Tag: confidence

When the Earth Slept: A Quarantine Fairy Tale

Melissa3

Picture Created by Melissa Wooten Art

*Due to the overwhelming response I have received from this story, it is currently in the process of raising funds to be published.  If you’d like to support this journey by pre-ordering a copy, please do so HERE.  You can also share this story with others who may benefit from it!  Thank you SO much for your help!

Once upon a time the Earth got VERY sick. Her temperature rose and rose and rose until it erupted into a slew of wildfires that ravaged the land. She shook with chills, causing massive earthquakes and every time she sneezed, torrential winds kicked up. The people called them tornadoes and hurricanes. She cried because she felt so awful and her tears created floods that washed over the soil.  Try as she might, the Earth could not get her sickness to go away. There was simply too much that she had to do to support all of the living organisms walking along her surface and she was not able to get the rest that she needed to heal and thrive again.  She thought and she thought, and she thought, until finally she came up with a solution. She would look to the people to help her.

So, she came to the people and she asked them to go their homes.

She asked them to spend time with their loved ones and to close their doors and to stay inside for a while so that she might get the rest that she needed without having to worry about them and take care of them.  So that she could rest her weary spirit, just for just a while.

At first, the people felt wary and afraid. They had never been asked to close their doors and stay inside. How would they keep themselves busy? How would they work and make money? How would they entertain themselves if the stores and the movie theaters and the bowling alleys and the playgrounds were all closed? They crossed their arms and shook their heads no and the Earth wept harder and the floodwaters rose. She shook with despair and the grounds cracked beneath the people’s feet.

Eventually, after watching the Earth continue to struggle and realizing the damage that her struggles were doing to her, the people began to talk to one another.

“We would not allow our own kind to suffer this way without rest,” some of them exclaimed. “We must give her the chance to sleep and heal as she carries so much responsibility on her strong shoulders,” they said.

And so, it was decided. The people shut down their shops and their movie theaters and their bowling alleys and their schools. They cancelled their plans to fly away for vacations and they agreed to postpone their meetings and their get-togethers and their parties. They went into their homes with their loved ones and they closed their doors.

Then a heavy silence fell over the Earth. Gone was the din of cars swooshing past one another on the roadways. Gone were the sounds of jet engines roaring overhead. Gone was the clanging of hammers and the growl of power tools as construction came to a halt.

The Earth took a deep breath in and let a giant exhale out as she settled in to nap.  She was lulled to sleep by only the sounds of the birds chirping, and the crickets playing lovely tunes; the wind whispering through the trees, and the gentle crash of the waves upon empty shores.

Many suns rose and set, and the moon cycled from new to full and back again. Meanwhile, behind their closed doors, many of the people became restless. They had not yet learned to appreciate the stillness and the quiet.  They were afraid of the unknown; afraid of how long the Earth might sleep. They wondered if they should wake her. They talked together and decided that they should try to.

And so, on a beautiful, early morning, just as the sun was peaking over the horizon, the people went outside and they began to dance. They started slowly at first, hoping that the gentle rhythm of their feet drumming against the Earth would tenderly wake her from her slumber. Still, she slept. The people began to dance faster. Still, she slept. And so, the people began to jump and yell and shake their bodies, twirling in circles and prancing across the Earth.

Still, she slept.

Yet somehow, as the people danced, they forgot that they were trying to wake the Earth from her slumber. They realized, as they moved and shook and allowed joyful sounds to burst from their mouths, that they were reviving an old song together. One that had not been sung for many, many years but that they felt rise up from deep within them.  They felt cheerful and connected to one another, some of them for the first time in ages. They smiled and laughed. They felt appreciation for one another and for their strong bodies and capable hearts.

As this shift happened in the minds of the people, the Earth finally began to stir. She stretched her long limbs and blinked her eyes opened. She looked about and saw beautiful things happening all around her. Animals that she had not seen in long passages of time crept slowly out of hiding to drink from her rivers and streams. Thick smog that had hung heavy over the mountaintops began to dissipate and she was able to see snow-capped peaks that had been hidden from her view for ages. She took a big, deep breath in and noticed that the air tasted sweeter and cleaner. She saw the now crystal-clear oceans shimmering in the distance.

And then, she saw the people. All of them dancing together, creating beautiful music, rejoicing in each other and massaging her skin with their rhythmic steps.

She felt the sickness slowly leaving her body. Deep within her core, a stirring began, like a small flame flickering in the breeze. As she continued to watch the people, the flame began to grow and grow and grow. The more that the people danced and sang and rejoiced, the more powerful this warm buzzing in her center became. She realized that their joy and love and connectedness were her medicine and she felt stronger and stronger still as she observed them.

The people, lost in their exhilaration, had stopped thinking about their stores and their bowling alleys and their money and their vacations. She noticed that they were remembering, instead, their deep connection to each other, to her, and to all the ways that she supported them. As she healed, they began to heal and as they began to heal, so continued her healing. They were part of the same and were learning to work together in new ways. However, the people knew they could not dance forever. So, one day, they stopped dancing.

When they did, they took the time to look around them and they too began to notice the animals coming out of hiding, the icy mountain tops in the distance, the crystal cleanliness of the air and the beautiful blues and greens of the oceans.  As Earth once again allowed her people to come back outside and enjoy her many natural playgrounds, she noticed that they did so with a new respect and sense of wonder.  They took greater care to keep the beautiful Earth clean and to honor her wildlife. They took the time to learn more about her plants and the natural medicines they could provide.

They devoted their energy to finding solutions to heal the very things that had been making their beautiful Earth sick in the first place.

