Dear Future Self,
how can we be soft? And sweet and loving and kind? Do you know yet?
This is such an incredible journey, yet I know there is so much I still have to learn.
I just listened to this wonderful compilation, what a perfect way to start the day!
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“Stretch your mind far enough to soften your heart – stay grounded on both sides. This is tenacious tenderness and tender tenacity.” Quote from the video.Tenderness, softness can be so difficult in testing times. I’ve already mentioned the book You Can Heal Your Heart by Louise Hay & David Kessler in the last post. I can only recommend it again. Like this compilation, it’s such a kind and tender gift. The stories shared, the options shown, and the emphasis on how we can change everything in our lives by changing the way we think about it, has changed me and opened me up to new ways of seeing things. For the longest time, I saw myself as a victim to my circumstances. I doubted that I had any power over them. I thought I did not have the opportunities that other people had, because of who I was, where I came from and what I knew. But only the last bit it true. I did not know how to change my situation, something so fundamentally different from not being able to change the situation. Yet, I feel like we often equate the two. We think that because we don’t know how to change something, that we can’t. But we can always find out. That’s the beauty of the times we live in.
Stretch your mind far enough to soften your heart.What a beautiful thing to do. We, I, the people around me keep calling it doing the inner work. I hear people say: I’ve worked so hard, yet I don’t see the changes. Everyone I meet finds it easier to be hard on themselves than to be gentle, soft, playful. But, how can we be soft? Gentle? Tender?
How can we be who we really are?
I want to find a different expression. I don’t want to think of it as doing inner work. I want to practice inner gentleness, openness, allowing. I want to practice being kind and loving. I want to practice patience and understanding. Softness allows for change. Tenderness keeps us flexible and open. We might fear it would make us too vulnerable, but it really makes us strong. What we’ve looked at, doesn’t have control over us any more. Once we’ve looked the tiger in the eye, we can see ourselves in him. These days I love to cry. I can cry when other people tell me things, I can cry when I have feelings coming up that need to be felt. I know tears mean change and I love welcoming that. I can cry freely and I can laugh freely. I feel wide open. Tenacious tenderness, doesn’t that sound yummy, like you just want to keep it as a coat for the day? I might wrap myself in tenacious tenderness until I’ve fully absorbed it and can radiate it out into the whole wide world.Stretch your mind far enough to soften your heart.Go beyond what you thought you could do and remember, you can do anything, all you have to do is to find out how. If you’d like help with that, message me. Lots of love and softness I send to you 😘 Verena
► My Future Self Journal ▼
Why do I write to my future self? ◼︎ ●
Self-Actualizing, personal development, the search for more options, finding out how to actually live our best lives, or simply experiencing growth and change for any reason, might feel weird, scary or uncertain.
Yet impermanence or becoming is something we all share.
I started to write and publish some diary post a while ago, and looking back at them even a month later, I felt like I should rewrite them because my perspective had changed so much.
But that would be like trying to erase the most essential part: the journey.
We don't just arrive at a certain point, we struggle, fight, fall down, run in the wrong direction, come back, stand up, fall again and yet continue.
We laugh, love, enjoy, paint, sing, dance, discuss and find ourselves surprised by the unexpected. With every experience, we spiral up and can dive into deeper levels of experience and understanding if we allow ourselves to do so.
This series is a documentation of a journey into the unknown.
It shows how vulnerability and fear can be present, and welcomed, and not stop us.
It's about admitting mistakes and acknowledging how easily we can be wrong, no matter how mindful, present, in tune and aware we are.
We'll never know until we try.
But most of all it's about celebrating life in all its different forms and shapes, colours and sounds and tastes, in depth and lightness - to witness life's endless beauty and continuous unfolding.
We are all a part of life's magnificence, the question is: How much of it do we allow ourselves to enjoy and experience?
The more we open up and liberate ourselves from what we thought we knew, the more we allow to see things in new ways and the more love we share, the more magical life becomes.
May we open our present with presence and let our future selves continue to experience life wholeheartedly.
May my honesty inspire yours and show you that there is nothing to fear. Everything is working out for the greatest good. ❤️
With lots of love for you and this world,
Verena
