"There's still time to change the road you're on""

Sometimes we are just on the wrong road for what we perceive are the right reasons and we just need to see the sign at the crossroads before we take pause to correct the course. This is the case for me lately, but in a good way. I had been shaken up by some recent health issues and I recognized that much of what was happening to me was based on my various life choices along the way for better or for worse.

First strike to the side of blight 

One area that has strayed the course is my diet. I have been a foodie for a long time, longer than I can perhaps remember to be honest. I think it started when I was a child and there were times when we felt this urgency surrounding food. Sometimes things were concocted from pasty flour mixed with butter and dropped into broth just to have something in our stomachs. Such scarcity created a sense of fear in me that never left.

Then, in later years that seemed to ratchet up when I was living in the homes of various relatives and kept on a strict diet for much of my upbringing. This was for my health and betterment, I recognize now, but at the time it felt too strict and constricting. Sometimes it felt on the border of shaming to me. So, when I was with visiting my maternal Grandma for extended stays, I felt such freedom in her bounty. She created a life wherein food was one of her central focus areas I sensed the love she poured into food. My malnourished spirit ate up all of her generosity.

I loved how Grandma nourished garden plants and seeds to life. From those seeds she grew robust gardens and brought the food in to create lively, generous, and life giving meals. I followed her path like an eager sponge trying to take in all of the earthy simplicity. Though I was a lazy child at times and low key, I loved to be around her barefoot amongst those wonderful plants that yielded such delicious bounty, chipping in to help when she asked of me. I celebrated with her in the kitchen too. There I was not only allowed but encouraged to prep food alongside of her. My cousins and I would help her snap the ends off big bowls of peas and beans, we'd peel carrots and potatoes, we'd help whisk cakes and later on lick the batter. I wanted to go further and would watch eagerly as she showed me the timing of cooking certain foods so that the ingredients sang. Oh the joys we found in such things together.

Yet, there was a downside. While her cycle was one of healthy eating, a cyclical journey of walking through the days and seasons, mine became an unholy obsession. I wanted to get that feeling around every corner. I grabbed up a candy bar when at the store checkout, I planned activities around the meals I could get while attending an event or going to a special destination. Hers was a means to an end, tried and true from the days of old when gardening meant food for one's family and the mother was the center of the kitchen and central to the hearts of the home. I on the other hand was mourning what I didn't have when young and making up for it in all kinds of exaggerated ways not even realizing the harm in the pattern for many years.

Second strike

The second area that caused me to stray was my interest in the arts and writing. These interests weren't bad in and of themselves, but when I was defining myself n these ways I was doing it so much s that I wasn't listening to or understanding that there were other facets of myself that I was not 'taking care of'.  To put it indelicately, I was becoming sedentary in my approach to life and therefore physically lazy and atrophying. I was sitting far too often and fixating far too much. I was sitting to paint, draw, sculpt, sew and many other pursuits. I was barely ever on my feet. I was even taking my wheeling chair from computer to art table to kitchen areas. I felt that I was doing right by all of this busy-ness of the pursuit of excellence....but it was doing nothing for the physical components that made up my wholistic being.

Sadly, the pursuits didn't yield me with what I had hoped it would along the way. I wasn't wealthy from the art and writing, I wasn't famous, I wasn't even the 'head of the class' per se when it came to how I compared to my peers. I think I craved those accolades and the perks of being financially secure and foolishly I thought that decided and driven effort would yield me the way. Somehow it didn't pan out and what a tragedy it came to be when I realized the things I wanted from art and writing were not the things that would come to be It's sad because art and writing initially served as my 'voice' and my way of speaking when I didn't have another ways verbally.

Perhaps I will return to that road again when I have balanced myself out more steadily....or when I have aged enough to not care to heal and progress along the way physically speaking.

Third strike you're out?...

I tried for very long naively to make my creative passions my avenue for earning a living versus taking traditional work. I thought it noble and groundbreaking, creative and bold. I thought that by relying on innovation and aspiration I was becoming an even more robust version of me than I thought I could ever be. I felt that there had to be a gold gilded lining surrounding the pursuit. I thought that with the work would come accolades and the world would come to appreciate me simply for being a creative spirit, but there was so much more to it that I hadn't realized. Self-promotion, self aggrandizing, pushing and pulling for clients, trying to make something 'good enough' or 'compelling enough' to get somewhere in the public eye. It was counter intuitive to the process of being creative which was just an authentic outpouring or a challenged task and not as much about the end result for me. I took on a part time job recently that made me realize the simplicity I overlooked but was just across the other side of that job application waiting for me!

