Serenity Neurotherapy

I'd rather have a small, comfortable space to belong to than a large one to try to fit into.

No contact with hurtful people is *self love*

*Breathe in*
*Breathe out*

👌🏼

Leaving someone you love because they are not ready for the healing you are inviting into your life is a sign of great strength.

Father's Day is often complicated, especially for those who were physically mistreated and emotionally neglected as children. May peace come to you today. May you become more aware of your worth and value apart from the carelessness of your fathers.



Thanks to for this amazing graphic!

Somebody needs to hear this.

What cycles are you stuck in? What are you being compelled to let go of?

How are you choosing healing these days! I am DECLUTTERING! 😬😬 But not just decluttering. I am making a spiritual practice of *letting go* of my stuff. 🤯🤯

I have always felt so compelled to keep so many things that either I didn't like, couldn't use, or were broken. I blamed it on my Scotch-Irish roots for a long time *as if I were powerless to stop it*. Now, I realize I have kept so many things bc I was afraid to let go of the moments that they were linked to in my mind... The good, the bad, and the ugly.

For example, old couch pillows that are defluffed... They still go with my couch. But I have new couch pillows that I ADORE... I will never use the others again. I keep them because they remind me of the first big purchase my partner and I made as a married couple. So I begin the spiritual practice of *letting go*.

💙 I hold them to my chest.
💚 Breath in the memories of being a poor married couple in Greeley, Colorado.
💙 Breathe in the memories of coming home from work pregnant AF and sleeping comfortably on that couch with it's one million pillows.
💚 Breathe in the many times my kids have used those pillows as fort material.
💙 And drop them in the giveaway bag.

Decluttering is emotional for me. It is deeply spiritual. I realize now, that keeping things that remind me of my past keep me stuck in cycles that I would rather leave behind. *Letting go* is the beginning of the process of releasing myself from the pain of the past, missing the memories of what was, and who I was in those moments and allowing myself to come into the present moment of who I am.

The spiritual practice of *letting go* is a lifetime process. Remember the love. Breathe in the memories. Release myself from all that no longer serves me.

What do you hold onto in your life? Do you feel the need to begin that spiritual practice of *letting go*?

One of my favorite parts about work trips is the beautiful places I get to visit.

🤣🤣🤣 But seriously.

Yeah you do!

People often have no idea of the silent struggles of the person sitting next to them. What do you carry that no one would know about by just seeing what's on the outside?

This 🎯

🙌🙌❤️

This is what recovery looks like. It's never quite *finished*. We will ever continue to evolve and grow.
This is *healing*.
It’s messy.
It’s raw.
It’s exhausting.
It is also beautiful, worthy work.
Healing is the only work that truly fills the holes inside our wounded hearts.

Healing is a sacred work. May we all have the opportunity and give ourselves permission to have the experience 💙💙

This is *healing*.
It’s messy.
It’s raw.
It’s exhausting.
It is also beautiful, worthy work.
Healing is the only work that truly fills the holes inside our wounded hearts.

What does recovery look like to you?

I have to say goodbye to all of those *before* moments. The ones when I was naive and didn’t know how to play the game. I have to be the one to give me what I was missing in those moments. In this way, I am thankful for moments of triggering. It lets me know where the wounds still are.

I must rescue myself.

This is what recovery looks like. It's never quite *finished*. We will ever continue to evolve and grow.

I just love this soooo much! When I was a little girl, I read all the stories about some *knight in shining armor* coming to rescue the princess. After so many years of expecting to be rescued, I started making active choices to rescue myself.

And my whole world started to change.

I am in charge of my own life. I choose my own path. I have the power of choice and with it I am unstoppable!

What do you choose today?

I must rescue myself.

This is what recovery looks like. It's never quite *finished*. We will ever continue to evolve and grow.

This is *healing*.

💚

I have to say goodbye to all of those *before* moments. The ones when I was naive and didn’t know how to play the game. I have to be the one to give me what I was missing in those moments. In this way, I am thankful for moments of triggering. It lets me know where the wounds still are.

I must rescue myself.

This is what recovery looks like. It's never quite *finished*. We will ever continue to evolve and grow.

After a short hiatus, we are back with the Afraid and Brave Blog. The healing continues...

Today I feel raw. Vulnerable. Unprotected. Like I want to hide under the layers of my typical sweater and scarf even in the midst of the heat of mid-May.

I’m not really sure what started it. What was the trigger? There must be something. There is always something that triggers a wounded part.

My kids went to the park with my husband. I unpacked boxes from our recent move…

Oh, that’s what it is. I remember now. I came upon some memory boxes. Boxes I have put items into from people I love.

