When my oldest daughter switched on the light for me, it wasn’t just the light over my person, it wasn’t just a torch lighting my path. I was seeing the world for the very first time. And in that light, I could see the damage, the pain and the toxic patterns of all of the people in my life. And I saw it in my communities, on the news, and the posts of people I barely knew on social media. . . It was in understanding my own toxicity and pain, and knowing how good it felt to step outside of that, I was able to see the hateful behaviors of others under that lens of love. Now my compassionate boundaries... those I still had a lot of work to do! . . As I began my training in cognitive behavioral coaching, neurolinguistic programming coaching, and the unraveling of my own story, I came to know it all starts with oneself. When we begin to give tender love and grace to the most broken and ugly parts of us, that’s when we can positively impact everyone else around us. . . I got this shirt from @aliss.tang who is a lovely soul on Instagram. She likes all of my posts. She shares my content. And we’ve had lovely and uplifting exchanges on DM. I know it wasn’t a lot, but I knew that I could support her back by buying this shirt. But, really I was buying myself a gift because it reminds me to “become lively in the state of self.” (B.L.I.S.S.) It reminds me that the more I work on me the more my kids benefit, my partner benefits, my coworkers benefit, my clients benefit. . . The beautiful thing is, I didn’t have to focus on all of those people, all I had to do was learn to love myself. . . #itsalwaysbeenlove #loveistheanswer (at Denver, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_xhLaknZof/?igshid=1acgj0kqtt19v
