All posts by Christine Grace

Personal

What I’m learning from my daughter…

I woke up on morning #2, post college drop off with a heavier heart. Today I felt her absence…her special brand of magic. Jess is a sun beam, a moon beam, some glitter, with lots of dance tracks and splashes of color …all in one. Simply said, Jess is BIG JOY! Her laughter is never far away.

With a little drag in my step, I rose anyway….the kids are watching me…you see, I am no stranger to transitions or ‘big’ life moments and I have learned that my kids learn far more by observing my actions during these ‘big’ life moments – far more than lots and lots and lots of words…lol.

So I set about my daily routine, having faith that putting one foot in front of the other would lead me into my day with more ease…The dogs are fed, the espresso on the stove…I brought some mail into my office…and there it was!

THE HUMMINGBIRD…Staring right at me at eye level was a Hummingbird! She just hovered and gazed…

Some of you may be laughing or throwing in the eye roll at this point…and yes sometimes a bird is just a bird. But there are no flowers by my office window…there is no sun either….yet there she was steadily radiating her magic.

If you look up the meaning of the Hummingbird, it says this:

“The Beat of Life, Joy, the miracle of living, the need to bring more color and more vivaciousness into your life.”

The Hummingbird’s Magic was the exact Magic Jess brings into our home…

I took a deep breath and realized that my own angels were inviting me to cultivate these qualities, this brand of magic for myself. It is time for me to dance more, and laugh more and live with more color…all on my own, Self-Generated.

And now I see that Jess was one of the best teachers the universe could have ever sent me.

With hugs and healing,

Christine

Personal

2022 – Watch Me Rise!

Today I woke up with a level 7 pity party ramping up fast. Today is New Years Eve…today is also day 7 of my covid journey.

My thoughts were swirling…a combination of physical and emotional fatigue, discomfort, uncertainty, sadness…the weight of it all was as sticky as the stuff in my chest ! My inner child began to whine as I looked around the first floor of our home…all the Christmas trimmings that never saw their day. The stale air felt heavy…abandoned halls while everyone hides in their bunkers upstairs, apart. I felt alone…

You see, I thrive on connection…we ALL thrive on connection…my pity party was interrupted by a daily slew of texts from loved ones checking in on me. Each text made its way further through the emotional sludge and deeper into my heart…until it made its way to the center of my swirling brain…”This is temporary…this discomfort! Feel all the love coming in and supporting you Just let it in. You are OK. You are not alone!” 

I was able to steady myself long enough to make my latte…hell yeah…even with 6 days of fever I did NOT miss my morning ritual one day 🙂 But then the sadness rushed back in…I imagined all the AMAZING New Years Eve rituals happening…intentions being set…sacred fires…drum circles ( I do have quite the vivid imagination). My Mind told me that if I missed this auspicious day, all of 2022 was a goner and my whole life along with it. ***I’m telling you, do not underestimate the power of your thoughts to be completely insane when you’re under the weather! LOL!

“SHAKE IT OFF!” I took my coffee…and my puppies back to bed. I had to surrender. At least my physical body had to surrender. My mind needed a loving kick in the ass still. When I usually feel this lost, I walk the labyrinth, or meditate with my sound bowls, or I practice yoga, go for a walk…none of these tools felt available to me as I lay in bed coughing.

WHAT CAN YOU DO? That whisper was just not my voice…THAT wisdom was guidance…call it by whatever name you’re comfortable with…God, Angels, the Universe. It’s all the same and it’s not me. WHAT CAN I DO?

Well…I can Pray! One of my all time favorite quotes is, “If your problems have brought you to prayer then they have served their purpose!”

So I prayed for awhile…making conscious contact with a divine source helped me reconnect to that part of my soul that knows I am not alone…ever.

I prayed for strength of mind!

Courage of Heart!

And physical healing.

Then I prayed for all those struggling right now…no matter what the struggle.

