Welcome to The Path of Me! I thank you for being here on the journey! I would love to connect with all of you and have a new feature where you can leave a voice message for me that I can include on future episodes! Leave your name and where you are from and a couple things you are learning on your own Soul Journey, or what you are enjoying about the show here:
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And now, introducing our guest Christie Pierce!
Christie Pierce was adopted at 5 days old into a family of 5. At the age of 25 she lost her Dad which sent her into a deep dive of alcohol to cope with the loss. She felt the abandonment of adoption, and the loss of her Dad and also isolated as she had moved to Florida from the Northeast. We talked about how our story creates life experience that validates that story (even when our story is not true).
Christie is a single Mom, checked all the boxes of financial and professional success but there was an underlying need for approval from her grandmother and mother driving her. Her grandmother favored the biological grandchildren and made it very obvious to the 3 adopted ones they were loved less.
After the loss of both parents (she lost her mom in 2016) Christie was dancing with demons in the light and dark. She was chasing worthiness, going through a lot emotionally. In 2020 she had a stroke that left her asking for assistance for the first time in her life. This major event and the subsequent healing opened her to a stronger connection to herself but also sent her deeper into her emotional healing.
Around the time of the pandemic, she was on Instagram and saw an opportunity to go with a photographer to Iceland. Her heart was an immediate YES and she sent this stranger $10,000 to book the tour/trip. Her daughter thought she was crazy and was going to be taken advantage of! Her trip there as an amateur photographer and passionate about landscape was amazing. She felt like she was touching God as they hiked up glaciers and went into the landscape.
Even before going on the trip she began receiving downloads of information, and while in Iceland she walked on glaciers and felt like she was touching God. Then, one year to the day of her stroke she touched down in Africa. It seemed like a soul retrieval of sorts laying in the silence of the night.
This experience was profound and expansive on a soul level. She learned from the Maasai Tribe who welcomed them with open arms. The unconditional love and connection to the land and animals had a profound impact on her.
In early 2023 Christie attended a retreat in France. The first day there, she broke her foot and found herself using google translate in a French Hospital on Easter Sunday. After returning to the States, she had surgery which required a plate, 6 screws, and had her confined to a wheelchair.
She couldn't move or go upstairs and literally stayed on her couch and cried. It was the worst time of her life and she contemplated suicide. She heard, "you are going to look at yourself and feel everything." It was the slow dance with the ugliest pieces of yourself rising to the surface. All the shame, the blame, the control, and fear (everything she had avoided in her life) was flushed to the surface. It was humbling to be stripped so bare.
When it was over, there was no intense clenching or feelings of being in survival mode. When you are in the abyss of darkness, no one can save you but yourself, but what is waiting for you on the other side of that healing journey is freedom. Christie is a writer of a blog and recently partially retired from her corporate job.
You can follow Christie:
Instagram here: @Thelenstothesoul
Website: https://www.thelenstothesoul.com
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