Turning the corner?

How does one fix one's foibles? Does it only occur when we are at the precipice of losing everything? Reinvention always seemed possible for me, and it was hard to understand what was at stake until I reached that turning point wholly. Now with a vision of myself reforming,  I recognize that holding on to the newly formed vision seems key. 

To find this sense of self, I was pushed to the edges of the end recently. My dearest companion had been practically begging me to wake up the side of me that cared about being physically active and healthy. He couldn't bear to see me degrading further and it seemed it was killing the something that my wanderlust spirit sparked in him when he met me... Even though he tried in countless incidences to share his urgency with me, I didn't see the depth of his need or his sense of anxiety toward me. For a long time I couldn't reconcile that his wish was betterment for me so that we could together be happy.

Yet, despite all of his care, the turning point was not just propelled by his urging but also by a recent health issue that has beholden me to the path of what felt like dying lately. It wasn't even food related this time, but it was enough of a scare nonetheless as I veered near to careening off the path and down the rocky and treacherous ravine. I had a bad allergic reaction that left me severely sick for a month nearly. Skin weeping, swelling inflammation, terrible rashes covering me top to tail. Somehow, I couldn't heal. One week of dealing with all of this prompted me to go in for another ten days of antibiotics, and now 14 days of steroids...and amidst this cycle of meds, I feel I am finally on the mend...barely. 

What did all of this say to me? Wake the 'eff up! See that the road is not limiting you.. you are not abiding by the call of the healing path and not using your eagle eye to scope the way. I heard the song lyrics recently from a song by the Eagles called 'Already gone' and in it they sing. "So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key". Boy did this ever strike me as true lately! I was not forced to be sedentary, I didn't have to pine for food like a starving child or a a strictly treated teen. I didn't have to define myself as a self employed person to be special, to make a difference...to be happy...

Wait, but who am I really?

Isn't it such an interesting journey we are on? Just when we think we know who we are, we are given another opportunity to make good on the things that we knew ourselves to be deep down, even if these things have only represented latent energy awakening up until we turned the key?... 

I realized that the thing that drew me to my boyfriend were the very same things that always lived in me. I always loved hiking until I could run, running until I could go further, testing myself. I loved pushing up one hill on a bike one day and getting past it and onto the next the following day. I loved trying for the next bend or vista on a trail--the thrill of the breathy wonders along the way and how it spoke to my being metaphorically every step of the way. 

I realized that if I could leave some of the old 'baggage' behind, and shake free some of the fear and misgivings about being those things that I can be more happy and more free. Shake it off and find the trial. That is what has recently been driving me! When I was young I couldn't 'keep up'  athletically and this made me no longer wanted to be athletic with other people in a group or team.  As a child I also saw that I lacked the tried and true finesse required to excel at certain sports and sadly when I decided I had wanted to be more 'like others' it stole away my natural gait and my own sense of authentic adventurousness.

Yet, I took a hike today, a rare solo hike, and I saw things for what they were for me. I loved every step, I relished at every encounter, I communed and communicated, I drank the essence of the place in and it fed me--and I wept as I sat to reflect midway along the journey.. And in the midst of the journey I realized this is who I am capable of being, so this is the bliss that drives me!! Alleluia, and glory be. I no longer need to prove it to anyone else. I know the truth as I found it there on that path and my heart is there in nature...and nature is there to call and guide me. Now I can go down it more confidently whether partnered or alone out into the wilds, I feel the trails the sanctity of nature calling me.

As an end note, I recently heard the song 'Stairway to Heaven' by Led Zeppelin and in the song they say "Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there's still time to change the road you're on". Perhaps this is the truth that I need to hold as I shape the new and improved sense of me! :) <3

Nature and the knowledge of the elders

I was thinking of my Grandma the other day and how I was ever her student and how I wanted her to teach me everything she could about life, love, longing, hope, and all of her ways.  It was hard because we could both see that her ways were sliding into history as the world continued to evolve forward. Some of the ways were no longer easily described because they lived in eras that came before my sense of knowing. For example, she used to talk of her farmhouse as a child and how they grew much of their food and relied on the store from only a portion of their needs. 

