Remember who you are

 

 

31.10.2019

 

 

We are pioneers, we are. 

We are some of the first people to explore a way of being that is not premised on survivalism as our operating principal. 

For generations, people have been choosing their career path, their life partners, their ways of being, based primarily on what put food on the table. 

It didn't matter how one felt about how one survived. All that mattered was staying alive. 

But a new way of being is taking root, one that is premised on authenticity above all else. 

We are beginning to insist on living from our truth, choosing our path and our connections from the soul outward. 

This is why its so damn difficult. 

Torn between the mantras of 'Grin and Bear it' and 'Be who you really are', we have one foot in each world, not entirely rooted in either. 

No wonder so many path travelers are in a state of confusion. 

We are saying goodbye to unhealthy connections while still lodged in a duty-bound culture. 

We are crafting a new, true way of being while carrying the shaming conditioning of the old world. 

We are laying down new tracks without a single footprint to follow.

This is a profound consciousness shift on this planet. 

We are pioneers, we are. 

Pioneers of truth. 

 

(Jeff Brown)

 

 

 

 

 

30.10.2019

 

 

WE ARE LOVE.

 

But we can turn into

fucking monsters

if we forget this 

for too long.

 

Remember who you are.

 

(Ve Rena)

 

 

 

 

 

29.10.2019

 

 

Trauma really does confront you 

with the best and the worst. 

You see the horrendous things that

people do to each other, 

but you also see resiliency, the power

of love, the power of caring, 

the power of commitment, 

the power of commitment to oneself,

to the knowledge that there are

things that are larger than our

individual survival.

And some of the most spiritual

people I know are exactly

traumatized people, because they

have seen the dark side. 

In some ways, I don’t think you 

can appreciate the glory of life 

unless you also know the 

dark side of life.

 

(Bessel van der Kolk)

 

 

 

 

 

28.10.2019

 

 

I am not afraid 

of my truth 

anymore

 

and I will not 

omit pieces 

of me

 

to make you 

comfortable.

 

(Alex Elle)

 

 

 

 

 

27.10.2019

 

 

No matter how toxic your parents might be,

you still have a need to deify them. 

Even if you understand, on one level, that your father was wrong to beat you, you may still believe he was justified. 

Intellectual understanding is not enough to convince your emotions that you were not responsible.

 

(Susan Forward)

 

 

 

 

 

26.10.2019

 

 

Most of us were raised to believe 

that vulnerability is the gooey centre

of the hard emotions that we should

work full time to avoid feeling, much

less discussing (even when our

avoidance causes us and the people

around us pain) - emotions like fear,

shame, grief, disappointment, and

sadness. 

But vulnerability isn’t just the centre

of hard emotions, it’s the core of all

emotions. To feel is to be vulnerable.

Believing that vulnerability is

weakness is believing that feeling 

is weakness. 

And like it or not, we are emotional

beings. What most of us fail to

understand, and what took me a

decade of research to learn, is that

vulnerability is the cradle of the

emotions and experiences that we

crave.

Vulnerability is the birthplace

of love, belonging and joy.

 

(Brené Brown)

 

 

 

 

 

25.10.2019

 

 

Why a daughter makes excuses 

for her mother’s treatment:

 

It is less scary to believe

you are unlovable than it is to

admit that the person who is

supposed to love, protect and

take care of you won’t.

 

(Peg Streep)

 

 

 

 

 

24.10.2019

 

 

If there is one thing I've learned in

thirty years as a psychotherapist, 

it is this: 

If you can let your experience happen, 

it will release its knots and unfold,

leading to a deeper, more grounded 

experience of yourself. 

No matter how painful or scary 

your feelings appear to be, 

your willingness to engage with them

draws forth your essential strength,

leading in a more life-positive

direction.

 

(John Welwood)

 

 

 

 

 

23.10.2019

 

 

The most expeditious way 

to get past an unpleasant 

emotional experience 

is to embrace it and 

to fully feel and 

express it.

 

(Pete Walker)

 

 

 

 

 

22.10.2019

 

 

When you can‘t look 

on the bright side,

I will sit with you

in the dark.

 

(Lewis Carroll)

 

 

 

 

 

21.10.2019

 

 

Tell another human being 

they are amazing today.

You never know when such 

a simple thing can save a life.

Go all out. Go all in. Use your heart. 

Sometimes kindness creates magic.

