Can We Gain Clarity About What We Want

Trust what is present. When the heart speaks it says, Trust me. Don’t trust what is happening in your head. Trust the truth of who you are, right here, right now. Gratitude connects us to our life, our heart, and our wisdom. We can’t fully connect to what we want when we overlook what we have. Gratitude allows us to appreciate what is present in our lives. Only then can we gain clarity about what we want. Sometimes thinking about what we don’t want is easier than thinking about what we do want. Write down at least ten of these. I attribute a lot of my success to writing things down. I’ve been writing my goals down since I was six years old.

Broken Down

Finally, create an ideal weekly schedule for yourself. How much of this ideal schedule can you incorporate into your daily routine, starting where you are? The thing that is most true will be the simplest, most obvious thing. Loss, pain, anger, and grief are some of the biggest emotional and visceral experiences we have as humans. They can be mentally, physically, and even spiritually crippling. They can make you question what the whole point of life is and whether there is any radical love out there for you to embrace. I get it, I know what that feels like. If we live long enough, we will most certainly experience this. The pain of loss is unparalleled. Our mind races with what we could’ve done or what we should’ve done in a futile effort to find meaning. Ignorance is bliss after all, right? It creates a safety barrier from the distress of loss. As the numbness of denial wears off, anger sets in. We search for someone to blame or blame ourselves, and in return, we feel the need to lash out.

The Dream's Lost On Me

Then we enter the bargaining stage, asking questions like What if I could have done something different? Bargaining provides time to adjust to reality and gives us respite from the intensity of emotions. The final stage is acceptance, and this refers to the acceptance of reality. For me, this process doesn’t go in order. I may experience anger first, then start bargaining, then arrive at acceptance and then go back to anger. Regardless of what systems are out there for us to draw from, at the end of the day, loss is our burden to bear. No theory prepares you for walking into a room where your loved one once was and no longer is. Nothing prepares you for when you hear their favorite song on the radio, or when you catch a brief scent of them that permeates their belongings. It doesn’t matter if you are grieving a loved one, a pet, or an old life. It all hurts just the same. Memories that flood your mind make you go back to the beginning of this process over and over. If you know what it’s like to wake up and remember your loved one isn’t there anymore, I am so sorry. These are difficult emotions to move through.

Theme For A Dream

Just do your best to navigate through them so that each cycle is complete. Let each revolving emotional wave wash through you as best you can. Grief can manifest through the body feeling heavy, like a thick, dense cloud suffocating your being. It feels like you can’t breathe. Your spirit feels broken. Why did you do this to me? How could this happen? All feelings are valid, all are appropriate. Tragedy can strike at any moment. Pain is frequently the tuition we pay for grace, wisdom, and resilience. Though we endure our pain alone, if we are lucky, we may have the support of loved ones. If you’ve ever lost someone you deeply cared for, you know what it’s like to want solace, comfort, and peace. The first time someone close to me died was during my freshman year of high school. They were fourteen years old. We were attending separate schools for the first time since kindergarten. At first, we didn’t deal with the change well, and Gigi, Dulce, and I agreed to at least walk to the bus stop together just like we had for many years. It was the year before my car theft incident. On the day of the flood, I was under the microscope for getting caught selling pot to one of my friends. It was raining so hard that my mom drove my sister and me to school. Since ditching was no longer an option, I figured I would just meet up with Gigi and Dulce after school by the bus stop. Bad news travels fast. I heard about the accident later that afternoon. It was all over the news. The sound of helicopters and ambulances permeated the city. Three lost their lives. The first walk back to school after their deaths was agonizing. It was the first time I ever walked to my bus stop alone. I wondered if it was all just a nightmare, that I would wake up one day and they would be there. I knew it was wishful thinking, and I understood the despair of all the people in my life who had experienced loss and the pain of seeing the world continue to turn. Why didn’t anyone care? How could people smile and laugh, and go to recess and eat food? Back then, there were no grief counselors at school. There was barely a mention of what had happened. When I found an old journal years later, I found an entry during this time period. The volcano has been calm for centuries, but that doesn’t mean it won’t erupt at any time. Many years later, I was having tea with one of my first yoga teachers, Jeanne. We were talking about grief, and I asked her, What do you think happens when we die? She responded without hesitation, We go back to where we came from. I brought it all, the sage, crystals, mala beads .