How my recent job rejection helped me heal and love myself
Last Monday I applied for a job position as a writer. It’s been many years since I worked as an employee and I’ve experienced a fair bit of disappointments on the professional front. But I thought all this was behind me now and since the opportunity was ticking my boxes and I met the requirements, I went for it with my best intentions. The hiring company was the online publication Bright Side and they wanted me to pass a test. After a couple of days of communicating with the HR, a broken link, and a slight delay, I got to the challenge. I didn’t pass it. But let me start from…
What I learned from my physical and mental instability episode
(Long post alert) I’m just back from my holidays in Greece. We spent 11 days on the stunning islands in the Ionian sea on west coast of the country. I’d been prepping for this journey for months, organising diligently and planning fervently. I’ve waited passionately and eagerly until the day came. The complications started on the day before our trip. It appeared that our car’s documents were out of date and needed to be renewed. It was Saturday and we were supposed to leave the next day, Sunday. We decided not to risk passing the border with invalid documents so had to wait till the offices opened on Monday. That…
Accepting our shadow as a way back to wholeness
The key to joyful happy full life is the acceptance of all of yourself. It was C.G. Jung who first developed the concept of the “shadow” – we all have parts of ourselves that we would rather hide than show to ourselves or the world. These are those qualities we deem “unacceptable” due to many reasons – perhaps our parents told us that such and such people are bad, or to be this and this is wrong. Or it was our culture and community we grew up in that portrayed certain characteristics in a negative way. At a very early age, we learn to disassociate from these qualities in ourselves…
Interview with Elizabeth Johnsen: woman and mother on a path of healing and transformation
In 2015 Elizabeth contacted me through my blog – she was the very first person to reach out in such a way. Quickly we felt a much deeper connection which grew into a friendship. Even though we’ve never met in person I feel we’ve known each other for lifetimes. I know Elizabeth has been through some hard times recently and it was painful to witness her journey “from afar” but nevertheless, I never stopped feeling for her. I’m happy to see and say that she has overcome the darkness. Here are Elizabeth’s own words: Tell us a little bit about your life journey. I was raised in New Zealand by…
Waving goodbye to the past
I feel the last few years are catching up with me. Many feelings are coming up to the surface for first time to be illuminated. Things I realise for a first time ever. Things sometimes too grave. My life for the past 4 years has been grave in many ways. Not only, of course, but mostly. I realise now that as soon as my relationship with my partner began, it was stifled almost in the bud. Uninvited visitors, like death, grief, anxiety, came along and didn’t leave much of a space for us to breathe as a new family. My love for my partner was suffocated. My love for my…
Motherhood and enjoying the present moment
For a first time in my life I feel like I’m enjoying being a mother and my relationship with my son. I was too naive and maybe somewhat young when I became a mother. We’ve only been together with my partner for an year when I got pregnant. But we said yes to it, yes to all this family-making, children-raising thing. And it was good for a while. But soon it became clear that this isn’t what I thought it would be. It soon became clear that instead of building a family, there was a wall being built between me and everything around me. And I closed down and shut…
Embracing our (complex) human nature
Hey everyone, I’ve missed you! I often find myself distracted in many ways in life. Then I start feeling very anxious and then I realise it often is because I haven’t written in a while. (I know I’ve said that before.) The thing is that when we’re by ourselves, not really doing anything creative, our minds can run wild. It’s like our minds are looking hard to find something to do and when we’re not giving them that, they starts going rampant in our heads. Do you feel that sometimes? I can’t pin point why this is happening, why we still procrastinate, even when we know the process quite well.…
How to work with difficult feelings
“Happiness is not only our birthright. It is also our obligation.” The days and weeks roll by and I find it hard to sit and write. Too much is going through my head but can’t seem to be able to stop, sit and capture it. What I’ve been struggling with for the last weeks is to find the meaning. The meaning of it all. I keep ask myself Why am I here? What’s the point of it? You see the days go on – work, school, whatever, then home, and on it goes. Sometimes it feels so pointless, so hard to find a meaning to keep going. Then I tell myself…
Rewriting my story in a radical self-forgiveness context
“I am here to deal with my fear of isolation, loneliness and loss. I have chosen my parents, sibling, partner, child, close friends, and my life circumstances so they can support my soul’s evolution. My mother temporarily left me for 5 years when I was 10 years old. Then she permanently left my life when I was 26. By doing so, she first opened a hole in me as a young child, and then she made that hole graver, bigger and deeper by leaving this world altogether. When my mum first left she prepared me for encountering a greater feeling of loneliness and loss later in my life. When she…
Being the gods that we are
A lot has happened the last couple of weeks. Perhaps the most important announcement to make is that I started visiting a psychotherapist, for the first time in my life! This week was our forth meeting and I’m liking it! I believe my therapist enjoys our conversations too. I feel good about it and the most significant thing is that I’m getting support that I’ve never experienced in my life before! And by that I mean – listening, understanding, validating, encouraging, supporting, non-judgmentally. Besides being able to share my thoughts and worries in a safe place, for the first time I actually feel heard and acknowledged for simply being who I am and…
