Soulshine

Sometimes I feel very fragile inside. My soul feels like it’s made of the thinnest layers of glass. Inside a heavy sludge is pressing against its every angle. I feel the layers of my soul cracking as the sludge is propelled against them by the pounding of my heart. I feel the voices in the sludge welling-up into my consciousness: “I’m worthless shit,” “I’ll never make it in this life,” “No one really loves me and no one ever will,” “I’m destined to failure,” “I never should have been born.” The pain of the past comes roaring back and I realize that I have many areas in my soul still left to heal. Awareness is my saving grace. I know I need to sit with my fragile feelings and allow them to simply be. They are valid and they need me to learn from them. They are the walking dead, mirrors of the past, and I must walk with them throughout my day in order to release them, free them and their horrors from my soul. This is how I reclaim my life from them. I am intent on honoring ...

As a film buff, I’ve come to really love Mae West. She was someone who really knew how to own her personal power and no one—absolutely no one—could take it away from her. In her 1935 film Goin’ to Town , West exclaims “ Yeah, for a long time I was ashamed of the way I lived.” When questioned about whether she changed herself to please others she says “No, I got over being ashamed.” Seems many of us could take a good lesson or two from Mae West in learning how to get over being ashamed of who we are. No one can shame us unless we allow them to do so. No one can make us feel worthless unless we believe deep down inside that we are worthless. And no one can make a doormat out of us unless we voluntarily lay down for them. It’s time we all learned to get over being ashamed. We can start by realizing that we’re good enough just the way we are. Let’s focus on the inside instead of the outside: Affirm our own goodness. Let’s also care only about what we think of ourselves, an...