Every sunrise creates the opportunity to start healing from whatevers hurting or haunting you. ☀️
It doesn’t matter how your pain found you, what matters is how you muster the courage to move beyond it.
Healing can start by forgiving who or what hurt you, including forgiving yourself for the role you played or decisions you made, that led to your emotional or physical pain.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean you condone or forget what happened. Forgiveness is the act of reclaiming control over your mental and physical well-being so you can move on and live your best life.
When we forgive, we put the weight of our pain down and remove the power it has over us. Forgiveness allows peace to fill in the spaces where sorrow, guilt, regret, anger, grief or other pain once lived and, we begin to heal.
If you need help getting started; write down the things you want to heal from and who you need to forgive. Then, find your place of peace. This place might be a forest, the oceanside, a wide open field, the rivers edge, a mountain top, your garden or a quiet room with a view.
In this safe space set your words free. You can burn, bury, shred or flush, them away. Or, scream them out into the ether.
When you leave this place, think about the lessons you’re pain provided, offer gratitude for the lessons, then leave what and who hurt you behind. If you feel your pain creeping back in. Go back to this place and reclaim your peace of mind.
Whether your pain is anchored in grief, regret, abuse, addiction, heartbreak, illness or other physical or emotional suffering; today’s a good day to start healing.
Pain is often where our greatest learning and growth takes place. It’s a part of all of our lives, but don’t let your pain be your whole story. 🌅
When the darkness of unsettled days blocks your light, there’s always a sanctuary of infinite beauty waiting to embrace you and lift your spirit.
Go to the waters edge, breathe slowly and inhale the sweet, softness of the ocean and exhale the weight of the burdens you carry.
Find a mossy, tree lined forest path to lead you away from your busy days, far from whatever’s troubling you.
Retreat to a rocky bluff and let the setting sun melt your pain and relax your worries.
Gaze into the moonlight, allow its glow to warm you and hold your dreams until you’re ready to chase them again.
Before you return to the reality of your world, take a gratitude moment to relish in your own beauty and give thanks for the true miracle you are. Let go of all toxic ideas and reclaim the grace of everything beautiful that’s waiting for you.
No matter what’s blocking your path or causing you pain, nature provides the music, the colour, the awe, the sweet perfume of life and the quiet peaceful sanctuary to help you heal❤️
Put that stuff down. You’ve done enough adulting today. Time to go outside and play.
We function better when we create the time to play outside. Outdoor play is good for our mental well-being, our physical well-being, in particular, our lungs, our hearts and our muscles. Outdoor play also does wonders for our spiritual selves, our relationships and our working environment.
Whatever he, she or they, did or said to you, let it go. You are NOT the pain or burdens others placed upon you. Nor are you the opinions anyone has of you.
Put it down. Put it all down.
This weight is no longer yours to carry.
Some of it was NEVER yours to carry.
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
———————————
~ Happiness is YOU!
It’s ;
~ YOU not judging and comparing yourselves to others and you accept yourselves as YOU are.
YOU seeing and appreciating the blessings (big and small) all around YOU.
YOU realizing happiness does not come from stuff, but from the attitude we (YOU) have about life.
YOU making the choice to be happy.
Happiness isn’t something we look for. Happiness is YOU.
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
——————————————-
A wise soul will exercise curiosity
before judgement, ask questions
before criticizing, and attempt
to understand before making assumptions.
We all have it in us
to be wise, funky,
beautiful souls.
So let’s be funky!
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
—————————————
That emptiness you sometimes feel?
Perhaps it’s your soul creating space for;
new things,
new ideas,
new adventures,
new people,
to arrive.
This emptiness may feel like loneliness, sadness, a sense of wanting, or disappointment.
Don’t try and fill the emptiness, sit with it, feel it. Then invite it to leave. Use this feeling as an opportunity to open your heart, your mind to receiving something new.
There’s a season for all things and all people, to come in and out of our lives.
Let them come, and,
Let them go.
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
——————————
In the
right light,
even the
darkest of
storms cast
a beautiful
light.
No matter what
you’re going through,
there’s light
behind this storm.
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
———————————
We miss so much
as we rush through life.
If you knew
everything you
love today, would
be gone tomorrow,
including your family,
friends, your stuff,
your home, your pets,
would you slow down and
live differently?
would you look
at the world differently?
would you act differently?
It all will be gone, all of it,
love it all exactly like that.
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
——————-
“Thank you for the good times, the bad times and the learning and growing we did together. I’m wiser, stronger and kinder because I had this time with you.”
Let these be your parting words as you walk away from ANY personal, professional or intimate relationship that’s come to an end.
If they you hurt you, let you down, caused you pain ~ forgive them. Learn from it.
The hate, disappointment, anger, fear, or regret you carry, feeds your pain, not theirs.
Walk away with a grateful heart knowing you’re wiser, stronger and kinder because of the time you spent together.
Even if it was painful, be grateful that this lesson is over.
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
——————————-
Life will hurt.
Nature will heal.
If you want
to hurt less,
you know
where to go.
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
————————————
Look at you,
enjoying life,
finding joy,
laughing, spending
time with people
who lift you up,
loving yourself,
letting go
of all that
toxic stuff.
Way to go!!!
Oh, this isn’t you?
Why not?
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
—————
Pain has purpose.
let it hurt,
let it heal
then,
let it go.