As the people took better care of the Earth, the Earth responded with great love. She offered up new resources for the people to use to keep her soil and waters and air clean.  She granted their wish for more knowledge and taught them the ancient ways that they had become so disconnected from. She continued to show them the beauty of simplicity and encouraged them to take the time to dance whenever they felt called to do so.  Together, the people and the Earth created a new way of being.

And so, they all lived happily ever after.

Learn more about this story by clicking HERE.

The Art of Loving Yourself

Jillian Arena

Who are You Comparing Yourself To?

When you stop and think about it, we spend an awful lot of time judging ourselves.  We compare ourselves to our friends, family members, classmates, or acquaintances.  We look around and wish that we had better hair, a thinner waist, bigger breasts, or a prettier smile.  Where does this get us?  What have we accomplished at the end of the day when we look in the mirror?  Have we managed to successfully change the texture of our hair, lose 40 pounds around the middle, enhance the size of our chest, or alter our most beautiful attribute, our smile?  Unless we happened to be doing all of this judging on a day when we had some big procedure scheduled, the short answer here is no.  It is a complete and utter waste of time and brain power.  In fact, all we are really doing when we judge ourselves is feeding into the false belief that we are not enough.  The most ironic part about it is that the people we are comparing ourselves to are likely doing the same thing to themselves.  It’s a ruthless and neverending cycle that gets us nowhere.  So, who are you comparing yourself to?

Why Does it Matter?

Get up right now and go look in the mirror.  No really, go…like NOW!  Investigate the face, the body and the personality staring back at you and notice what comes up.  Where do your thoughts go?  Do you hone in on the pimple that decided to grace you with its presence this morning, the three gray hairs that miraculously appeared out of nowhere, or the bags under your eyes?  Maybe your mental chatter starts to tell you that you look okay and then that distinct voice of your inner critic comes in to remind you that you snort when you laugh or you talk too loudly.  Listen very closely to the internal dialogue that’s taking place.  What are you telling yourself about yourself?  If you find yourself singing your praises, I congratulate you!  Well done.  If, on the other hand, you find yourself spiraling into a vortex of slinging insults at your poor, unsuspecting mirror-image, take a deep breath and think about something.  Imagine for a moment that it’s your mother, or your sister, or your very best friend standing in front of you.  Would you say those things to her?  Would you call her out on her blemish or remind her that she is a beautiful person?  Would you whip out a box of hair dye or not even notice?  Would you ask her to laugh so you could make fun of her snort or go on snorting right alongside her?  Chances are good that you would probably just love her, support her, and completely overlook those things that she might fault herself for.  Why can we do it for others, but not for ourselves?  We need to be championing ourselves as much as we do for others and when we can’t do that we are hurting the very fabric of our being.  The fact is that we are all uniquely beautiful and special and talented and fierce in the perfect combination.  When we can’t learn to see that, we are perpetuating the idea that nobody is ever good enough, so we aren’t even just hurting ourselves anymore, but all that we interact with.  When we can embrace ourselves, good, bad, and ugly, however, we create space to allow others to do the same!

What Happens When You Learn to Accept?

If you know me today, you probably don’t think of me as a person who is shy or holds back much.  The truth, however, is that I went through a very long time where I couldn’t stand myself.  I was constantly scrutinizing, comparing, and wishing that things were different.  After I had my children and my body changed, I got even worse!  What had they done to me????  Why was there no warning???  Where had my body disappeared to?  Slowly and gradually I learned to shift my perspective.  Instead of seeing my lack of a six-pack, I looked to my children and found gratitude that I had been lucky enough to carry them.  Instead of seeing my gray hair as an impending sign of doom, I chose to focus on the joy of the moment and use them as a reminder that each second counts.  Where I once saw lines around my eyes, I began to see a lifetime full of laughter.  The creases around my mouth became a memory of so many smiles and frowns…a remembrance of the full breadth of my ability to feel.  The worry lines at my brow have now become a reminder of my strength and resilience as I’ve learned to navigate situations that I didn’t know if I would ever get through.  The freckles and uneven skin tone, a beautiful expression of all of the days I have been lucky enough to dance under the sun.   In short, I have learned to love myself, and the freedom that has come with it is the biggest gift!  You can do it for yourself as well!

It Starts Small…

As with anything in life, start small!  Starting today, focus on one thing that you really, really, really like about yourself.  It might be your crooked smile, the color of your eyes, your flawless complexion, or even your contagious laughter!  If you have no idea where to start, ask a friend what your best attribute is.  Start with that and love it so fiercely that nothing could stop you.  Everytime you pass by a mirror stop and adoringly describe to your reflection how much you love that one thing about it or pause after every giggle and thank yourself for the beautiful sound of it.  Do this for a week and notice what happens.  You’ll likely find that during this process other parts of you begin to look a bit more appealing as well.  Start to give those a shout-out too!  Keep this process going, adding on one new physical attribute or personality trait each week and before you know it, you’ll be staring back at a much more confident, whole, happy individual.  You are different, and that’s the best thing about you.  Embrace those things that set you apart instead of wishing they were something else and you are FREE from the judgment of the world around you.  Sounds pretty good, right?  Awesome, so stop reading this, get off your bum and go find a mirror!  Your newfound confidence awaits!  Once you’ve got it fully intact, CLICK HERE to use it to build the life of your dreams!

Jillian Arena is a Certified Transitional Life Coach, RYT-200, and Reiki Practitioner.  She uses her training in each to help her clients around the globe achieve maximum clarity, happiness, and possibility out of life!  For more on working with Jillian, visit her website HERE.