We live in a world that is not easy to feel successful in. We are constantly being judged by the wrong qualities and measures. As a result, we are far too hard on ourselves. We live with an internal dialogue that is often far more critical than it is praising. We take stumbles to our core, attaching them to who we are so deeply, that they become our yardstick for whether or not we are a good person.
Everything ends. The parts of your life that you love and the parts of your life that cause you great discomfort. So how do you reconcile this? How do you come to terms with both sides of life’s coin?
This simple experience showed me how much our efforts to control the flow and outcomes of situations can cause us stress. The reason for this is simple: when we try and control how something goes, we immediately put expectations on its outcome and, by doing this, we set ourselves up for either succeeding or failing. We build a wall made up of some arbitrary standard against which we measure our performance against and, as such, we can either win or lose, succeed or fail. Think about something in your life that you are currently fighting against? What would it look like if you loosened your grip on the reigns and just allowed?
As a young child, if you get told, whether directly or subtly, that expressing who you are in a certain way is wrong, what message is that communicating to you? And, furthermore, what behaviors do you then adopt in order to self-correct?
It’s hard to accept that life is as it is meant to be when everything is hard. It takes a trust in the universe that is often beyond our strength. But there is always an uphill to get to the view at the top and there is always a winter before the magic of spring. In the cycles of your life, perhaps you are exactly where you are meant to be.
Are you currently dealing with stress and anxiety? Do you want to develop and practice tools to manage your stress? This meditation will bring you from the cognitive experience of your stress, to the more centered somatic (physical body) experience, to an energetic release. By the end of the meditation, the goal is for you to feel calmer, more in control, and far more grounded. You can use this to deal with a current stressor, to manage ongoing stress, or to prepare for future life stressors.
I am an empath. After years of wondering why things seem to affect me way more than they do others, I discovered this word. Empath. It now all makes sense. I grew up in an environment where my emotions were criticized and tossed aside, while at the same time having a significant person in my life who needed a lot of emotional care. The combination of this lead me to feel a lot for others, carrying their hurt, and then judging the emotions I have in response. If you too are an empath, you know it is not an easy experience of life. So many things hurt. I have memories of sobbing when a fish was caught in front of …
For the first time, the Wholistic Joy Podcast goes “round table” style in this important, upsetting, and necessary subject of body image. As we share our own stories and struggles around body image and the misery it has caused and continues to cause in our lives, we come away with ways that we can move forward and break the binds that keep us from living at our fullest and most beautiful selves. “It is strange to think about how much of it seeps into our everyday, even if you’re actively trying to remove yourself from it.” – Jenna Monroe “Who were you before the world told you you were too big or too fat?” – Rebeccah Brooking “We’re just constantly …
And how I am changing it for good It’s 5:50am when my alarm goes off. It startles me; reminding me once again to finally try and figure out how to get the volume down. I roll over, creatively coming up with all sorts of reasons why I deserve to sleep in this morning. And then it comes flooding back… Images of the ice cream I decided to eat last night right before going to bed. The slice of bread with almond butter I thought was an acceptable choice at 9pm. Or, if it was a particularly bad night, the full pizza I consumed despite my body telling me that I was full after the 4th slice. It’s like a steamroller …
“Personal growth is so important, but then we forget to apply it to our marriages or we don’t know how,” Beatriz Vargas In this episode, I am joined by certified coach and podcaster, Beatriz Vargas. We begin our conversation discussing the importance of having a “why” behind what you do. We discuss the power of having a life purpose behind your job and roles. We then go on to talk about the work that Beatriz does, focusing on marriages and wives in particular. What do you do when you want to work on your marriage, but your spouse is figuratively absent. We then extend this topic to include the other relationships in our lives. The message that we are left …