Five Empowering Affirmations To Live By

This week on Super Soul Sunday, Paul Williams and Tracey Jackson discussed their new book Gratitude and Trust: Six Affirmations That Will Change Your Life.  Their book contains 6 affirmations that I found to

be useful for anyone who is trying to increase their awareness, accountability and empowerment.  However, somehow I only managed to record 5 of the 6, so if you want to learn more, read the book or watch the episode!

1. Something needs to change and it's probably me.
2. I don't know how to do this but something inside me does.
3. I will learn from my mistakes and not defend them.
4. I will right the wrongs where ever possible. “Your life changes when you shift your paradigm to service for anything.” (Oprah)
5. I will live my life in love and service, gratitude and trust.

The Hero's Journey - Notes from Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert was interviewed on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday talking about the ‘hero’s journey’.  Gilbert made many eye-opening points, of which I took notes and included below:

• You own your dignity, your grace, your gratitude. You can keep them if you want to. - knowing things will change but not fearing the change. Enjoying what is happening right now.
• Failure, disaster, shame, suffering and pain do not necessarily make you a better person unless you participate in turning it into something good.
• Use your thinking to turn suffering into grace. If you don't transform your pain you suffered for nothing.
• Become an adult enough to take care of the child that is inside.  Learning that no matter what you are going to be ok.
• At the end of the hero's journey you come back home and share what you learned.
• “It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live a perfect imitation of someone else's life.” -Bhavagad Gita
• There is no happiness with self accountability. You can't expect everything to change with doing anything, you have to do it.
• Who are you going to blame your life on today? You are in charge of you. There is only weakness in waiting for external circumstances to change.  Freedom is in self accountability - I'm in charge of this person, whatever happens out there is none off business. I am 100% accountable for this soul.

I love that saying, “I am 100% accountable for this soul.”  When I want to turn to blame or fear and curl up and hide, it is a good reminder that it is on me to make my life what I want. To be who I am, who I want to be….to be accountable for me.

"For Me It's About Continuously Moving the Energy..."

On Super Soul Sunday, Alanis Morissette commented, “For me it’s about continuously moving the energy, because stagnation in my body...and a lot of trauma is held in there...so just moving it is key”.  Oh. Wow. How true!

I’ve been doing a lot of work on the ‘trauma response’. One thing that is difficult is that once the response sets in, it is hard to move just by my own will. There are a few things that shift the heavy weight off of my chest:

1. Setting my dog on my chest, his energy naturally warms mine and the feeling lightens
2. Someone hugging me - as uncomfortable as it is, it shifts the energy
3. Running
4. Playing piano
5. Writing
6. Reiki - when I had reiki done, I felt large chunks of the weigh break off and dissipate. So much so that the reiki practitioner commented that she could feel the shifts to, even without me saying what had happened.
   
   

The times that the weight is the worst is when I’m stagnant. It is more likely to arise and more likely to subsist. So when she made that comment, the connection was instant. I need to keep the energy moving.  Very different that constantly taking action to avoid painful feelings, this is staying stimulated in a positive way - one of the keys to my balance that has been a reoccuring theme throughout my life.

”You share with the people who have earned the right to hear your story.”

I was watching a segment of Brene Brown’s discussion on vulnerability with Oprah on Super Soul Sunday, and Brene definitely stated,”You share with the people who have earned the right to hear your story.”

This instantly hit home as I’ve been feeling disconnected in my new workplace. I do not have “a person” (as Meredith Grey frequently refers to as Christine Yang). I don’t have someone I can truly confide in about my own concerns, insecurities and anxieties that arise from a new job and the associated challenges. At this point in our lives, it is abundantly clear that the only path to true connection is through vulnerability. As such, I have selectively had conversations where I was vulnerable with a few coworkers that I thought may understand.  These conversations were received with varying levels of validation and empathy but one thing that has not happened is reciprocation. I don’t know if everyone at this company is afraid to be vulnerable or if it is generally taken as a sign of weakness to be vulnerable (aka real) in the workplace.  Either way I’ve been feeling isolated and disconnected.

During the interview, Oprah and Brene remark that if you have one friend who ‘shows up’ for you when you are vulnerable, that is all you need. And if you have 2 or 3 friends who ‘show up’, consider yourself lucky. Well, I must be the luckiest superhero on the planet because I need two hands to count the number of close friends who show up and support me not just when I’m feeling vulnerable but when they are too. True friends that you know will not judge or critique but who show empathy and compassion as we are all trying to ‘grow our gardens’ in a sometimes difficult environment (see earlier post).

I highly recommend checking out a few of Brene Brown’s segments with Oprah - they are chuncked into short bits by topic so you can glean amazing insights without being glued to your computer screen.  If you watch/have watched the interviews, please share any parts that hit home for you!