I respect my inklings. Like a concerned parent, I investigate my feelings with a fine-toothed comb.

Getting to the bottom of an upset can be tedious but liberating work.

I relish the opportunity to refine my understanding of what makes me tick, what I want to center, and what helps me appreciate my struggle.

I spend a little time writing - emptying myself onto the page. The art of self-excavation reveals all the ways in which I get in my own way.

Just like people, my emotions can only be understood once I care enough to know them. Instead of brushing past difficult feelings like strangers on the street, l treat them like old friends that have come bearing just the gift I need now.

I don't get too fixated on the titles that hang above my door, the initials that may or may not come after my name, or the engravings on the awards others bestow me. l'd rather focus on doing what's necessary to create in all honesty.

Comfort is enticing, acceptance can be intoxicating, and conformity is always beckoning - offering shiny trinkets and corner offices - but if I want the freedom to follow my bliss l've got to be willing to work against the grain.

I learn to love myself on the way to all the wonderful things I am reaching for. If I forget this step, I miss the point completely. I am the goal.

I don't want anyone else's life. I want to be radically awake within my own.

While some of my learning comes from books, or teachers, or courses of study, I open myself to the wisdom of unseen realms. I track my dreams for their messaging. I consult my tarot cards, my scrying stones, but I don't forget the wisdom of my own instincts, unadorned. When emotions prickle to the surface, I note these responses as trustworthy data. I don't wait for others to give me the green light. I am beholden to my inner-visions, not the false alarms the world so often rings.

I interrupt the habits I have that are about keeping up appearances, impressing others, or playing into the status quo's desires. Such tendencies only stifle my energy and pinch my creativity. Even if it's subtle, any shift away from my truth is too costly a price to pay for a moment of fitting in.

When I stop living by any kind of prescribed formula, when I throw everyone else's rule book out the window, when I listen to the call of my untamable spirit, I get it right. Every time.

— Chani astrology app

I receive peace in my spirit, heart, mind, and body.

I apply loving-kindness to my wounds and my memories.

I am fully aware that I am not alone in this journey called life.

I open myself to love, including love for myself.

I allow truth to show up and liberate me from the limitation of lies I have been told about myself.

I tell myself the truth.

I am learning to be more compassionate, present, open, generous, connected, and willing to release what I no longer need.

My soul tells my heart, mind, body, and spirit, “Welcome home.”

— Dr. Thema Bryant, Homecoming

and trust divine timing. The

future is unknown, however,

I am in good hands.”

-I aspire to release any guilt or hesitation about prioritizing my care

-I contribute to the vitality of my community by co-creating care

-With each gesture of care, I contribute to the care energy that connects wall.

When was the last time you felt in awe of your body?

Take five minutes in stillness to listen to your body. What do you feel and where?

What words of compassion can you speak over your body today?

Inhale: I come home to my body.

Exhale: This breath carries wisdom. - Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies

For I am not digging myself out of a hole I don’t know how I wound up in

~

No, not this time

~

Instead, I am reaching out through the crevasses of the cocoon I didn’t realize I was building

Its safety net keeping me coddled and warm

But the sun calling for me just the same

~

Hold me gently in the palm of your hand

While I stretch and test the limits of this bundle

Tentative in my decision to stay with what I know

Or else explore what could be

~

For maybe I am in a metamorphosis as cliche as that may be

~

Instead of a caterpillar to a butterfly,

Perhaps I am more of a compost returning to Earth

Growing and shining ready to be picked for the perfect pie

Others cutting me up and taking the pieces of me they need, discarding the rest

~

And perhaps the rest is what I’m left with

Not scraps tossed thoughtlessly to the side

But the truest parts of me I can keep for myself

~

And maybe this cocoon isn’t a cocoon at all

Maybe I’m not reaching for the sun

Maybe what I’m searching for is lush cool green terrain

Where the soil and the water meet

Where the warmth comes from within the core rather than some abstract from outer space

~

No matter

~

I do not have the exact words to describe what this transformation or unravelling or coming home is

All I ask of you, is to house the space I require to figure it out

(https://rebeccashuen.substack.com/)

• Oddnon (any/all): "your needs are valid and necessary. the guilt you feel sounds like it's coming from empathy - knowing your own situation informs how you move in the world and that's okay."

  
  

On our share and struggle with getting disability needs met and supported, especially in the medical industrial complex systems and health care providers:

• Oddnon (any/all): and YES, i didn't catch who said it but it's not OUR jobs to inform them. they've created a system that tries to tell us about our bodies instead of asking us about our bodies

  
  

Where is grace needed in the way I think of and speak to myself? Where is grace needes in my relationships?

• Oddnon (any/all): it feels like a deep rejection bc i think a lot of chronic illness compartmentalizes mentally to the point where you just intuit somehow that there's a hard time reaching out.

• Oddnon (any/all): tying it to the grace aspect - i want to give grace to people who afford me grace to myself.

• "I will love myself despite the ease in which I lean towards the opposite." - a quote that Oddnon resonated with and shared with us