The alchemy of the impostor

Not a syndrome... A hidden pathway to mastery.

I know the quote above can feel challenging to accept at first, especially if you hate feeling like an impostor, but I am inviting you to bear with me. Not everything that looks dark is negative.

There are many archetypes that have been and continue to be master teachers in my journey. At first they often look like great hindrances. A plague you try to run away from. When they emerge, it is common to feel as if they are a character defect that you need to correct.

Yet when you get a little closer, they appear to have a golden shadow… a higher purpose. A teaching you need to embody in order to embrace new levels of self liberation.

One of these archetypes is the impostor. You know… that syndrome.

The one that causes you to doubt your skills, your voice and your gifts. The one that wants to convince you that your craft is not good enough or that you are not worthy of your light… The one that makes you feel as if you are pretending to be something you’re not. The one that silently whispers: “you are not as bright as you think you are”… or a version of that.

Does that sound any familiar?

I have a love story with this archetype. And no this is not a metaphor.

Not a syndrome… not even close

There are many natural aspects of the human experience that as a collective we have a tendency to “make wrong” or demonize. Feeling like an impostor is one of them. We even casually call it a syndrome. Yet what if it was none of it?

What if relating to it as a syndrome that needs to be eradicated before you feel free to express yourself, is precisely what keeps you stuck?

In order to understand the impostor, it’s necessary to acknowledge an emotional addiction we mostly all share. It’s the addiction to receiving praise.

I know my use of the word addiction can be a turn off, yet I am inviting you to go beyond that. It’s the only word that conveys the intensity of our urge for praise. I mean let’s be honest here… It feels good to be appreciated. And we can go to extreme lengths of deception in order to receive some praise. Social media alone is a testament to that.

I don’t know of anyone yet who walks around saying: “please tell me something you hate about me, it feels so good…” **hysterically laughing as I write this :)**. I mean, do you?

Feeling like an impostor is your inner alarm system when you are approaching the potential of *not* receiving praise. It kicks in especially around the things that you value most, like expressing your gifts.

The impostor wants to sober you up from the addiction to receiving praise.

When we misunderstand that archetype, we often think it is attempting to cause us to freeze. Yet that is not the higher purpose of the impostor.

The impostor is an evolutionary archetype. It flares up at the frontiers of your expansion.

It invites you to reclaim true humility. A level of humility that accepts that it is necessary to remain a student, so that you can continue to refine your light. The impostor invites you to fully face within yourself the fear of humiliation, because that will free you. The impostor invites you to embrace a level of humility that does not mean disowning your brightness.

Here is something that happens when you befriend your impostor within, that archetype then opens a door to your light that was hidden in your shadow. And from that place, allowing yourself to be seen authentically, naturally unfolds. A return to your first nature.

This is why I have a love story with my impostor. I know now that when it flares up, I have reached my next frontier of evolution and I have learned how to cherish that feeling. I continue to be a practitioner of cherishing that feeling.

What is your relationship with the impostor within you? Will these perspectives shift the way you relate to feeling like an impostor?

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There is a technology and a blueprint to this practice. The blueprint is more than just a shift in perspective. It involves shadow integration and somatic exploration. That blueprint allows you to dissolve the hidden forces that you still carry in your body, that cause you to shy away from the next levels of expansion and self liberation your heart craves.

I would like to take you through a 6-week immersion where we will navigate that blueprint together. I’ve called that immersion SEEN.

SEEN is a series of 6 in-depth live workshops with me that combine Shadow integration, somatic inquiry, transformational coaching and evolutionary transmissions to get you unstuck and unapologetically expressed. We start April 24th and the early bird enrollment is open now. Click HERE to save your spot.

In gratitude and reverence,

— Xavier