I have always tried to find goodness, kindness and connect on some personal level with the people I spend time around... But it has been hard to direct this same goodness towards myself. I have been brutal in my words and have let myself hear the sharp harshness of my thoughts. I do now feel relief that I am not my thoughts. That I do my best to let them go as easily as they floated into my brain. But this is done only with intentional practice. It has taken me over two years to be able to let some very difficult things go.

As I recovered from my prolonged illness, I learned to ask myself five words: "What do I need now?" My mental health provider offered this phrase. Learning to handle illness, anxiety, stress, sadness, and overwhelming feelings was a time of radical self-acceptance and self-compassion. Nell and Christopher Germer wrote a workbook that shares this sentence and elaborates on the benefits of simply asking this question.

When you can ask yourself, "WHAT DO I NEED?", you choose to take some control back in the form of self-compassion, kindness and love for yourself. These words are not a cure all for the many emotional hurts we may have put a bandaid on...just a tool. I have come to learn that the "Nature of yoga is shine the light of awareness into the darkest corners of our body." Jason Crandell

This means your heart. This Light, this awareness, shines into the deep depths of the ventricles, atriums, valves, arteries and veins... and then into the real heart...your spirit. The Light attaches itself to your spirit to circulate this goodness, this brightness...and as you practice..you learn that brutal self-judgement has no place in your heart space.

Whatever path you may take for healing, stay on your trail. If it's not creating space for your growth and healing, seek out alternative ways to get What You Need. You have a choice. Choose You.

❤️‍🩹Jen