That Thing You Do

People are really beautiful. There are so many quirks and unique qualities about the select mix of characteristics within each person. Especially those people who you can tell are genuine and true to who they are inside. Their inner self- the self that exists in the space between thoughts, the energy beneath the words and the expression, the phenomenon under the skin. 

The Inner Workings of the Journey to Healing.

This path I've chosen, the one I encourage you to take to empower yourself- the one I help people walk with the energy work and counselling I do, entails some real hard work. It's hard work because it means that you must be brutally honest with yourself.

That you take out all your innermost demons and hidden feelings out of the closet and look at them in the face, and then send them love and forgiveness to set them free. To rustle up the uncomfortable and the unfamiliar, and to simultaneously let go of baggage that has become so comfortingly familiar and has helped keep a defense against all that could potentially hurt us. 

It means to realize that they are mostly constructs of a child's way of protecting the self- and that's what the ego really is. It's a child's reaction of not just putting up armour against the world, but also adapting to what it's told is true, trying to squelch all those other thoughts that came from a different place from what it was taught by society and tradition and culture to.

A Life Fearfully Lived... No Longer.

I've met many people in my life who advocate fear as a motivator. I understand where they're coming from, in their eyes they can only keep pushing themselves to do the best they can, if they have impending doom chasing right behind them. Another aspect that they might not acknowledge but may be rooted in the back of their minds, is the belief that fear keeps us safe from the shock of impending doom hitting us. A person who is fearful of the worst, may feel like they are prepared for the worst. 

The Love You Seek.

So often we go around looking for others to assure ourselves that we are worthy of being loved. Yet, even when we find someone who repeatedly tells us we are loved, there is a part of us, deep down in our innermost recesses, that doesn't believe this. 

We look for ways to undermine their love, to push them to see how far they will go. Alternatively, we cling to them, believing that as long as they love us we count for something- we are of value because they value us. We lose our definition of who we are- instead we try to become more of the person that we believe that they want us to be. If they treat us any differently for any reason we lapse into a fear of losing them. Unhealthy co-dependency issues fester and the fear of abandonment keeps us in relationships that have outlived their expiry dates.

Nature Nurtures

Sometimes rather than looking to escape reality to chase happiness you can attain it by choosing to immerse yourself in it, even if you do it only for a few moments. 

Calvin and Hobbes have a strip that talks about how if more people looked at the stars they would live differently...but it isn't just limited to the stars. If you look at the sky at any time of day carefully, you will notice how many different brushstrokes of colour have gracefully been slid across it's surface. 

Even within the same colour there are so many different shades to let your eyes live through. Even within the concrete jungle in the midst of winter, if you breathe in the outline of a tree that stands naked with her leaves swept away till the dawn of spring, the patterns the branches make against the skyline will astound you. There is beauty all around you, everywhere you go. 

Judging Me Judging You

Perfection and imperfection are negative judgments we have given birth to and hoisted upon ourselves. These labels set a narrow precedent, that loom over our heads like impending doom. 

For many of us,we set standards for ourselves which if we don't achieve immediately we consider it to be a failure. Perfection becomes the ideal that must be achieved in order to achieve nirvana. 
These standards of perfection we impose upon ourselves cause us to become attached to an outcome. 

When a person gets attached to an outcome, regardless of what that outcome is, they stop living in the moment and enjoying the process or journey of getting there. It's not about getting it right the first time- as soon as you'd get it right you'd move on to the next thing, and then you'd never be able to stay still and appreciate any one thing in particular, and always look towards the next.

Bringing the Truth Within to Surface.

Speaking your truth and honouring it is one of the most liberating experiences one can undergo in this lifetime. Rather than worrying about how it will be perceived by others or how they will react to it or judge you on it, when you stand your ground for what you believe in and who you are, you are showing profound respect for yourself.