Life force
breath
heals
softens
opens
the body
relaxes
the mind
promotes
courage
offers
ease
and
fuels
my
power.
Still
grateful
gentle
kind
accepting
breathing
I am
a great
force
of energy.
Feeling
healthy
and
strong
in the
soft
and
caring
rest
slowness
and
power
in my
every
breath.
We are wired for connection…to thrive these connections must be established, mended, and maintained.
To Establish requires the courage to welcome something new and possibly quite uncomfortable.
To Mend calls upon our capacity to heal hurts and embrace the pains of growing.
To Maintain is the essence of flexibility and fortitude.
We watch and encourage the healing of the wounded body – its powerful transformation and rebirth, over and over again, ever celebrating its capacity to establish, mend, and maintain.
If only the heart and mind were afforded such a generous space of repair and connection.
There is not just one way to be happy.
one form of happiness.
We are limitless beings with infinite possibilities for happiness.
There is always the potential to find fulfillment, accomplishment, significance, and satisfaction in absolutely every experience.
When locked into one way of feeling or recognizing happiness, faith and trust are trampled.
Happiness is bypassed for the more familiar feeling of disappointment, failure, lack, and shortcomings.
When we step out of the familiar way of seeing things
and can imagine the potentiality for happiness in every moment,
we cannot help but to live happier.
Today I awoke feeling like a snake shedding its skin.
Soft, vulnerable, sensitive, expanding, growing, free.
Ripping through the layers of being that have protected, carried, and framed who I am, I thank those parts of me that no longer fit.
Purifying tears accompany the molting, helping to dilute any doubt.
Courage thrusts me onward – there is no halfway point in change.
The last pieces falling away, I barely recognize me.
For an instant I long for that familiar container.
In the very next instant it is clear I cannot squeeze back into that way of being.
I am destined to be soft, vulnerable, and sensitive
and for now that is what I am.
It doesn’t matter how much power you have if you don’t allow it to burst out and serve you.
So many times I have used my power to suppress my own needs, my voice, my self-advocacy…all for the sake of “preserving the peace.” But, how can peace be preserved when a battle rages within me to suppress my own feelings and needs simply to avoid the risk of imploring you to revel in my power to know myself. Ah, yes, there is a chance that you will be wounded in the wake of my power, but that wound I can hold with much greater compassion than the devastation that comes from turning my power against myself.
My power transforms from exploding within to bright and shining rays of love and truth when authentically attuned. I begin to recognize that honesty is a demonstration of true prowess and the recognition of woundedness an opportunity to be powerful in kindness, forgiveness, and grace.
My power magnifies when I allow it to burst out and serve me, so much so that it can hold all of the discomfort, all of the woundedness, all of the needs and feelings — yours and mine – and in that outburst peace is preserved.
It’s a great gift we receive in every energetic exchange that we experience – the opportunity to…
absorb
utilize
diffuse
relegate
release
or give away
our power.
Feeling into your power or letting it go needs no special circumstances or conditions. It’s simply a choice.
Every time a choice…
Will I feel into my power
Or will I let it go?
Every time a choice.
White flowers
Dark textures
Straight lines
Soft edges
Living wholeness
Dried pieces
Flowing lines
Still emptiness
Warm touches
Cool feeling
Hope and breath
In the spaces
Photo courtesy of Susan Kerr.
Sometimes I just don’t realize the sheerness of the stories I wear.
How they seem to protect me and at the same time be filled with holes.
I wear them to create a sense of separateness, of control, and the ability to shield myself from others.
I can never truly hide from that connection. A part of me will always remain exposed.
Perhaps a part of me pokes out beyond the edge hoping to be seen so that I can come out from under the stories.
When the veil of story is pulled back authentic, vulnerable, unfiltered connectedness can begin.
How often I stand in this being of me, just not sure what I see.
Insecurity on the inside
Appears as rejection on the outside.
Longing for love and positive connections
Show up as judgment and disappointment from others.
Feelings of shame and inadequacy
Manifest as attacks of anger and disgust.
The stories build not on what is really surrounding me but in the distorted view I have of the reflections.
My experiences and relationships are like a hall of mirrors.
The distortion produces more distortion until the internal and external judgment and criticism becomes too great to bear.
And then, I let go of the differences, weaknesses, faults.
I soften the gaze.
I let the edges of everything blur.
And then I see it is all just me.
I become curious not about what I see in the endless reflections in the mirrors, but in the source of the projection.
I can choose to encounter my world through friction and tension…
Or synchronized and harmonious.
There is feedback and purpose in both.
Tuning to aversion or alignment as the compass points on my path,
I can either move towards what feels comfortable, favorable, and right
Or rub up against imbalance, back up, turn away and go around.
I can always choose resistance or resonance.
Monday Mindfulness 