Soulshine

“Courage is a natural part of my being. By facing life I transcend it.” Stuart Wilde, Affirmations Everyone is inherently courageous. Courage is a natural feeling. It’s also a fleeting feeling. We have moments when we are able to stand our ground and speak our truth, but we also have moments when we cower behind the curtains, filled with fear of rejection or annihilation. This is true for everyone. The important thing to understand is that courage isn’t about being free of fear. It’s about transcending the fear. And we have to face our fear in order to rise above it. People who are in the throes of the codependent crazies generally have trouble being courageous. This is why compliance is a major problem for codependents. Long ago we rejected and abandoned ourselves, and so the thought of being rejected or abandoned by others becomes an overwhelming fear. Deep inside, we fear that one more rejection will annihilate us from within; that we’d simply implode into nothingness. So we choo...

“How people look is often the same as how they feel. Over the years your face changes to reflect your predominate emotions” Stuart Wilde, Silent Power There have been many songs written about facial expressions. “Sad Eyes,” “Can’t Smile Without You,”  “These Eyes,” “Tears of a Clown” and “Bette Davis Eyes” are just a few of the songs that immediately come to mind. Notice that most of these titles involve the eyes. Sad eyes tell the story of a sad heart, just like Bette Davis eyes tell the story of someone who is strong-willed but vulnerable.  Likewise, a face without a smile can tell the story of someone who has given his/her happiness away to a person who picked up and left; and a constant smile, or clown-like demeanor, can be hiding the truth of soul turned inside-out with grief. Sometimes facial expressions tell the truth about how people feel, and sometimes we have to dig deeper behind a person’s exterior expressions to know what’s really going on insi...