Reach Out to Others!

I am feeling heartbroken for the people in Connecticut.  I'm turning off the TV and turning toward my family, faith and deeper prayer. 

        Lord, help me send love and light to those in pain.  Let me stay calm and openhearted while I manage my own fear and anger.  Help me to remember that news coverage is traumatizing for me, not healing, and that my children need safety and information, not more fear.

Brene Brown Ph.D

www.ordinarycourage.com

(Brene Brown is an excellent author, presenter, and professor.  She has contributed excellent information regarding the subject of shame and imperfection,  based on her research.  Please experience her on u tube, purchase one of her books, or explore her website.)

This holiday season has been greatly impacted by the passing of innocent lives, uncompleted lives, and one very disturbed life.  I encourage each of you to allow this horrible situation to be processed and not repressed.  Confide in friends, family, neighbors, ministers, therapists, in the privacy of your journal or creatively expressed through art.  Release your emotions through prayer, good deeds towards others, contemplation or communing with nature.  Accept your emotions as they are, but then release them.  Let your sadness or anger pass through you embracing loving thoughts of your loved ones.

Over the years, tragedy has touched your life in one way or another.  When something horrific occurs to someone else, your old memories will resurface.  Acknowledge how you feel, but then get busy.  Stay active, but get plenty of sleep.  Find a few activities to brighten your mood ... a movie, massage, coffee with a friend.  Join other families when you are invited or welcome other friends without family to join you. 

Do a lot of snuggling whether it is with your mate, girlfriends, children, grandchildren or favorite pet.  You cannot help how you feel but you can choose your behaviors.  So don't get stuck.  It is a difficult time, a time to reach out to others!

Be You, Bravely

Bravery is being the only one

who knows you're afraid.

Franklin P. Jones

A common misconception is: if I leave my job, relationship, or neighborhood, I can begin my life all over.  Starting fresh  is a wonderful opportunity; however, if we do not address the underlying problem, we simply drag it along with us to the new job, relationship, or neighborhood.  In order to create new beginnings, we must alter or adjust or resolve the issue triggering our unrest.

To be able to make corrections, we must first be aware of what we need to change.  We need to review what we learned from our family of origin and older generations, such as levels of secrecy or money values or relationship patterns.   Viewpoints on these subjects were impressed upon us at a very young age and we may not be aware of the extent they impacted us.

By shedding outdated belief systems or unhealthy life style patterns, we experience a freedom.  We have prepared an opening for which satisfying new behaviors or beliefs can be instilled to both our actions and our thought processes.

By truly breaking negative family cycles, we discover the ways we have been limited and prevented from a more fulfilling   personal identity.  It takes bravery to give ourselves permission to change in order to reach our individual potential.  It is not an easy task but it is a highly rewarding one.  Be you, bravely!