 

(Stephanie Bennett-Henry)

 

 

 

 

 

20.10.2019

 

 

The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. 

Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. 

They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society.

 

(Aldous Huxley)

 

 

 

 

 

19.10.2019

 

 

We‘re all just a bunch

of weirdos trying 

to figure out what

the fuck we‘re 

doing here.

We‘re all crazy

and we‘re all 

struggling.

Some of us are just

more honest about it.

 

(Brooke Hampton)

 

 

 

 

 

18.10.2019

 

 

My people are the ones who

stay up too late, feel deeply,

laugh loudly, and who have no 

interest in hiding their strangeness. 

We recognize each other.

 

(Nanea Hoffman)

 

 

 

 

 

17.10.2019

 

 

The big horrible thing isn’t the 

plane crash or the earthquake 

or the diagnosis. 

When those things occur, 

we act, we know what to do.

We live or we die.

Hell is what we do in the meantime.

It is the ways we starve our souls

as we prepare for the future that

never comes as planned.

The true disaster is living the life in 

your mind and missing the one

in front of you.

 

(Geneen Roth)

 

 

 

 

 

16.10.2019

 

 

You change the world 

by being yourself. 

 

(Yoko Ono)

 

 

 

 

 

15.10.2019

 

 

We will never get back the life

trying to be normal.

 

(Atticus)

 

 

 

 

 

14.10.2019

 

 

It’s true: people can change.

People can learn, grow, and 

surprise you. But if someone

does the same thing, over and

over again - if they keep hurting,

disrespecting, or disappointing you - 

it’s time to accept the way things are

and ask yourself if you can really

live with this. You can’t make 

someone change their pattern if

they’re not willing or ready, but 

you can stop participating in it.

 

(Lori Deschene)

 

 

 

 

 

13.10.2019

 

 

it is no mystery 

that those who endure 

the most pain 

are the strongest people 

on this planet. 

when hardship comes early, 

it molds us, 

the pain thickens our bones, 

our marrow now golden plated 

and lion tough. 

i ask every one of you, 

including myself, 

may we always stay strong, 

through the loss of love and family, 

through sorrow and depression, 

through the waves of imbalance, 

through everything. 

may we lean on each other, 

our shoulders a pillow for 

our brothers, 

our sisters, 

our strangers, 

our animals. 

we are all in this together.

whether we choose to believe 

that or not.

 

(Christopher Poindexter)

 

 

 

 

 

12.10.2019

 

 

Wounds don’t heal the way 

you want them to, they heal 

the way they need to. 

It takes time for wounds

to fade into scars. 

It takes time for the process 

of healing to take place. 

Give yourself that time. 

Give yourself that grace. 

Be gentle with your wounds. 

Be gentle with your heart. 

You deserve to heal.

 

(Dele Olanubi)

 

 

 

 

 

11.10.2019

 

 

Things your inner child might

love to hear:

 

“Play a little longer!“

“I see you and I love you.“

“You are so, so deeply good.“

“It’s okay to share your feelings with me.“

“I will always be here to comfort you.“

“It’s okay to get it wrong sometimes.“

“You are allowed to be happy or sad,

you are allowed to feel it all.“

“I’m so glad you are here.“

 

(Lisa Olivera)

 

 

 

 

 

10.10.2019

 

 

What matters most is 

how well you walk 

through the fire.

 

(Charles Bukowski)

 

 

 

 

 

09.10.2019

 

 

If you’re working through something,

notice the way you tell your story.

Are you a storyteller who presents

the facts and details? Or do you feel

into your story, acknowledge the pain,

and witness the experience?

When sharing yourself intentionally,

pay attention to whether you’re

present and connected or if you’re

disconnected, distracted, or 

disassociated from it.

 

(Vienna Pharaon)

 

 

 

 

 

08.10.2019

 

 

As uncomfortable as growth may be,

squeezing into spaces you‘ve outgrown

is even more uncomfortable.

 

(Spirit Daughter)

 

 

 

 

 

07.10.2019

 

 

The feeling of aloneness is the hardest feeling for all of us to feel. It causes such deep pain that we all work hard to protect ourselves from feeling it. 

When parents and other adults reject, shame, abandon, and abuse us as children, the pain of their abandonment is so unbearable that the Inner Adult disconnects from the Inner Child so as not to experience these feelings. 

Then the Inner Child not only feels alone and lonely in the world, but feels alone and empty inside as well, with no one inside to protect it from being hurt by others. 

