GUIDANCE

“Many of us are living with handicaps. Some will change over time but other’s won’t. If that’s the case, stop waiting for your handicap to disappear. Instead, decide to live with it. Work around it. Treat yourself with care, with gentleness. Allow yourself to feel and experience all the limitations and emotions of your present situation. Accept them. Let them be part of you, part of your experience.” -Melody Beattie

I’d shared with a friend that I have been practicing Muay Thai for about five months now. I explained how much I loved it and can see myself going further with it. My friend simply responded, “that makes sense to me, you have always been a fighter.” I thought more about his words later, as I would have never described myself, in my past, as a fighter. It was then that I realized he was right. I realized too, in order to give ourselves permission to step into a new way of being, seeing ourselves, and engaging in this world—the old must fall away. Only then, can what’s always been there emerge more fully.

Join us for an experience, a series of threading. A series of unfoldings. A year-long series of discerning what fabrics we have, and what fabrics we may have hidden or forgotten. This class, this art class—is a sacred space for the artist inside of you. It's for those who desire to make the most of the materials they have been given—who want to weave together the best versions of themselves. If that’s you, let's unfold. Let us thread together, the collective.

“…Dr. Darrien Jamar, a Reiki Practitioner, Chiropractor, and Life Coach who practices at Sense Salon. Instead, I felt relaxed. Dr. Jamar projects calmness so strongly that I felt my stress dissipate. I was surprised how willing I was to talk about my vulnerabilities openly with a stranger in our pre-Reiki life coaching session.” -Jennifer Chase

Before we can invite in all that we need and desire, all that is good—it’s worth surveying what is there. We will need to peer in on what we may have hidden, cast aside, and declared unimportant (from ego, and not our heart). We will need to grow aware of our old strategies for survival and, gently, turn each of them off. It’s time we release our addiction to struggle and our commitment to death by emotional persecution. In time, we arrive to the doorstep of revering honesty. There, we open the door to all the ways we’ve been selling ourselves short—prostituting our worth for little in return.

My hope is that your scars would reveal something deeper. My hope is that behind the portrait of your pain, that you’d have the courage to keep looking, to look closer. There, right there before you, you’d finally see it. That your scars would reveal truths that others might never understand—but you will. You’d find the lessons, the beauty, and the power that your scars were meant to bring you and, in this way, you’d say, I’ve been scarred well.

I have become a master at avoiding imperfections; an expert in covering up blemishes. Tactfully, I built a life around avoiding the unwanted, the messy. I have never understood imperfections because I’ve never accepted them. In doing so, I’ve micromanaged my own reactions and that of others in fear of embarrassment or being perceived as less. Luckily, I’ve exhausted myself. Finally, I have realized that our imperfections have perfecting power. So, here I am, growing whole, fuller, and more beautiful amongst the weeds I have been planted in.

If you rolled your eyes, I wouldn’t blame you. I was once in that place where I was irritated by words like: peace, hope, love, Faith, blah blah blah. For a while, I didn’t see how they were at all practical or applicable to modern life. Today, I know much of the resistance came from my ego, a traumatic past, and how I’ve watched culture and others respond to life. Today, I know I must actively offer myself permission to listen to my heart…to rest in what I know and that which is good for me. Join me in understanding rest—rest, not in the absence of activity, but with. Rest, with functionality and productivity.

You are the ultimate pursuit. It is only through pursuing you, that you will gain access to all the things that you desire and that have been created for you. For, you see, the foundation to growth, life, and success is having a harmonious relationship, first, within. When we don’t know ourselves, our own history (trauma or not)—how can we truly love or create space for others in our life? You are being called to trust yourself. Lean into where your healing and awareness are taking you. This moment has integrity—it will yield the desires of your heart. Listen, closely.

This month, we explore the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of life, growth and healing.  Quite often, we misuse (and mis-view) these two elements. Understandably, we see one as good and righteous, while the other as bad and unattractive.  In reality, however, they both have their perks and their faults.  I’d challenge you to make space for a slightly different perspective.  By doing so, it just may lessen the anxiety you experience when facing confusion and better equip you to walk faithfully and courageously when you are on the other side to clarity.