The Excavation Project with Megan Schilt

Have an open mind about everything 💖

It’s never to late to unlearn and re-learn👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

What is the Excavation Project, you ask?

We all have a light within us that represents our truest self. When we know exactly who we are, live in our values and stand in our power, that light shines brightly, touching everything and everyone around us. We live out our purpose, up to our highest potential, and inspire those around us to do the same.

Many of us carry within us experiences (with people, groups, society, media, etc) that are dismissive and devaluing of our true selves and way of being. These bits of rubble and debris cover and dim our light until we find ourselves living a life that isn't our own, within values that are not ours, and without a clear purpose.

Through our own self-excavation, we unearth and systematically remove the social conditioning rubble to once again, expose our light. We anchor ourselves in it, allow it to take up space within us and around us. When others feel the warmth of our light, they are given permission to expose their own. And when we all walk around with our lights shining bright, living our truest and best lives, the world is a better place.

If you are living a life that feels like it's someone else's. If you feel stuck, resentful, angry, lost. If you're a mother who pauses a little too long or stares blankly when asked the question, "What do you do for fun?/What are your hobbies?" If you’re burned out, maxed out, tapped out while caring for everyone else but yourself. If you're constantly feeling less than while scrolling through your newsfeed comparing your life to others' social media highlights. If you feel unseen, unheard, and unimportant.

Come along with me through this process of self-excavation. I promise that your best self is in there, buried underneath the rubble and debris of social conditioning and expectations. You're a bright light waiting to shine. You're worth the process of returning to yourself. The real, true, best YOU.

Follow for more on the process of self-excavation.

A few notes on emotions...

-Emotions are TEMPORARY states, not PERMANENT traits.

-When we FEEL our emotions, we can HEAL our emotions.

-Emotions are clues to helping us better understand ourselves and our needs. They can also help us understand others and their needs.

-Use these steps with yourself AND with others.

-Parents, use these steps with your children to help them get to know themselves, understand their emotions, and create a connection before focusing on correction of behaviors.

With four kids, ages 11-4, and three pups, ages 13.5-10, our home is full of a lot of things...love, fun, noise, chaos. At one point, our home was full of fear and toxic stress. Our youngest child entered the world in a traumatic and overwhelming way. Overwhelm had been the name of the game for years until we were able to make our way through some big healing. We're still moving through our healing, but we've moved out of survival and are approaching a space where we are able to thrive.

In the midst of our healing, we've stumbled upon this transitional stage where we're working so hard to put in practice all of the things we've been learning about how to make our big family function in a way that we all have the space to grow and thrive, independently, and collectively.

As a highly visual person, I'm taking our learnings, adding a bit of my own creativity, and applying them to our physical space so that we are able to help ourselves remember and practice some of our family values that will help us all continue to grow and thrive in our home and outside of it.

As a mother, I want to teach my children how to be happy, healthy humans. As an ambitious woman, I want to spend my energy and time in places other than cleaning and micro-managing my houeshold. I have passions of my own that I want to tend to while supporting my children in finding theirs.

Putting our intentions and values in writing and placing them in our physical space can support us in embodying them and living the lives we were meant to live while setting our littles up to do the same.

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Stop doing things that get in the way of your growth.

"What parents teach is themselves, as models of what is human - by their moods, their reactions, their facial expressions and actions. These are the real things parents need to be aware of, and of how they affect their children." - Magda Ge**er

Love this infographic from The Mom Brain Therapist!

Being present is helpful. Sometimes people don't need solutions, and they don't want to hear about your experiences. Practice just holding space for people without telling them what's best.

It's not easy seeing someone in pain. And it's not helpful showing up for people in a way that harms them even further.

The more we talk, the more we heal. Each time that we are brave and vulnerable, we are releasing stress or unhealed wounds.

Connecting with others around topics that are the least spoken about helps you feel less alone in your struggles.

Support looks like allowing space for connection.
Support looks like allowing space for people to talk.