Example One

“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time.”

Zora Neale Hurston

Humans, especially broken humans, romanticize pain. We find ways to create an epic narrative for it.

I wish I had realized my dreams could come in with the tide.

I wish I hadn’t assumed my story was doomed to be observed unfulfilled from the shores of my life.

I wish I knew the strength that comes with mental healing, that I hadn’t read the story of golden paint in the broken pottery and left my ending in the beauty of pain or brokenness.

I can’t change the narrative of my origins, but now that I’ve chosen a new path for my life and health, I’ll never stop pursuing the future this new revelation has created for me.

Choosing this path has permanently altered the trajectory of death I so willingly chose before.

I have the tools to combat the darkness in my mind, and a resignation of pain that I’m no longer willing to give into because of its comfort or ease.

I choose freedom

-Free to love my son the way I always wanted to but never could

-Free to have my life back that had turned into a daily battle just to get off of the couch

-Free to be fully alive.

-Free to love myself and others in a bolder, brighter way.

-Free to be my true self

-Tiff

Example Two

Did you know one of the 8 layers of wellness is seeking knowledge and choosing to always learn?

I have thought often lately about how school has always been an escape for me. I love learning. I love being in school.

I've started to wonder if it's because I lacked so many other areas of wellness in my life growing up, that it was the one area I could control feeling good in by having success in school?

I was watching The Book of Boba Fett last night, which just happened to be an episode about the Mandalorian, and came across this quote mid episode:

"Persistence without insight will result in the same outcome"

It isn't always enough to want change or to be consistent in trying something new. You have to want to grow mentally in order to get to a new place.

-Am I distracting myself from the pain or am I addressing it?

-Am I avoiding bad foods or am I figuring out the triggers that caused me to eat them in the first place?

-Am I getting hurt when someone confronts me in a loving manner or am I willing to receive their insight and thank them for helping me grow?

Optavia talked a lot about going through the things in life that have caused us pain this last weekend at our annual conference (Link below for replay videos if you missed it!)

Another one of my mentors often says the way out is through. Same concept.

Are you willing to wade through the pain to get to a better place? Or have you become comfortable swimming in it?

Working on these thoughts today

Just a bit of self-reflection this morning

-Tiff