She explained that as a child she could wander off into the woods and wilds and find fruit and berries to eat to keep her full. She explained that they had chickens and pigs that they even grew to be fond of and yet there came a time when the lives of these animals would be sacrificed for the family meal so that their lives could carry on. It was a solemn truth that she was neither in aversion to or proud of. It was a matter of fact, a way of life. Yet, to my more modern eyes it was curious, unfamiliar, and even a little scary at times to think of. I had never seen an animal killed and I had never had to kill anything in my life. I had gardens and even gardened at her side, but we were nowhere near reliant wholly on what was harvested. Much of our food came from some faraway place delivered tidily to a clean store with sanitized aisles and canned/packaged in attractively labeled cans and bags. In some ways the things she described were such a stretch that it was hard to even fathom.

The world was different then and it was hard to gain a sense of the scope of differences, especially when that world or culture or way of being fell away in preference for a new less organic way of going about interacting with the world. It felt better for us to defer certain tasks, understandably. We no longer each wanted to have to take the lives of our animals into our own hands to kill. We no longer wanted to toil in the fields all day and night for our meals. We wanted to serve in other ways and let others take those roles and live them and embody them. This left us lost to the connection with nature though. We no longer understand the life cycle of plants, the ways of the harvest. We no longer understand how an animal must be treated to be healthy enough to work or how to come to terms with killing and how that cycle of life feeds on life might work. 

I was reminded of this because I was spending time reading about ecopsychology and the idea that we have come so far from our roots. We no longer understand how Native American people navigated an immersion in the natural world. We no longer get a sense for their ideologies that the plants and animals and all things have an intelligence, a purpose, a quality that is mysterious and sentient. We have come to see plants as mute, animals as 'pets'  or 'children' without the knowledge to get by on their own but in the natural world they were more adaptable than we. It isn't that they are speaking of ways that are falsehoods, but ways that we cannot understand because we are not immersed in those environments anymore. 

Yet, there are still lessons therein we can take with us. We can see through the eyes of the elder the stories of old, the ways that have come and gone, the earthy ways, the organic ways, the literal sense of farm to table or foraging to tummy. We can come to see that the earth had made for us a bountiful array of life and all we are asked to do is to participate in loving each other though the process until one day we ourselves give our very essence to the circle of life so that the system continues to mulch and feed and rejuvenate in turn. The seasons of our essence each meeting the glorious pains of birth, the edging slice of youth and the mightiest sorrows of dying and losing those we love. We want to perhaps whitewash these darker truths that we each must die, or at the very least sidle away or sidestep them but they are the very things that make the juiciest moments the most sweet because we have a veritable comparison.

There are blessings in these stories of our elders, there are fruits from which we can grow a greater flowering of truth within us. We can be the beds of the earth wherein new blossoms can grow if we nurture the ground for the seeds of wisdom to find hearty and well fertilized beds within our hearts.  Thank you to all who have gone before me and all who are yet to come. May we make a loving chain of stories that allows us to sustain and blesses us all.

Nature as our culture

Richness of seeking our cultural identity

Sometimes we might find ourselves soul searching and trying to identify who we are based on our race, nationality, or the current country in which we reside or our lineage originated. This can be such a wonderful port of entrance into self understanding and a way to wash ourselves in richness that expands beyond our limited knowledge accumulated over a lifespan versus a lineage that may span centuries. What we come to find can be of such telling depth that it fulfills a great well of need. 

There is this opportunity for example, to say "my grandmother knew to garden so perhaps that is where I gained a fondness of plants in my home". We can also investigate and explore a long standing tradition that originated with our ancestors in order to understand their world and to know whether it suits us to bring those practices into our lives as well. The hope is that we weed out what make our lives better in the process and helps us to know ourselves more adequately.

Our natural identity

All of this searching can be very gratifying, but there are even broader ways of feeling that we belong, A way of seeing that we are a part of the narrative of the broader world. Yet, we sometimes forget this way of connecting as we push onward from one place or obligation to another. Thankfully when we do come to decide to explore this bond, the opportunity is there awaiting our discovery.  This way of belonging and this mutual point of connection comes to light when we grow our bonds to the natural earth which is always around us. It is forever holding us to it, encircling us in the breath of wind that also moves through the trees, reminding us through the presence of every plants and even the birds that we hear and see.

We are also a part of this natural place. To this earth we have been born, and our bodies are composed of the very essential qualities the planet and the cosmos has to offer. Our nurturing mother is as much the stuff of the soil as is the ebbing and flowing sea and everything in between as we. Yet, from a human perspective we are often caught in in the things that make us unique and that make our interpersonal world operate. In this way we sometimes inadvertently respond to nature as a place of harvest or we see the natural world as the provider of set of things in which we find utility.

