Continuing the consistent work and progress is necessary. Keeping hope alive to try, and try again. Keep learning and implementing the small things and eventually…one day…you’ll notice…”I feel different” and it’s a glorious feeling.

Kristen Neff, a compassion researcher, explains compassion as opening our hearts to our own pain and suffering, offering understanding and kindness upon failure or mistakes, and recognizing the shared human experience. It hasn’t always been clear to me what self-compassion is because my inner critic was such a trusted voice throughout my life. With enough new information and fresh perspectives and practice, we can transform the thoughts we generate, listen to, and trust to cultivate self-compassion and love all the parts of ourselves.

When we overcome our belief of our lack of worthiness, learn to be our authentic selves, and understand how to stand in our integrity, we earn the freedom of choosing how we show up liberating us from our demons and past reactions.

Continuing to remain curious and explore our reactions to our vulnerability and fear allows for realizations that ultimately create transformation. Discovering my automatic easy button, allows me to notice that I use it whenever I feel afraid or uncomfortable, and now something different can be done. I don't have to automatically push that button anymore. I don't have to always feel afraid.

When we allow ourselves to accept and feel the whole spectrum of emotions, more space for happiness is available. Striving to only feel one emotion all the time is unrealistic and unsustainable. Let's instead try to really feel all of our emotions, so, in turn, we can feel more happiness.

In order to allow ourselves to feel all of our emotions, we need to rethink how we perceive them. Emotions are not good or bad, or positive or negative; they are just emotions. We feel emotions; we are not emotions, and we have a better ability to feel and manage our emotions when we reframe how we see them.

It was a rough week. I hesitated to discuss it here, but we must overcome the fear, shame, and judgement regarding mental health and wellness to heal. Let's start with kindness and compassion rather than fear.

Unnoticed tension that we hold in our physical bodies steals our energy. Become aware of this tension and relieve it to gain some energy back.