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“The dark does not destroy the light;
it defines it.
Its our fear of the dark that casts our
joy into the shadows.”
Brene Brown
Take a moment to reflect on how this appears in your life.
Instead of wishing the dark away, how can you embrace it and shine through?
Todays insight is taken from from Brené Brown’s book “Gifts Of Imperfection”. This is the place to come to when you feel insecure, nervous and vulnerable, especially in new situations.
Image credit: http://www.designshift.com
“Don’t shrink
Don’t puff up
Stand on your sacred ground”
This sacred ground is the place of embracing your authentic self in the moment.
No need to think you are not good enough or that you are better than others.
Simply stand in the knowing of who you are.
Most of us find it when we have experienced some struggle in the highs and lows of life.
It’s a powerful place to truly Be.
When I read this I think of Yoga and standing in Mountain Pose or Tadasana. Rooted to the ground, yet tall and strong. In this moment you become the mountain.
Namaste
I am home from Scotland and getting back into the daily routine. I had a great time meeting some old friends and being with family.
One of the best memories was at a family gathering at my brothers house. It has become a tradition that at some point in the evening everyone gets up to dance and let their hair down. Its so much fun!
As Brene Brown writes in The Gifts of Imperfection:
“Laughter, song and dance create emotional and spiritual connection; they remind us of the one thing that truly matters when we are searching for comfort, celebration, inspiration or healing : We are not alone.”
Towards the end of 2016 I shared with you some of my favorite music for relaxation and Savasana. Now I’d like to share some dance music in the spirit of connection and mutual goofiness… as well as burning up a few more calories.
I hope you will join me. Let’s dance like noone is watching!
Thinks … I’m pretty sure I caught a glimpse of Hariod Brawn in this BBC production.
As human beings we all need love, but we rarely talk about what it means to us and how it works. That is why I appreciate how Brene Brown explores what it is in her book “The Gifts of Imperfection”
It took her decades of interviews and research to come up with this definition:
Love
“Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.
Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged and healed.”
Yet … how many times do we think of love in terms of giving and taking?
How many times have we let ourselves down by failing to nourish and cultivate it?
How can we expect to love an other fully when we cannot love ourselves?
Love is an active verb. There is a profound difference between professing love and practicing it.
Practice love from the heart of your being.
Practice love towards yourself by learning to trust yourself and treating yourself with respect.
Practice being kind and affectionate towards yourself.
Practice love towards an other by learning to trust and treating them with respect.
Practice being kind and affectionate every day.
❤️
NGS Picture Id:1263045
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Find your Middle Ground
Touch the deepest part of you
Authentic being
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“Don’t shrink.
Don’t puff up.
Stand in your sacred ground.”
~ Brené Brown
If you are new to this site, welcome!
To find out more about finding your middle ground, please click here.
“We can talk about courage and love and compassion until we sound like a greeting card store, but unless we’re willing to have an honest conversation about what gets in the way of putting these into practice in our daily lives, we will never change.”
~ Bréne Brown
This made me pause. There are so many of us who can be stuck in the place of wishing the words to transform our lives. Yet, greeting card words are not enough.
It made me think about what gets in the way of living from a place of compassion, or as Bréne Brown puts it, living “wholeheartedly”.
And what keeps coming to mind again and again is that we can only be courageous and kind when we become aware of our inner world of thoughts, beliefs and feelings, and accept ourselves fully.
When we accept all aspects of ourselves without judgment, then we are able to let go of what other people think. This takes courage.
It takes an inner resilience to look at the parts of ourselves that are hidden or that we may not like.
We have to be brave to look at the stories we have created for ourselves and see them for just that – stories.
It takes courage to let go of what we have always counted on to reinforce who we want to be; to become vulnerable to the truth instead of covering it up or denying it; to show our authentic face to the world.
Bréne Brown gets to the heart of the matter beautifully: “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky, but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy – the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”
~ Bréne Brown
This is dedicated to all of you who have found the courage to be authentic, express your real self, and connect to your inner being. You rock!!
“Twinkle lights are the perfect metaphor for joy. Joy is not a constant. It comes to us in moments – often ordinary moments.
Sometimes we miss out on the bursts of joy because we’re too busy chasing down extraordinary moments. Other times we’re so afraid of the dark that we don’t dare let ourselves enjoy the light.
A joyful life is not a floodlight of joy. That would eventually become unbearable.
I believe a joyful life is made up of joyful moments gracefully strung together by trust, gratitude, inspiration, and faith.”
~ Brené Brown
What a lovely reminder to find some twinkle today ✨
