Standing strong

When the integrity of something

very dear to your heart

is being compromised,

stand up for what you believe in.

 Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter.” -Martin Luther King Jr

*****

 

Inner beauty

Being real is no easy task.

It takes great courage to put aside...

 what others may think of you,

 to stand in your authenticity.
 

I am writing this to remind you of your essence beauty.

 This is the part of you that has nothing to do with age,

occupation, weight, history...

This is the soft, untouched, indelible you.

You can love yourself in this moment,

 no matter what you have, or haven't done or been...
If you cannot see or feel love, lie down now and cry;

 it will cleanse your vision and free your heart...

 

― S.A.R.K.

 

Feeling good

She couldn't own herself

until she shrunk her fear

of being alone.

“I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud.

And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow even,

and realize that my life is a collection of meetings

and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes.

 I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car

with the windows open

and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing

and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now.

I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets

and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes

and read books so good they make me jump up and down,

and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh,

glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift.” 

 
― Shauna Niequist

Soulful living

There are times when the direction
of the day seems aimless and uncertain.
Empty moments when you can't touch meaning. 

Can you sit ever so quiet in the sacredness of it?
 

 

I realized for the first time in my life:

 there is nothing but mystery in the world,

 how it hides behind the fabric...

of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly,

and we don't even know it.

Sue Monk Kidd

 

******

 

Loving our flaws

Scoop up all the parts of yourself you don't like 

and give them a big hug.

 Judgment only reinforces shame, guilt, loathing.

In accepting all aspects of who you are, 

you begin to turn a corner to finding self-love.

Your goal is not to be perfect,

 but to be beautifully flawed.

 

You are already perfect, peaceful, and powerful.

You don’t need to become anything.

You simply need to remember yourself.”
― Vironika Tugaleva

 

******

 

Being true to yourself

“Like a Columbus of the heart, mind and soul
I have hurled myself off the shores of my own fears and limiting beliefs
to venture far out into the uncharted territories of my inner truth,
in search of what it means to be genuine
and at peace with who I really am.
I have abandoned the masquerade of living up to
the expectations of others and explored the new horizons
of what it means to be truly and completely me,
in all my amazing imperfection and most splendid insecurity.”  

-Anthon St. Maarten

*****

 

Traveling a new path

 

Real adventure is not about travel.

It's about seeing life through a different lens,

opening your heart so the world pours in,

never giving your power to fear,

finding the gifts in all your experiences,

saying "thank you, God" for everything.

 

 

“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life

is the foundation for all abundance.”  

― Eckhart Tolle

 

*****

 

A fresh start

If we can share our story with someone

who responds with empathy and understanding,

shame can't survive.”   ― Brené Brown

 

A lot of us have been taught that asking for help is a sign of weakness. But it's simply not true. It takes courage to reach out. Years ago, my emotional baggage caught up with me. I couldn't even pretend that I could manage it anymore, so I sought help. I was in a hole so deep, I lost sight of hope. I needed someone to throw me a rope so I could climb out. Asking for help was the kindest, most humane thing I could have done for myself. 

*****

 

Making better choices

Because there are so many ways to distract ourselves. 
it's ridiculously easy to become numb inside,
 Numbness lets us avoid things we don't want to look at, 
but after years of stockpiling, it sucks the breath out of living.
So how did we get here? The culprit is fear.
We're afraid to face feelings of loneliness, self-loathing,
 our unresolved emotional pain.
How do we turn our lives in another direction?
We take the words "I'm fine" out of our vocabulary,
push past our pride, and reach for help.

Working on ourselves

What are some symptoms of a wounded inner child?

 Fear of vulnerability
 Defensiveness

Shame
Mistrust
Victim thinking
Helplessness
An inner voice that criticizes yourself and others
 

I can't stress how important it is to do healing work. Let's be honest! We've all had experiences that have caused some deep-rooted damage. Living in the shadow of the past is a heavy burden. Your emotional baggage bleeds into every area of your life. Your view of the world is through a wounded child's eyes. In other words, a distorted lens. There are so many benefits to learning how to re-parent the wounded parts of yourself. Healthier relationships, improved self-esteem, new-found compassion, a greater sense of safety and well-being. Be willing to get help. You deserve the best.
 

