5 Things This Year Has Taught Me About Devotion — Part I
On becoming the leader that your purpose deserves
This year has been arguably one of the most transformative ones of my entire life.
I’ve experimented more than ever before. I’ve tried new things. Some with pleasant results. Others with results I liked a lot less.
I’ve published my first book with Hay House (You can get Scars of Gold here), got married, reunited (in person) with my parents after 12+ years, launched a podcast, the list is way too long and I get dizzy thinking about it.
You know… It’s been a trip over here.
At the beginning of the year, I held an intention that took me on a wild ride. Here it is:
“I give permission to my soul to use me in all the ways possible to support my mission and purpose.”
If you set such an intention, be prepared to be shaped into the kind of leader your mission needs and deserves.
And this is precisely what happened in my world.
What I couldn’t see was that I was entering an initiation into a deeper form of devotion.
The year didn’t just stretch me, it matured me.
And as I look back, I can clearly see that devotion revealed itself through two archetypes within me: The Devotee and The Disciple.
The Devotee is intimate with Heart and Soul. He listens. He feels. He sits at the altar of the spark of divinity within you and receives truth directly from its source.
From that intimacy, the Devotee discovers his highest values… the values his soul came here to express. Not the values of your conditioning.
The Disciple is the one who takes these values and turns them into a way of being in the world.
The Disciple commits and honors the commitments. He builds the habits, practices, structures, and behaviors that make devotion real and embodied.
The Devotee is the bridge between the disciple within and your Soul. And when the disciple is acting in a way that honors the values of your Soul, that is when true discipline emerges.
This year showed me again and again how much I needed these two archetypes locked in. This is what has supported me in creating what I have this year.
Before I share with you the first 5 of the series of things this year has taught me about devotion, I have a special invitation for you.
In 2026, we start a year of devotion inside The Embodied Light Project (ELP), our membership community. The intention is to help you become the leader your life, your light and purpose deserve.
And for black Friday you can secure one of the highest savings we’ve ever given when you join ELP. Get over 35% discount when you join ELP yearly, and keep that discount for life. This is a limited time offer.
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Here are the first five lessons this year taught me about devotion…
1. Devotion isn’t always soft — it requires structure.
Most spiritual seekers prefer the term devotion to discipline. Discipline may sometimes feel harsh and infused with rigidity. Devotion on the other side can feel very fluid and more forgiving. So it makes sense that many would favor devotion.
But this year showed me that the devotee within you also needs a frame. A structure designed to support the intimacy with your soul.
While I was in the writing process of my book, I had to wake up usually two hours before our 3 kids rise, to get some words on the pages. Almost like a morning prayer.
You better believe that there are mornings where I was throwing tantrums on my way to my desk.
I have many examples like this one. If you want to be devoted to your light, odds are you’ll need to surrender to the proper structure. And some days it will be harder than others to stay committed.
The Devotee feels the truth. But the Disciple builds a life around that truth, your practices, your systems, your boundaries, your containers.
Devotion requires both.
2. Receiving what you prayed for is its own initiation into deeper devotion.
This year asked me to hold more… more responsibility, more visibility, more blessings, more expansion.
And I learned that receiving isn’t passive. Receiving is an act of devotion.
Think about it for a second. You spend so much time intending, desiring and cocreating with your Soul. And then when things come to fruition, can you actually receive them fully?
Well, I’ve had to let the things I’ve devoted myself to, stretch me wide open. I’ve realized all the ways I need to get better at receiving.
Receiving is a nervous system practice. Do you actually feel safe to receive the things you’ve prayed for? Everything you pray for will stretch you. Devotion is what allows you to stay open while the stretch happens.
3. Devotion exposes where you’re still performing.
The deeper I went into devotion, the more I saw the subtle ways I still performed:
Trying to not disappoint. Trying to maintain an image. Trying to hold everything for everyone.
Devotion reveals where you’re operating from “shoulds” instead of Soul.
It humbles you. It shows you the difference between truth and performance, and it asks you to choose truth every single time.
4. Devotion may collapse everything that was build on a foundation of self-abandonment.
Every time I drifted from my truth this year… devotion called me back.
In total honesty, some times were quite annoying because we can get attached even to things that do not serve our highest good.
I’ve had to reassess my priorities and say no to opportunities that once upon a time I dreamed of.
Devotion will not let you hide behind your pain, fears and coping mechanisms.
It will not let you dilute your truth.
It will not let you sacrifice your inner authority for external approval.
It rearranges everything that was built on self-abandonment.
5. Devotion is not about perfection — it will ask of you to make peace with shining your light imperfectly.
This was one of the biggest lessons.
I used to think devotion meant consistency without interruption. But devotion has nothing to do with being flawless.
Devotion is about the return. Returning after fear. Returning after contraction. Returning after overwhelm. Returning after forgetting who you are.
Devotion is choosing your values again and again, even after you’ve lost sight of them.
The Devotee helps you hear the call.
The Disciple brings you back to it.
And together, they understand that to be human means shining your light imperfectly. With as much integrity as you can, but without the burden of perfectionism.
Which one of these 5 points resonates most with you where you are at this time? Leave a comment below.
A Year of Devotion Begins Soon
These are the first five lessons devotion carved into me this year.
Part Two will explore the next five, the ones that shook me the most.
And because devotion is asking for more from me, I’m inviting you into the same journey.
For a limited time period, you can join The Embodied Light Project for an entire year, at our lowest price of the year (Save 35%+).
If you’re ready for more devotion to your craft, to your higher self, to your potential, to your truth, to the future you’re building… then this is the container designed to hold you through it.
→ Join The Embodied Light Project — A Year of Devotion
Part Two is coming tomorrow.
In gratitude and reverence,
Xavier
Part 5 - Returning is so hard. I can't return without collapsing, because my (very sentitive) nervous system identifies changes in energies as threats
Beautiful read. Thank you. Number 5 hits home the most in this moment of my journey. <3