This is something I’ve been observing over the past so many years, and the other day I decided it was time to write about it.

The inevitable pendulum swing on the path to Truth and wholeness.

What is the pendulum swing, you ask?

It’s the movement from one extreme internal pattern to the other.

Now, let me be clear: this is a natural and often necessary part of the healing path. However, it can get sticky.

Let’s look at an example, shall we?

Let’s say Stacy embarks on a self-discovery journey and awakens to her interior world for really the first time in her life. She is horrified to find out how much of a people-pleasing, good girl she is, and it makes her sick to her stomach (cue the indigestible morsel conflict, for my fellow GNMers). She feels small and totally disconnected from her power. She also finds she has the standard religious wounding and deep pain in her relationships with men.

In an attempt to reconcile this within herself, she vows to never let anyone walk all over her again. She is reclaiming her power! She realizes her worth and is done with settling. On top of this, Shaman Kyle and other spiritual influencers on Instagram have told her she’s a “goddess and deserves to be worshiped,” or something of that sort.

“I’ll show them!” she says. Stacy is now in her ~*divine feminine era.*~

What happens next, you ask?

Well, Stacy has just experienced the pendulum swing. She becomes hyper-independent, dominant, controlling and closed off, not just from others, but from her true feminine nature, all in the name of 'taking her power back.'

Now, this is an oversimplification for the sake of this example, but you get the drift.

This is none other than the other side of the same coin, so to speak.

Different texture? Yes. But same coin nonetheless.

Stacy hasn’t escaped her wounding.

She’s just begun to awaken and has swung to the other extreme.

This is not freedom. She is still trapped within the frequency of her wounding.

Deep beneath her exterior mask is still pain, grief and mistrust. Mistrust in herself, life, men and ultimately, God.

Again, this is a natural part of the path to wholeness. Some move through it quickly. Some stay indefinitely. Most probably experience something in between.

I personally began to realize that many stops on my journey were just that: stops. Not ultimate Truth.

That there was another layer. And another layer. The descent continued!

Until ultimately, one dissolves the distorted patterns, the mistaken identities, the untruths that were keeping that frequency alive within.

Eventually, one transcends both ends of the spectrum and arrives at the mystical third thing: ultimate Truth, love and union with the Divine.

I always say that in the absence of your distorted patterns, the Truth of who you are washes over you. No need for affirmations, mental gymnastics or reprogramming your brain. (That's a story for another day.)

Now, cue one of my biggest hang-ups with the personal development and coaching space:

People who mean well teach from their pendulum swing as if it is Truth with a capital T.

In Stacy’s case, let’s say she now creates a business from this place.

She builds a platform and begins teaching others from her newly claimed “power.”

My main issue with people on the internet who do this is with those who become, for lack of a better word, men-haters. In an attempt to reclaim their power, they pedestalize the feminine and end up putting men down.

Not cool. We love men around here.

So here’s the thing about Stacy’s teachings, if you haven’t already guessed:

It’s not Truth.

It’s her trauma in transition.

Sure, some of what she is teaching is truth, but it’s woven in with distortion and her own wounded patterns.

Many movements are birthed from the pendulum swing.

Mainstream feminism is an example of this.

I’ve never considered myself a feminist. It’s always felt bitter and angry to me.

It feels more like a trauma response than a true restoration.

I digress.

Many start teaching from within their healing journey.

They mistake a pendulum swing for a revelation and then build an entire brand, business or movement from it… much like the foolish man who built his house on sand.

So much of what’s out there is being taught from wounding, not from wholeness.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve been guilty of this too. Not this pattern in particular, but teaching what worked for me at the time, then growing out of it as I continued my seeking.

For those of us with embodied businesses, you understand.

I mean, we’re always learning, growing, evolving.

So what’s the answer?

Well, I don’t think this is bad, necessarily. I just believe we need more awareness of this phenomenon.

Awareness, openness and the ability to question:

Is this ultimate Truth? Or merely a stop on the journey to?

Discernment is key.

When creating a business and when deciding who we desire to work with.

Discernment and a continual seeking of ultimate Truth.

The humility to recognize that what you believe and stand for now might just be a stop on the journey.

A step toward Truth, not the final destination.

Because sure, “my truth” and how I felt in the past was valid.

However, what I found was that it was not ultimate Truth. And thank goodness for that, honestly. 

So I will leave you with this:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

And remember, everything you need is already within you.

Chlo