APPRENTICE INSIGHTS: Four Months of Opening
- MedicineWomanSpeaks
- Sep 16
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 21
MWL Apprentice Dominica Sept. 4, 2025
"It's not about becoming someone new, but opening to
what has always been true." Read this powerful reflection from
my apprentice, Dominica, on how embodiment became her portal,
and why you don't need to conquer your shadow—only welcome it.
Stop striving and start remembering.
My love and joy
The past four months have not been about becoming someone new, but about opening more fully to what has always been true. I used to think the journey was about fixing, striving, or transforming into a future version of myself. I remind myself again and again, but this is a path to remembering. Truth does not arrive from outside of us; it reveals itself when we soften, when we release, when we allow.
One of the strongest themes has been release and renewal. Life has been asking me to lay down the roles and patterns that no longer align: comfort through food, voices of self-criticism, and dynamics that pull me out of love. And in that release, new forms of truth have emerged, teaching Pilates, tending to my health with devotion, reorganizing the rhythms of my daily life. It feels like life has been whispering, "You cannot cling to the old and hold the new. Make space for what is already true within you."
I have also been shown that embodiment is the doorway. The body does not block spiritual truth; it carries it. Through movement, through healing work, through listening to fatigue and strength alike, I have realized that awakening is not separate from the physical. As I reflect, the body is not the problem, it is the portal. My practice has been learning to trust that every sensation, every limit, every pulse of energy is a reminder of my wholeness.
Shadow has been part of this opening, too. I have met the sting of rejection, the urge to binge, the critical voice that insists I am not enough. For a long time, I thought these shadows meant I was failing. But I have found a truth that our shadow is not something to conquer but something to welcome. It is not an obstacle to truth but a doorway into it. Each rise of discomfort is an invitation to remember who I really am.
And finally, there has been the lesson of trusting timing. Healing unfolds in stages. Work and creativity build in layers. Relationships teach us in seasons. I am slowly learning that alignment is not about controlling the pace, it is about opening to the rhythm of what already is.
If I could name the essence of these months, it would be this: there is no better version of me waiting somewhere in the future. There is only the moment’s truth, waiting for me to notice it. Each day is an opening. Each challenge is a reminder. Each moment is an invitation to return.
And so I offer this to you: wherever you are on your path, may you remember that you do not need to become, you need only to open. The shadows, the pauses, the aches, the joys, everything belongs to the truth of who you already are.
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