and they're like all the seeds are there, it's getting fertilized, it's growing, it's all beneath the surface waiting to rise. I'd say that's one A of the story, and last week I was in Miami at Relaxed Money Life with my mentor, friend and peer in the wellness space, kate Northrop, and I'm so grateful for the experience she put on. It was just luscious and beautiful and connected. I got to meet a lot of people who I've been connected with online for like seven years in person and she had wonderful guests come in to share and guide us and some things do some ceremony. I'll share more about that as well.

Sheila: 2:56

And in one of the experiences we were being guided through a story and invited to close our eyes and kind of envision things while we're listening to the story, and it involved bamboo and so, of course, I had a lot of things come up for me as I was listening to this because of my connection to the word bamboo, and a lot of confirmation. So I'm going to share more of the story. This is the beginning piece, but it's just really interesting because now there's more and more bamboo stuff happening. So I'm going to go make dinner, but I'll be back, probably tomorrow. I'm back with more of the bamboo story after a day with my extended family was really lovely seeing everyone.

Sheila: 3:32

And when I left off in the story was I was in Miami and we were being led through a guided Story kind of a journey. That was embodied as well. I won't get into all the details because there were a lot of elements. It was really cool, and so after we went through this, we were able to share what came up for us, and there was a piece in it that involved bamboo and it viscerally connected to me because it really spoke about a lot of these different confirmations I've had lately and certain things that are happening and transforming in my own business in Life, and so I shared. I shared what had come up for me in my thoughts about bamboo and and the reason why it resonated for me, relating to the fact of timing in my life, and so I shared. And then I went on with my day and I had some beautiful connections.

Sheila: 4:24

So, as I continued the event, I had people coming up to me who I knew through the event, saying Someone is looking for you, they have a message for you, they, they are wanting to talk to the bamboo lady, and I thought, oh Okay, I guess they had heard what I said, so I didn't think too much of it. But a few people I think it was three in total came up to me to tell me this. I thought, well, this is really interesting, so we'll see what happens, because they would look around and they could never find her. I guess she had stepped out or I had moved to different place. There were a number of people at this event and so I just went on with the date.

Sheila: 4:56

But by the end of the day it was collecting my things at my table and a woman walks up to me. She's wearing a beautiful green outfit and it actually looks like a bamboo forest kind of print, really stylish. And I'm like, oh interesting, that's so pretty. And she said oh, bamboo lady, I've been looking for you all day and I was like, oh yeah, I heard someone was looking for me and she said I have a message for you, but first I need to tell you a story. So at this point I was all ears Tell me more.

Sheila: 5:26

She told me that she was working in the south and she worked in theater and at a little theater playhouse where they needed to build their own sets and they were constantly running out of materials because they were not funded or didn't get enough funding to get enough lumber and things To build these sets, and so they had to get creative and they're like what can we do? They stepped outside and realized they were in the middle of a bamboo forest and they had access to the bamboo and it was growing Plentifully and it was strong and wonderful to build with. So they started to use that and she said they used this bamboo to build so many sets over time and it just showed her how you can really get creative and know Sometimes that these things are there when you need them. And so then she said the message I have for you is that everything that you need is in you and the timing is right. The timing of the message that she shared with me was really really on time, because I had been feeling a lot of confirmation just internal confirmation and you know divine downloads coming about things and it was relating to timing relating to projects I'm working on, relating to things I'm releasing, and there's something about this. When you're creating something from within yourself, something from scratch, whatever it might be in your life, getting confirmation in different ways is really really encouraging. But in this regard, this woman, who I didn't even know, was trying to track me down all day to give me this message, because she felt that moved, that she just felt I needed to hear it and so I was so grateful for that. And there's more to the story which I will share, but I will just say this first and I'll share another time. But if you feel moved to share something with somebody, don't wait. Pick up the phone, send a text, do what you need to do. It might be just what they need to hear more of the bamboo story after a long weekend break and a dive into a full week. So, devtailing nicely with what I shared about Sharing messages with people when you really feel they might be helpful to the person.

Sheila: 7:38

I, I was sharing what happened at this event with a few friends because it was just so visceral the way I was feeling about this message and just the way everything had flowed, like the entire event right. And when I mentioned it in a voice note to a friend the next day I got a message from them talking about how they were planning to send some lovely gifts to some friends, including plant essences, and Trying to figure out what kind of plant essence to send to me, because she was just gonna do four of them. She realized what the first three were, she knew what she would send and then she got stumped thinking about what the fourth would be. But here's the kicker while she's thinking about these plant essences, she didn't know anything about this bamboo story yet. She didn't know that I referred to myself as bamboo. That was not something I had shared with her yet. And so, after the fact she's sharing the the relevance of the story, that she couldn't figure out the last plant essence. So she went to sleep, woke up and realized, okay, yeah, a feeling bamboo might be the thing that would be applicable to Sheila, but it didn't seem like it would apply based on some of the characteristics. And but then she's like, okay, I guess it's bamboo, there must be something more to the story. And so she shared the story with me after I told her my bamboo story.

Sheila: 9:02

So it's kind of funny how these things happen, all these little synchronicities that happen Probably all the time, but we just don't notice them because we're not present to ourselves, we're just so busy doing life. So another invitation to get quiet. And of course, there's more to the story continually. Because, as I share with friends and as I have my awareness high, looking for these synchronicities, because I think once they start to happen, then we start to see them more. So this is a lesson in Sometimes not always we get what we look for right, and I look at my life. I look at the way I move through my life, whether it is the joyous times or the really really hard times, my razz, my reticular activating system here, that is, present awareness of things around me. I was looking for connections, typically trends towards looking for positive connections, looking for opportunity, opportunities to heal, opportunities to connect and, in this case, connect with this whole idea of Timing right timing in my life and being able to share with you that right timing. That's something you can tap into too.

Sheila: 10:15

It's been so interesting watching what has been unfolding since the bamboo story started, and it's like so many things in our life. It really started long before anything externally started to happen, kind of like how bamboo grows. There's so many interesting things I've been noticing and, as a result, I am more present with the steps I'm taking, whether I need to be saying yes or no to different things, and really tuned into what I'm meant to be doing next, and so I invite you to think about what is the thing for you, what is the symbolism or a constant in your life that keeps coming up that maybe you can look to as a little bit of like a talisman or something for you to know if you're on track. I invite you to tap into that, because it's really powerful when you do.

Sheila: 11:10

I find myself returning to this story because every time I do, some new insight about what I'm facing today comes up, new light is shone on a perspective. Something maybe I should be doing, should be doing, that is really in alignment, and so I invite you to do that for yourself is take the space to think about how things are going and look at life and the things that are unfolding before you with more of an curious and adventurous perspective, and you'll be so interested to see what happens when you do, because often it's when we are striving and when we're pushing and we have really fixed agenda on our goals that it can feel a lot harder, and sometimes we close off possibilities that otherwise might be available to us. That's my invitation with this whole story. So thanks for listening. I really appreciate you and share it.

Sheila: 12:05

If you feel like this has been a really helpful, share it with friend, and if you love stories like this and you'd like to be reminded of these magical little moments in your life that may take you to new heights, new places that maybe have been unreachable for you before. I invite you to become part of my Seasons Connect community, I'd love to send out a weekly note with what's lighting me up, what's downloaded and really what's helping me move forward, and also what are helping my clients do the same. So feel free to subscribe. You'll see a link in the show notes as to where you can do that. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day. Big blessings.