Feeling a wave of creativity and loving it!
I spent much of today playing ukulele, making art, and having rich conversation with a good friend about spirituality and life.
I have been reading the book Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown for a few months, inspired by a couple of wonderful friends who invited me to discuss it chapter by chapter with them. Today we had our last chapter discussion of this amazing read.
One reason I loved reading Daring Greatly is that it's all about vulnerability and how to live a Wholehearted life (and therefore also about courage, hope, shame, resilience, and love). It's anchored in years of research, but is also written in a very relatable way. Talking with friends about what came up for us in each reading was also hugely connecting and healing. It caused me to more deeply consider and sit with my feelings and emotions as they came up, and really dive into my experiences - both recent and from childhood. My friends asked great questions, and I really appreciated the opportunity to verbally process whatever was ripe to come up.
There was a time when we first started reading a few months ago, when it was really hard for me to get through each chapter because so much would come up that I'd feel like sitting with. I know I was able to process so much more with my friends than without. It did get easier to share what was coming up in me, and I feel closer in our friendships now for it too. Vulnerability, YAY..! Sometimes it's scary and hard, but it seems like it really is worth it. :D
While we had our discussion today, I colored this color wave...
Today's chapter was largely focused on parenting, and offered a frame of parenting as a spiritual practice. Big stuff there!
Here are a few quotes on what I especially resonated with:
"In its original Latin form, sacrifice means to make sacred or to make holy. I Wholeheartedly believe that when we are fully engaged in parenting, regardless of how imperfect, vulnerable, and messy it is, we are creating something sacred."
"Hope isn't an emotion; it's a way of thinking or a cognitive process [made up of] goals, pathways, and agency... So, hope is a combination of setting goals, having the tenacity and perseverance to pursue them, and believing in our own abilities."
On belonging versus fitting in, from 8th graders she asked:
"I get to be me if I belong. I have to be like you to fit in."
"If we want to cultivate worthiness in our children, we need to make sure they know that they belong and that their belonging is unconditional."
"The important thing to know about worthiness is that it doesn't have prerequisites."
Brene Brown quotes Pema Chodron:
"Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity."
"We can't shameproof our children. Our task instead is teaching and modeling shame resilience, and that starts with conversations about what shame is and how it shows up in our lives."
This has all naturally encouraged me to think about how I want to be in the world, both to support and serve my self as to support and serve others.
Today I feel good knowing that I can continually consider, strive toward, and evolve my answer to how I wish to be throughout my entire life!
I post my poetry, paintings, articles, riddles, and
whatever else I feel like on steemit
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