My mind felt calmer…calm enough to engage with 🙂

So I started to list all the things I COULD be grateful for…instead of all the things I was missing out on…starting with the fact that we had so many people help out with food while we’ve been out of commission. The list was long…I let our blessings wash over my whole body and through my heart.

“You’re going to be ok!” I heard…and again this was not me. It felt like a soothing hug from the universe.

As I lay in bed much calmer now…I realized that my New Year’s Eve ritual may not look like I had hoped (Ahhhh those pesky expectations!!!) but in fact I was profoundly going through the exact healing process I needed…even though it didn’t have the bells and whistles or streamers and poppers or any other fanfare. Just real spiritual grit.

So to 2021…thank you for all the experiences this year. Thank you for the growth and the grit, the struggles and resurrections, the stumbles and the expansion…ALL OF IT MAKES ME WHO I AM IN THIS ONE MOMENT! THANK YOU FOR IT ALL!

AND…as I make room for 2022, may I continue to release:

– Fear of what’s to come

– Any tendencies to compare the contents of my path to the perceived contents of ANY other soul

– Judgement I have of myself for getting sick

– Expectations of the way things SHOULD be

– Fear that time is slipping away

– Worry for loved ones health and safety

Dear 2022, I’m Ready to let it rip! WATCH ME RISE!

Sending you all so much love from underneath the covers with my two resident healers!

Christine

Personal

Musings on Gratitude

So with the internet blowing up this November with gratitude messages for Thanksgiving, I couldn’t help but chuckle and wonder…what happens the other 364 days of the year?

For me, cultivating a DAILY practice of gratitude  has transformed my life in ways I couldn’t have envisioned when I started. And let me be clear – I was not FEELING grateful when I started this practice. As many others have experienced, with the gift of desperation…I was on my knees with my own suffering. The details are not important. But the issues weren’t trite worries…they were of the more significant kind.

I didn’t feel grateful…I felt scared and over whelmed and often hopeless and exhausted. I had a “spiritual Advisor” of sorts who was walking me through these earlier days…THAT was something right under my nose to be grateful for! But I couldnt feel anything but my pain. It seems simple or cliche…but I had to live it… to trip over it and to smack my face into the wall with it to learn from it – So it appears I just may need life to serve me up the tougher learning lessons to get them through my thick head 🙂

 

Anyway, when I focused on my suffering…it CONSUMED me…I WORE IT! I couldn’t distinguish me from the pain or the pain from me…it was all one thing. “Focus on the suffering and feel more suffering” DUH!?!

So this Elder advised me – well, required me – to start a gratitude list daily. She actually stopped me mid sentence one day as we sat and asked me to start listing the things I was grateful for…My first thought was, “HAVE YOU NOT BEEN LISTENING TO ME? What do you want me to be grateful for?” She saw the perplexed look on my face and so calmly responded as though she could HEAR my internal battle. “ It could always be worse, my dear!” UGH! Now that was a truth that made its way into my bones…that kind of thing when you hear it you just know it is a universal truth.

Ok…I had work to do.

It started slowly… just words on the page at first. “I’m grateful for the roof over my head…blah blah blah…I’m grateful for my health…blah blah…Im grateful for food in the fridge…blah” It started to really sink in…all these things I took for granted every day were blessings, not guaranteed. And you know what…I lost my health…at some point in my journey I really understood the gift of health and a strong body. As I said earlier – Sometimes I need the lessons the hard way.

But every day the words became more meaningful and that led me into a whole appreciation for the seemingly small gifts that were so abundant in my life. This daily list became my guidepost. And now…It aligns me back to the truth every day…when I feet overwhelmed, it brings me back…if I fall into the Haves & Have Nots, it brings me back!

To come full circle…the key is to FEEL grateful…to learn to shift your “Vibration” inside from despair or lack or fear to appreciation and joy and abundance.

If I focus on the thing I don’t have…I feel like crap! Period! And then I will attract more CRAP! It’s how it works!

