Inspiration

The Mother Who Cannot Let Her Daughter Bloom

Posted on by helpingsoul

Maternal Envy, the Daughter’s Emerging Sexuality, and the Slow Work of Naming What Most Mothers and Daughters Will Not Name Aloud

A substantial revision of an earlier 2010 post on mother-daughter envy. The original was a personal reflection. This version is clinical, drawing on cases at appropriate distance and on current research that the 2010 piece did not yet have access to.

In my clinical practice, I have sat with a particular kind of grief many times. The grief of an adult daughter who has slowly come to recognize that her mother envied her. That the mother who was supposed to celebrate her emerging womanhood instead competed with it. That the mother who was supposed to teach her that her body was good was the first person to communicate, through small gestures and large ones, that her body was a problem. That the mother who was supposed to want her flourishing instead, in some difficult-to-name way, needed her to not flourish quite so visibly.

This pattern is not rare. It is not, despite the cultural insistence that all mothers love their daughters unconditionally, a marginal phenomenon. Maternal envy of daughters is a well-documented dynamic in clinical literature. It just is not often discussed openly, because it violates one of the most protected cultural narratives we have — the mother as the unconditional source of love for her child.

This article addresses what the pattern looks like, where it comes from, how it affects the daughters who lived through it, and what the work of recovery and repair can look like for both parties. The territory is sensitive. It deserves both clinical precision and the recognition that mothers who envy their daughters are themselves usually carrying significant unprocessed material from their own lives. The work is not to identify mothers as villains. It is to name a dynamic clearly enough that the people who lived through it can recognize themselves and begin the work of healing.

What maternal envy of daughters looks like

The dynamic shows up in many forms. None of them is universally diagnostic on its own. The pattern emerges from accumulation rather than from any single behavior.

The mother who criticizes her teenage daughter’s clothing not for actual modesty concerns but because the daughter’s emerging body is genuinely attractive and the criticism is the mother’s way of damping the attention the daughter is receiving. The criticism is framed as protection. The felt sense underneath, often unconscious to the mother herself, is something closer to resentment.

The mother who, when men in public respond to her teenage or young adult daughter’s appearance with attention or cat calls, shames the daughter for inviting the attention. The implicit message: your body is the problem. Your appearance is the problem. The fact that you are being noticed in ways I am no longer noticed is a flaw in you rather than a function of biological aging in me.

The mother who undermines her daughter’s accomplishments with subtle critique. The straight A’s that are met with concern about the daughter’s social life. The scholarship that is met with comments about how lucky she was. The successful relationship that is met with skepticism about whether the partner is good enough. The pattern is not consistent criticism. It is the precise targeting of whatever the daughter is most flourishing in.

The mother who competes with her daughter for the attention of the same men. The father whose attention the mother needs and who is suddenly noticing the maturing daughter. The boyfriends or husbands whose admiration the mother monitors for any indication that they have noticed the daughter. The dynamic produces specific kinds of damage in the daughter, who learns to dampen herself in male company in order to avoid triggering the mother’s reaction.

The mother whose stated values and lived behavior contradict each other around female sexuality. The mother who preaches abstinence while the daughter knows the mother lost her own virginity at fifteen. The mother who shames the daughter for sexual exploration while the mother herself has a complicated sexual history that is not openly acknowledged. The hypocrisy is its own teaching — it communicates that female sexuality is shameful for the daughter while available for the mother, that the rules apply differently in different generations, that the mother’s right to her own sexual history does not extend to permission for the daughter’s.

Where this dynamic originates

Maternal envy of daughters does not come from nowhere. The mothers who carry this dynamic are not, with rare exceptions, monsters. They are women carrying their own significant unprocessed material from their own lives. Understanding where the dynamic comes from is essential to the work of recovery, because it allows the adult daughter to name what happened without having to demonize the mother who happened to her.

The mother who was not loved well by her own mother often carries a particular kind of injury that surfaces when her daughter reaches the age the mother was at when the mother’s own injuries were forming. The daughter’s blooming activates the mother’s unhealed adolescence. The mother does not consciously decide to envy her daughter. The envy arises as a somatic response to seeing in her daughter what she did not get to have in herself.

