The DAILY SPARK Blog

RETURNING TO OURSELVES

When feeling badly about ourselves, we often try on other skins rather than understand and care for our own.  How much time is spent comparing ourselves to others, dead or alive?  When wounded and troubled, we sometimes feel compelled to puff ourselves up.  For in our pain, it seems to make sense that if we were larger, we would be harder to miss.  If we were larger, we’d have a better chance of being loved.  It is not surprising then that others need to be made smaller so we can maintain our illusion of seeming bigger than our pain.  But being human, we are often troubled and blocked by insecurity and a feeling of unworthiness.  The truth is the corrective story of how we return to who we are and compassion is the never ending story of how we embrace each other and forgive ourselves for not accepting our beautifully particular place in this life.  

FROM:  THE BOOK OF AWAKENING  Having The Life You Want By Being Present To The Life You Have by Mark Nepo

REFLECTION:

  • Do you try to make yourself larger by making others feel smaller?
  • Is there a wound underneath that puffed up sense of self?
  • How can you tell the truth of what you are feeling and have compassion?
  • Can you forgive yourself?

INTRINSIC WORTH

To have that sense of one’s intrinsic worth which constitutes self-respect is potentially to have everything.

Quote by Joan Didion  

Joan died on December 23rd, 2021 (b.1934 – 87 years old).   She was an American novelist and essayist known for her lucid prose style and incisive depictions of social unrest and psychological fragmentation. You may know her from her award winning memoir book:  The Year Of Magical Thinking

REFLECTION:

  • Do you possess an intrinsic self worth? (Answer honestly)
  • What do you need to do to increase you own self worth … increase your self respect?
  • What does self-respect look like?  How do you treat yourself?  How do others treat you?
  • Explore this 

LONELINESS AND COMMUNITY

“We have become an individualistic culture.  There is lots to be said for self-expression, autonomy, self-realization and individualism but not at the expense of connection and community.  I think a lot of us have lived our lives going for the Holy Grail of success, however you define it.  And, along the way the debris of our own life is lost friendships, lack of attention to people that matter in our life-not being present and connected with them.  And, that catches up with us.  It is a disease causing phenomena that affects our genes, epigenetics, all of it.  It is all driven through our social network. Our social threads that connect us are more important than the genetic threads in determining our longevity and health.”

Quote by Dr. Mark Hyman in his Podcast (The Doctor’s Farmacy) interview with Dan Buettner.  The podcast:  The Keys to Living To 120: Blue Zone Wisdom  Number 478 – January 12th, 2022

REFLECTION:

  • Have you focused on the Holy Grail of Success at the expense of your relationships?
  • Assess your social network.  
  • Do you need to re-prioritize your life, what matters most?
  • Your health and vitality depend on connection and community.  Adjust accordingly.