Thriving is a Process, Not a Destination
- Jun 16
- 3 min read
By DK Hillard
Growing up in a family whose generational patterns were geared toward survival, the word “thrive” was foreign to me. Thriving was never mentioned in my family, nor did I understand that this was an option, a choice. From the very beginning of my life and for lifetimes before this, my entire being was poised on the edge of survival.
How I could possibly know that my soul has battled this for lifetimes? You’ll have to read my book to learn about that! I’ll simply say that in my spiritual practice, I have access to multiple dimensions of reality and this is one of them. Being a warrior, survival is embedded in my soul and the choice to thrive has been a journey I’ve worked through over many lifetimes.
In my youth I was blinded by the drive to survive. Surviving meant proving to myself and others that I deserved to be alive and take up space. I had to both stand out and remain invisible at the same time, a delicate dance to avoid rejection. My family never accepted me, so I fought for approval and to stave off abandonment. As I navigated this struggle, I never considered thriving as a possibility until much later in life.
I never considered that there would be another choice until much later in my life. Constant undiagnosable ills plagued me from my twenties on, resulting in procedures that came with their own side effects. Along the way, as my spiritual awareness expanded, I questioned what this was all about. My family seemed to live long lives, but suffer continually. I questioned why.
As the years progressed, I had moments of improved health, only for illness to strike again. Each time, I sought answers in spirituality as traditional medicine failed to provide relief. It wasn’t until my fifties that the first inklings of choice appeared in my paintings. Images of pregnant women, bursting to birth new life, were appearing out of nowhere. My soul was reaching out through my hands and into my conscious awareness to show me that there was another possibility for me and I listened.
At fifty, I left an abusive marriage and began a new chapter. Yet, old patterns followed me.
New relationships mirrored the old ones, and I found myself caught in cycles of abuse in both personal and professional realms. It occurred to me one New Years’ Eve, as I was writing my traditional review of the year, that I had never been willing to receive love. As a result, I made a choice that not only brought me the love of my life, but shifted the way I dreamed of my future. I saw the choice in front of me, the choice to either continuing surviving or head in the direction of thriving.
But that was not an automatic dream come true.
Thriving is a process, not a destination. Thriving requires living with intention, recognizing that every moment is a choice, not a habitual pattern. It is a series of choices every moment of my life, guided by my heart, giving my soul free reign to fly in the directions that light it up. I am still learning this skill. It doesn’t come naturally. The life I want to live is one where I am fully aware of my choices and actively create a life that fulfills me.
If you're curious about exploring this journey, I invite you to contact me for a free call. Through my art and Shamanic practice, I offer Soul Portraits—powerful tools that connect you to the essence of your authentic self.
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