A new year and renewed you!

The best gift you can give yourself in 2024 is YOU!

What does that mean?

Rather than tell you what it means, I'll first give you a glimpse into my world as an example; hopefully, it will provide a better understanding. 

Going way back...

Like many awkward preteens, my confidence wasn't the best. I was a skinny kid and made that part of myself wrong. My posture could have been better, too. 

I remember being called a toothpick, and who wants to be called that?! Well, during that time, it wasn't cool. Without knowing it, I was body-shaming myself. I made my vessel wrong. Not much I could do about it either; I had a high metabolism and was active. 

In a sense, it made me feel powerless. 

Looking in the mirror, I didn't love what I saw! My skinny legs were part of my makeup and passed down from my mother, who got them from her mother. Again, there was nothing I could do about it. 

Not loving that part of myself was just one of many things I discovered I didn't value about myself as I peeled back the layers of doing the more profound work. 

It wasn't something on my radar as most of these parts were covered up and stuffed deep down. I hid them and didn't want to face what once caused pain. Mainly pain imposed by me because of my own self-judgment. 

Rejecting parts of ourselves happens to most of us to some capacity. Yet, it can be challenging to recognize.  

As I started my healing journey years ago, I discovered numerous parts of myself that I made wrong and wasn't aware of that showed themselves as I became open to seeing and understanding myself more. 

They are still presenting themselves as I continue to peel back the layers. 

As they show themselves, I acknowledge and accept them as they are - nothing more, nothing less, just as is!

While improving ourselves is healthy and something to strive for, waiting until we shed unwanted weight, have more financial resources, repair relationships, or heal from grief is unnecessary to love ourselves. We can love and accept ourselves in our most brokenness. 

The way I see brokenness is it's a crack within for the pain to surface so we can tend to an old wound. So, there is nothing ever really broken. Only areas of ourselves that long for acceptance. BY US! 

Loving and accepting these parts of myself I once shamed and made wrong has been some of my best healing work for myself and many clients. 

As you integrate these parts, you discover the love you have always desired: Love from YOU. Confidence emerges because your lack of acceptance of yourself no longer controls you. 

I was worthy of the woman I lost long ago; she was always inside, waiting to be honored, released, and loved. By me! 

When you begin to heal, you begin to live.