When I truly feel into the grace around me, I FEEL lighter, I FEEL abundant. I FEEL content!

One of my favorite quotes on Gratitude comes from a personal mentor, Lynne Twist. She says:

“When you let go of what you don’t really need, it frees up oceans of energy to make a difference with what you have.”

In other words, You can never get enough of the things you don’t really need! This is an endless, unquenchable whole that ONLY Gratitude can fill!

It is the hamster wheel folks! And the only way off of it is to wake up to the abundance that IS in your life. Maybe you are blessed with a loving, emotionally intelligent family. THAT is a grace not everyone has! Maybe you are blessed to be in a strong, healthy, resilient body! ENJOY THAT! Life shifts in a nano second. The examples are truly endless…

So, today I am grateful! I am grateful to do work that feels purposeful to me. Today I Am grateful to mother 2 amazing, sensitive, brave teens. Today I am grateful for many hands in the kitchen to clean the dishes. Today I am grateful for heat as the temperature drops…And I pray for those who don’t have that grace. Today I am grateful to draw another divine breath.

Today I am grateful you read this far…and I pray it sparks something inside your own boundless, abundant soul!

So many hugs to you all,
Christine

Self Love

Why do I walk the labyrinth?

I woke up early this morning…the sounds of nature on a steamy post-summer morning urging me outside…

A few weeks ago, during my own healing session, I reluctantly agreed on an assignment to spend some time thanking my uterus for all its hard work over the years. Cute right? Well…I have been avoiding this assignment..Until now.

The urging in my soul also brought me outside this morning.

So here I am, in the back yard, with 2 feet that feel like cement…at the gateway between resistance and freedom…the entrance to the labyrinth.

I notice my breath…I practice this – like really practice noticing my breath many times a day. No joke. And as you can surmise…currently – there is NO flow. I am holding my breath…I am holding on!

Another urging…I ask my angels to help me let go of whatever resistance is in my body and in my breath. B I G breath in through the nose…sighing it out AHHHHHHHHHHH.

Flow starts to return…as I breathe in…organically my whole being softens, my fists unclench, releasing my thumbs from the grip of my fingers! This is an old posture…pulling everything in tight in ‘protection-mode’. I breathe in again…There is No threat here. I am safe. All is well.

And so I am at that choice point…will I choose growth? Freedom? Courage? Or stagnation, resistance, fear? The labyrinth pulls me into its healing vortex…I choose freedom!

And I Start…To…Walk…So many metaphors come to life when I walk a labyrinth…literally one foot in front of the other. Being present…having to ‘keep my head where my feet are’ as the expression goes or quite literally risk falling off the path 🙂

 

Slowly…I walk…there is only space for one person to walk…there is really only space for me to walk my own spiritual path as well…that is me and the divine. Through the twists and turns, I keep walking…noticing my mind chattering. How many more turns? I wish this was faster…yeah…some of that resistance was still walking with me. It’s like… first I shed the physical resistance by physically starting to walk…then the next layer emerges. The MIND gets really noisy with all its typical chatter and negative thinking…Keep walking and breathing…I just notice the thoughts until they start to simmer down and the symphonic sounds of nature attune my heart to calm and ease.

Then the next layer emerges…Emotions kick up…naturally, because I am making space inside to notice what is actually going on in there. This is BRAVE work! It is the way of personal integrity and honesty. BREATHE…help me move these feelings through!

I allow the feelings to emerge…I am historically masterful at out running my emotions…BUT the labyrinth slows me down as I continue walking into the center…winding my way into my own center. Emotions must be witnessed on this path or they become blind spots…they become chunks of unprocessed energy blocking joy and freedom.

Keep walking…I name my feelings for several breaths…Fatigue…Apprehension…Impatience…Sadness…as I presence each one it mystically dissipates…like energy evaporating in poofs of mist. When I have the courage to be with the feelings, notice them…they miraculously lose their weight…another step…another breath in through the nose…sighhhhhhhiiiiinnnnngggg it out AHHHHHHHHHHH.

