Today we raise our fists high and put our hands together in celebration of our Feature Girl Warrior, Body Talk Practitioner and Sacred Warrioress, Petra MacDougall, a devoted mother, wife and intuitive ambassador helping women connect with the healing power of love. Learning from first-hand experience as a personal fitness trainer for 14 years, Petra has a deep and profound understanding of the body/mind/soul connection. She brings that to her work with women helping them discover their inherent gifts and purpose in this lifetime. Petra believes that these essential gifts help us get in touch with our true feelings and are the natural pathway to service and finding authentic fulfillment. As the Sacred Warrioress, she lends support to women to help them navigate through the darkness in their relationships into a better space, a place of release, healing, and ultimately wholeness.
What makes you a Girl Warrior?
I am a Girl Warrior because there was a time when I could have run, and listened to what people wanted for me to do. Instead I decided to stick with what my “soul” was telling me and as a result feel like I am that much closer to being able to express myself, and my gift.
As a personal fitness trainer for 14 years your have a deep understanding of how the body, mind and spirit function and communicate. Tell us about your work as a Body Talk Practitioner.
My work as a Body Talk Practitioner brought me the piece that was always missing when I was working with people from a fitness perspective. Although people would always share what was going on in their lives they wouldn’t necessarily know why?
Body Talk has taught me to get into the space of deeper knowing and allows me to help people free up the unconscious blocks that keep them stuck and unhappy. It was actually the modality that helped me trust my intuition a lot more. Now it is just one of the modalities I use when working with women.
What’s the love-healing- energy connection, especially when it comes to relationships?
This is the moment in which you understand that the relationship, when you are hurting and want to quit, is actually for you. When you take the opportunity that shows itself and dive inwards – this is when you start reaping the rewards of having this person in your life regardless of circumstance.
The love is more about what you’ll discover within yourself than what you think you need from the other. And, you only find this when you do the energy work to heal and uncover what has been hiding this love or self-love.
So in fact, the relationship is the trigger, the gift and eventually the celebration.
What do we need to know “for sure” about connecting with our soul?
You need to know “for sure” that you are always connected to your soul! It is just a matter of hearing its guidance and trusting that it is for your highest good. In order to get here though, it takes some effort to break down the “junk” that gets in the way of hearing the truth of your soul.
What was the turning point, or the defining moment, in your relationship that changed things for you? What impact did that have on other aspects of your life?
There was a precise moment when my soul was saying LOUD AND CLEAR things have to change – for me some things didn’t align between what my heart/truth/soul was telling me and what was showing itself externally.
We were caring for two people with disabilities in our home (our job) and had three children under four. Life felt crazy and so I prayed to the universe for a sign for what I needed to do next.
One of the clients “lost himself” and destroyed our basement. I was home alone with the kids and we had to evacuate for safety reasons. We were left without income from one day to the next and from there all of our relationship stuff was kind of forced to the forefront…it all came out that night. I shared what my soul was telling me and asked for honest answers.
This is where we both felt extremely hurt and vulnerable and then we had to make some decisions.
We spent days in silence and prayer, often in tears asking for more clarity (but in a gentler form). I really thought I would never be able to trust him again but in one of my meditations – something I will never forget – there was this voice that clearly said, “STAY. You have much to learn.” As much as I wanted to ignore this voice, my heart didn’t want to leave and so I couldn’t deny the power of this message. Plus, the look in my children’s eyes was enough to fully believe the voice and start a new journey in my relationship.
This changed everything in my life, everything slowed right down. Every moment was about stopping, praying, listening, healing and repeat. Life became a very deep inward journey. It has been four years now. I feel like I have been through a master’s (maybe PHD) program in “becoming conscious in my marriage.”
How did the Sacred Warrioress come about and why is it so important for women to bring their gifts to light?
Sacred Warrioress came from a space in which I felt I needed to “fight” from. I needed to persist and always focus on “what would love do.” And so that space of “what would love do” became the ultimate challenge. Love is delicate, it is the origin of power, truth and the essence of why we exist here on earth and so it is sacred.
We MUST bring our gifts to light – it is absolutely essential – the world needs us right now. We are so intuitive and able to love.
I really want to ask women to consciously find how you are sabotaging and hiding your gift because we are such a unique species.
Seriously, we need to stop shopping, drinking, binging on Netflix, or social media, eating the wrong foods, projecting blame onto our men/partner. No more redirecting our energy.
The energy needs to go inward, to heal the stuff that is blocking our gifts, and then allow our essence to shine. There is so much we have to offer and that we all need for the planet/world to thrive.
What has been your biggest challenge?
My biggest challenge has and is being loving to my husband, hence Sacred Warrioress. I want to love him deeply, unconditionally and with ease…but being human and living with someone for a long time while having children with this person is friggin’ hard!
He, because he has shown up in my life the way he has, is my greatest gift. He will allow me to eventually achieve clarity and purpose and find my essence, which ultimately, will show up as my service to the world.
What obstacles have you overcome and walls have you broken down?
I think the obstacles that I am overcoming are learning to hear the light/love over dark and fear. Some walls that I have broken down are related to the belief systems of “being a burden” and “not being wanted.”
What would you say to your younger Girl Warrior?
You have a healing gift that must be shared. ALWAYS remember the oneness.
What would you say to future Girl Warriors looking for inspiration?
Get comfortable with yourself, because within is where your inspiration will show up. Keep feeling your emotions, express, pray, listen and then move!
Who is/are your Girl Warrior hero(s) and why?
This is kinda literal for me. When I think of Girl Warrior what comes to mind is an eight year old who still has the twinkle in her eye, is still expressive, is still curious and straight up with whatever she has to say. When I think about being a Girl Warrior I think about allowing that type of radiance to come through. So I guess right now my Girl Warrior hero is my daughter, Chanel who is eight.
What’s next?
I live life day to day and follow my inner guidance in every moment so this question is a bit contradictory to that. But if I ask… for the future I feel hopeful that I am able to be there for more women who want to grow spiritually in their relationship, help women live and love consciously, and inspire women to follow their guidance and give their gifts to the world.
I really would love to see love conquer fear.
When women are helped the way I dream about helping them, families are thriving and communities are coming together and creating really conscious and love-based decisions.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
REALLY stretching my goal setting muscle, which I really have resisted, to just stay present, but since I see my kids growing so quickly I will send myself into the future.
I see myself present and available for my kids. I see myself and hubby speaking in many parts of the world (kids traveling with us to learn about the world) about conscious love, which includes marriage, healing, food consumption – daily choices that bring us closer to experiencing and living from love. I see myself connecting with families that have moved to this way of thinking and supporting a new paradigm.
If a love song was written about you what would it be called?
“I can love again!” or “Lost mama with no overcoat”
To learn more about Petra visit her website at sacredunion.ca
Follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/petra.macdougall
Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/petramacdougall
Twitter at https://twitter.com/petramacdougall
Check out her Etsy store at https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/Sacredunionforwomen
