Your beast- your beat

“So don’t you try to tame the lion
Just to ride on the horizon
Can somebody let the beast out, baby
Yeah, we all hide our desire
And then we feel the beat like fire
Will somebody let the beast out, baby”

The Lion The Beast The Beat -written by Grace Potter

The first time I heard The Lion The Beast The Beat sung by Grace Potter And The Nocturnals, it spoke to me. It literally grabbed me by the back of the head, spun me around and threw me to the ground. It was THAT earthshaking. Okay, perhaps I exaggerate a smidge, but I love magic and tend to feel the excitement of my 8 year old self when I’m looking for clarity on something and the universe tosses a shiny gift box of a message right into my lap. Magic. The message was about beasts, Grace Potter was delivering and I was instructed to run with it.

As I told you in my last post, I believe your beasts will either serve you or kill you. In the figurative sense, of course… If I’ve gone too woo-woo too quickly, let me back up and explain my interpretation of beasts. I see a beast as a facet of yourself that you find unfavorable. An aspect or trait within that you’re ashamed of, embarrassed by, or feel controlled by in any manner. The challenge lies in seeing these qualities with new eyes– to perceive them in a manner in which they empower our energy rather than compromise it. For me this requires a process of going within and breaking it down. For instance, I have a secret raging anger deep within me. In the past, though deeply ashamed and somewhat fearful of this side of myself, I believed my angry beast held me in his clutches while I stood powerless whenever he decided to show himself. This resulted in situations where, at best, I made an ass out of myself, and at worst, I put myself or others in danger, all the while feeling like I was somewhere outside myself, watching things unfold like a removed bystander paralyzed from stepping in. Much like Banner and Hulk, my Hulk was an internal sidekick whose power I could not benefit from until I learned to take control of it. Taking control required acknowledging the existence of this anger and re-labeling it to serve my mission. I came to see it as FIRE– an element within myself that housed my passion, heat, and protective powers. In facing this beast head-on, I could reconsider its capacity in my life by assuming jurisdiction over its domain and redirecting the energy of FIRE toward empowerment. And just how is this done? By acknowledging, addressing, and overcoming–3 steps we’ll revisit numerous times in future posts, as they are key actions toward soul growth. This situation involved acknowledging which forms my fire took that were unacceptable (i.e. quick-tempered driving irritation, physical violence towards others or property damage brought about by possessiveness and jealousy, and basically any other anger related behavior not otherwise specified that resulted in a shame hangover later). It’s not that these were things that happened often, it’s that I wanted to be sure they’d never happen again. I did that by addressing what I’d acknowledged by reprogramming my brain using mantras, scripted scenarios, and other forms of empowered thinking that I consistently coached myself in. You got it- workouts. *more on the how-tos of these workouts in future posts.* You don’t get guns without working your biceps and triceps and you don’t build soul stamina without the mental workouts it takes to build it. Doing the workouts allowed me to overcome my inability to take charge of my fire.

“Yeah, we all hide our desire
And then we feel the beat like fire
Will somebody let the beast out, baby

Oh, Can’t stop the beat, can’t stop the beat
Run, but you can’t hide from the heat
When life is a record, playing on repeat
I’m running wild with The Lion The Beast The Beat… “

-Grace Potter

We “hide our desire and then we feel the beat like fire. Will somebody let the beast out baby?” You are a magnificent human being. You are the compilation of a variety of traits too numerous and diverse to fully comprehend. While it’s essential to recognize and develop traits that will empower us and work to minimize or eliminate those that don’t, to relegate them into categories of “right or wrong” is an assessment we’ve been conditioned to partake in that doesn’t necessarily serve us. Trying to hide and deny parts of yourself that long for your acknowledgement will cause them to rear up in their own manner until you do so. Your beasts are part of what makes you beat as a human being. They are not here to destroy you, but instead to allow you the means to acknowledge, address, and overcome challenges intended to fuel your evolvement. I came to feel gratitude for the fire within me. It’s my animal, my inner scrapper, that fierce force within that now under my control serves and emboldens me. Under my supervision, I have no fear in letting it out with gusto and a ROARRRR!! “When life is a record, playing on repeat, I’m running wild with the lion the beast the beat.” The record of life will play on repeat as many times as it takes until you get it- everything you need to get. There is no “correct” time frame and no getting it “wrong”. It’s your journey. So don’t be afraid to let out that beast and run wild. That’s why you’re here.