‘SHOULDS’. ‘Lisa, you should be ashamed of yourself. Lisa, you should be nice. Lisa, you should be kinder. Lisa, you should not be so angry. Lisa, you should go to church every Sunday. Lisa, you should donate more time. Lisa, you should not feel that way. Lisa, you should take care of her. Lisa, you should not do that. Lisa, you should have just said it this way not that way.’

Blah blah blah blah frickin’ blah!

And you know what happened as a result, I grew up with that faulty programming and I used the word SHOULD on my kids, my ex, my friends, and just about anyone I knew.

‘You know what you should do…’

‘You know you should have done this, not that…’

‘You should tell him…’

‘You should tell her she should…’

What goes in comes out—and when SHOULDS go in SHOULDS come out.

There is ZERO recovery without ACCOUNTABILITY and HUMILITY. We can spend three decades in therapy and hundreds...

Vincent Van Gogh has stated, “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

The brain processes information in a linear fashion; up, down, left, right, good, bad, black, white, and yet, we are so much more than what our linear brain thinks we are.

At your core, you are a pure band of light, and so is all that is. Incredible, really, to realize that we are all pure ENERGY in spite of the labels others, as well as ourselves have chosen to slap upon our foreheads.

We may think that what hurts us most are the experiences we experienced as children we were not able to process, integrate, or understand. However, what hurts a child the most is having a painful experience ignored, denied, or marginalized by the caretakers they adore, respect, love, and need to survive.

It is normal for the mind to wish to flee from painful memories and to even panic when bodily sensations surface in response to a pain-filled recalled memory. However, recoiling keeps us stuck in the amygdala living in fear and afraid of our thoughts.

Within each of us is an INNER CHILD that has only wanted to be loved and to love.

Outside of our conscious awareness, the INNER CHILD may be running our lives and we may not realize just how often we give over our power to others because the INNER CHILD’S PSYCHE is directing our inner narrative.

Today, in this precise moment, you have the opportunity to help the INNER CHILD feel more protected, seen, respected and validated. In this moment, you have the chance to remind your INNER CHILD that the more adult you is in charge now. The more adult you no longer needs to seek validation, fawn, fight, run away, or dissociate from scary situations that show up. Today, you have the opportunity and the DIVINE RIGHT to think about the way you think, rather than react to what shows up.

If you are learning to THINK before you REACT, KUDOS to you Dear One!

Thinking should be celebrated!

#GratitudeTuesday

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When we find ourselves raging, crying, yelling, screaming, whining, feeling sorry for ourselves, complaining about who did what, or who said what, we may not be aware that a boundary may have prevented the messy drama we end up having to navigate.

When we are feeling tired, overwhelmed, abandoned, exasperated, bewildered, tossed aside, perplexed, confused, and dazed by others lack of consideration, in those moments, we may not be entirely aware that a little ol' boundary could have prevented the sticky conundrum we have found ourselves in.

Abused adult children often pay more attention to what they don’t want vs what they do want. We struggle to say YES to things, because we don’t feel worthy, or because we fear having and then possibly losing.

Sometimes we stick with NO because we don’t know how to say YES. We say NO because we fear losing control, or appearing selfish, or we worry about what other people will think.

Learning to love the self must include learning to say YES.

We need to say YES to help, to good food, to exercising, to nourishing our spirits, to educating our minds, to telling the truth, and to letting other people in.

One of our biggest struggles has to do with intimacy. Lots of times we say NO to intimacy and vulnerability because it is just too damn scary to say YES to allowing people to get close.

This weekend, see if you can find a way to be just a little more vulnerable. If there is someone you appreciate, maybe give them a call and open your heart by saying ‘Thank...

Codependency sucks and generally, many of us do not heal until we have experienced so much pain, we can no longer stay in denial.

We might hang on to that snotty friend who minimizes us in front of other people because her mother is an alcoholic and we feel ‘sorry’ for her. We might not confront our spouse about how rejected we feel whenever they make fun of our thighs, because we are afraid we might make them angry and maybe cause them to leave us. We might take care of our friends bills, even though we know the reason they can’t pay their rent is because they’re on drugs. We might lie for our sibling even though we know they stole money from our mother, because we don’t know how to set boundaries.

In many of the cases, codependency stays in play until one day the pain of ignoring how we feel reaches critical mass and we just cannot take it anymore. Out of denial, we are forced to save ourselves as we realize, those we have lied for, catered to and...

Friedrich Nietzsche has stated, “You have your way and I have my way. As for the right and the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”

Enlightenment is bittersweet because to be enlightened means to let go. If we wish to believe we are on the path to enlightenment, then there can be no transformation of mind while we continue to believe our way is the only and right way.

All people are born asleep and stay that way until some great crisis shakes loose their slumber. Until then, it is best that we learn to operate from the space of discernment and do what we can to suspend our desire to label or judge those we understand do not understand us.

There are plenty of reasons why you should never chase love in relationships.

When we chase love, we are essentially implying we do not yet possess love. Chasing is an aggressive action. When we want love, we need to become love. If you struggle with insecurities, you may feel needy and become addicted to other people's approval. When this happens, you may be tempted to chase love. Remember, you are enough!

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