Mary O’Malley – Most of the time growing up, I lived in the same bedroom with an older sister who I experienced as a bully. She let me know through her words and actions that I was a bother, that I was less than her and my needs didn’t matter.
I have healed most of the stories I took on while undergoing that kind of daily heartache and pressure. One of the core ones was that I was less than everybody else. I now know I’m not less than nor am I better than anybody else. I am simply who I am and that is enough.
Another deep wound I took on during that time was that I was stupid. I had a B+ average in high school but she was salutatorian of her high school class and graduated summa cum laude from college. With those kinds of accomplishments, she let me know over and over again that I was not her equal. And I’m not. I don’t have the academic intelligence she has but I finally realized I carried the kind of intelligence that truly makes a difference in life and that my intelligence is heart savvy. Continue reading
Jennifer Hoffman – When I was growing up I heard ‘Don’t be selfish’ a lot from my mother. As the oldest child in the family, I always had to share everything with my siblings and cousins. And when I didn’t feel like sharing I was called ‘selfish’. So I learned that if I wanted to focus on myself I was being selfish and that was a bad thing. But if we don’t learn how to be self-ish, meaning to own our power and to be in our own energy, then we never develop a strong foundation of self identity, self control, and self awareness. Things have changed, it’s selfie time and becoming more self-ish actually makes us more powerful, fulfilled, and whole. Isn’t it interesting that we can actually take ‘selfies’, photos of ourselves, at a time when taking care of our needs and being self-ish is required on this next part of our journey.