The sometimes drain of always giving to others

Encouragement needs to be reciprocal.  If you are always encouraging, affirming, supporting, giving pats on the back, but never receiving any of your own, then it's easy to wear down and begin to feel emotionally depleted.

We don't encourage others just so we can be praised for it or told how great we are.  We do it because we care, we love, we empathize, we identify, and because we want something good for that person.

But caregivers, people who give of themselves to others, also need their own good feelings of affirmation, acceptance, and appreciation.

Find ways to be available to good feelings of acceptance, appreciation, and gratitude for who you are, how you give of yourself to others, and for the love you share.  Be with those who offer these affirmations to you.  Be open to the generosity and care of others.  Freely accept smiles, warm embraces, encouraging words, loving touches, and grace from the friends and people who love and appreciate you.

Be willing to treat yourself in ways that fulfill some of your own needs for acknowledgement and care.

© 2011 Timothy Moody

Our Inner Wounds

“Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.” ~ David Richo, Psychotherapist/Teacher/Author

Clinging to the familiar

"And now I understand something so frightening & wonderful- 
how the mind clings to the road it knows, 
rushing through crossroads, sticking 
like lint to the familiar.

~ Mary Oliver, Poet (Lines from "Blue Pastures”)

The Road goes ever on and on

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began,
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many path and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

From, The Lord of the Rings – The Old Walking Song sung by Bilbo Baggins

Refuse to fall down

“Refuse to fall down

If you cannot refuse to fall down,

Refuse to stay down.

If you cannot refuse to stay down,

Lift your heart toward heaven,

And like a hungry beggar,

Ask that it be filled.

You may be pushed down.

You may be kept from rising.

But no one can keep you from lifting your heart

Toward heaven

Only you.

It is in the middle of misery

That so much becomes clear.

The one who says, nothing good

Came of this,

Is not yet listening.”

© Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I wonder why no one ever told me

As a child
I was told and believed
that  there was a treasure
buried beneath every rainbow.


I believed it so much
I have been unsuccessfully
chasing rainbows
most of my life.


I wonder why
no one ever told me
that the rainbow
and the treasure
were both
within me.


(c) Gerald Jampolsky

What's going on inside of us always directs what we do outside of us.

There is no question that our inner life directs, guides, and impacts our outer life. Author Brian Tracy offers some helpful insights on how to keep the right balance. See the article here: As Within,So Without.

Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us

"Each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can't strike them all by ourselves; we need oxygen and a candle to help. In this case, the oxygen for example, would come from the breath of the person you love; the candle would be any kind of food, music, caress, word, or sound that engenders the explosion that lights one of the matches. For a moment we are dazzled by an intense emotion. A pleasant warmth grows within us, fading slowly as time goes by, until a new explosion comes along to revive it. Each person has to discover what will set off those explosions in order to live, since the combustion that occurs when one of them is ignited is what nourishes the soul. That fire, in short, is its food. If one doesn't find out in time what will set off these explosions, the box of matches dampens, and not a single match will ever be lighted. — From the novel, Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel

How to Get More Intuitive

Intuition reminds us to trust our instincts, to realize we just might know more than we think we do. Here is a brief article that offers tips on how to stay in touch with those gut feelings that are almost always accurate. See it here: How to Get More Intuitive