“You can’t avoid pain but you can choose to overcome it.”

Pain.
We all have it.

The pain reminds us that what happened was real and drives us to never let it happen again.

Much our lives are devoted to avoiding pain. Our brains have set up all sorts of defenses against pain and we say phrases like “I’ll never do that again” to gain some sort of control over it.

But despite the good intentions and protections we’ve put in place, pain is inevitable.

Pain has been my constant companion. We’ve been hanging out for many years now. Pain decided to move in with me. He followed me to work, to gatherings with my friends and family. Pain sat in my car, laid in my bed, got a membership and joined my gym.

Pain was everywhere and I couldn't seem to escape it. 

I learned to make peace with pain being part of my lifelong journey, but I’ve also decided that pain isn’t going to be the theme of my life. I want to have a plan for my pain.

I know that some traumatic events in life will never leave me and that I’ll think or talk about them for years to come. But rather than feeling the same gut-wrenching, panic-filled rage and shame with each recollection, I want to be able to reflect on my life knowing how painful times were but without reliving that feeling each time it comes to mind.

I think about it like breaking a bone. When you break something that was meant to be whole, it can be ridiculously painful. There are moments of agonizing, consuming hurt. The healing process is lengthy and hard. But when you heal and tell the story of how you broke that bone and how you recovered, you don’t actually physically feel that pain anymore.

You don’t feel that pain anymore because you recognized that something was wrong, felt the pain, decided you didn’t want the pain to stay and went through the process of healing or in my case, beginning the process.

When it comes to our emotional pain, some of us never go through these stages and we’re left feeling the pain from a wound possibly many years old which has been my case.

I thought I was doing well but what I realize now is that I was just burying it, ignoring it in hopes that it would just go away. So much that I didn't recognize the actual things that were causing me so much pain. I felt like a shell of a person. I was hanging out with pain each and every day and never realized it until I started therapy. 

I was trying so hard to get rid of the pain by actions that I didn’t allow myself to sit in it.

I thought that if I sat in the pain I wouldn’t survive it. I thought there was no way to mourn and make it out alive. I thought that if I allowed myself to really feel and embrace it, I would be stuck in the pain forever.

That, however, isn’t how it works.

Inviting the pain in is what saved me.

Letting the pain in is giving myself permission to fall apart, but it ISN’T saying that I want to stay that way. It is feeling the full weight of it all, all the anguish and heartache, and acknowledging how awful it was.

The point of feeling your feelings is to create room for healing to happen. This space is created from emotional release.

Instead of striving to get better, push the pain down, or attempt to numb it, I have been facing it head on.

I won't lie when I say that is is really, really messy.

I gave myself permission to express what was happening inside of me, no matter what it looked like.

It is me actively deciding not to hide from what is real to me.

And it left me with room in my brain to unpack how to become mended.

Feeling your feelings ISN’T the same as trying to torture yourself with your shortcomings or trauma. It is simply taking hold of a feeling when it comes, bringing awareness to it, and being kind to yourself about experiencing that emotion.

Pain isn’t pretty and it doesn’t require a pretty process. The important part is that you’re doing it. Living a healthy life on the inside is a great image but it is absolutely terrifying to do the work to get there. But it is one of the bravest, most rewarding practices you can do.

Through owning my pain and then going through the practical steps of healing (for me, I love therapy and intentional self-care), the broken bones of my soul don’t feel so painful.

I feel released. 

Edge of a cliff

Have you ever felt like you were on the edge of a cliff barely hanging on or that the next step you’ll surely fall to your death?  Sometimes in life when we get pushed to the end we have two choices: Fight like hell to stand our ground or just jump.  The scariest thing to do is to just let go and jump! But sometimes that is exactly what we need to do.  Often standing our ground where we are and fighting with everything we got even when things are not working is based on our ego.  The ego hates change the ego wants to be in control and we as human beings love the facade of being in control with everything in our lives.  Often the people that are the most ego driven believe they are in control of everything. (GUILTY)

We find comfort in the facade that everything is under their control.  The truth is in life we have very little control over anything. There are two things we have control over: Ourselves and our reaction to others that is it!!  No matter how much we believe differently the sooner we recognize this fact and accept it as part of our lives the better off we are moving forward.  So much disappointment in our lives comes from life seeming to just fall apart.  That feeling of true helplessness is because we created the illusion that we were in control of everything when truly we were not and it's terrifying. 

