10.28.26

We talk a lot about learning to tolerate hard feelings, and I think sometimes we also have to learn to tolerate feeling good.

Ease can feel unfamiliar. Joy can make us want to look over our shoulder.

I am practicing letting a good moment simply be a good moment.

10.27.26

I think presence is one of the most spiritual things we can practice. 

We stop leaving ourselves for the future and return to the life that is happening now.

 There is so much we miss when we are always mentally somewhere else.

10.26.26

There is effort required to live a life. We have to care for our bodies, manage relationships, make hard choices, deal with disappointment and adjust when things do not go as planned.

Denying that reality does not make life easier, and learning to accept life on life's terms does make life easier.

10.25.26

Some of us learned that taking care of ourselves meant disappointing someone else. So self-care can still feel strangely “mean.”

Your needs do not become selfish simply because someone else would prefer you ignore them.

10.24.26

Sometimes life is simply a lot. 

Several difficult things happen at once, none of them are easily fixed, and our nervous system begins to feel as though it is carrying more than one person should have to hold.

10.23.26

Sometimes denial is simply the space between knowing something intellectually and being ready to live as though it is true.

We can meet ourselves compassionately while becoming more honest about the behaviors that are no longer serving us.

10.22.26

Young parts often carry feelings that were never given enough attention, protection, or understanding. 

Trying to reason them out of those feelings can repeat the old message that their experience is inconvenient.

Healing begins by making room for what they feel and meeting it with curiosity, compassion, and steady presence without trying to make those feelings go away. 

10.21.26

Acceptance asks us to feel the energy beneath our reactions.

Before we distract, explain, control, judge, or reach for relief, there may be fear, grief, anger, longing, or uncertainty asking to be experienced rather than eliminated.

10.20.26

Feelings arrive through the body before we can always name them.

A tight chest, heavy throat, racing heart, or sinking stomach may feel unbearable, yet these sensations are often the body’s way of processing an experience that never had enough room to be acknowledged.

10.19.26

A child may have been overwhelmed by grief, fear, anger, or instability because there was no one available to help make sense of it. The adult does not have to avoid the feeling and sensations.

The adult can stay present long enough to help the younger part feel less alone with the intense emotions.