I Need These Self-Compassion Reminders

I know, I know. It’s a tall order. Should you be in the minority and not hungry for healing at the moment, maybe there’s still a gem or two ahead. Self-Compassion Reminders explores mind, body, spirit connections and heartful territory. As I type these words, I can barely put words together to speak since migraines are real. Today’s may have been triggered by gluten. Or the bright sun. Or barometric fluctuations. (Can you weather the weather? YOU ARE BLESSED, SISTER.) Directing compassion to ourselves in fresh, brave, trickster (thank you, Tricia Hersey) ways matters. It will change the world.

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Self-Compassion Reminders

There are seasons on this journey with chronic illness I am compelled to shift into radical self-compassion mode. (Flares of Crohn’s, pancreatitis, Raynaud’s phenomenon, and also BRCA2+ genetic mutation issues.)

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Today is hard. For reasons I understand and reasons I don’t. I’m ever learning to move through the mystery and allow it to have its way with me, a beloved daughter of the Divine.

I walked with my husband, son, and grand-doggie Eve for fresh air in spite of the discomfort. Since my mouth won’t really work for talking today, I can only be what Ann Voskamp calls “a place for God.”

Can a dwelling place possibly be enough?

What untruths enter our spirits to tell us we are not worthy when we are less than perfect?

I Need These Reminders

Because of the nature of my disease with absorption issues, nutritional deficiencies, and blood sugar yada yada, frequently, I feel mixed up. Irritability is also tricky to navigate. Whether my thoughts are fuzzy or not, anxiety is never far.

I think we are all experiencing a degree of it if we are awake and breathing in the 2020s. Is there strength to draw from Divine Mystery? What potential is available to all of us?

Self-compassion.

These ideas for living as if we’re already healed spring from an inner gaze with the help of grace.

I haven’t seen fruit come from pretending I’m okay when I’m not. Count me more interested in expanded notions of WHOLEHEARTED LIVING. Point me to an exploration of how AUTHENTIC HEALING TRULY LOOKS and FEELS.

To let go of old stories about how we think healing looks and feels? Room for A NEW SPACIOUSNESS. A NEW PORTAL TO THE REAL AND WHOLE!

1. Ordinary Sacred Mornings

I count it a supreme privilege when I can structure my day to carve out sacred rhythms.

Is there a new world awaiting with a little rearrangement of your day?

Could the pace slow? Could new practices emerge? Contemplative mornings are my thing, but what could you choose to open to that still small voice?

A fresh start to align my heart with God is a chance to get centered and also where a capacity for new vision begins.

2. Breathe

In my 40s, I mostly held my breath. Challenged with parenthood, work demands, and illness, I busied myself from slower living. Things completely fell apart before I started to breathe again.

We can move through overwhelm while also breathing deep. Also, we can choose to suffer less while we’re healing. For me, living in the absence of cure involves remembering I’m already worthy and on the way to greater wholeness. I’m loved with abundant dignity right where I am.

You and I can rest easy.

3. Trust the Body?

This has been a challenge for me. If my own cells are in attack mode, can I trust myself? My focus is LOVE. My focus is compassion. I literally breathe oxygen into my pancreas and send light to my liver.

I reassure my bones and thank them for their strength and service. If this sounds nutty, so be it. “Trust” is maybe not as relevant to me these days as “support” and “listening.”

Not long ago, part of my treatment was tricking my immune system into submission. The medicine I took for months was actually killing me so I am delighted to be done with it. (Also, zero regret despite the suffering and damage.)

The side effect of rage was off the charts and maybe set me on a fast track for emotional healing and repair. Sometimes when you lose, you win.

4. Learning to Direct Intuition & Open Heart Space

My mind easily becomes a wilderness of insecurities, confusion, and worry.

Learning more about intuition is new, and reading about it for me is like reading a foreign language. While I have some experience with mystical intuition, positive thinking, and spiritual disciplines, intuition involves discipline for my wild wild mind. It entails logic and focus.

Daily spiritual practice to open my heart also helps. Emptying helps. I don’t have to be performative. I can’t mess it up.

Daily practices like meditation are these portals to the Infinite, to the Absolute, to rest and a nourishment I cannot create myself.

Another practice that has been important to me are piano sits. I play, sing, and compose every single day. Maybe it’s journaling or painting for you.

5. Boundaries & The Unapologetic “No, thank you”

“Hmmmm, that doesn’t work for me right now.” Have trouble saying no because of FOMO or people-pleasing or reasons mysterious to you?

Saying no is inevitable. I find if I am doing it correctly, I may be disappointing others. Such is life as a grownup with healthy boundaries.

6. Adjust the Pace

We know this. Body, mind, and spirit depend on us to stop rushing. Messages are everywhere to rev it up and hustle.

Why have we become fearful of pauses, slower driving, slower cooking, and stillness? Why all the fear of being bored or too idle? Capitalism has conditioned stillness right out of me!

Chronic illness used to spur me to be extra productive on good days, but now I live slower on good days. Slowing the pace returns me to myself so I can (get ready for it!) re-member.

What if we became so well-practiced in slowness to anger that people wondered if we’d been bodysnatched. Hallelujah, let it be! 🙂

I hope you found something helpful in my heartfelt reflections.

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I wish you stores of: hidden reserves of strength, second winds, and increased compassion for yourself as a beloved student of Love.

Peace to you right where you are.

-michele

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