Taking that leap, letting go and believing that you can fly, is one of the hardest things we can do in our life but not doing it can lead to much more pain and disappointment than if you actually jumped.  Sure there is no guarantee that things will work out.  But by letting go you give yourself a chance, stop fighting the world and then questioning why things continue to be difficult or that bad things continue to happen.  Remember God/universe gives back to us what we put out there.  If all we are putting out there is fighting, pain and disappointment, God/universe will give us more the same.

I am not typically one to ask for help because of my ego/ pride. I want to tell myself that I have everything under control but a month ago I was really scared... Scared is not a word I use loosely but I was scared out of my mind. I decided then that things in my life and the way I was going about holding onto pain, resentment, sadness, and much more needed to change. I decided to was time to fly. I jumped into counseling and haven't stopped since. Each time I go I learn something new about myself. I've started living in the moment and not in the past. I've forgiven myself and also forgiven others because I now know that not letting go of the past is only harming myself and not allowing myself the peace I deserve. 

I used to believe that I wasn't worthy of love and pure happiness from others who were willing to give me that gift but most of all I didn't believe I deserved to give that gift to myself but you know what? I do. It's been there all along, tucked away in a dark cloud deep down. I've been on this journey for 5 weeks now and I am feeling lighter, beautiful, stronger, and loving myself more each day. The journey isn't ending here, it will be a life long journey of learning, forgiving, letting go, giving myself fully to those that I love and not holding back out of fear. 5 weeks, it's been tough and a hard pill to swallow but a beautiful awakening which I am so incredibly thankful for. I don't believe I have ever told myself that I am proud of myself. Life has thrown me some major curve balls but here I stand. So, I am pretty proud of myself and that alone makes me smile.  

Take a chance, let go and learn to fly!

Gratitude

Over the weekend I took a little bit of time to take in some much needed nature. I went hiking at Shades State Park. When I say hiking I am not talking about some paved pathway, I mean rugged hiking through the valleys through a creek bed. My legs are certainly feeling it.

I made sure to put my phone in airplane mode and I had no reception which didn't allow for any distractions. Pictures just don't do this place justice but I also tried not grabbing my phone every 2 minutes out of my backpack and was afraid to carry it in case I tripped from trying to take it all in.

Being Present

I took in all of the sights and sounds that nature was offering. I wasn't thinking about looking at my phone, I wasn't thinking about later, and I wasn't even worried about the time. I was present in the moment or hours I was out there. My worries and stress weren't present, just concentrating on my breathing and trying not to trip.

Gratitude

It's amazing what you can do when you are present in the moment and taking the time to soak it all in. For me, gratitude comes to mind. You are able to enjoy the life and beauty around you. Gratitude has been something that has been difficult for me. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for many things but what I have failed to do and most certainly working harder on as of lately is being mindful of all the things I am grateful for instead of worrying about all of the stress of the past that can't be changed and the future that has yet to arrive.

Thinking about the hike still brings a smile to my face. I'm thankful that I made myself go and proud of myself for taking it all in. I can't go back and change all of the other times in my life that I should have done the same thing because I can't go back, but what I can do is change the way I absorb things to come.

I made peace with some more things from my life recently which is why I needed this day to fully reflect. As I have mentioned in the beginning, it hasn't always been pretty. To know that I had to make peace with pain that I was holding on to, owning it, I let it surround me, stopped resisting it. Accepting it, being grateful for it and letting go of it. Until we learn to have a different relationship with pain, it will continue and continue and continue to weigh us down which is what it has done to me and I am loving the lighter feeling no matter how ugly it can be when you bring it to light.

To be present, to be grateful. Open your eyes!

Reclaiming Life after abuse

I’m a survivor of child sexual abuse.

But even after decades I still can’t say that completely without shame. That’s the nature of this kind of abuse. Logic tells us we were children. We had no choice.

