31 Writers, 31 Lessons-Lesson 17: Find Love Within

My co-worker, Maret, has gone through an amazing life transformation. I have been in complete awe of her this past year. She completely embodies a person who is living her truth, but it didn't come easily. Here she is to tell you about it:

I feel like a new woman today, one year after the man who I’d been with for 11 years told me out of the blue that he didn’t love me anymore. I feel like the weight of this first year on my own has lifted and I can focus on my beautiful present and amazing future. I want to release all the pain and anger and just let what happened fade into memory now. I’ve analyzed, brainstormed, reflected and expressed what went wrong and why what happened between my ex and me needed to happen for me to become the woman I am supposed to be. So now I can release all that, let it go and give it to the cosmos and to God and really be present now to enjoy and appreciate all that I have.

I was reminded of this feeling of being a new woman in a dance class at the gym today, because one year ago next week, I went to the same dance class and caught a glimpse of how I would feel and what my life might be like in this new life filled with love and not fear. It’s hard to describe in words, but the feeling I had in that glimpse was so powerful that it kept me going this past year, especially during the very difficult times. I reflect on why I may have felt that way so soon after my ex told me how he truly felt about me, and I realize now that it was empowerment and control over my life and my love that I felt that day after dance class one year ago. I caught a glimpse of how it feels to not be trapped in a love that is one-sided and can’t possibly give you what you truly need and desire, to not be dependent on someone else’s love or feel scared that they might not love you as much as you love them, that they might leave you but you’re too afraid to even talk about these real fears at the risk that they may come true.

It’s empowerment to not depend on a man to make me feel loved. It’s control to no longer believe that I won’t exist without this person’s love or that I cannot be happy or fulfilled in life without this person’s love. I now know with my heart, my big, beautiful, fragile, caring, tender, wide-open heart—or at least I’m learning—that I am worthy of love, of all the LOVE in the world, just for being me, just for being born, just for being my mother’s daughter, just for being one of Mother Nature’s and God’s children. I repeat: I AM WORTHY! I do not have to prove this to anyone or be afraid that this love will be taken away, because this LOVE resides inside me, and always will! God put this love in my heart when I was designed and created. I have just now discovered it and found the awe-inspiring, earth-shaking, powerful, wonderful, life-changing love inside ME! And I now know that through the process of getting my heart broken, I was able to find this love inside me. Sometimes you have to have your heart broken to find out that LOVE—true, beautiful, everlasting love—resides inside you, not outside.

What an incredibly powerful lesson to have learned this year and even more importantly to have realized and expressed, so that now I can truly appreciate the journey I’m on, where I’ve come from and where I am now. Wow! It’s an incredible feeling! Everything seems brighter or crisper or clearer in a way. To really believe or know in my heart that I will always be okay, that I will always survive, no matter what, is so inspiring. And to know that no loss of someone else’s love can take away the love inside me lets me finally rest in the faith I have been seeking this past year. This truly feels like I am discovering and recognizing faith, faith in the love that God designed for me, for each of us, that’s a part of our DNA, a part of our soul. NO ONE can take that from me!

Maret Kane studied and taught English abroad in Ecuador for 4 years where she fell in love with the culture & Spanish language. She now works with immigrants and refugees in a community college. In her free time, Maret enjoys walking on the beach with her boyfriend, Geovanny. She finds inspiration in dancing, whether at the gym in zumba or strengthening her core in pole dancing and hopes to belly dance more and try laughter yoga in 2012. Maret lives with her two rescued Siamese cats north of Seattle near beautiful Lake Washington.

365 Lessons-Lesson 116: Compassion Begins with Yourself

Writing lessons on this blog everyday has proven to be quite challenging. The lesson I've learned is that sometimes we run out of words. Instead of saying, "That's it, all my words have dried up, time to pull the plug on the blog," I've decided to call upon some dear friends. Friends who are inspirational to me. Alone it is so hard to do keep going. Together, so much is possible.

Sharni Montgomery from Australia has been my blogger friend since the beginning. I feel like I've grown up with her, yet we've never met. I've watched her evolve right here on the net. She went from having a sweet little blog about her life in a one-horse town to her own website called Sharnanigans where she interviews and highlights amazing people from every walk of life. Whenever I feel like throwing in the towel, it's Sharni who appears in my inbox or in a comment to say something like, "Roll with it, I'll do a guest post if you need it, I believe in you." Her post below is so timely. When things don't go our way, it's easy to beat ourselves up. Instead, compassion and love for ourselves is what we really need. Thank you Sharni, for this beautiful, timely post.


Through The Eyes of A Friend

By Sharni Montgomery

www.sharnanigans.com

A few years ago I hit a bit of a breaking point, as we all do in our twenties at one point or another.

The extent of it varies, but I’m pretty sure everyone reaches a day when they come face to face with their own insecurities. The way we handle it differs.

Mine came after breaking up with a boyfriend when I was living in Bondi Beach.

We had been together a couple of years and it came to a halt after a few grueling months.

As the relationship ended, my whole world felt like it had ended.

I told myself that I wasn’t good enough for the relationship, I wasn’t beautiful enough, I was a bad partner, I ruined the relationship, the list went on.

As if it wasn’t hard enough going through the end of a relationship without my own voice kicking me while I was down.

I spent many weeks with eyes swollen from all the crying. Friends and family were at a loss to console me because I couldn’t hear their words over my own self-talk.

It was relentless.

When I look back I realize it wasn’t the end of the relationship that kept me up at night howling with tears.

It wasn’t what ‘actually’ happened that made me unable to leave the house, or feel I would ever smile again.

It was the way I was talking to myself that was making me cry.

It wasn’t until I took myself to see a doctor and announce that I was having trouble with my sadness when he asked me.

“What would you say to a friend that was going through this right now?”

This was possibly the ‘a-ha’ question of my lifetime.

I would definitely NOT tell my friend that she was too ugly, fat, crazy, undeserving, horrible, not worthy if she broke up with her boyfriend.

So why was I telling myself these things? Why did I feel the need to make myself cry?

The fact of the matter was one thing, and one thing alone: Our relationship had ended.

The rest of it was the story I was telling myself about why it ended and I had myself smack bang in the firing line.

Though I didn’t learn the lesson then, I look back and I see that what I needed then was compassion, forgiveness, love and self-care.

If we can’t be as kind to ourselves as we would be to a friend, then how are we ever going to pick ourselves up and get on with life?

This is something that I am now very conscious of.

I know that little voice in my head can be a real a-hole at times. It can rock up when I least need it and spout things I would expect from an arch enemy. I have learnt now to tell him (obviously it’s a bloke) to pipe down and give some air-time to the friendly self instead.

Changing that little voice inside my head and letting myself off the hook for not being “perfect’ has been one fantastic life lesson for me.

Compassion begins with yourself.

When you learn to do this for yourself especially when you are really struggling, you see yourself the way your best friend sees you.

And as Whitney Houston once said “Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all..”