Although there is some truth in thinking that fruit from the vine is ours to eat, the wood of the tree is ours to chop down and use for building, some would say that this separation from nature versus communing with nature as an extension of ourselves can be damaging. Conversely, coming to realize that we are bonded to nature can be very healing. We can find that can understand ourselves by the ways of the water, because we are made of the same essentials. We can also see the livelihood of the trees in the sun and breeze and note that we too are affected in some of the same ways by these mightier forces. Yet, we too are nurtured much the same by the vitamins from the sun, the energy lent from the soil and our thirst quenched and bodies cleansed by the water from the sea.

Claiming that cultural of natural belonging

We don't have to put big efforts in to yield wonderful results when we decide to explore nature as one of our cultures of origin. We can simply appreciate the splendor of a blossoming tree or enjoy seeing squirrels spiral around the base of a tree. Taking those simple steps to just spend time in nature getting to know the beauty, mystery and wonder in a local park can serve to heal our need for belonging a great deal. If we begin to see ourselves as a part of this natural world, we can start to sense a unification that we all seem to so desperately need. Nature remembers us as a part of this mutual home, but are we ready to claim our birthright as an earth born being mutually? It is our choice as to whether we are ready to embrace this whole new journey of self-knowing!

Sowing the seeds

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

Grasping and clawing to find a way through

There was a time when I thought that life purpose only hinged upon yield. I was always putting in the paces to gain money out of each interaction with the world, even when it wasn't in my best interest to adopt this approach. I tried to make money through my hobbies, crafts, dreams, leisure, joy, and even despair. I thought that this grasping effort equated to survival and if I wasn't in the game of gaining consistent income, I was not going to even have a chance at a happy life. When I looked around objectively, I knew that I was not alone in this belief.

Even though I intuitively sensed that my purpose was more ethereal, it took a lot of inner work to start to shed this heavy load of persistent expectation. I only started to abide the calling and attempt to ease the path after I was forced to slow down. I was getting so sick and tired from placing so much nonstop effort that I didn't even recognize myself at some points along the path. Eventually I was too sick to perpetuate this pattern. My body was riddled with psoriasis, anxiety and depression. I was experiencing kidney stones, heart palpitations, PTSD, and other countless anomalies. Yet, I felt fearful every time I was knocked out of the game and even amidst poor health I was trying to fight on to ensure I didn't perish. 

Surrendering

One mentor I spoke with said it was not healthy to remain in perpetual motion without searching ones heart for a goal and to establish a state of balance. To him, the process involved setting an intention, placing some effort toward the goal, and then surrendering. He said that we try to overtax our brains to solve things we are not trusting that we are holistic beings. Sadly he said our brains go about calculating things in such a linear ways that do not take into account our feelings and our emotional needs. This is where the surrender comes in. When we set the intention and work on it some, but also gift ourselves plentiful rest along the way, we give our hearts a chance to weigh in.

Yet, I almost felt that restfulness equated to sure death and on the days when I wasn't gaining some fiduciary advancements I truly felt afraid. It was almost as if I were mourning the loss of 'me' in a sense. I had grown attached to busying and burdening myself incessantly. I was utterly convinced that I was literally going to die or spiral into nothingness when I started to let go. I wept and self-chastised and waited for the hammer to fall even when I was too weary, frail or weak to go on.

During this cyclical process of sickness and freneticism, I came to understand the origins of this fear. As a very young child we were constantly desperate for money. There was something so scary about this need. My Mother tried to make the most out of our means, but we were adrift in a sea of uncertainty. I felt impoverishment pressing in on me and it was hard to shake loose of the fearfulness of want. 

Societal woes

To further this sense of lack, I also received external messages from society that financially poor people were less worthy. I felt that poor had to prove themselves through menial tasks and accept subpar treatment. I saw the poor gather in lines in the cold at pantries humbly awaiting outdated dented cans of vegetables and three day old bread leftover from the pantry. I even saw those who claimed to be merciful sometimes growing cold when they the poor came to ask for help.  Sure there were a few bleeding hearts and sensitive souls, but outside of that, the world felt icy at times.  It became important for me to fight against the odds and the stigmas by all means necessary. Far better than showing that raw vulnerability.

