I used to find myself thinking people should be different than they were.
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Like there was some internal rule book I created that they should know AND FOLLOW.
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I did this for years, in all areas of my life.
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With people I loved, with people who hurt me and even with people I didn’t know.
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Mostly, I did it with myself.
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For many years, I believed I should be different than I was.
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I applied that rule book internally and made myself adhere to impossible standards.
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I was exhausted, battling the mental dramas.
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I beat myself up for not doing enough or for doing too much.
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For staying quiet or for speaking up. For saying the wrong thing or nothing at all.
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It rarely did anything right.
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My mind was not a good neighborhood to get lost in.
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I had to learn how to get out.
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Getting out became a drive to know myself beyond the self-imposed rule book.
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It took awareness, patience and trust.
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Most of all it took vulnerability to see myself through the eyes of my soul.
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Not through the filter of the mind, but though the acceptance of my heart.
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This level of trust and heart connection felt vulnerable and scary.
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But as I built a relationship with myself that was based in compassion and love, I brought my heart and mind onto the same team.
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👉🏻 And I woke up to the realization that what I thought was wrong with another, was actually something waiting patiently to be healed within.
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As you heal and forgive yourself and others, you stop running away from yourself and show up in your life without the rule book.
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✋🏻 And when I misstep … because I totally do!
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I don’t beat myself up.
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I choose to be gentle and kind with myself.
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I learn from those missed steps and I incorporate the lesson into my forward movement.
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I do better next time.
Because there’s always a next time.
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We’re not supposed to have it all figured out.
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What if there was nothing to figure out?
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What if we’re here to allow and accept ourselves in all our beautiful messiness?
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Dark and Light. Highs and Lows. Gentle and Powerful.
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Allowing ourselves to BE in the world.
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Healing, learning and growing – without pushing. Without judgment.
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Solidly rooted within.