And then the magic…the flip…the flow…its like a channel opens between me and the divine…I’ve arrived at the center of the Labyrinth…I’ve arrived in MY center…its as if my soul, my purest essence just emerges and speaks.

This silly assignment (yup more resistance) to thank my uterus (have to admit it worked) all of a sudden takes a new form.
Gratitude pours out of my soul for the gift of creating life itself. Gratitude for the pain in my body that woke me up and set me on a healing path many years ago…appreciation for the divine feminine that creates life through our bodies…all of it…the hard stuff, the joyful stuff, the painful stuff and scary stuff, and the miraculous stuff. Pure gratitude for my life and my journey and excitement for the path ahead.
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Walking the labyrinth for me is like walking home…to my soul…E V E R Y      D A M N      T I M E !

What practices MOVE you in YOUR life?

What extraordinary gifts have emerged from spending brave time listening to your soul?

Are you craving more of this in your life currently?

I invite you whole heartedly to take your own walk home into the center of your soul.

I invite you to come Walk Home!

In love and light,
Christine

Self Love

Gift of Lyme – The Sequel

WARNING!!!!  Potentially Triggering language in this post. So if you react to the GOD word, please read with caution:-) You have been warned.

OK…here we go!

Yeah…so I struggled with naming this blog…obviously. First it was “The Healer who couldn’t Heal” then it was “Feeling like a fraud” and then I tried out “The Imposter syndrome.” None of those really rings true. 

It has been 4 years since receiving hyperthermia treatment for Lyme Disease in Germany. A lot has happened, of course. My body continues to be my greatest vehicle for spiritual growth. Trust me, it has been a journey. If I were asked to sum it up though, I’d say Post-Lyme, my lessons continue to be about self-love and learning genuine kindness towards myself. I am practicing treating myself with the kindness I have zero trouble treating others with…huh…interesting. 

I often sit with the question of why it was so hard for me to “recover” from lyme…to “Get Over It!”… to heal. I sincerely thought that if I learned the metaphysical lesson, the spiritual truth, I would spontaneously recover my health. HA! It really didn’t work that way…and I don’t think it is fair to even hold myself to that standard. 

I have learned that sometimes, even when we have done “The Work”, it takes time for our physical bodies to catch up. I have “done the work”. I Let Go, I forgave, I made amends, I Self Loved, I burned journal entries, I chanted, I cried, I screamed. And still…my body has its aches and pains, its ups and downs, its scares and surprises. Yup…I have to adjust my lens, often, and really honestly accept that I am human. I am in a physical body and sometimes it just needs tuning up 🙂 It needs rest. It needs down time. 

I have also learned that sometimes my prayers and lessons lead me to traditional medical solutions (like treatment in Germany) and that actually doesn’t mean I failed the spiritual lesson. Sometimes the self-loving choice is to really  listen to what my body is needing – even if it isn’t 100% holistic. This ’truth’ has been harder for me to accept…

It reminds me of an old parable: A village is flooding, and FAST. A man stands on the shore line praying for God to save him. He has complete faith that this will happen and remains calm while others scurry about. A boat arrives on the beach and offers to get him to safety. He declines reaffirming, “God will save me!” Some time later as the situation becomes more dire, a helicopter flies overhead, throwing down a ladder to hoist him to safety. Again he shouts out, “God will save me!”. And then…he drowns. When he arrives at the gates of Heaven, he is pretty darn miffed and mystified. “God! I had complete faith that you’d save me! How could you let me drown?” God replies, “I sent you a boat AND a helicopter! “ 

So what do I glean from this story? Sometimes we get stuck in our MINDS, yes that darn intellect! We have a rigid idea of what guidance or healing SHOULD look like. For me, before my Lyme Treatment, I thought “Healing” looked like spontaneously recovering my health IF I just found the right spiritual button to make it happen. This is just not true. 

