There is a time and place for hiding.
~ When a weapon-wielding criminal is chasing you.
~ When you’re waiting for the birthday babe to arrive for their surprise party.
~ When you spot that chatty inescapable person at the grocery store.
Then – you hide!
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But when do we actually hide, every single day?
When we are FEELING SOMETHING. Having an emotion moment.
We feel a powerful anger, or a long-buried memory rising up out of the vault, or a flood of sorrow trying to bring us to our knees. AND WE HIDE FROM IT.
WE RUN.
WE DISTRACT OURSELVES ANY WAY WE CAN.
Hello mindless social media trolling. Oh, hello emotional eating. Thank goodness you’re here alcohol /shopping / sleep / focusing on others. Thank you for saving me from what I don’t want to feel. Right?!

We use any distraction method we can just so we don’t have to feel what is TRUE in that moment.
Get ready, Dear Ones, here’s a truth bomb for you –
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A life of hiding is no life at all.
When you hide from the hard feelings, you numb out the good feelings too.
You can’t feel joy, connection, love, aliveness unless you stop hiding from the hard stuff.

Let me say that again – YOU CANNOT TRULY FEEL THE GOOD UNLESS YOU TRULY FEEL THE BAD when is there.

Hiding from the sadness?  You are developing blindness to the joy.

Running from the fear?  You will never stop chasing fulfillment and forget about truly living your purpose.

Shelving your needs?  You are becoming immune to other’s needs, and thereby farther from true connection.

Harsh but undeniably true. It is exactly what you are hiding from that you are thinking about the most. You are trying to avoid it but are actually motivated by it more than anything else.

Whatever you practice – you get good at. Are you practicing hiding or living?
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* * And now, here comes the light * *
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No matter how much it feels like those hard emotions are going to kill you if you let them be felt – I absolutely guarantee you won’t die. In fact, when you stop hiding and let yourself FEEL,
THAT IS WHEN YOU BEGIN TO TRULY LIVE.
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If you’re trying this on your own, start small. Try this 5-minute Mindful Emotion practice.

1. In a quiet everyday moment (in the bathroom, riding the bus, waiting in line, you get the point-anywhere, anytime), become aware of the sensations in your body, especially your chest, stomach and head. Feel what sensations are there. Become aware of them. No judgement, no wish to change them, just a kind of clinical awareness.
2. Bring your full attention to those sensations and ask the question – what am I feeling? Notice what comes up. Again, no judgement, no seeing your feeling as a problem. Just becoming aware.
3. For the next few moments just continue allowing the feelings to be there. Breathe into them, knowing you are strong enough to BE WITH the feelings.

And that, Dear Ones, is the moment when you begin to turn towards your life instead of hiding from it.
One small moment builds upon another bringing you closer to all the good that is already around you. It was always there, you just couldn’t feel it because you were too busy hiding.

Having support to build this practice is very beneficial as you can imagine. With my coaching clients, we face their dark corners together. And we build a system to support every crack of light that peaks through. Practicing mindful emotion helps your light grow, expand and, oh blessed day, become THE PLACE YOU LIVE FROM.
And that is when everything changes. Without changing a thing, your whole life changes.
I want that for you.
WHATEVER IT IS, YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO FACE IT.
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#mindfulness

#yougotthis
#bekind
#beinthemoment
#beherenow