Day 1: Coming back to you
It’s here! Alex Elle’s special series about investigating our relationships. She’ll be leading us through various activities that will challenge us to look at things a little differently. She talks about how we sometimes shrink in order to make others more comfortable or that we might stay silent in order to keep the peace or, as she puts it, “calling self-abandonment love”. This series is about connecting with, and being true to, ourselves and making connections with others without sacrificing our own needs.
We start the day with a bit of breath work and a reminder to be present in this moment. She tells us that we’ve learned how to deny our needs, beliefs, or broken our boundaries; it doesn’t just ‘happen’. She describes the process like a flower dropping its petals. Whenever we say yes when we mean no or overgive even though it means denying ourselves we’re leaving a part of us behind.
She asks us to visualize one of these times and pay attention to where we feel the discomfort. Is it in our chest? Or throat? Our belly? She asks us to stay in the moment, even though it doesn’t feel good. Then she reminds us that we need to be compassionate not only to others but especially to ourselves. We don’t need to “smooth things over” or stay silent any longer. She also reminds us that it’s not selfish to tend to our own needs or set boundaries.
Finally she poses a few questions for us like how we will avoid self-abandonment, what does it look like to stay in the moment, with these feelings, and if there is anyone that will “hold” us during this time. She closes with an invitation to explore our truth, examine our relationships, and decide what works – and what doesn’t.
I’ve listened to this session several times today and I’m not quite sure what to make of it all. Some of her words have hit pretty close to home for me. I’ll admit that I was fairly uncomfortable thinking about instances where I’ve chosen to go along with things so as not to rock the boat or given up what I really wanted in order to make others happy. I’m going to have to learn to sit with these emotions and I’m not sure how to do that yet. I hope that this challenge will help me discover my own truth and hang on to it.
I hope that you’ll join me in this challenge. I’d love to hear what you think of it and what you’re learning about yourself. Until tomorrow . . .
#7dayconnectionchallenge
#comebacktoyou
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