A surrogate radiates divinity

Yet, I was a sensitive soul and I suffered greatly for observing the sufferings of others. Compassion, empathy and tenderness stirred in me. I feel that my Grandma nurtured this in me when she would tell me to hold my teddy bears tight and to reassure them they were safe in my hands. She nourished in me a sense of unconditional love  and taught me that we all deserved care even if we were quirky or wayward at times. She never shunned or turned anyone away and doted most on the prodigal children who returned for the soulful care that she provided.

Though she was never a financially rich lady, my Grandma also planted in me a love for a great many things. She urged in me skillful fabric stitching, robust cooking skills, a fascination for growing things in the garden and the pleasures of living close to the earth. She taught me how wonderful life could be if we fascinated ourselves with creative endeavors of all sorts. I flourished in her hands and my gifts began to blossom forth. She taught me it was safe to be comfortable and comforted, to be restful and playful, no matter our status or position in life. She told me that I was worthy of exploring the world with fascination and love. In her care I began to see a few skills emerging. Poetry, paintings, music, dance and sculpting started to pour forth. I intended these creations to be gifts unto her for her care but the skills and interests became lifelines and served to speak for me in a world outside where I still didn't trust my voice. I started to see that life was rich without richness financially.

I began to realize after many years now that Grandma was a surrogate for divine love. She was teaching me that we are worthy of putting on those slippers and resting our weary heads when we don't have the energy to work. She showed me that richness didn't come from money, but rather the quality of our self-treatment and the richness of who we choose to surround ourselves with. She taught me that we can be inherently worthy in the eyes of divine and that love channels from both without and within. Now, to follow the trail of crumbs left by those who care enough for me to help me to continue to place faith in surrendering and letting my heart guide me. I hope that we all find a way to honor ourselves and our loved ones too--sowing the seeds that plant love as we walk alongside each other and we find the way through.

I am good enough (Part 2 of 'The Beauty Way' Healing course)

 I am good enough

How do we tend to to read the statement "I am good enough" above? Does it feel that it is true beyond question, or does it create a sense of discomfort or uncertainty? The video for this section of 'the beauty way' course delves into this topic more deeply.

How do I know if I am good enough?

Part of the journey of pursuing my own definition of 'The beauty way' meant coming to face this statement and to find ways to relate to it and respond to it. I think that although I could just say 'you are good enough' on your behalf, there is something very sacred in finding the truth within this statement for ourselves! This is an honoring invitation for you!

So, how do I begin this process of exploring the idea of being 'good enough'?

I'm glad you asked! I have made a short video reflecting on self worth and valuing ourselves that I invite you to check out. It is a great starting point of what will likely be a wonderful journey of self-discovery!  Plus, it is the next step on the journey in 'the beauty way' course! Bon voyage! :)

Your invitation to 'The Beauty Way' course: Introductions

Welcome! An Introduction to 'The Beauty Way' course:

Have you ever heard people describe the concept of living 'the beauty way'? 

I first heard the idea when I was researching Native American healing concepts while I was on my own healing journey. It wasn't familiar with the concept initially but I came to understand it more as I went along. As I learned more, I documented my journey in the hopes that it would bless others. I decided it's time to open up this private process so others might be able to define their own beauty way as well!

So...what is 'the beauty way'?

Upon first reflection, I felt that 'the beauty way' meant finding a beautiful way to live. Although I recognize that this was definitely a part of the overall definition, over time I recognized it meant so much more. It meant expanding beyond ourselves, immersing in our own sense of mythology and mystery, looking into our hearts, experiencing wondrous truths and sometimes revisiting dark places. It is a mighty journey of unraveling! Yet, it unfolds for each of us in a different way that is is uniquely our own, therefore it significantly distinct, meaningful and sacred!

In the coming weeks/months I will be sharing with you a course that illustrates my journey toward unraveling what 'the beauty way' meant to me. I hope that this gift offers you an opportunity to define 'the beauty way' in your own lives!

How do I begin the course?

To start the course, I wanted to share an introductory video about an experience I had with a shaman during a 'Teepee Gathering'. The gathering was meant to help the participants to go deeper and enter the realms of the ancestors to find ways to surrender ways of living that were no longer needed. I wrote about the experience and took the writings and made a video of them. This also serves to introduce you to the course!

When you have 20 minutes to spare, I welcome you to enjoy the video below and begin your own 'beauty way' journey yourself!

Simple Empathetic Witness Writing Activity

Testing the blogging waters again

It feels important after stepping away from something for a while, to test the waters again and 'begin somewhere'. It's almost as if I may have forgotten some of my confidence and courage perhaps, or I have fallen back into the snares of some once conquered fears. Either way, I feel like rejoining the blogging community is important to me now more than ever. So, I wanted to reflect just a bit then offer you a healing writing activity for you to try.

