On Saturday of the 2nd annual Emerging Women Live conference “Changing the World Through Feminine Leadership and Entrepreneurship,” in New York City, author of “The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark,” and “Red, Hot and Holy: A Heretic’s Love Story,” Sera Beak took the stage openly discussing her fear of publicly speaking and baring her soul to the audience.
“The fear and trembling, the high pitches and difficulty breathing are not just symptoms of a phobia. They are also symptoms of a woman unleashing her soul’s voice publically,” Beak told the audience. “Most of us have consciously or unconsciously suppressed our souls voice in order to fit in and be successful.”
She grew up the silent one in class, and saying what she needed in order to fit in socially. It wasn’t until graduate school that she first discovered her soul’s voice and it was through a journal her sister gave her as a gift.
“I asked where is my real voice, and unexpectedly words arose from somewhere deep inside me, and I quickly scribbled them down onto page, ‘Come closer, closer still, till closer has meaning no longer.’ I turned the page and another phrase, ‘Your voice is a treasure don’t bury it. Share it.’ I turned to the next page and smiled when I heard ‘Every time you speak your truth, a goddess tattoos your name across her belly,’” she shared. “There is nothing like hearing your soul speak for the first time. Everything false fades away and everything true comes into focus. You remember, ‘Oh yea, this is me.’ Aware of it or not you have this voice within you as well.”
Creating the space to hear and express our soul’s voice privately is one of the most important practices, according to Beak. Each soul’s voice is unique, but features the common threads of integrity, authenticity, creativity, love and freedom, and we will know it’s our soul’s voice speaking because even though our mind may think we are crazy, the body will experience a release.
Despite her journal breakthrough, Beak found herself stifling her soul’s voice professionally, and although she published a successful first book, she found herself conforming to what the “mainstream spiritual and self-help arena” wanted and even visited with a media trainer to learn how to conform to what the media wanted from her. She signed a large contract for her second book, but found herself with a “sever case of writer’s block” and when she finally did push through it and words flowed out of her, the book she created was not what her publisher wanted.
“My editor told me it was too dramatic, emotional and self indulgent, not to mention strange, difficult to relate to and completely unmarketable,” she said.
Beak explained they gave her 45 days to write the book she was contracted for or she would have to break her contract and deal with the legal battles that would ensue. She went on to eventually break her contract in order to honor her soul’s voice, and found a new publisher. She explained every time one of us unleashes our own soul’s voice, we “widen the pathway for other women to voice their souls.”
“Your soul’s voice is a transmission only you can give. An integral piece of humanity’s puzzle, your sacramental signature in the book of life, your muddy fingerprint placed lovingly into the earth,” Beak shared. “This planet desperately needs your souls unique tone in order to harmonize. Don’t change to sound like something else or to fit a unique template. Unleashing your souls voice cannot be coached or taught. It’s an ever-evolving sacred practice, a never-ending act of surrender, a life long journey for most of us, and we all need support during this messy, magnificent, natural process. No matter what comes tumbling out, we should nod with respect and say, ‘Hell yeah sister, bring it on.’’’
Read Part 1 with Kris Carr on Resilience
Read Part 3 with Gabrielle Bernstein on Miracles Now
Read Part 4 with Danielle LaPorte
Our spiritual assignment is to have a dialogue with ourselves on a regular basis to check in and see what we need to feel “sturdy, strong and empowered,” because the more we have this dialogue the more we will become connected with ourselves. For Carr, she knows she needs more time alone and embracing the fact that she is an introvert rather than an extrovert, to hang with solid girlfriends, men in her life that support her, to play on a regular basis, and to have a three-dimensional life, she said.