******

 

Healing shame

 

Secrets keep us sick. I’m not talking about the sacred things we keep to ourselves. I'm talking about the kind of secrets we keep inside because we're ashamed of something we did, who we are,  how we feel...and we're ashamed of our shame. The good news is shame can be healed. Talking about the shame takes the power from it. Shame only festers if it's kept in the dark.

*****

“If we have one or two people in our lives who can sit with us and hold space for our shame stories, and love us for our strengths and struggles, we are incredibly lucky.”   ― Brené Brown

 

The power of truth

 

Freedom and self-honesty go hand-in-hand. 
If we deny our deepest longings,
give into our fears instead of facing them,
and minimize our emotional pain, 
our world only gets smaller and smaller.

 

 

"...go alone into flames, to burn away illusions, and to arise from the ashes with the prize of one's true self." - Elizabeth Lesser

 

A warm invitation

Love is patient, soft, kind, gentle,
generous, forgiving, self-less, independent,
loyal, understanding, genuine, intimate,
enduring, encouraging, honest...

 

“I love you without knowing how...or from where.

I love you simply, without problems or pride:

I love you in this way because I do not know

  any other way of loving...” - Pablo Neruda 

 

******

Matters of the heart

When you parent, you fall in love with a person who is always changing into someone else, and who you know will leave you... At each stage of your child's growth, you are given ample opportunities to use parenthood as a mirror. You get to see where you fall short... Are you self-absorbed?...Or do you err in the other direction - are you a martyr, a guilt tripper, a co-dependent smother? Do you fear change? Are you impatient? Jealous? Whatever it is that wants to be transformed in your psych will be revealed as you parent. If you accept the challenge, parenting becomes a perpetual process of change and transformation- a dynamic experience of being broken open by love. - Elizabeth Lesser

 

******

 

Soul searching

 

What matters is that we take the deadness of the soul seriously;

that we pay attention to the contents of the heart;

that we ask the hard questions,

and fearlessly face the hidden parts of the self.

What matters...is that we shine the light of consciousness

in the dark corners of our life.

 

- Elizabeth Lesser

 

*****

 



Transcending grief

 Numbness can be the result...
of old, unresolved grief.
What happens is that overtime... 
the heart's loses it's vitality
and turns to stone.

 

If you feel numb and disconnected,
it's important to finish your grief work.
Not only is your sorrow blocked,
but so is your joy.

When you allow your heart...
to be broken open again,

you enter into a sacred ceremony

between the heart and the soul.
And in the deep sorrow,
you'll feel immensely alive and well.
 

 The darker the night, the brighter the stars,
The deeper the grief, the closer is God!”  
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

*****

 

With open arms



Believe infinite possibilities...

Surrender everything that doesn't work;
fear, old ideals, addictions, fantasies.
Imagine your heart wide open.
Your fears and insecurities gone.
Illusions melted away.
All that remains is truth & the peace of God

******
“The ego hates losing – even to God.”  
― Richard Rohr

Shrunken dreams



You can become numb to your sorrows.
But you will not know freedom until you
have examined the ghosts of your past
and chased them away.
 

A half-lived life

 

 

When we descend to the bottom,

we rise with softer edges around our heart
and deeper insights into life.

There are gifts in having had a difficult childhood
or other ways we have experienced suffering.

But the twist is this; if you don't own your pain story,

there's no way for pain to be transformed. 

 Avoiding emotional pain only leads to more pain.

In an attempt to rid oneself of pain,

there may be an impulse to save the world.

Please understand; this is merely a wounded child

futilely attempting to seek relief. 

 

Love is hard to grasp if you carry old sorrow.

