Everyone has a story to tell, but not everyone feels safe enough to share it. Many keep their stories hidden away, guarded by fear, distrust, or simply because they desire privacy—and that’s okay. But fear and distrust have a way of taking root in our minds and hearts, shaping our thoughts and emotions in ways that can be hard to shake off. They can fuel both positive traits like hope and confidence, as well as negative ones like insecurity and jealousy.
For some, these feelings can lead to harmful behaviors like lying or bullying—something I know all too well. I’ve faced bullying in all types of forms—mental, emotional, and physical.
Today, I’m stepping forward to share my story. I want to dive deep into my past and present struggles with you, not just to find healing for myself, but to offer you insight from my experiences.
My experiences aren’t just about the negative impacts from external forces; they also involve the pivotal decisions I’ve made that have shaped my life forever.
When I think about all the things I’ve experienced, I feel invincible. Invincibility, defined in a way that nothing can mentally or emotionally break me. I have grown to be emotionally and mentally strong and wise over the course of practicing Artistic Healing. Now, it’s your turn to feel the same. I’ll be sharing my experiences, heartaches, vulnerabilities, and breakdowns, with the intent to help you overcome your fears and distrust. From now on, let’s refer to all of our hardships and obstacles as “challenges”. The universe challenges us for the sole purpose of self-discovery, self-awareness, self-growth, self-love, self-respect, and self-healing. This is the moment to embrace your thoughts and emotions to help yourself become stronger, more confident, and wiser.
Remember, the person you are today and the person you are to become tomorrow, is not defined by what you did or experienced in the past. It is not defined by how you reacted or what you said in that moment. Instead, it is defined by the path you choose to walk on after. You can overcome all your mistakes and negative experiences with a genuine act for positive change. This includes mistakes that feel unforgiving, experiences that broke your whole world apart, and challenges that made life not worth living. I know life gets hard, and I know that you know life gets hard, but you got this! Your will for growth and good change is what defines you, nothing else. Never forget that each challenge you've experienced was a lesson and an opportunity for growth and success.
Fully embracing your past and current self will help you collect all the broken pieces of your life, so you can mend them together and make sense out of them. Understanding your past self will help uncover things about you that you did not notice before--your habits, the way you act, the way you talk, even your connection to certain things and people. You will be surprised to learn how much of yourself you did not know. This is called self-awareness. However, before you get to the level of self awareness, you first have to master the challenge of self forgiveness and forgiveness for all. Embracing all that was and all that is (all that can’t be changed), and allowing yourself to simply let go of the memories and emotions of past challenges.
You will dive deep into your thoughts to uncover the truth of yourself and the core of your lies, distrust, and insecurities. You will understand the cause of certain events (the why’s), and understand why it happened to you in particular, and no one else. You will embrace your path and accept that all the challenges on that path were yours alone to experience. Remember, that not all paths will be clear, and some will be tougher than others. But you must continue to move on. You need to find your own reason to make yourself feel whole again, without anyone or anything to depend on. This wholeness comes from allowing yourself to heal from the core of your pain and accepting that there is no changing the past, but to work for a better you and a better future.
Before continuing, I need you to understand that this process is not easy. It is a very emotional process and it will trigger sensitive memories and emotions. You must not run away from them. Instead, you must embrace them and run with them. You have to be willing to be strong for yourself. If you decide to stop midway because it is too intense, you will have to start over or pick up where you left off, whatever works for you. The hardest things in this lifetime are not even physical issues, but internal ones. Once you have accepted all aspects of your life, good and bad, battled through your thoughts and emotions, and embraced the journey that brought you here, you will be able to live a blissful life filled with joy.
Now to begin, I want us to focus on the basics of creating a stronger foundation for your mental health. The first question to explore is the most obvious, what helps strengthen your mental health?
Exploring our mental awareness opens up many possibilities and many opportunities. After a few years of evaluating my own thoughts and feelings, I started to realize that all the power I needed was within me the entire time. Once I figured that out, I became more confident and happier. There’s only one catch. . . getting there requires many breakdowns and tapping into one's inner self, your inner voice. At times it may seem like a little devil figure and an angel figure on your shoulders, the consciousness within you battling itself, the good and the bad. But don’t worry we will get back to that, all you need to know for now is that this inner you is and will always be a battle between right and wrong, or rather a battle between your emotions and your thoughts.