But the wounds go deep and are so hidden that for me, and many like me, that feeling of shame becomes as much a part of who we are as our eye color. We just learn to live with it somehow.

We survive. But once innocence is lost, it can never return.

I believe many survivors of childhood abuse are drawn to spiritual traditions. Those of us who manage to fight the low self-esteem and the numbing lure of drugs and alcohol still need to make sense of what happened.

How do we explain the levels of cruelty and selfishness humans are capable of inflicting on the most vulnerable members of society? How do we become better and more whole humans through and in spite of it?

We know we need to forgive in order to move on and heal, and that’s something most of us can’t do without help. Even with a solid spiritual foundation, forgiveness can take a lifetime for something like this.

When the abuse ended, and I was able to grow up trying to live a relatively normal life the best I could. Except nothing is ever really normal again once you’ve been ripped of your pureness.

The silence around my abuse was nearly as damaging as the assaults themselves. As a young child I didn’t know how to talk about it. When I was 15 is when I finally broke my silence.

Are you a survivor of child sexual abuse? If you’re not, chances are you know someone who is.

Some statistics say one in four women and one in seven men have been molested, raped or abused before they are 18. That’s a staggering number.

And most survivors keep it quietly to themselves. We want to believe society won’t blame us, but experience tells us otherwise.

But healing is possible, and while no one would ever wish abuse on any child, I hope I can turn my pain into a powerful tool of transformation. 

When experts say the scars of child abuse last a lifetime, they mean it. In my teens, when I first began to deal with my abuse, I talked to counselors about it but by then with the response of those I told already had laid a foundation within me.  

Today, I see it as yes, it did happen and there is no going back to change the events. It does play a part in my life and who I am today. I often wonder what I would say to those who did that to me given the chance to open up about it. Would they deny it? Would they admit to it? I sometimes think that if they did admit to it and allowing me to express to them what it has done to me mentally and emotionally would it make me feel better or make me angrier? What if they apologized, would I feel satisfied? I suppose I may never truly know. 

Tuesday Motivation

Good morning! I hope your week is going well. It's another beautiful day, let's not waste it!

After my recent meeting with my "coach" last week we discussed some things that really hit home. Since then I have put up handwritten and printed affirmations ALL over my house, in my car, in my purse, on my computer screen, on my lock screen on my phone, they are EVERYWHERE. I am sure if anyone comes over they are probably thinking what the hell is all of this?

Truth is, in the past I used to write little notes and hide them in hidden places for someone I was with, I would write little notes and tape them to public bathroom mirrors or places where complete strangers would find and doing that made me feel good to know that hopefully I made an impact on someone's day. You never know what someone is going through, they could be struggling in their own life and to know that I could possibly change that, made me feel good. I didn't expect anything in return. I originally got the idea several years ago when I came across a site and the project is called, Operation Beautiful. (Here is the link: Operation Beautiful and the Facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialOperationBeautiful/ )

Then it dawned on me at the end of my appointment, "what if I did that for MYSELF?" Sure, it's not quite the same but to randomly see a post-it first thing in the morning that says, "You are loved" or "Do all things with kindness, including yourself." or "I am in the process of becoming the best version of myself" and so on, actually puts a smile on my face and is a simple reminder. Sure, I can complain about getting up at 5 AM every day but to see those notes helps me. When I start to memorize each one, I will take those down and write more to replace. I may not have someone leaving me random little notes and that's okay but I am being the person that changes the way I feel about myself .

Check out this short motivational video that I found. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. If you have some videos that you enjoy and want to share then leave the link below in a comment.

MAKE TODAY COUNT! DO SOMETHING NEW. DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAN YOU DID YESTERDAY.

Don't forget to love yourself. 

Love, 

Jillian 

Lessons from a 7 year old

We all have those days thinking and wondering "damn, could this day get any worse or will anything go right for me today?" Well, I have certainly been one of those people who never saw the good or the positive that happened in a moment, day, week, month, etc. I always chose to see the bad or the negative and then I would hold on to that which only caused for more of that energy to seep in my bones. 

