Monday Mindfulness

Cultivating Strength, Joy, Calm & Resilience

Category Archives: mental health


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Resentment

I didn’t listen to myself.

I didn’t present myself clearly.

My primary goal to avoid conflict,

I jeopardized my safety to ensure my survival.

And just like that I feel devalued.

My experience is in direct contrast with my values.

I chose inner conflict rather than anger.

Oh, I get angry, but I turn it all on me,

Suppressing outward expression out of fear,

For the sake of compliance.

Meeting the needs of others supplants

My capacity to meet my own needs.

Sacrificing my internal sense of security for connection

Causes an internal disconnection between my own heart and mind.

My body bristles at the assault and becomes a harbor for my anger

Disappointment surfaces as dis-ease and lingers

In my consciousness and beyond.

Suddenly, the sweet voice within that I so defiantly ignored

Grabs my full attention as it says,

“You did your best…

And they did too.”

“You are capable of keeping yourself safe now.

Be strong, consistent, and clear.

Make choices that preserve your freedom and safety.

Love yourself above all else

And you will never have to sacrifice your values for security.”

A new state of being immerges

Free of disappointment

Free of feeling wronged, hurt, and weak.

Free of resentment.

Free to be grateful.

Free to forgive.

Free of burdens

and unconditionally loved.


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Making My Way

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.


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Go on now

You need more kindness,

More faith,

And joy,

To know the world is

simply your toy.

Reject the harshness,

Judgment,

And shame.

To love and nourish is

Our only aim.

Fill up your reservoir

With gentleness

And peace

To guide your inner Self

Through this life with ease.

Remove the barriers

That block out

Hope

And light.

To know your power is

Your natural right.

Wield not your actions,

sabres,

Or words.

Take flight with kindness,

Free like the birds.

You are magnificent

Just as

You are

Formed of the mystery

Within that twinkling star.

So go on and shine

Yourself

Bright for all to see

To be the love and joy that

This world does need.


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Compass Rose

To the north I find the earth and sky.

The east brings new beginnings.

The west lowers the veil of transition, the mark of endings.

It is in the south where I meet my soul.

We sit and watch the rising and setting sun cast against the earth and sky over and over again.

Humbly and joyfully admiring the ever changing landscape of transitions, the beauty in the unknown as it takes shape each dawn and dusk, and the vast expanse of opportunity in between.


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Exploration

Is it a challenge…or a surprise?

Is it a set back…or an opportunity?

Is it a loss…or a lesson?

Is it feedback…or criticism?

Is it something worth exploring or a boundary that needs to be set?

All of my experiences are open to interpretation and I am free to make them whatever I choose.

There is plenty of room for suffering and pain, as well as creativity, joyfulness, and gratitude…

all there in every experience just waiting to be explored and to inform.


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Living in the space of AND

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.


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Sheer Connectedness

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.


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Reflections

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.


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Reasons

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.


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Cultivating the smile within

In each moment

there exists a small space

of contentment.

It is our work

to come back to this space,

again,

and

again,

and

again

and

again

until with every moment

our first feeling

is one of contentment.