  As much you desire to love and be loved,
the hole in your heart bleeds too heavily.   

******

A soulful connection

Time heal all heartaches except one - 
the longing for God and
an innate need to connect with ourselves.

There was a time I felt an ache
for something that was foreign to me.
Filling the void with external things
only brought small increments of relief. 

 

Then eight years ago, I lost my daughter.
After plunging into the deepest sorrow
and the darkest place I had ever been,
I was certain I'd never feel whole again.

But I witnessed the resurrection of my own heart.
And learned that losses transform into wings.
I'm not so afraid of what life might throw me
because I know now I'll always rise above it.
 
However, what I can't survive without,
that has become as vital as breathing, is faith.
Nor can I betray myself again by disconnecting
from the kind of truth that comes from
a place deep within my soul.
 

We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface
but connected in the deep.”   ― William James

*****

Second chances

To become our very best self,
we throw everything rooted in fear and unworthiness
into the fire; pride, rigidity, indifference, defensiveness.
We burn our illusions, insecurities, and lack of faith.
Rebirth follows the death of bleary, worn-out behaviors.
From the ashes, compassion and wisdom arise.
 

 
"The world suffers more from unhappy, stifled people trying
to do good than it does from those who are simply content
with themselves"  - Elizabeth Lesser

******

 

The way to the soul

Often we cling to familiarity,

but it is beyond the known,

that your soul awaits.

Step into the wilderness.

Expect to slay your dragons,

meet your shadows,
and uncover hidden insecurities.
This is the rite of passage;
the initiation to rebirth.

 

Fear and anxiety many times indicates that
we are moving in a positive direction,
out of the safe confines of our comfort zone,
and in the direction of our true purpose.”  
 ― Charles F. Glassman
 

******



A bruised heart

Your greatest lesson is love.
Acknowledge your longing for it...
and grace will reveal your barriers;
 unhealed hurts, unfinished grief,
abuse, abandonment.
Dive into the wreckage.
Cradle your story.
You were born to love.
Soon you'll be home again.
 

Old baggage

Why do we mold ourselves to our emotional wreckage
rather than seeking some sort of resolution?
Addiction seems to be the antidote for pain.
But why would we trust a bag of tricks to help us cope?

 Here's a big gloop of truth.
There's no exit from pain except through the door.
Many will continue to look for another way.
I certainly tried, but with absolutely no success.

Unless we find the willingness to do our work, 
our wounds from the past are going to bleed 
into every corner of our lives. 

If a voice in you cries to be heard,
truth will be the ointment that begins to soothe it.
The passage to freedom is self-examination.
Peace is on the other side. It awaits you.
 

 

 My dear sister, you can’t escape God,
and you can’t escape your skeletons in the closet. 
They will always be there until you take them out
from behind those dusty old moth-eaten coats. 
Your exterior facade of ‘everything is alright’ only works
for a little while, and then the cracks begin to show. 
 You can only hide behind yourself for so long. 
You can’t keep running!”   ― Corallie Buchanan

*****

Big dreams



The bigger your dreams,
the more life will force you
to look at the hidden places
where you hold fear.
To fulfill your destiny,
your desire has to be greater
than the obstacles. 

 

Soaring high

Strengthen your wings...

by not succumbing to fear.

Soar above all obstacles.

With strong wings,

 navigating life is effortless.

 

 

“Run my dear,
From anything
That may not strengthen
Your precious budding wings.”  
― Hafez
 

*****

Self-confidence

Are you willing to pay the price of pride? 
Though it may seem the more comfortable choice,
it's merely a disguise for shame. 
Better to strip away falseness and be vulnerable
 than to carry the burden of pretenses.

Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding

of affection damage the roots from which love grows.

Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged
 and healed...”   ― Brené Brown

*****

Following your intuition

Rely on your inner senses.
If you live in accordance to thought
rather than wisdom,
truth will elude you time and again.

When you reach the end of what you should know,
you will be at the beginning of what you should sense.”

― Kahlil Gibran