Inner Power

Self-Love

Can you relate to the sudden rush of ecstasy that runs through your body like a stream of warm water when you realize you’ve found yourself with a stretch of solitude? This stretch can overwhelm me because I get so excited about all the things I can do that I end up doing very little. A theme I’m taking into this year is self-commitment. The commitment and discipline to choose me over all else.

So much of the cocktail of anxiety that clobbered the end of my 2025 was the result, I suspect, of languishing in a sort of limbo of my own making. I felt like I was suspended in a waiting room that was neither here nor there, and every time I did make a decision, I initially questioned it.

Yet my intuition knows.  I’m finally accepting that my intuition is strong and has never and will never fail me.  I’ve learned to surrender and trust in that power above all else and let go of everything else. 

Long ago, I heard something when I was suffocating under my own indecision: there is no wrong choice so long as you can be loyal to the one that you make. So if you can hype yourself into thinking you made the right choice, it will become the right choice, even if it doesn’t feel that way at the onset.

The irony of commitment is that we often avoid it in the name of freedom. We don’t want to tie ourselves down because we want to be free. But there’s a misconception: we think freedom means keeping options open. Actually, it’s about making a choice and pursuing it with great determination.  True freedom comes when we empower ourselves to commit to the lives we want. This means closing doors and focusing on what matters. From this vantage point, new experiences and wisdom arise.

Yesterday, while working with one of my students as a warm-up exercise, I instructed her to write 1-3 paragraphs on something that had happened during Christmas break. When I asked if she was ready, she responded in the affirmative, stating she had pulled away from her best friend, since she was always the one initiating.

I thought to myself, there is no coincidence here.  That has been a theme in my own life. And as we all know, true friendship is based on reciprocity and consistency. I was glad that she was neither upset nor angry but told me she had promised herself to stand back and let her friend contact her.

I explained how initiators are often in a powerful position since they spark new beginnings and lead with energy, impacting those around them, while those who follow sit back immobilized by their own insecurities, and they offer an array of excuses.

I also told her how friends sometimes don’t know what you need until you tell them.

She shared in her narrative how she was going to talk to her friend at school the following day.

I just looked at her and smiled with admiration.  How can you not fall in love with a youngster who loves to learn, is honest, and self-reflective?

Now, where are you with your commitments and self-promises? Do tell.