The great need for writing

I used to think that blogging was only for the audience, but I'm realizing it's a measure of growth, a way of observing progress, a holding space for where I'm at now and where I am shooting to be. It allows me to contemplate without encumbrances with the vastly open arms of infinity. It seems that there is a validation of my being hidden in the act. Do you write as a healing practice or for some other meaningful reason?

I find that writing also fulfills a very practical purpose too. I have found that the practice of writing opens senses, heals wounds, creates a comforting open space between the heaviness of everyday. I have great depth but also great space within that depth to fill and sometimes I want to simply glide at the surface. Are there things that writing helps reset in you? Are you the type of person who likes to practice moving between the surfaces and depths of thought? If so, how do you do this while ensuring you are honoring yourself along the way? 

The recent epiphanies I've had that drew me back into blogging also seemed to open doors to offering others the opportunity to try a writing activity too. If you feel all wound up or sad and forlorn, or blocked in some ways from hearing your inner voice or letting it out, I welcome you to try this simple healing writing activity below.

Sacred balancing writing activity

Sometimes we are so free that we are dizzy, sometimes we are so tethered that we can't breathe. I want to invite you to take a few moments to answer the following questions to help see where you are at today. Please be patient and honest with yourself as you answer.  Make room by opening a notepad or Microsoft Word and copying the questions and pasting them there so you can take up all of the space needed. 

Also let the answers flow in whatever way they seem to need to flow, no need for edited perfection, decorum, or even real words. If you sit and punch the keys or tap a rhythm on them instead of words that is perfectly fine. Or if you curse or talk to yourself that is okay too. Any of this type of writing is okay. It still speaks volumes either way.

At the end we will work into a healing reflection based on what you learned.

Okay, so here we go, I invite you to 'feel' the answers and write them down or work through them whatever way you need:

I want to invite you to consciously take a few minutes with yourself and for yourself. Turn off other distractions and close doors as needed to allow yourself to feel you are not pressed to rush or keep anyone else's pace. 

Once you are alone, witness how you feel. Are you emotional and on the verge of tears or angry enough to burst? Are you in Zen or at peace? Be very patient and kind to yourself as you think of the answer. 

Now, come to the notepad or Microsoft Word page where you will write. I want to invite you to take some time to sit with the document as if you were alone with the dearest companion or most trusted friend you ever knew, silent and ready to listen and receive your every word. Allow yourself to feel the trusted safety of this space and the openness with which it welcomes you to share.  Let the words tumble out slowly or fast, let them slip from your heart through your hands and onto the page unencumbered.

Now answer the questions below to try to unravel anything that is rusty or hinged:

How are you doing? (take your time answering--it's your time and it's okay)...


No, really...How are you doing...(I'm really here to witness)...?

I'm truly ready to listen...is there more share?... feel free to dump it I'm game...I've got the coffee on and it's hot!

Here's a tissue and a hug dearie... Now, take just a few good deep breaths and ask yourself: How ca things can get better from here? Take your time writing about it. If nothing comes yet it's okay. 

Next, reflect in writing on one small simple thing you can do to take care of yourself. (I encourage you to keep it simple on purpose so you can do it easily after this writing activity). What would help you along? How can you make it an okay day from here? 

Final reflection:

When you are ready come back to this activity and re-read what you wrote? Then feel free to ask yourself the following questions?

What did you learn about yourself and your struggles through this act of writing?

Were you surprised by what you wrote? If so, what surprised you and why was it unexpected?

Do you feel embraced along the way as you tried this activity? If not, how could you have made yourself feel even more comfortable with writing out your thoughts and feelings?

How did writing help you to heal through the stressors of the day? If so, how will you remind yourself to continue this practice as you go on?

After the activity

Okay, now we are going to wrap up our little chat.  Let's do that by taking a few more deep and wonderfully healing breaths, get yourself a comfortable pair of slippers, a cup of something pleasant to drink and a little blanket. Now, sit by the best seat in the house and rest your weary head for as long as you need before going back out there, take it at a pace and give yourself the space....if you thought of one thing you could do to comfort yourself in the activity above, plan to do that one thing for yourself sometime today (even now if possible). Remind yourself that everything is going to be okay in your own simple way.

Acknowledge yourself for some wonderful self work and self care.