Being Soft & Open in a Sometimes Hard World…

So many invitations to close the heart, to shut down, to NOT feel. Flying on the wings of words uttered with cruelty and vitriol, rolling across the wires of television, the Internet and the myriad tiny screens that consume our minds with their constant barrage of information.

Pain, anger, and fear – these are the fluencies of modern communication. Tabloid titles, sensationalized news – ripened, volatile emotions spewing everywhere. Speaking through clenched fists and closed hearts. But why? So many choices are available, why this one?

Truth Time – because it’s easier. Easier to hide behind anger and fear. Easier to bathe in pain and suffering. Easier to blame and run. So simple to drown in negativity. A perfect excuse for an unlived life, a decaying dream, the million and one ways you stop being who you are and strive to conform even if it kills you. Not your fault…most of us are well-educated in the arts of hiding and blending in from a young age.

Here’s the thing though, it only seems easier until the moment you look back at the wreckage left in the wake of your path. And even then, shutting down still appears more inviting than facing the truth of what your choices have wrought in your life.

So painful to turn around, fall to your knees and let yourself just sob for who you’ve been Being and what you’ve been Doing from inside that reality. Yet, pain or no, it’s also the only way to turn the tides in your life and begin to create something NEW.

Turn around. I implore you. I dare you. Surrender to what is ripe, low hanging fruit in your heart. You will get back up off your knees when the sobbing has swept through you like a wave. You’ll be stronger for it and for the first time, maybe in years, you’ll be able to really feel yourself – to hear the deep, wild call of your heart.

Waves will roll over you for as long as it takes and each one will strengthen your courageous heart. Have faith in yourself, in your beautiful capacity to heal and grow.

Know that if you do this, you may find that your whole life needs to change – that the world you constructed in your throes of agony doesn’t serve your soul… In part, this is why you might have cut and run so many times before. Change, fundamental change, is scary and exhilarating and about 12 dozen other simultaneous emotions rolled into a giant mash up of S-T-U-F-F infiltrating your defenses.

Remember that change doesn’t have to happen over night. You can go slowly. Listen deeply. Open. Be soft when you want to stiffen into toy soldier pose. Let go when you want to sink your claws into something and hold tight. Take things one moment at a time.

Forgive yourself when you freeze up again. You’re learning. Baby steps, Dearheart. Baby steps. Those tiny steps pave your path to freedom and genuine self-love…

So go Be the Change!

How are you hiding behind pain, fear, tiny screens,
or whatever else you flee to when the sh*t hits the fan?
What can you face today that frees up your life more?
How can you open your heart when it’s hard to do so?

Shannon Crossman learned the hard way that untapped creative energy casts a helluva shadow, so she crafts her sanity with her hands daily. Nothing excites (or frustrates) her more than a blank page, fresh ball of yarn, or pile of foodstuffs – all waiting to be transformed into bits of deliciousness. Words are, and have always been, her way back home. She is a writer, artist, technical wizard, public speaker, witch, priestess, gluten free baker, time-bender, and COO who happens to possess a degree in Transpersonal & Somatic Psychology. She’s a mama and grandma to a gaggle of wild girls who make her heart happy. When she’s out in the business world she’s figuring out how to make things faster, more efficient, and automating the hell out automating the hell out of sh*t. Shannon still believes in magic, craves the ocean like a land-locked mermaid, and dreams of a life without shoes.