Love you for a thousand years

Life is full, beautiful, and tender. We can see it in the sunrise and sunset of each day. We can hear it in the voices of those we love, and in the sound of laughter.  We can feel it in the warm embrace of another soul. In that same breath, life can be uncomfortable, challenging, and painful. It is a tension we often experience.

I find myself wading through this tension of beauty and grief; this tension of process.

The moment itself was simple. I sat at my desk with the blinds open, soft sunlight bouncing in. I inhaled and exhaled, and during that simple act, a wave came over me when I saw a photograph of myself at age 15.  Innocent, young, and tender.  Naïve, I was. Not knowing what would happen in the next year of my life.

A sudden mixed emotion crashed over me. The realization that I needed to nurture that young, beautiful girl.

Life is full of curveballs. Some seasons are everything we could’ve dreamed of, and there are seasons that are riddled with grief and hurt.

As I mull over how to keep living and be connected, what keeps coming to mind is: take the time to be with oneself, consciously.

Take time to process.

Take time to rest.

Take time to reconnect.

I want to hone in on taking time to process.

Slow living for me is not just the actions of how I approach the mundane, but also in how I approach my mind and heart.  And if my outward life has spurts of activity and spurts of slow living, but my inward life is on overdrive, I’m living in dissonance, and that’s not the vibe I want.

So, how is this done? How do we pull the mindfulness and intentionality that we place into our daily life into our process? Are we sitting with and unpacking the hard spaces that exist within?

I believe there are many ways we can pull the value of mindfulness and slow living into our process. Here is only one action I take:

Acknowledging the need to process

As with anything in life, acknowledging needs is important. Just as you acknowledge your need to be more present, you also need to acknowledge the need to process seasons and moments that are painful, challenging, or uncomfortable.

For me, when I feel overwhelmed with grief, I take note of what my heart needs.  I acknowledge that I need to actually sit with discomfort and let it out, not rush on to the next thing or shut it down and replace it with something else. I needed to acknowledge that any form of grief exists and needs to be heard.

Intentionally processing through hard emotions or moments is not easy. It takes time and mindfulness, so be patient with yourself. If you’ve never sat with challenging spaces of your heart, asking hard questions to get to the root of what you are feeling, will be uncomfortable. But you can do it. If you don’t, you run the risk of disease. Yes, you heard me right, disease in the body is a result of unprocessed stored emotions.  People want to be victims and blame it on genetics, but they themselves are the culprits of not honoring their truest feelings and of using escape to get through life.

All that can be mitigated if you develop a listening heart.  Extend grace and compassion to yourself. Take it one day, one moment at a time. Know that you don’t have to do it alone.

Do not fret. Sitting with and facing hard spaces of your heart and life is not an overnight, quick snap of the finger. It’s a journey. It takes time, patience, and self-love. Rather than simply giving love to others, start by giving love to yourself.

Learning how to sift through stored memories to find hope, joy, and freedom is valuable in being an authentic conscious person.  And crucial to fully live this wondrous life.

Start now before it’s too late.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZGHXy1IAHM