you are precious — reflections & experiential practice

image by @mahkeo

“All my life I thought there was something wrong with me.” These were the dying words of someone’s beloved. I heard this shared in a dharma talk by Buddhist teacher Tara Brach. Those words landed deeply in my body with a lingering pause and wonder.

What did that person realize in those last moments that made them recognize the falseness of this very common belief people have about themselves? How would it have completely shifted their life if they could have seen all that was worthy in them earlier on?

What if I said to you that you are incredibly worthy exactly as you are and there is nothing wrong with you?

You are lovely as you are … and there is abundant space for the evolution of your loveliness.

The process of growing, seeing more clearly, and relinquishing harmful patterns and limiting beliefs is of great value to all of us and in no way negates the worth that we already embody.

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What’s your relationship to enoughness? What do you need to feel enough? What do you need to feel like you have enough? What do you need to feel healed enough, beloved enough, and happy enough? What do you need to feel like those around you are enough? 

In a society that capitalizes on dissatisfaction and an incessant need for self-improvement and consumption, how does one connect with enoughness and feel satiated? How can enoughness feel enough?

image by @ericmuhr

Our sense of worth can greatly fluctuate.

This is true especially when living in a society built around supremacy and oppression.

This is true especially when our ancestors lived in societies built around supremacy and oppression and passed down unresolved trauma associated with that to us.

This is true especially when our worth may be connected to our job, our performance, our wealth, our appearance, our having control, our relationships — all of which can easily shift or come tumbling down upon us in a life that always has change and loss.

This is true especially during times of high stress like this one when we may not able to navigate the world in the same ways we are accustomed to and may have a steep learning curve to learn a new way of being.

It’s okay and completely normal that your sense of worth may fluctuate and come and go.

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Who benefits from you being able to recognize and believe in your value and worth? And who benefits when you don’t believe that you are worthy and enough?

I find it deeply empowering how embracing our worth can be a form of undoing the harm of systems of oppression. There’s a power in knowing you are enough.

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What kind of things are you saying to yourself? What are you believing about yourself? What kinds of homes and worlds are you creating with your thoughts? 

The words we tell ourselves matter.

What if you tell yourself that you matter, that you are precious, and that there is nothing wrong with you? What if you create a home of worth with each moment? Beginning anew with each cycle of breath. 

Changing thought patterns and core beliefs takes time and love and support. Offer yourself that time and care as you are able.

Please take this as a daily reminder of how incredibly worthy you are. Spend time with this and know all that you are.

To explore this further, please check out an experiential practice and reflection for being with our critical and compassionate selves and offering ourselves love and care:

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Two poems by Nayyirah Waheed on self-love and self-worth:

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A poem from the First Free Women by Matty Weingast on liberating from the thinking mind:

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In closing, a wish for you.

May you feel enough. May you feel like you have enough. May you feel like you are enough. May you feel healed enough, beloved enough, and happy enough. May you know how precious you are.

May all of those around you benefit so deeply from how incredibly enough you are and how incredibly enough you in turn inspire them to feel.

May you be able to see the incredible merit and value of all of those around you and of all beings everywhere.

May you know joy, peace, and ease and may you be free from greed, hatred, fear, and delusion.

May your life be a reflection of your incredible worth, love, and care.

 

with love,

—Lissa E.

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