Mental Health
Your Healing Was **Never** Just About You
Photo by Dana Sarsenbekova on Unsplash
“In the shelter of each other, the people live.”
(Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine)
~~ Irish proverb
Greetings to all my precious people!!
Longtime readers will remember The C.O.A.C.H. Method I return to again and again — Curiosity, Optimism, Awareness, Courage, and Hope & Healing. (New here? Welcome. You’ve arrived right where you need to be.) Today I want to follow that path one step further than we usually go — past your own healing, to the quiet truth that so many of you have been sensing lately:
Your healing journey was never just about you. continue reading
What Do You Need Right Now?
Photo by takwa abdo on Unsplash
“I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do
is be on my own side.”
— Maya Angelou
Greetings to all my precious people!!
What do you need right now?
When was the last time you actually checked in with your Self and asked? We are exquisitely attuned to the needs of everyone else. We know when the baby needs feeding, when the dog needs walking, when our people need a hug, a nap, a snack. But us? How often do we touch base with our own precious Self and ask what needs tending?
Just let that settle for a moment. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Place your hand over your heart — and ask: What do I need right now? continue reading
The Healing Gift of Self-Compassion
Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”
— Joseph Campbell
Greetings to all my precious people!!
There’s a quality of softness I keep trying to carry home with me — the kind I always find in slower places, where time is measured in togetherness and not in hours. You can feel it when people gather just to sit and talk, when mornings are unhurried and the birdsong gets a chance to be heard. That softness is available to us anywhere, but most of us have to consciously choose it, because the pace of modern life conspires against it. continue reading
Finding Your Voice
Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash
“There is no greater agony than
bearing an untold story inside you.”
~~ Maya Angelou
Greetings to all my precious people!
Last month on Mother’s Day, I wrote about the first voice you ever heard: your mother’s voice.
Today, I’m writing about the voice she gave you. Not just the sound of your voice (though that’s part of it). But the POWER of your voice. The capacity to name what you see, speak what you know, call things by their true names, say NO and mean it, say YES and claim it, take up sonic space in the world.
Your mother gave you this. Through her body. Through her voice teaching you language. Through the vocal cords she grew inside you.
And then—over years of conditioning—you learned to silence it. continue reading
Taking Up Space
Photo by Alaeddin Hallak on Unsplash
“We ask ourselves, who am I
to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?”
~~ Marianne Williamson
Greetings to all my precious people!
Your mother’s body taught you your first lesson about space:
You belong here.
Inside her womb, you took up space without apology. You grew. You moved. You EXPANDED. Her body made room for you—not because you earned it, not because you stayed small. Because you existed.
And then you were born. And over the years, culture taught you the opposite: take up less space (lose weight, don’t be “too much”), be smaller (quieter, nicer, more agreeable), apologize for existing, make yourself convenient for everyone but yourself.
You learned to SHRINK.
But here’s what I need you to understand: Your body is not an apology. And taking up space is not selfish. It’s RECLAMATION.
