Posts tagged with “wisdom”
Stop Talking So You Can Start Feeling
“Don’t hide from your feelings. Press into them. Learn from them. Grow from them.” ~Unknown
There have been times in my life when you could look at my cell phone call log and see back-to-back conversations for hours. I am blessed to have a large support system of loving friends and family, and there have been many times when that has saved me from facing my pain.
If you know anything about attachments styles or are one of millions who suffer from anxiety, you will relate when I tell you that I spent most of my life incredibly anxious. Most …
Everyone Has Struggles, So Don’t Stigmatize Yourself
“Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.” ~Brené Brown
From a psychological point of view, my childhood sucked.
I didn’t have many friends, I rarely left the house, I was terribly shy, and I used to get bullied a lot, both physically and mentally.
My teenage years weren’t any different. The psychological issues I had as a child amplified further and created more profound problems.
When I started college, I didn’t magically become more confident or develop high self-esteem. I was almost the same person.
Now, I proudly (and humbly) can say …
5 Signs You Don’t Know What Your Body Needs
“The body is a multilingual being. It speaks through its color and its temperature, the flush of recognition, the glow of love, the ash of pain, the heat of arousal, the coldness of nonconviction. It speaks through its constant tiny dance, sometimes swaying, sometimes a-jitter, sometimes trembling. It speaks through the leaping of the heart, the falling of the spirit, the pit at the center, and rising hope.” ~Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves
We read about all these things we “should” be doing for self-care, so we add them to our to-do list and rarely, if …
How I’ve Learned to Free Myself from Depression When It Hits
“No feeling is final.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke
I’ve battled depression for most of my life. In my younger years, it gripped me pretty frequently. I was first hit with suicidal thoughts at the age of fifteen, and it scared the bejesus out of me. I was young and dumb and had no idea what was happening.
When I was twenty-five it hit again. This time, however, I understood the cause. I was getting divorced, and my entire life was in turmoil.
It was at this time that I decided that I was going to do something about it. So, I …
How I Healed My Strained Relationship with My Mother
“Give without remembering. Receive without forgetting.” ~Unknown
It was Sunday, April 12, 2015. I had just finished my grocery shopping and was about to leave the parking lot when I noticed a call from my dad.
I called him back so we could talk for a few minutes. He said, “Troy died.” I thought of his friend Troy, who I’d met a couple years prior, and said I was sorry to hear his friend had passed. My dad realized I had not heard him correctly. He said “Troy, your stepdad, he died this morning.”
I felt like someone had punched …
I’ve Learned That I Deserve…
When I was growing up, my parents never spoke to me about what I “deserved.” They spoke to me a lot about what was “expected.” They were very clear about that.
They expected me to be tough, hard-working, well-read, and smart. They expected me to help others, especially those struggling on the margins. They sent me to work in impoverished parts of the world, so I would realize I was very lucky and really had nothing to complain about. They expected me to go to church every week, to be honest, to help my brothers, my cousins, my community. …
6 Powerful Steps to Stop Binge Eating for Good
“As long as you are breathing, there is more right with you than wrong with you, no matter how ill or how despairing you may be feeling in a given moment.” ~Jon Kabat-Zinn
Binge eating is hard. For me, winter time has always been hardest.
The winter of 2011 was particularly bad. It was then that I sat, hands clasped around my knees, thinking about how best to kill myself.
Hopeless only scratches the surface of what I was feeling—that same feeling I’d had on-and-off for fifteen years. I was twenty-three. I’d spent half my life in darkness.
I …
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