I have been working with my coach for 2 weeks now, really targeting on the actual thought process for emotions, feelings and actions. You see each one of us is "programmed" in the way we think. It's not always our fault, it can be the way we were brought up, the things that have impacted us in life, trauma, just life in general. So, once we have this thought in our minds we continue to go along with that thought and belief that once we finally have a wake up call we only realize the damage that it has been causing us. It's a HUGE domino effect. This is difficult to do, I will admit but each day I am noticing more and more and able to stop myself when I am feeling a certain way and dig a little deeper and ask myself the "why am I feeling this way? Is this feeling that I have really necessary?" Sometimes I have to meditate about it when I am able to quiet my mind. I am also starting to see the good things in each day rather than picking out the other bullshit. 

Which brings me to Lessons from a 7 year old:

My daughter just started 2nd grade and their first homework assignment was a super hero poster where she had to fill out certain questions. She mentioned one of her favorite things to do is go to Camp No Limits which is a camp for kids and teens with limb differences. So, with this homework assignment she was supposed to bring something in to show to the class as well and since her teacher told her no on bringing her hedgehog she asked if she could bring in her prosthetic arm/hand. A prosthetic that she has never worn, especially to school. I agreed and she took it to school. 

To explain her prosthetic some, she had her cosmetic hand attached to it when she left but you can take off the glove that looks like skin and unscrew the hand and attach something that looks like a hook but 2 fingers that when you wear the prosthetic is like a backpack that goes around each shoulder (that is way too small and tight on her now) that with a squeezing and releasing of the shoulders can open and close the fingers to grab things. 

So, again she hasn't worn it and if she did decide she wants to wear it, she needs to get resized. She took this on Wed. and since she stays with her dad on Wed.'s I don't see her until after work on Thursday. I walked into her daycare and they were on their way to go play outside when I pass her and there she is wearing her prosthetic. I laughed and she did as well and I asked her why she was wearing it and she said she had been wearing it all day and showing people. 

She went on to tell me how everyone thought it was really cool and even the kid that hasn't been very nice to her asked to look at it. Well, since just the cosmetic hand was on their she tried taking it off not knowing you need to take the glove off first which requires water to make it easier to slide off. So here she is wearing her prosthetic with just the hand and glove kind of just stuck in the socket because she had managed to unscrew it. I was excited for her because she was excited (domino effect). 

We had to stop by the store on the way home and by this time she had taken it off and put it up in her bag but as we are in the store waiting to check out, I happen to look over at her little arm and see that she has used marker to color it red. I asked her what that was all about. "Well...," as Alivia giggled. My friend and I decided to play a joke on a new daycare teacher.... (The cashier and I listened closely) And I went up to her and she didn't know I was wearing my prosthetic and I told her that I hurt my arm and then the teacher started asking what happened and that is where my daughter proceeded to have her friend pull off her arm and Alivia shouted, "there is blood, blood everywhere!!!" Alivia is laughing so hard as she was telling her story that the cashier and I were as well. 

Now, you have to know my daughter. She is silly, especially around people she knows but can be very shy more so when it comes to her little arm and trying to cover it up. My daughter told this story with such excitement in front of a cashier she didn't know, pulled a prank on a teacher she didn't really know, wore her prosthetic around all day at school and SHE WAS HAPPY ABOUT IT.

I couldn't stop laughing at my daughter, I was laughing because it was funny but I was also so incredibly proud of her. I made sure to tell her that I was proud of her. 

Now, I wasn't having the best day but I wasn't having a horrible day either but I felt myself drifting throughout the day but I made sure that when I picked my daughter up that I was aware and giving her my attention because I know that NO matter what kind of day I am having, that that little girl looks up to me, she needs me, she needs the "best" me that I can give to her. I may not always be 100% for her but that is slowly changing with learning how to be in the moment. I put all of my focus into her and because I did that instead of looking at my phone, just nodding my head, I was able to actually see the joy in her face and that joy was given to me as well. 

I'm working hard, it's a process, not always pretty but I LOVE the slow changes that I am seeing and being able to release and receive and share. 

Don't forget to Love Yourself. 

Jillian 

 

Be the beholder

People often say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.