New Beginnings

Each breath is a new beginning.

An opportunity to begin again.

Ashleigh Hakes Empowers, AH Empowers, has evolved into something new, and it feels like it’s finally time to introduce this new beginning.

 AH — think about it.

It’s the sound we make on an exhale as we gift breath back to the Creator.

Ahhhhh.

AH Empowers is more than Ashleigh Hakes.

It is a representation of the breath as power.

The one resource available to us at all times, in every moment we are alive.

As humans, there is one thing we can all agree on: without the breath, we would not be alive.

“Death in the middle of life and everlasting life in the middle of death.”
This is my Mystery School motto, and it has become something I live by.

Throughout our lives, we experience countless micro-deaths.

Deaths of the people we once were.
Relationships ending.
Loved ones leaving.
Dreams changing.
Things we cherished disappearing.
Things we once hated losing their grip on us.

It is all temporary.

And somewhere in the middle of those deaths, we are given a choice:
We can move unconsciously into whatever comes next, or we can choose to become more awake and aware of how we are meeting the transition.

That is what this new beginning feels like for me, and this time, it feels different.

It doesn’t feel like I’m starting over anymore.

Ten years ago, I graduated from college with a BA in Human Development. That same year, I graduated from Nine Gates Mystery School.

I could never have imagined that ten years later I would once again be saying

I am beginning again.

Yet here I am.

For the first time in my adult life, I don’t have a car.

I’m divorced.

I’m with a partner I deeply love and cherish.

Indigo Child (my dog) is still kicking it and loving life — he's my sweet angel.

And in the middle of it all, I am meeting this next chapter with more embodied knowledge, more awareness, more inspiration, and honestly, more joy than I ever could have ten years ago.

I’m wiser. I’m older. I have experience behind me, but even with a decade of experience behind me, I can’t say this new beginning is a walk in the park.

It feels more like a sprint through a thunderstorm.

I’ve been in worse places. But that doesn’t make this easy.

When we find ourselves at a new beginning, things can feel hella uncertain.

The unknown has a funny way of working itself into every crevice of our reality and reminding us just how little we actually know.

It can be scary.

Frustrating.

Confusing.

Downright heartbreaking.

A new beginning can make us question the very core of who we thought we were.

And what a whirlwind that can be.

Sometimes, life sucks.

And sometimes, we just have to get through it.

What I know to be true, through every major shift, transition, heartbreak, death, rebirth, reinvention, and unexpected turn in my life, there are a few steady practices that have stayed with me to keep me grounded, here, and safe in my human being.

The most important has been returning home to myself.

What does that actually mean? you might be asking. What does that really mean?

For me, it means taking time to be with myself without the constant noise and influence of the outside world.

It means being with nature in its purest form.

Listening.

Breathing.

Letting my heart, mind, body, and soul have enough space to speak.

Remembering what is mine.

Remembering what matters.

Remembering that somehow, even when I cannot yet see how, it is going to be okay.

There is a quote I have carried with me for years
“On the other side of fear is greatness.”

Taking that time to come home to myself reminds me of my own greatness.

It reminds me how powerful I really am.

It reminds me that I am an active participant in the creation of my reality.

And from that place, my confidence begins to return.

I become inspired to take the next aligned action toward my dreams.

Not because I know exactly how everything is going to work out.
But because I remember that I am capable of creating something new.

That is what AH Empowers represents to me now.

It is an invitation for all of us to remember the truth of who we are.

To return home to ourselves.

To breathe.

To become aware.

To trust ourselves enough to take the next step.

To have the confidence to pursue what we actually want.

And to remember that success does not have to mean becoming someone else.

Sometimes success is becoming more fully yourself.

Through the breath.

Through devotion.

Through awareness.

Through experience.

Through beginning again and again and again.

I believe life becomes ceremony when we choose to treat it that way.
And that is what I will be weaving into everything I create through AH Empowers.

Not perfection. Not pretending life is always beautiful.

But the practice of coming home to ourselves, remembering our power, and choosing to live this life awake.

So here we are.

A new beginning.

Take a breath in.

Ahhhhh.

And begin again.