Anam Cara

10/25/2022

An Anam Cara (Soul Friend) is a teacher, companion or spiritual guide. With the Anam Cara, you can share your innermost self. Now more than ever, I believe there is a great need for an Anam Cara, a soul friend. In this relationship, you are understood as you are, without mask or pretension. When you are understood, you are at home. I offer interfaith Spiritual Direction. I offer deep listening. I offer a non-judgemental space for you to "wonder out loud". I have a deep reverence and respect for the complexity of the human experience. All are welcome!

08/07/2022

05/27/2022

When I was young, the "washing down by the river" was having the neighbor in for coffee and company. My mother had a very troubled life, but these talks with her neighbors helped soothe her soul, and that ended up helping my siblings and I. We DO need connection, we are "pack animals".

I think it was Brene Brown who told a story about a village where all the women washed clothes together down by the river. When they all got washing machines, there was a sudden outbreak of depression and no one could figure out why.

It wasn't the washing machines in and of themselves. It was the absence of time spent doing things together. It was the absence of community.

Friends, we’ve gotten so independent.

We’re “fine” we tell ourselves even when in reality we’re depressed, we’re overwhelmed, we’re lonely, and we’re hurting. “We’re fine, we’re just too busy right now” we say when days, weeks, months, and years go by without connecting with friends. I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine. It’s so easy to say even when it’s not true.

We’ve become so isolated and it’s hard to know how to get back. It’s so hard to know how to even begin to build the kind of relationships our hearts need. And I think in our current culture, it’s just not as organic as it once was. It's more work now.

Because you know, we have our own washing machines. We don't depend on each other to do laundry, or cook dinner, or raise babies anymore. We don't really depend on each other for much of anything if we're being honest.

In Brene Brown’s book Braving the Wilderness, she says that being lonely effects the length of our life expectancy similar to smoking 15 ci******es a day. I don’t say that to freak anyone out, but to let you know that the longing for connection is LEGIT. I think we’ve treated friendship like a luxury for far too long; friendship isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.

We don't want it. We kind of need it.

Be independent. Be proud of it. But be an independent woman who realizes the value and the importance of opening the door to other good women.

You can do it alone, but you don't have to. Islands are only fun for so long.

There is true magic when women come together and hold hands and share ideas and share stories and struggles and endless bowls of salsa. You use your gifts, and I'll use mine, and then we'll invite that girl over there who brings a completely different set of skills to the table we are building, and we'll watch together as something miraculous unfolds.

~ Amy Weatherly [Books here: https://amzn.to/45UTtvS ]
https://www.facebook.com/mrsamyweatherly

art | Charles Sims

05/14/2022

Live audaciously....

Don’t shrink yourself to make people happy.

05/09/2022

Yes!

This is such a lovely representation of the therapy relationship

10/18/2021

Jaiya John, your words are like honey. 🖤

09/07/2021

YES!!!

Wise words from Anthony Hopkins:
′′Let go the people who are not prepared to love you. This is the hardest thing you will have to do in your life and it will also be the most important thing. Stop having hard conversations with people who don't want change.

Stop showing up for people who have no interest in your presence. I know your instinct is to do everything to earn the appreciation of those around you, but it's a boost that steals your time, energy, mental and physical health.

When you begin to fight for a life with joy, interest and commitment, not everyone will be ready to follow you in this place. This doesn't mean you need to change what you are, it means you should let go of the people who aren't ready to accompany you.

If you are excluded, insulted, forgotten or ignored by the people you give your time to, you don't do yourself a favor by continuing to offer your energy and your life. The truth is that you are not for everyone and not everyone is for you.

That's what makes it so special when you meet people who reciprocate love. You will know how precious you are.

The more time you spend trying to make yourself loved by someone who is unable to, the more time you waste depriving yourself of the possibility of this connection to someone else.

There are billions of people on this planet and many of them will meet with you at your level of interest and commitment.

The more you stay involved with people who use you as a pillow, a background option or a therapist for emotional healing, the longer you stay away from the community you want.

Maybe if you stop showing up, you won't be wanted. Maybe if you stop trying, the relationship will end. Maybe if you stop texting your phone will stay dark for weeks. That doesn't mean you ruined the relationship, it means the only thing holding it back was the energy that only you gave to keep it. This is not love, it's attachment. It's wanting to give a chance to those who don't deserve it. You deserve so much, there are people who should not be in your life.

The most valuable thing you have in your life is your time and energy, and both are limited. When you give your time and energy, it will define your existence.

When you realize this, you begin to understand why you are so anxious when you spend time with people, in activities, places or situations that don't suit you and shouldn't be around you, your energy is stolen.

You will begin to realize that the most important thing you can do for yourself and for everyone around you is to protect your energy more fiercely than anything else. Make your life a safe haven, in which only ′′compatible′′ people are allowed.

You are not responsible for saving anyone. You are not responsible for convincing them to improve. It's not your work to exist for people and give your life to them! If you feel bad, if you feel compelled, you will be the root of all your problems, fearing that they will not return the favours you have granted. It's your only obligation to realize that you are the love of your destiny and accept the love you deserve.

Decide that you deserve true friendship, commitment, true and complete love with healthy and prosperous people. Then wait and see how much everything begins to change. Don't waste time with people who are not worth it. Change will give you the love, the esteem, happiness and the protection you deserve.

08/01/2021

It took me a long time and a lot of work to get to this place in my life. It was worth it! So very true!

07/31/2021

Never shrink from who you are to make everyone around you feel more comfortable....take up space, grow, be all of who you are are and are meant to be.

❤️❤️
(Pinterest)

07/04/2021

Perfect!

How hard is this for you?

05/18/2021

Forced forgiveness is like trying to pry a bud open when it is out of season. We may damage or even kill that tender growth. Never force forgiveness. Forgiveness occurs, organically, when our power and vitality returns—when it is equal to the one who hurt us.
These spiritual bypasses—that is what premature forgiveness is—keep us recycling our pain. So once again, for the folk in the back: f**k forgiving your perpetrators one moment before you, yourself, feel solid, sovereign, and intact—in mind, body, and spirit.
~ Justice Bartlett
(Thanks Sam Albrecht)

01/02/2021

01/02/2021

12/22/2020

Be present, witness their grief....beautiful short film.

(sharing this video? using it in a training! Great! Tag or email us and let us know, and be sure to give proper attribution.) It's so hard to know what to do...

10/04/2020