Monday Mindfulness

Cultivating Strength, Joy, Calm & Resilience

Tag Archives: Courage


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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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Bursting with Power

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.


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Flowering Power

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.


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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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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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Powerfully chill

Oh, to be in a state of body and mind in which I am

wholly connected to my inner radiance,

my vitality,

my strength,

my wholeness,

my joy,

in such an unconditional way that I interact with the world

with such grace, vibrancy, and connection

that I glow and flow

in all that I am.

Soft and focused,

Clear and free,

Confident and humble,

Knowing and speaking universal truth,

that I am

Powerfully chill.


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Manifesting

Like begets like.

Peace leads to peace.

Kindness breeds kindness.

Suffering can lead to ease.

Mistakes become opportunities for growth.

Loss makes room for freedom.

Fear dissolves in faith.

Whatever I cultivate as my experience, I have the ultimate power to accept or shift the paradigm. Every experience serves me even when on the surface it may look grim. When I align an experience with the goal of knowing love, the love that is there always – not between people but that creates people – everything comes into balance, harmony prevails.

I no longer need to label my experiences as good or bad when I know that all experiences unfold before me so that I can explore what it is like to be my best self.

This is the process of trust.


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Showing up

I am experimenting more and more with loving myself these days…not being safe or shoring up relationships to develop a sense of connection but authentic appreciation for who and where I am. I am showing up in the knowing that I have my intuition (that I will call Self) as a guide and while connection with community is an important element of the human experience, connection with my Self is just as crucial.

As I am learning to love myself, I am maneuvering through the awkward balance between selfish and selfless to find the sustainable space between…where ego informs, intuition guides, and I hold onto no preconceptions of what that will look and feel like as I determine what best serves.

The chain that secured the familiar is rattling. Full of insecurities, yours and mine, it informs as I release its grip on my heart, rusty links untangling for all of us to see that freedom is possible.

As I am rattling the chain around my heart I ask that you consider letting your chain rattle too to make room for a new way of showing up for you and for me.

Either way, I will be free but it might be more fun to conspire in the unchaining together.