You will always find me saying that our emotions and our thoughts are one in the same, interconnected somehow. I always say, "you think how you feel, as you feel how you think, always!" There is never a moment where you feel and think differently unless you are lying. Let me break it down for you. When you FEEL beautiful, you THINK you are beautiful. The same way when you THINK you are beautiful, you FEEL beautiful. Now, when you THINK you are beautiful, but you FEEL not so beautiful, you are not being honest with yourself. The same way when you FEEL beautiful, but THINK you are not so beautiful, that is what you consider lying, or your insecurities.
Before we try to tap into all of our hidden emotions and thoughts, we first must establish at least one or two healing clouds to fall back on for when we need to get picked up.
I usually think about things that either help stimulate my mind, eases my mind, or both. Things that stimulate our minds are typically things that we love to do, like things that have our full attention. This does not include things with technology, such as playing video games or watching a movie. It is more along the lines of physical activities, like hobbies, physical skills and talents, and sports. There is always an activity that you do to help alleviate your stress and anxiety. Use this hobby or skill as a healing mechanism for self-healing, self-love, and self-growth.
I personally have multiple healing clouds, and they include dance, painting, arts & crafts, reading, planting, walking, meditating, writing, and photography. These are all expressive healing clouds or hobbies that help me express myself in different ways. Others may feel that their healing clouds include yoga, martial arts, singing, exercising, archery etc. Whatever your hobby or skill is, the important part of it is that you are happy and you enjoy doing it. Let’s refer to our skills and talents as our “magic”, “magical skills”, or “powers”. Whatever your skill is, that is what we will consider your power or magical skill. Remember that you will always create more healing clouds as you continue to explore and grow, as I have over the years. Make sure you are open to challenging your magical strength and that your ultimate goal throughout this whole process is self-growth, self-love, self-healing, and wisdom.
Once you have selected your healing cloud(s), you must think about a day, two days, or three within the week in which you will make time to practice your power or magical skill. Let’s refer to this as “visiting your healing cloud”. Visiting your healing cloud is the act of making time and creating your own space to practice your art, your magic. It is important that you establish a schedule because with life constantly getting hectic, you have to make sure that YOU are creating time for yourself. This will be the moment you will start learning self-discipline through self-love and self-care. Life gets hard and is mostly unpredictable, so it’s best to designate a specific day to relax and do something you enjoy. There is no need to choose a time of day to practice your hobby, simply pick a day and set a reminder to take a complete hour for your craft.
You may be wondering why selecting a time is not important, and I will explain why. As mentioned before, life is filled with challenges and unpredictable events, so we must not stress ourselves with the thought of “making” time for our magic simply because we have to. We must do it because we want to. Practicing our magical skills are not obligations. They are our healing clouds for when we are ready to relax and release our negativities for the day or week. This must be done at any time of the day. Time flexibility is what makes "making time for yourself" even more attractive.
As you take the time to establish the right healing clouds for yourself, please keep in mind that your healing clouds may change constantly. This means that one moment you will be into knitting, and the next you will decide to try ice skating. Or you may simply want to change the day and time in which you practice your art. However, while they are always interchangeable and may constantly change, it is important to understand that your healing cloud is your space and your time to feel good, and that factor will never change. It is the moment in the day where you can reflect on any thoughts and feelings that are weighing heavy on you, and to challenge yourself to advance in that art.
Your will power to improve in a skill or talent should always be the will power for positive change as a whole. As your magic grows, so does your inner strength, your confidence, and your self-love. You may also like to involve your family and friends in some healing sessions. Invite them to your healing clouds once in a while, and let them participate in some of your favorite hobbies. Be willing to teach them a few things here and there. Push your passions further by teaching others the skills you've mastered.
I hope that this foundation will guide you into a fruitful and positive path to self-love and self-healing. Always remember, that your healing cloud is your kingdom. You have the power to shape and mold your kingdom, your world, and your life. And it all starts with you.
“Create your healing clouds, and master your magic.”
The Magic Within You
We all have magic. Many of us have mastered them, while others are still searching for them. Magic in this world is not physical and it does not sparkle. It is unique for everyone. Magic is within us all. We simply have to take the time to find it, embrace it, and master it. It's never too late to find it, but you have to be open to the possibilities. Open your mind, heart, and soul to find your inner flame and create your own unique magic. (#love #dream #magic)
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