You're GORGEOUS INSIDE!

On a walk one morning, I saw this real-estate sign posted in front of a house and thought, "I WANT A SIGN LIKE THAT!" A bumper sticker...a name-tag...SOMETHING! It sounds silly, but I swear that house actually stood a little straighter; a little more confident. It was a beautiful house on the outside as well, but that didn't stop the seller from inviting the world to look on the inside, where the real living happens.  Where they would be comfortable and safe; where they would love and be loved; where they would be vulnerable, and creative, and cleansed and fed. Where they would be real and messy and at "home" with their families. It was an invitation to go past what we saw on the outside and step inside, where the good stuff is! 

I thought it was a brilliant metaphor for how we present ourselves in the world. How many of us would be bold enough to boast a "I'M GORGEOUS INSIDE" sign? It requires a great deal of humility to invite others to see us on the inside; to be that real and willing to be seen in ALL of it. The truth is, we ARE gorgeous inside, in all of our humanness and messiness, but the "signs" we tend to drag around more often say things like, "NEEDS WORK", or "REDUCED TO SELL", shouting our Self-judgments rather than celebrating our true beauty!

I promised myself that day to replace my "FIXER UPPER" sign with a brand-spanking new "I'M GORGEOUS INSIDE" sign and I remind myself daily that I'm always growing, changing, evolving, becoming, but WHO I AM, is and always will be, beautifully made. And so is everyone else! 

I do believe I've walked a little taller, been a little kinder, and smiled a whole lot more ever since.  

STAYING PRESENT!

My husband and I just returned from a get-away excursion to Tulum, Mexico...it was heavenly! Turquoise water, white sand, and a quaint little cottage we found on-line. A quaint little cottage with no AC, a rattly old ceiling fan, and barely running water. I'm definitely spoiled to my creature comforts! But we acclimated fairly quickly to what “was” (or wasn't) and remembered our foremost intention in going was to recoup, regroup, and unplug from the world.

Sounds easy enough, and considering Tulum is off the grid for the most part...solar powered, with only generator back-up...it should have been a cinch. Yet, we figured out exactly where to stand in the room and how far to lean over the balcony to get a WiFi signal, depending on the time of day. We laughed at ourselves at how far we'd go to “plug back in”. It was just silly. It took effort to resist the temptation to stay “tethered” to technology and get all the way present, but we did it! And it made me acutely aware of how unconsciously "plugged in" we are in every day life. Note to Self.

It was so automatic to reach for our phones and I kept wondering, “What would we do if we didn't have the option?” What if we couldn't pick up a phone for directions, or pesos conversion, or the meaning of a word? We'd have to rely on our senses, our communication skills, and definitely on other people. Another note to Self.

No judgment, just noted observation of how often our dependencies and habits prevent us from being completely present, even when we're exactly where we want to be, doing exactly what we want to do, with exactly the people we want to be with. And then we saw it...

Driving along that beautiful coast, windows down, sun on our face, completely content in the moment; when out of nowhere there was a big, bright orange, diamond-shaped, very-official traffic sign on the edge of the road that simply read: “STAY PRESENT”. It didn't say “Slow Down” or “Narrow Shoulder”, it literally said, “STAY PRESENT”. That was it! Just STAY PRESENT.

Um...okay. Wow! Doesn't get much clearer than that.

Noted. Noted. And noted!

BEHOLD The Uncorked Soul!

I love my work in this world. I love witnessing the unfolding and awakening of a Soul...the transformation that remembering ignites. I live to see the light come back in the eyes, filling from that deep, down place where Self-worth has been uncorked!

It makes my feet hit the floor in a happy dance when someone wants to dive deep. Not to be pushed from the cliff, but to hold hands and jump! I’ve been at that ledge a gazillion times myself, and each time is always just as scary as the first. Right up until the moment my feet leave the edge, and I’m free-falling into me…and all that I’ve forgotten I Am.

Exploring beneath the surface of Self – the underbelly of the ego – isn’t everybody’s cup of Chi. Not everyone’s ready. I know that. Some have gotten too used to dying to really live. Although it’s hard to watch them struggle, I honor it. God knows I’ve been it. I understand how unsettling the unknown can be, but now I know how unliveable the settling can be.

So I keep stepping to the edge, and I’ll keep diving in, again and again, because living Who I Am is the purest joy I’ve ever known. You can always find me there, I’m sure of it. And I will always, always offer my hand when you’re ready to jump, too. ~kbc

SHOW UP AND SHINE!

It's really okay to be happy...really. Better than okay, actually...it's a game changer! Being afraid to SHOW UP AND SHINE is like the sun being afraid to come up. It's our most authentic NATURE to be joyful and free...to celebrate LIFE...and (contrary to popular belief), it doesn't make others who are less content feel better when we hide our happiness. JOY is contagious! Peace of mind and Soul is calming. Being in love is INSPIRING! It opens hearts to hope and possibilities, which is as loving and needed as our compassion and empathy for the pain in this world. Where did we get the idea that being successful, happy, or completely content could possibly invalidate ANYONE? Quite an arrogant concept, if you think about it. Truth is, if we've moved through, moved on, healed, grown, and done what it takes to create the life we choose, others can too! So, rather than dummy-down your joy, why not CELEBRATE the goodness of your blessings and be the spark that ignites an outbreak of BLISS!  

Let Go and Hang On!

Sometimes, we need help. Sometimes we need to ask for guidance or another perspective to reveal blind-spots about ourselves and the world around us. Sometimes we just need someone to hold the rope while we pull ourselves up. We need help getting out of a spiritual or emotional hole, but our spiritual or emotional damage won’t allow us to ask for the help we need. It's a vicious cycle...and it’s exhausting.

Every one of us gets caught up, and sometimes stuck, in our negative beliefs or faulty paradigms from time to time. That's our humanness. These untrue stories we tell from the inside out are molded from the extremities of our life experiences; some we were taught and some we made up ourselves, to make sense and survive the pains of life. We have these survival instincts on all levels...emotional, physical and spiritual...which is good thing. Except when we get stuck in surviving rather than thriving, and continue to recreate pain over and over for ourselves.

It goes something like this: The coping mechanisms we learned early on in life have become knee-jerk survival behaviors and reactions to normal life experiences today. They're no longer necessary, but it's all we know, so we just keep doing it. It doesn't feel right on some level, but we're rarely able to access that level...not on our own. Eventually, (if we're lucky) the pain we're inflicting on ourselves outweighs the pain we've been avoiding and we finally, courageously wave the white flag and grab the rope. We're tired. We want to heal, we don't know how, and we ask for help. I say “lucky” because this is when relief can truly come.

And it will. We can heal. We CAN! We just have to be willing to GRAB THE ROPE and hang on! When we feel like we're going under, we're stuck, or there's a gaping hole of something missing; or we don't understand why things are happening to us; or we DO understand, but we don't know how to change it or stop the cycle; or we feel angry, scared, depressed, lost, hurt, or confused; or we feel unloved, unworthy, not good enough, unmotivated, uninspired, out of balance, or just generally "not in our skin", then perhaps it's time to let go of what we know and grab the rope. It's time to help ourselves to help.

Sometimes we need support and guidance to find our way back to ourSelves. Fortunately, there's always help, there's always hope, there's always a choice...and we’re never alone!