Surrendering is my everyday practice. Surrendering ego, surrendering expectation, surrendering into a moment which might be wrought with the angst of unknowing, of not knowing. Surrender that I might have said the wrong things to my kids. Surrender that I ate too much sugar. Surrender that I miss loved ones so much it hurts.
TRUTH is a lifelong practice. Seeing ourselves as we truly are is not easy. Ego offers shades to soften and hide what is real, and what is real is that we are all broken in some way. But the brokenness isn't about shame, it's about healing. When we really see our truth and can sit with it, then we can begin to heal.
HEALING is a lifelong practice. No quick fixes. It doesn’t matter what or who ails us, or where it began, a wound is a wound, it all hurts, and it can show up anywhere at any time. And healing doesn’t mean curing. Sometimes healing means acceptance and forgiveness. Healing never stops, not as long as we are being truthful.
GRIEF is a lifelong practice. Grief is promised to us from the moment we were born. Many of us carry it and don’t even realize it. If you are sad, you are grieving, if you are angry, you are grieving, if you are numbing with alcohol, drugs, sex, tv, games, gambling, etc., you might be avoiding. Grief is alive in all of us and needs to be heard. See Healing.
FORGIVENESS is a lifelong practice. Forgiveness is part of our path to healing and freedom. I once heard a wise woman (Brené Brown) say “In order for forgiveness to happen, something else needs to die.” Expectation. Old stories that no longer serve. What we think we deserve. When we replace how we think something or someone should be, with how it actually is, knowing we can’t control it, change it, fix it, then we can begin to forgive. See Healing. Then see Love.
JUDGMENT is a lifelong practice. Judgment is poison. We learn it from our environment, the people around us, our conditioned minds, and it happens rampantly Every. Single. Day. To stop judging is a lifelong practice and it begins right now, moment to moment by paying attention to our thoughts. Stop judging our bodies, imperfections, aging. Stop judging our past or present, stop judging our children, other people who seemingly have it better or worse, stop judging our partners, parents, stop judging the person in the car next to you. No one wins when we give in to judgment. We all do it. Catch yourself, stop yourself. Judgment is a dirty band-aid for ego that never sticks. See Forgiveness. See Truth.
LOVE is a lifelong practice. We are creators, carriers and vessels of love. Authentic love is unconditional, powerful, expansive, and unending. The truth is, if we really practiced true unconditional love consistently, there would be no room for ego or judgment. But we are human, so love is a practice and a superpower requiring energetic balance. If we constantly give to others without tending to ourselves, our vessel becomes empty, tired, and resentful, and the imbalance eventually becomes harmful. If the love we need is only taken from others, if we are dependent and expectant of others to fill that void in our vessel, we become vampires, exhausting the ones around us, which is also harmful. Finding unconditional love for ourselves and ALL others is the greatest and hardest practice of all, requiring us to look again and again at how we do human.
How we look at truth, especially the painful ones, how we tend to healing our pain, or our grief, how we forgive, or manage our judgment of self and others, and how we love, are all our practices for being human. Being human is a gift, an imperfectly perfect practice not meant to be done alone. We reflect each other and can support, uplift and help one another, we just need to keep practicing. Make mistakes, but keep practicing.
Learn more about how to start your own gratitude practice in our guide.