People who have passed on. People who have grown up. People whom I miss dearly. Moments that I have lived but not fully.

It triggered a part of me that wants a do-over now that I know the rules of life. The part of me that will keep quiet and fade into the wallpaper when things get scary. The part of me who will always know where to hide. The part of me who will know what boys are trustworthy with my heart and which ones want to wear it around like something they won.

I have to say goodbye to all of those *before* moments. The ones when I was naive and didn’t know how to play the game. I have to be the one to give me what I was missing in those moments. In this way, I am thankful for moments of triggering. It lets me know where the wounds still are.

I must rescue myself.

This is what recovery looks like. It's never quite *finished*. We will ever continue to evolve and grow.

This is *healing*.

It’s messy.
It’s raw.
It’s exhausting.
It is also beautiful, worthy work.

Healing is the only work that truly fills the holes inside our wounded hearts.

Well written. All emotions are important. What were you taught to ignore while you were growing up?

I grew up believing that crying, swearing, and anger were unacceptable ways to express pain.

It’s been so freeing to reframe them all as purposeful parts of the human experience instead of character flaws to avoid.



HT

Do you *feel* free to make choices in moments of stress? If so, what do you like to choose? If not, what comes up that prevents you from having that choice?

What do you do when you're having a *bad* day?

Today has been a really weird day.

Everyone in my family is on edge. My kids are sleepy. My youngest has a bad case of FOMO (fear of missing out) and refuses to take a nap. I'm sleepy. I kind of want to have a fight with someone. Daylight savings time is my least favorite time of the year. My credit card company has been flagging all of my online transactions as fraudulent. My kids don’t want to eat anything. My aging dog pooped on the floor. My back kind of hurts because I’ve been sitting awkwardly while on hold with financial institutions for over an hour while filling out applications for charter schools for my kids 2021-2022 school year for which I’ve missed most of the deadlines (sigh).

Commence all the complaining and all the whining that goes with a *bad* day.

There was a time that this day would turn into a really bad day and maybe even a really bad tomorrow. But today I choose something else.

I choose to breathe. I choose to take it easy. I choose to disengage from the busyness of life and instead watch a movie with my kids. I choose to refrain from speaking with anger to customer service persons who really have no control over what happened in the first place. I choose to stretch instead of contract. I choose to be flexible instead of break. I choose to ask for what I want instead of stuffing it all inside.

So now, I’m going to make myself a nice cup of tea that’s flavored with chocolate (yum). I’m going to reflect on all the things that I am choosing and remain present in this one moment that I get to live *only once*. I’m going to read three chapters of Captain Underpants to my 7-year-old and snuggle up with my other nap-dodging lovey on the couch and eat chips and guacamole together. I choose to have fun with a weird day rather than ruin it with my own agenda and expectations.

Today, I choose to embrace peace.

We've all had those relationships where someone showed us who they really were. What are your red flags for relationships with friends, family, and romantic partners?

What a timely message! Let us live with intention and with vulnerability. If you're looking for a new podcast, this one is therapist-approved!

This is a full-on emotion researcher geek out with Susan David on how emotional granularity and agility benefit us as individuals and as leaders. We think that denying our emotions makes us stronger and more resilient, but the research shows that it actually makes us LESS resilient. This is such a GREAT conversation on the new episode of the Dare to Lead podcast. http://bit.ly/3bO1qbT

This.

Ontario changing child-welfare system to stop teens from aging out of care unprepared | CBC News CBC News has learned the Ontario government is redesigning child welfare to change how and when children leave the system. It plans to do away with the current age cut-off and instead implement a model that ensures youths are ready to be on their own with the proper support.

Un-becoming is essential to becoming in touch with your intuition. You know, that part of you that knows where you're going and how to get there.

What are you un-becoming?

Inner child work looks like love, comfort, acceptance, and play.

Being around people who have narcissistic qualities can be very damaging, especially for those of us who tend to be more empathic. So how do we protect ourselves?

Narcissistic Injuries: What They Are & How to Protect Yourself from Them A narcissistic injury occurs when narcissists react negatively to perceived or real criticism or judgment, bou

How long it will take to heal is a common question when working with trauma survivors, especially the childhood kind. I’m a trauma therapist, and while doing my own work, I found myself asking the same question of my therapist. You see, when you’ve been living in pain for so long and have almost given up hope so many times, there is a NEED to know that being *better* actually is possible.

I made a deal with myself. Anything new I add to my life has to be something I intuitively know I love. I have done my very best to keep this promise to myself. When you *know* you love what you have, you have everything you need. That is happiness.