The mother whose own youth was traumatic or curtailed often experiences her daughter’s freedom as an unbearable contrast. The mother who married too young, who became pregnant before she was ready, who had no opportunity for education or self-discovery, who was sexualized as a child — these mothers may genuinely love their daughters and may also carry a specific grief about what they themselves did not have, which makes the daughter’s having of those things activating.

The mother whose marriage is unhappy, whose own sexual life has been disappointing, whose physical body has aged in ways she has not been able to accept, often finds her daughter’s emerging sexuality intolerable in a way she cannot fully articulate. The daughter has what the mother is losing. The daughter is at the beginning of what the mother is ending. The biological mathematics of aging produces a felt sense in the mother that, unprocessed, can manifest as competition with the very person she is supposed to be welcoming into womanhood.

The mother whose cultural and religious framework treats female sexuality as dangerous often has more conscious access to her envy because the framework gives her permission to express it as concern. The criticisms can be delivered as protection. The shame can be delivered as moral teaching. The mother can simultaneously envy her daughter’s freedom and condemn her for having it, without having to feel the contradiction directly.

None of this excuses the harm. Naming the origins is not the same as forgiving. It is the recognition that the mother who envied her daughter was usually a woman who herself had been failed by the women who came before her, and who has not yet done the work that would let her break the pattern. The recognition allows the adult daughter to hold complexity — both that her mother caused real damage and that her mother was herself damaged. Both can be true.

How the envy affects the daughter

Daughters who lived through maternal envy carry specific patterns into adulthood. The patterns are not unique to this dynamic, but the dynamic produces them in characteristic shape.

Self-dampening. The daughter learned, early, that her flourishing produced consequences. The good grade led to subtle critique. The boyfriend led to undermining. The accomplishment led to attention being shifted away. The adult daughter often unconsciously continues the dampening. She underdresses for events where she might shine. She undermines her own accomplishments in conversation. She makes herself smaller in the presence of women, particularly older women, who feel similar to the mother.

Sexual ambivalence. The daughter learned that her body was simultaneously something to be protected and something to be ashamed of. Her emerging sexuality was met with both watchfulness and condemnation. As an adult, she often carries complicated relationships to her own sexual desire, her own body, her own right to pleasure. The straightforward access to her own erotic life that her mother did not allow her to develop in adolescence has to be developed, painfully, in adulthood.

Difficulty receiving from women. The daughter who experienced her mother as a rival rather than as an ally often struggles, as an adult, to fully trust other women. Friendships with women carry an undertow she may not be able to articulate. Compliments from older women trigger old wariness. The capacity to receive care from female mentors, female friends, female therapists has to be built deliberately because the original maternal template did not allow it to develop naturally.

Hypervigilance to other women’s reactions. The daughter learned to monitor her mother’s emotional state continuously, because her mother’s state determined how the daughter would be treated. The adult version of this is the woman who is exquisitely attuned to how other women are responding to her — who notices, before they themselves notice, when another woman has registered her in some way. The capacity is genuinely useful in some professional contexts. It is also exhausting, and it reflects a developmental history in which female regard was always conditional and never safely received.

Difficulty with her own daughters, if she has them. The pattern is intergenerational. The daughter who has not done significant work on the dynamic she lived through often passes some version of it forward. The work of breaking the cycle is conscious work and is rarely complete in a single generation. It requires recognition, grief, often clinical support, and the deliberate development of capacities the original conditions did not produce.

The work of recovery for the adult daughter

If you recognize yourself in this description — the adult daughter of a mother who, in retrospect, envied you — the work of recovery is real and possible. It is also slow. Several elements support the work.

Grief is the first task. The adult daughter must allow herself to feel the specific grief of having had a mother who was not capable of unconditional welcome of her flourishing. This is harder than it sounds, because the cultural narrative around mothers protects them from this kind of recognition. The grief includes the loss of the mother the daughter needed, the recognition that the actual mother could not be that mother, and the acceptance that no amount of effort on the daughter’s part as a child could have produced the welcoming response she needed.

Naming what happened, clearly. Not to confront the mother — that may or may not be appropriate depending on the specific relationship — but to name it to herself, with someone who can hear it. Often this is in therapy. Sometimes it is in journaling, in conversation with a trusted friend who has lived something similar, in the slow private work of articulating to oneself what had not previously been allowed to be named.