I hope this rant is making some sense. It just profoundly hit me this past year when I began having severe heart palpitations. I was at it again…asking for guidance to understand the spiritual lesson. I set about excavating my shadow self and again thought that if I could only forgive deeper or love harder, my heart would heal. These rigid beliefs still had a hold on me – especially as a “Healer”.

I’ve heard it said that the divine speaks through people. For me one of those moments was as I lay on my dear friends massage table during my own healing session. I was finally malleable enough to actually HEAR what she was saying and to surrender to a new truth. I trusted her especially because she too is a “Healer”! So when she just matter of factly said, “Sweetheart even when you learn The Lesson, you still need to treat the body. Maybe you just need to get your heart checked out?!” Mic Drop!  I knew I had been doing that SPIRITUAL BYPASS thing. 

YES We are spiritual beings AND we are still in a physical body that needs our love and care and nurturing! And yup…the punch line to the heart issue was that after some simple blood work, we identified a very treatable imbalance. My body just needed a little tuning up!

So, 4 years later, here is what I am still learning from The Gift Of Lyme:

– Be kind to yourself – kinder than you feel is even reasonable or comfortable

– Listen to your body – stop requiring it to push beyonds its limits to achieve some illusive accolade 

– Keep asking what the lesson is and communicating with God/spirit/the divine – call it what you like

– Realize that we are multi-dimensional – you may learn the spiritual lesson and still need some good old fashioned medical care

– Keep laughing

– Keep forgiving

– Keep going!

Sending so much love to you all on this crazy journey,

Christine

Personal

Start Your Day Over Anytime

I head out for my walk today…predominantly cloudy outside… and inside (if you know what I mean). Cranky would define my mood. I spot 2 older ladies up ahead and already I’m annoyed that they are laughing way too loud. Their joyful shrills felt like torpedoes in my ears. And let’s not mention that their idea of social distancing was to take up BOTH sides of the road. ‘What is wrong with people? Seriously? Could they be anymore self-absorbed? Don’t they know I need to pass?’ These feelings and thoughts reverberated through my body like nails on a chalk board.

“I AM SO CRANKY!” It just flew out of my mouth – OUT LOUD! I think I was flinging them out for God to hold. Sometimes feelings are just too much for ANY one person to hold alone. I stopped…dead in my tracks. Closed my eyes. I took a breath. I took a deeper breath. And then I felt this warmth come across the skin of my face. Opening my eyes, I saw the sun beaming through the clouds as though my prayer had reached somewhere greater beyond myself.

I smiled and laughed. The stress and judgements and rigidity permeating my attitude and body began to melt and soften. I imagined all the negativity draining out through the bottoms of my feet and being transformed by the earth into healing light.

It made me remember a saying I have heard often. “We can start our day over at any point.” The best way for me to do that is to first Name It. I had to own my crappy attitude and feelings. Then I had to be willing to connect to an energy greater than myself for a little help and guidance.

For the rest of the walk, I decided to list some things I am grateful for, even some silver linings that this current “Stay at home” situation has provided. I decided to start my day over!

I’m curious how do YOU start your day over?

Personal, Spirituality

Worrying is…Praying for the Worst Outcome

Think about it…it’s hard to scroll thru any social media feed without reading about “The Laws of Manifesting”. So we KNOW that our thoughts become things. Thank you, Mike Dooley and The Secret Daily Teachings. But how do we put these principles into action? How do we stop worrying? How do we stop magnetizing the worst possible outcomes?

And why am I so intently probing this subject, you ask, on a Monday? Kind of a cruel way to start the week! 😉

Because I did some varsity level worrying this weekend and needed to turn my own worry ship around! So here are the tools I pull out when that BIG Huge looming Worry Monster takes hold of me.