As we grow up, the abandoned Inner Child learns to project onto others the internal experience of abandonment. 

 

(Erika J. Chopich)

 

 

 

 

 

06.10.2019

 

 

In today’s world, a war has 

been declared against feeling.

Today, and for as long as it takes,

I ask you to stand with me on 

the side of feeling.

 

(Teal Swan)

 

 

 

 

 

05.10.2019

 

 

ANGER: THE EXTRAORDINARY FIRE INSIDE

 

Anger is not dark. Anger is not dangerous.

Anger is not unspiritual. Anger is not ‘bad’. Anger is not a sign of our lack of evolution.

Or our failure. Or our lack of insight, peace, enlightenment, maturity, health. Anything.

 

Anger is simply fire.

Fire can burn. 

Fire can cleanse.

Fire can illuminate.

Fire can heal.

 

Anger is a real and valid emotion, billions of years old, intelligently rising in the body to protect us from a real or imaginary threat. Wanting to set boundaries. Ready to say no. Willing to stand up for our values. Yearning to be heard.

 

Anger is not the problem.

 

Anger is not inherently violent. It is in our REACTION to our anger - that is where the violence begins. 

 

When we repress and reject our anger-power, when we stuff it down, refuse to feel it or even acknowledge it, hide it in order to be ‘nice’ and please and impress and protect others. When we attack and hurt others in order to find relief from our anger. When we judge and shame and rage and manipulate and try to control others - what they think, what they feel, what they desire or do not.

Try to make them feel bad. Punish them. That is where the ‘darkness’ lies. In the reaction to our anger. In our search for discharge. In our running. In our disembodiment. Not in the anger itself.

 

Anger is only energy, fierce and powerful energy arising in the body, not a sin or an ‘unspiritual’ force to be eradicated, but a creative and fiery expression of life itself. 

 

Anger is simply a raw part of us asking to be met. With understanding. With compassion. With love. With slowness. With breath. 

 

Some of the most violent people I have ever met have been (on the surface) the most ‘spiritual’ ones - the enlightened ones, the gurus, the perfect ones, the ones who ‘never get angry’, the ones who are ‘always peaceful and calm and in a state of perfect love and equanimity’, the ones who ‘dwell in pure Awareness’.

 

Yeah, right. 

 

For there is no true love without love for our anger, when it comes to visit. True light is willing and able to enlighten the shadow, and bless the mess. 

 

Anger is not inherently dark. 

Anger is not dangerous.

Anger is not unspiritual. 

Anger is not ‘bad’. Or shameful. Or sinful. 

 

All these outdated beliefs stem from a profound fear and misunderstanding and distrust of the body. 

 

We can undo the conditioning:

 

Next time anger surges, as it will, can you slow down, connect, breathe, feel, breathe again, and get curious about the fire inside?

 

Underneath your anger, you may just discover, a tender, fragile, frightened heart, a beautiful vulnerability, and a self-protective power, billions of years in the making.

 

(Jeff Foster)

 

 

 

 

 

04.10.2019

 

 

The most important thing any 

parent can do for their child 

is work on themselves.

 

(Chanelle Sowden)

 

 

 

 

 

03.10.2019

 

 

Don’t over-explain 

yourself.

The right people will 

understand immediately.

The others probably 

never will.

No matter what you say.

 

(Ve Rena)

 

 

 

 

 

02.10.2019

 

 

I’m never gonna wait

that extra twenty minutes

to text you back,

and I’m never gonna play

hard to get

when I know your life

has been hard enough already.

When we all know everyone’s life

has been hard enough already

it’s hard to watch

the game we make of love,

like everyone’s playing checkers

with their scars,

saying checkmate

whenever they get out

without a broken heart.

Just to be clear,

I don’t want to get out

without a broken heart.

I intend to leave this life

so shattered

there’s gonna have to be

a thousand separate heavens

for all of my flying parts.

 

(Andrea Gibson)

 

 

 

 

 

01.10.2019

 

 

Forget about enlightenment.

Sit down wherever you are and listen 

to the wind singing in your veins.

Feel the love, the longing, and the

fear in your bones.

Open your heart to who you are,

right now, not who you would like 

to be. Not the saint you’re striving 

to become.

But the being right here before you,

inside you, around you.

All of you is holy.

You’re already more and less 

than whatever you can know.

Breathe out, touch in, let go.

 

(John Welwood)