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
———-
At any moment,
in any day,
you can stop,
and decide to
do things differently.
to live differently,
to love differently,
to care for yourself
or others
differently.
You have more
control over this
grand adventure
than you realize.
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
—————————-
Want to heal
the heart,
the mind,
the body,
the soul.
slow your pace,
slow your breath,
Step into nature
Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
—————-
Don’t waste your energy creating anger, hate, doubt, jealousy,disappointment, physical pain
Use it to create warmth, kindness, tolerance, self love
Stop believing anyone who tells you you’re broken. You’re not, you’re absolutely beautiful.
You might hurt and have scars, but the pain you feel is growth, not brokenness.
Our life experiences aren’t supposed to feel, look or be the same as everyone else. So lets stop judging ourselves against the lives we see others live.
Your life journey might be painful because it’s about falling down and learning to get back up.
My journey might be filled with grief and heartache so I can understand loss and then comfort and have compassion for others when they experience it.
My neighbours journey might be about tolerance, acceptance and compassion, so they can become advocates for diversity and understanding.
We’re all going to fall and get hurt along the way, it’s part of the journey. Our hearts might get heavy and our spirits might crumble but, these are the experiences and emotions we’re meant to “grow” through.
Each stabbing ache, each crushing disappointment, every loss or painful fall from grace, provides us and those who bear witness to our lives, the opportunities to learn and transform. This pain shouldn’t break us, it should makes us stronger and wiser.
If you perceive your life as broken because you’ve been knocked down a few times, then you’ll feel broken. However, if you perceive your life as an amazing classroom, where you’re constantly learning and growing, then, you’ll greet each day with curiosity and excitement. You’ll become stronger and better equipped to deal with the tough stuff when it comes along. Let your scars be a reminder of how far you’ve come.
So relax, inhale the lessons, exhale and live the learning. No matter what people tell you or what you see in the mirror, you’re not broken. You’re both a beautiful student and teacher in this insanely wild and wonderful classroom called life. And, you’re right where you’re supposed to be, bumps, bruises, dents, scrapes, scars and all.
From time-to-time many of us feel an emptiness, a lacking or void we think we need to fill in order to be happy.
We exhaust ourselves chasing happiness, chasing love, searching for meaning, chasing more of this or more of that, buying stuff to try and fill the emptiness or the sense of “lacking” in our lives.
Trying to fill this emptiness with material possessions, temporary companionship, drugs, alcohol, and busyness, almost never works. These things might mask what’s going on beneath the surface for a short period of time, but, they rarely lead to sustained fulfillment.
Perhaps this sense of emptiness is not something that needs to be filled, but something that needs to be FELT.
Perhaps this space within the ether of our chaotic human mind, is actually a waiting room that’s meant to be left wide-open, allowing old feelings, attitudes and pain to leave, and new feelings, thoughts and peace to arrive. A space we visit to lance our wounds, release our tears and the stifled ache of pent-up grief, pain, loneliness, remorse or sadness until we understand “it” and find the lesson in “it”. A space to purge the ugliness of what’s hurt us in the past and let “it” go – creating space for new things, new purpose, new meaning, to arrive. A space where we push the darkness out, and let the light in.
When the ache of emptiness or lacking creeps in, rather than trying to fill it, try to feel it. Take a walk, exercise, journal, open up and start talking to someone, go into nature, sit quietly and meditate. It doesn’t matter which path you take to get to this space, what matters is that you arrive, and when you do, you ask your pain what it’s trying to teach you. Then listen, feel, and release the things that no longer serve you or bring you peace. The answer(s) may not come right away. You may need to visit this space several times. When the answers begin to arrive, thank your pain for the lessons, then let it go. As it leaves, visualize new energy, new purpose, new feelings of wellness and hopefulness arrive. Then go out and live this one beautiful life you’ve been given.
This concept may sound abstract, however, if you’ve been feeling the ache of emptiness within, and what you’ve been doing to fill the void has not been working, what have you got to lose? other than the ache of the emptiness that haunts you.
Perhaps not all empty spaces are meant to be filled, perhaps they’re meant to be felt.
Imagine you’re on a day hike in the forest, it’s getting dark and you wander off the path.
Your lost. You don’t know which way to go. You don’t have provisions to get through the night, you’re feeling stressed, hopeless, anxious and mad at yourself for not being better prepared.
Then, as you’re stumbling in the dark, exhausted and disoriented, you see a light in the darkness. A spark of hope surges within you and you make your way towards the light.
Your anxiousness turns to excitement. Your hopelessness turns to optimism. All because you saw a small comforting glow in the distance.
You’re overcome with joy when you come upon another hiker sitting next to a cozy fire. This person is a stranger, yet, in this moment they’re the most important person in your life.
They offer you shelter, warmth, food and water. You graciously accept. You’re relieved and you feel safe.
In the morning this stranger guides you out of the forest to safety. You hug, shed a tear and say goodbye. Your grateful, humbled and alive. ~~~~~~~ We all stumble. At times, we feel lost, alone, anxious, stressed or hopeless. Pride or self doubt might stop us from seeking help.
You sweet soul, when you’re lost, do what you’d do in the forest, look for the ones with the light and let them guide you. Toni O’KEEFFE ~🌹❤️
The Whimsey Angel 