  1. Make a gratitude list: 5 things that I am truly grateful for in this present moment.
  2. Share this list with a trusted friend because when we share our joy & gratitude, it doubles.
  3. Get outside: It’s the perfect time of year here in New England to do this. Breathe…listen to the birds…watch the dance of the squirrels. Nature is a total reset for the soul with zero mental effort.
  4. Positive affirmations: ‘All is well in my world today. I am exactly where I am supposed to be and the universe loves me.’ Yes yes yes – this can absolutely be a ‘fake it til you make it’ task. Here’s a tip…take what you are worrying about and then use the positive alternative as the affirmation. Example: The Worry:  I am so worried I’m not doing enough to prepare my teenagers for the real world… Affirmation:  I am enough. I am doing my very best. My kids have their own lessons in life and I trust the universe has their back too!
  5. Drum roll please….yes…I meditate. My ‘go to’ practice is HeartMath’s Quick Coherence Technique. It is the FASTEST way to interrupt my worry. Check out my video here to learn this technique. On a day like I had Sunday, I used this breath S-E-V-E-R-A-L times throughout the day. I am a work in progress. Worry can be habitual. We are not going to stop years of habitual worry with 1 3-minute meditation. Come on, people! Let’s be realistic.

So what do you choose? What are you more committed to? Creating your worst fear or putting in some effort to create a more powerful life? What WORRY are you ready to let go of on this beautiful Monday? Let’s crush this day!

Lyme Disease

Lyme Disease: Arm Yourself With the Facts

***This Is A Legit PSA***

Dear loved ones,

Happy spring! When most people think of spring the images of flower buds bursting through the earth often comes to mind…warmer temperatures, longer days, and the dismal grey colors of winter melting into the vibrancy of Spring.

The other reality that comes with spring is the resurgence of ticks and the threat of Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses. Now before you pop off this post and dismiss it as me getting on my familiar soapbox, please hear me out.

It’s time for WAY more education and much less fear. Get outside. Be healthy. But be educated and know what to do…

Here are the facts:

  • 300,000 cases of Lyme will be diagnosed this year and yes, mostly in the Northeast (This is twice the number of cases of breast cancer)
  • 63% of these people will have lingering symptoms after treatment
  • Nearly 40% will go on to have Chronic Lyme or Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome 
  • Only 20% of Lyme patients ever get the infamous “Bullseye”.  Do not assume you’re safe if you see no bullseye  
  • If a Bullseye appears, play the lottery 😉 (Bad humor)
  • It is believed that almost 50% of all ticks in the Northeast now carry tick-borne illnesses
  • The most current research is now showing that Lyme disease can transmit in as little as 2 hours of having an attached tick. Do not assume the old 24/48 hour rule to be true. It’s just not.
  • Most Lyme-literate doctors prescribe 3 weeks of the antibiotic, doxycycline, to effectively treat Lyme. Anything less is risky.
  • It is not actually deer bringing the ticks into your yard and into your house. It is MICE. 

What to do if you find an attached tick:

  • The best thing to do is remove the tick at the head using pointy tweezers only. The use of oils to ’smother’ the tick cause the tick to actually eject its toxins into your bloodstream. 
  • SAVE THE TICK! Let me repeat…SAVE THE TICK! Send the tick out to be tested. This is the most effective way to find out if you are at risk. Lyme tests on humans are still very inaccurate. But testing the tick is fairly clear-cut. 

Resources:

Thank you all for taking the time to read through this! While it is a crappy topic, it is important to know what to do. So much suffering can be prevented if ticks are handled properly from the beginning. 

Personal, Uncategorized

Taking Risks

I recently had the privilege and honor to work with some incredibly talented and creative artists. Their brand of magic was to transform my everyday self into camera-ready for headshots and video. I put them to the test as they fluffed me up and made me glam – complete with false lashes (so awesome). Throughout the transformation, I started to lose sight of the very purpose I was there…to bring to life a meditation technique that I was super excited to share with all of you.

