Tag: breathing

When I was 23, I had an exceptionally difficult year.  If you want to know more about what happened, come talk to me… but suffice it to say I was in rough shape, mentally and emotionally.  I recently came across some writing (in the form of secret blog posts!) from that year, and it was so crazy to look back on some of the things I was thinking and feeling.  I learned a few things about enduring suffering from revisiting my younger self and wanted to share those things with all of you.

1. Feel your feelings — These blog posts are dripping with emotion, to a point that is almost embarrassing (one delicious phrase: “look me in the eye and see the despair in my soul.”).  I truly believe that if I didn’t have an outlet to express what I was feeling, those emotions would have exploded in much ...
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   Posted in:

   • Anxiety
   • Change
   • Control
   • Mindfullness
   • Presence
   • Self-Care
   • Story

   Tags:

   • Emotions
   • anxiety
   • breathing
   • change
   • mindfullness
   • relaxation
   • story

Almost everyone has heard of self-esteem. It’s fortunately being talked about more frequently within society. However, another concept about the self that needs to be addressed along with self-esteem, is self-compassion. Dr. Kristin Neff describes self-compassion as “being warm and understanding towards ourselves when we suffer, fail, or feel inadequate rather than ignoring our pain”(http://self-compassion.org). Self-compassion is the idea that just as we offer kindness and compassion to others when they fall short, we offer the same to ourselves. Why does it tend to be so much easier to offer compassion to others and not ourselves?

We are not perfect. No matter how hard we try, we will never be perfect. Self-compassion meets us in our imperfection. It allows us to say, “I messed up but I still have value and am still important”. When we s ...

             Eleri jumped seamlessly, no special notice the piles of hay in her way, except the leap that interrupted her rhythm. Every morning she was up with the crack of dawn, ready to go for her walk. Every morning she ran, so at other times she could rest and eat. The gate of her legs spread, pounding the ground in a musical speed. Her tail wagged delight.

            Animals are fascinating creatures. They have this rhythm to life. Hunt, eat, play, sleep. Hunt, eat, play, sleep. Rinse, repeat  Animals already know a basic tenant of life we humans miss. Life comes with a beat, but it also comes with the ups and downs of rhythms. Work is a glorified element of life in American culture. Or laziness is glorified. And, we’ve missed the beauty of the ups and downs of work time and rest time.

          & ...