Today’s truth comes from Grounded Spirituality by author and teacher, Jeff Brown. The short version: Take care of you. Do the work to “deal with your stuff.” It’s hard. It’s continual, but it’s worth it. Your past will no longer control your attitudes or behavior.
It’s up to you–it’s always up to you. You can deny, repress, distort, and bury your unresolved wounds all you want. You can reframe them, pseudo-positivity them, detach from them, bypass them. You can rename yourself, hide away in a monastery, turn your story around. And you can spend all your money on superficial healing practices and hocus-pocus practitioners. But it won’t mean a [darn] thing if you don’t do the deeper work to excavate and heal your primary wounds. The material is still there, right where you left it, subconsciously ruling your life and controlling your choices. This is the nature of unhealed material–it is alive, and one way or the other, it will manifest itself in your lived experience. It will language your inner negative. It will obstruct your path and limit your possibilities. It lives everywhere that you live. And so you have to decide–excavate it and bring it into consciousness where it can be worked through an integrated; or repress it and watch it rule your life. It’s one of the hardest truths we have to face: if we don’t deal with our stuff, it deals with us. There is no way around this. Choose.
–Jeff Brown, Grounded Spirituality
About the Images: The hard pill of today’s post deserves three cheerful sunflower watercolors. The sunflowers are brought to you by my friend and Love Noter, Christine B. She sent the top watercolor with two more beautiful pieces of art for my birthday (10.02). She sent the other two earlier this year–just because. The final piece is a regifted watercolor, the work of my friend, Sheila D. I’m sending love, light, and many hugs to Christine as she prepares to memorialize her mom next week. [If you’re reading on a mobile device or tablet, click the images to view full images in Flickr].
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Beautiful sketches. What a great gift for your birthday!
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I agree! It’s priceless. And she sent more!!!
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👍🏼👏👏👏
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This makes the second time this week someone has reminded me of the important truth you’ve quoted here. I think that means I need to pay attention and follow these wise words. Perfect pictures to go along with the tough truth.
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Yeah, when we hear it repeatedly, it’s often time for us to get the message. Praying for you…
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I saw Christine and smiled. 🙂 Knew it before I saw her name. Yes, they did soften the truth. 🙂
It’s sad, that all of us, or maybe just most of us, have something we need to deal with. But we are here to learn, And there is so much to learn. Our spiritual growth. ;o)
I had forgotten about this little painting. What a nice surprise to see it again. So happy you enjoy it Chandra. 🙂
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Yes, yes, and yes.
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Great link to flickr…the photos are lovely
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Thanks, Cy!
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