It made me wobble…As consumer’s of SM, it’s easy to lose sight of how much work goes into a few great photos…to get caught up in the hype and the aesthetic. All that anyone sees is the final product – the post, all glammed up with great lighting and most likely photoshopped. What you don’t see are the hundreds of awkward faces and blinking eyes that didn’t make the cut prior to getting that ONE shot that I could live with. The truth is, put me in front of a camera and I felt completely exposed and totally vulnerable. All the old negative tapes started running their stories loudly in my head.

Seriously, imagine if you will, we are shooting a meditation video meant to help others de-stress and I’m having a panic attack. OK…it wasn’t that bad…but it wasn’t pretty. So what happened? What got my panties all in a bunch? That old business about being authentic…about truly showing up for what’s important in our lives…It made me temporarily freak out. All of a sudden I had thoughts like, what if they think this stinks? What if they think I look silly? But then I realized that the reason these voices were so loud was because THIS work really matters to me. It is deeply meaningful to me which made it feel riskier. How I ‘looked’ really didn’t matter and wasn’t the point. My appearance is not what gives me value.

So I laughed at myself A LOT and thanked those amazingly patient professionals for hanging in their with me through every take and every retake. And each time Eric smiled and gently said C-U-T…I started again. I got in touch with the bigger YES…the reason I was there shooting this video in the first place. It didn’t matter how I looked…I made peace with the fact that although I am at the beginning of this journey, I still have value and lots to say that can make a difference in people’s lives (just like it did for my life).

Sooooo…in the powerful and painfully true words of my teacher, Sonia Choquette, Be Willing to Be at the Beginning. Every famous actor started by stepping onto the stage for the first time. Every writer began by putting down her first words. Be willing to be a beginner…Have Courage to Be Uncomfortable…and be willing to Take the Risk to Be Seen and do what you love.

I wanna hear YOUR stories of wrangling your fears and having the courage to do something important to you anyway! Let ‘em rip!

Or better yet…DO SOMETHING THIS WEEK THAT SCARES THE PANTS OFF OF YOU because it means that much to your soul…And have the courage to share it with us here. Warrior on!

Sending hugs and blessings,

Christine

Personal

Lessons I’m Learning From My Dog

So this happened today 🙂 As I woke up, I discovered my exuberant pup, Zena, wildly thumping her tail…while staring at HERSELF in the mirror. I burst out in empathetic laughter, thinking she MUST believe she’s looking at another dog. She thinks she discovered a friend. Poor, crazy thing!And as I watched her continue to gaze and wag in the mirror, here is what emerged in me…

What if Zena is actually NOT crazy….what if she is wisely modeling for me the simplicity and joy of Self Love?

Huh…she certainly seemed to be having a better time in the mirror than I usually do when I take a peek and find someone snarling back at me with disapproving faces.

What if she is my teacher? So I tried this idea on for a bit…took it for a test drive. I physically gasped as I envisioned this shift, half out of joyful hope and half out of grief. I painfully saw just how hard I can be on myself.

Imagine how my life could transform IF I fell in love with the person longingly looking back at me from the mirror? What if I showered her with the encouragement, acceptance and kindness I show so many others? WHAT IF I learned to wag my own tail at the sight of my own inner beauty? I could feel this possibility penetrating my whole being. It was like a huge, soothing exhale. The word ‘Freedom’ popped into my mind along with ‘Vitality’. I could feel how draining my self-inflicted judgements had been. I had so willingly given up too much vital energy and power to negative self-chatter. Hmmmm…a gentle sigh of acceptance and forgiveness spread over me. With the next breath, I joined my pup on the floor to start my first lesson!

So I will resist heading down the timely path of boldly announcing and then ultimately breaking New Year’s Resolutions! Here’s to TODAY…and for today, I set my intention to not just tolerate myself in the mirror, to not just ‘love & accept’ myself – blah blah blah – but to let Zena teach me how to WAG my own spunky tail in total joy at the magnificence of my own spirit on my own journey…I’m good with that!

All my love and all my truth,
Christine