Hello, friends!
This week has been a week of relating — relating and reflecting.
I started watching a new TV series, Normal People. It’s a coming-of-age story about two people. Two very different people, at least from the outside. One is afraid to rock the boat and hides in plain sight, while the other rocks the boat so hard that people feel uncomfortable around them. The two see each other in ways that others don’t and an intimacy is born. I won’t go too much into the story but I will tell you how it made me feel. I felt their pain, their tenderness, and just sad. I thought about how many people, myself included, have been or are afraid of either truly being seen and rejected OR not being seen and misunderstood.
It brought up—
How many of us feel truly seen?
How many of us feel understood by our loved ones?
How many of us take the time to listen and see those we live and interact with?
How wrapped are we in our own story that we don’t see the other stories being lived around us?
I remember being a teenager and being so scared to be vulnerable. What I learned quickly in school was that being vulnerable opened me up to ridicule. The bullies would descend and eat me alive — so to speak. Looking back on it,I know now that they were also afraid; others had bullied them for sharing their light and were perpetuating their own oppression. But I didn’t know it at the time. All I knew was to keep to myself and carry on.
That changed thanks to yoga. Through my yoga practice, I started to de-armor myself. It took me YEARS to take off the layers of protection so that I could see and feel myself. Then it took me years to be able to share my innermost thoughts and desires with my loved ones.
I leave you with this — surround yourself with people who appreciate you as you are. Take the time to appreciate yourself as you are — from the self-talk to your actions. Treat yourself with the tenderness you deserve.
With love,
Clara
