Threshold, crossed. You got there. After the grinding, the repetitive strain, the cord-cutting, the screams of release, the bliss of relief — the training paid off. Muscle burn got you across the finish line. Soul fire resurrected you. BREAKTHROUGH.

Rebirth happens. The ascension was real. There’s no turning back now. You are true and you ARE new.

Now what? (Because you’re in a new state. And that’s equally awesome and freaky. And you’re about to slip. Which is rough. And ironically, right on course.)

WHAT TO DO AFTER YOU HAVE A BREAKTHROUGH (in this order, give or take.)

Be so very gentle with yourself. Tenderness is essential. Birth requires recovery time. Athletes rest, they heal their blisters and let the lactic acid run it’s course. Soul seekers, you need to be quieter than usual. Let the change bake into your cells. Don’t shout about your revelations yet. Give yourself a few days to calibrate. Watch a movie. Put some rose oil on your third eye. Drink tea. Eat pasta. Head to the ocean. You know, the comfort stuff.

Notice that you’re noticing more now. A paradigm shift is a new way of seeing, so the grass actually looks greener, and you can hear what people are really saying, and yes you ARE looking sexier today. You’re sharper now and you will notice more. Keep it up.

Be prepared for some constriction.

This is really, really important:

Expect to fall back — and be incredibly compassionate when the inevitable slip happens. This is the pattern of really big change: Big expansion. Slight constriction. Return to expansion. Micro constriction. Back to expansion — full, fuller, fullest. Expanded.

You’re learning how to do the new you. You’re reacclimatizing to truth and joy and power. You’ll forget for a minute that you’re more powerful than you have ever been. And you’ll dip into an old pattern or habit. You’ll get all jangled and unnerved by the sh*t you “thought” you just surmounted. That’s cool. You’re on track. You’re re-confirming your expansion. You may be testing yourself. You may even be trying to sabotage yourself. It’s okay, Love. Because you can step back into your new, bigger size WAY more easily than before. Powering up is getting easier. Can you feel it?

Joy can be unsettling. Power can be terrifying. Newness is a mind trip. That’s all you need to know. It’s not that your breakthrough was false, it’s simply that this is… new. Remember how wobbly you were when you learned to ride a bike? Or the first time you drove fast, alone; or swam in the open ocean? This is new, this is new…this is…awe-awe-AWESOME! Stuttering with your new power doesn’t make it any less real. (Also, your new-found power is not afraid of your learning curve. It’s here to stay.)

Document the transformation. Write out your old-to-new ways of being. “I was hiding and silent. I call all of my power back to me. I saw the truth. I spoke the truth. Now I am visible. I feel power in my voice and visibility. I will speak only truth from now on. I’m truly free. Joy is in the freedom. I will keep bringing my joy to the surface.” Write about the revelation. Write about your new way of doing things.

Now declare that you’ve changed. Write a memo. Change a policy. Tell your most trusted friends about your transcendental experience. Talk about how you died and came back — stronger. Articulate what you let go of. Describe the New, True you.

Replay the breakthrough experience. This is key. There was a process that helped you get to the other side. It can be a simple as the eureka moment you had in the pub, talking it through with your mates; or it was the kundalini that shot up your spine in yoga class; or you smoked some peyote on a vision quest; or you cried it out and saw angels in your living room; or you finally fucking launched, or danced hard, or spoke UP. A breakthrough is a breakthrough.

Go back to that magic moment when you woke up and recall how the light filled you. And keep calling on that light.

Keep pulsing open, into your power, WITH your power.

Focus on opening opening opening. Come on…

Don’t let the flash of insight stay just a flash. Tend it like a fire.

Stay with it.

Feed your power appreciation and respect. Root DOWN. @DanielleLaPorte (Click to Tweet!)

Let the newness turn you on. Remember that your bones are full of throbbing marrow. Your cells are constantly renewing (physiologically speaking, you are not the same human you were seven years ago — all of your cells have turned over.) New is HOT.

Just believe me. Go ahead. Lean on my cosmic troops, they are thirty-four foot mighty angels and they love to show up. I’m telling you: And it’s impossible to turn back after you’ve seen the light. Stare into your own heart and you’ll know what I mean.

Power up,

Danielle LaPorte is the creator of The Desire Map: A Guide To Creating Goals With Soul — the book that turned into a day planner system, a top iTunes app, and an international workshop program. A Desire Map workshop happens every weekend somewhere in the world. Author of The Fire Starter Sessions and the wildly popular #Truthbomb series, Danielle is also the co-creator of Your Big Beautiful Book Plan and co-host of the Beautiful Writer’s Group podcast.

Entrepreneur Magazine calls her “equal parts poet and entrepreneurial badass…edgy, contrarian…loving and inspired.” A speaker, poet, former business strategist and Washington-DC think tank exec, she writes weekly at DanielleLaPorte.com, where over four million visitors have gone for her straight-up advice — a site that’s been deemed “the best place online for kick-ass spirituality,” and was named one of the “Top 100 Websites for Women” by Forbes. The Huffington Post named her Twitter feed as one of the “12 of Wisest Twitter Accounts Worth Following.” You can find her @daniellelaporte just about everywhere.