Unconditional Self-Love
"If you want to hold the beautiful one,
hold yourself to yourself."
~Rumi
Our capacity to cultivate and nurture unconditional love for ourselves informs all of our relationships and how we move through the world.
The greatest gesture of self-love that we can offer ourselves is that of self-acceptance, authenticity in who we truly are, and cultivating the capacity to not only hone in on our own needs but also honor them.
And, there are so many conditions to love.
There are always going to be reasons to justify not loving oneself. Always. It does not matter how far along you may be on your path of consciousness and healing.
Regardless of what is going on in your life, in your relationships, in your body, in your heart, in your bank account...the invitation here is to be loving towards yourself. To remove the conditions and barriers towards living a life of love for no other reason except for the blessing it is to be alive.
It requires tremendous courage to take that leap into a space of residence with deep love of oneself.
In my own healing process, I found that until I learned to truly accept myself unconditionally as I was in any given moment, I could not heal. When I removed the conditions of my existence, my abilities, and worthiness around healing my body and my life, things began to rapidly shift.
When I was a naive undergraduate student, I nervously chose to attend a yoga and meditation class with a local teacher. This hour and half in a gorgeous old church with stained glass windows in the heart of downtown Lawrence, Kansas, changed the course of my relationship to myself and my body forever.
Anna, a teacher with wings of an angel, stood soft, yet so powerfully strong in who she was. She moved through the room connected, embodied, grounded, and integrated . She modeled to me a new possibility of existing. Anna was not bone thin as I had been striving to be for so many years, yet was round with womanly curves. She emanated peace and ease in her own skin in a way that I had never witnessed before.
In Anna's classes, I learned how to breathe into myself with kindness and love for the first moments of my life. My time spent with this beautiful soul has been forever etched in my mind and my heart. In the most potent way, I observed and gained the experience of the beauty of being a woman in a woman’s body. I was gifted with the perspective of what I feel is the real purpose of the practice of yoga: To connect to and be one with the truth of who you are.
Over the years, I have continuously been a student of life, using embodiment practices and other tools consciously and creatively along my path of healing. I believe that it is a lifelong journey and we are never “done” with our work.
It is a quest with no end point.
Healing and growth happen in layers. As one heals a layer another one emerges…on and on and on. It is a beautiful, rich, and deep exploration to choose this path of healing and awakening.
I am very excited to share with you that I have officially launched an online course:
Embody Brilliance ~ Sustainable Healing from the Inside Out!
This 6-month journey is the culmination of my decades of experience and practice in the realm of embodiment (yoga, dance, & mindful movement), meditation, somatic therapies, and natural health and healing modalities.
This course was created to support those whom are ready to cultivate that experience of unconditional love of themselves, inhabit their bodies, tap into their inner strength to meet life more gracefully, release addictive patterns, and embrace and own who they truly are.
Each month provides lessons with interactive guidance, 2 coaching sessions with me, and any extra support needed for success.
Unconditional self-love is a practice.
It requires a commitment and a genuine devotion to living a life of love no matter what comes our way.
The work is to remain connected to our center – to the truth of who we are – and remember that infinite well of love that lies within. When we love and accept who we are, feel a connection to our bodies and our hearts, and show up in that integrated space -- there is no gap. We are who we are in every context.
We can take those deep breaths into the core of who we are and feel a calm, grounded, and loving existence. We can remember these moments at the times we may forget and we can hold ourselves in the space of loving kindness that we may seek from others.
As we complete this month of love, perhaps we can collectively choose to take step after step towards ourselves and learn to love the whole of who we are. May we invite in the experience of unconditional love and acceptance, beginning with ourselves, and share that affirmation with those we are blessed to cross paths with.
