Red Lights and Deep Breaths
It wasn’t until a few weeks later it sunk in, D no longer chatted happily after pick up. I anxiously held my breath while waiting to turn left. My shoulders were tight and lifted. At times I avoided the entire intersection, adding 5 minutes to the drive, and found I was on the verge of tears at all times in a car.
We had trauma, and it was stuck in our bodies.
Overcoming Life’s Overwhelming Moments
Here’s the thing. Any kind of trauma can deeply affect your heart, mind, and body. Sometimes there is a clear trigger. Sometimes it just comes out of nowhere. If trauma is left untreated, it can lead to long-term, serious mental illnesses like anxiety and depression. It’s all related.
Naming Courage: What I Found at the Bloom Retreat
I could feel myself opening up. Beginning to change. Beginning to move. I could feel the pain shifting. Leaving. Or transforming. My voice was coming back. My lungs were unfurling. I realized my body was strong. It had carried me through horrible things. Protected me and nurtured me. It deserved my love and my loyalty.
The Bloom Retreat: Finding The Space You Need To Grow
Inspired by that girls-weekend more than four years ago, I’ve organized over 15 retreats for women all over the country. Science knows more about how to navigate and grow from crisis and trauma than ever before! Which is so exciting, especially because partnering with Bloom to create our Bloom Retreat brings science and compassion together as we find our path.
Commit To Some Time For You
How are you doing with your commitment to take some time for yourself? For many, self-care sounds like a great idea in theory, but it ends up not feeling super practical. This week at Bloom, we have all sorts of practical resources for nurturing your body and your mind. Take some time this week to get inspired, get connected, and get moving.
This Stuff of Heaven
Brothers and husbands and sisters and wives and parents, all stricken with unique physical, mental and spiritual ailments, in manifest as we grow older. All of us trailing difficult histories. And all of us clenched with particular anxieties and worries about the imminent future. And with our particular load, or perhaps in part of our individual pain, there felt a wedge, a wall around each of us, the wall pronouncing, “All of you don’t understand how hard and rough and relentless life has been for me.” Each one of us eager to feel validation for our personal life struggle.
Feel The Rain
A few months ago my 31 year old brother collapsed, without warning, and died. It was an undetected heart arrhythmia. And since then, I’ve had a paradigm shift. A huge one. His sudden departure, from this mortal phase of existence, has caused me to see life so differently. And it has especially caused me to see other’s so differently. Like I notice them more. And I feel of their malady more.
Rise Up and Get Your Fire Back
One day, early in my journey and in the middle of a very ugly cry, I staggered up from the floor and stared hard into the bathroom mirror. I saw my face. I was so very tired and grief-stricken. I saw the red blotches on my skin and the mascara running wild and dark. But then I saw my eyes. And by some miracle, I saw they were still shining. I gripped the edge of the sink and leaned in close, inches from the glass. Yes, I confirmed, they were tired and wet, but they still shone with something other than grief. I saw me. I felt me.
The Courage to Kindle Gratitude
Earlier this year I saw comedian Demetri Martin do standup. In one of his bits, he made a joke about how the worst thing someone can say to you when you are angry or upset is, “cheer up!”
Just cheer up! It’s so simple! Just go up with the cheer, don’t you see?
What The Darkness Taught
As humans we endure misfortune, pain, distress. And our lights, once so illuminating, begin to fade. Yet, we must remember that within darkness, in pain, in suffering we are acquiring the ability to ascertain the light, the moments of joy and life and beauty.