Working with the somatic legacy. The dampening, the sexual ambivalence, the hypervigilance to women — these live in the body. The work of restoring access to fullness in adulthood requires somatic attention. EMDR for specific memories that carry the weight. Somatic experiencing for the chronic patterns of holding back. Parts work for the internal voice that has internalized the mother’s criticism. Attachment-focused therapy for the relational template that filters all current female relationships.

Rebuilding the capacity to receive from women. This often happens through specific relationships — a female therapist who consistently welcomes the client’s fullness, female friends who do not require dampening, female mentors who genuinely celebrate the client’s accomplishments. These relationships are corrective experiences. They slowly teach the nervous system that female regard can be unconditional, that flourishing in the presence of another woman does not have to produce consequences.

The relationship with the mother, in real time, becomes its own ongoing question. Some adult daughters find ways to maintain limited contact with the mother while protecting themselves from the worst of the dynamic. Some choose more substantial distance for periods of time, or permanently. Some find that the mother, herself doing her own work, becomes capable of a different relationship in later years. There is no single right answer. The right answer is the one that allows the adult daughter to continue her own healing without being repeatedly retraumatized.

On the rare possibility of repair between mother and daughter

In some cases, repair is possible. It is rare. It requires the mother to do her own work, to recognize what she did, to take responsibility for it, and to find a way to genuinely welcome her daughter’s flourishing now even though she could not welcome it then. When this happens, it is significant. It does not erase the original damage. It does add a new chapter to the relationship that allows both women to continue knowing each other on different terms.

More commonly, the mother is unable or unwilling to do this work. She may deny the dynamic entirely. She may agree to it superficially without changing her behavior. She may simply not have the resources to face what she did and what her own life produced in her. In these cases, the adult daughter does her own healing without the mother’s participation. This is possible. It is also harder than healing with the mother’s participation would be.

The cultural pressure on adult daughters to maintain close relationships with their mothers regardless of the cost is one of the things that prevents necessary healing for many women. The right amount of contact with the mother who envied you is whatever amount allows you to continue your own work without being repeatedly returned to the original wound. For some daughters, that is regular contact with appropriate limits. For others, it is significant distance. For others, it is no contact at all. None of these is morally superior. They are different responses to different relationships with different mothers.

A closing thought

The mother-daughter relationship is one of the most consequential in any woman’s life. When it goes well, it shapes the daughter’s capacity for self-love, for trust in other women, for owning her own flourishing without apology. When it goes badly, particularly through the specific dynamic of maternal envy, it shapes the daughter’s life in ways that take years of adult work to unwind.

If you are the daughter of a mother who envied you, the work of recovery is real and worth doing. You did not deserve the dampening. You did not deserve the shaming. Your flourishing was always welcome by the universe, even if it was not welcome by the woman who was supposed to welcome it first. The work of recognizing this, of grieving what you did not get, of slowly building the capacity to flourish in spite of it, is the work of becoming yourself.

You did not deserve to be dampened. You deserved to bloom.
It is not too late.

Further reading: Estela Welldon, Mother, Madonna, Whore: The Idealization and Denigration of Motherhood. Rozsika Parker, Torn in Two: The Experience of Maternal Ambivalence. Terri Apter, Difficult Mothers. Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born. Phyllis Chesler, Women and Madness. For clinical support with attachment and maternal trauma in California or Florida, visit thecourageousself.com.

April Wright, MA, LMFT is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California and Florida specializing in EMDR, sex therapy, and couples counseling. She trained in sex and couples therapy at AACAST at UCLA. She blogs about attachment, healing, and the courageous arts of becoming oneself at courageous-arts.com and sees clients at thecourageousself.com.

Positive Truths vs. Positive Affirmations: How to Change Your Beliefs Authentically

Posted on by helpingsoul

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” – Buddha

There’s a moment that often happens in life: you do everything within your control, you prepare, you strive, you visualize — and then you let go.

And strangely, that’s when something shifts.

When you loosen your tight grip on how things must unfold, space opens. Whether you call it surrender, faith, alignment, or psychological flexibility, something larger than control begins to move.

I believe there are no accidents. But I also believe our beliefs shape what we are capable of receiving.

The “Six Trees” Story and the Power of Belief

Years ago, while living in Baltimore, Oprah attended a party at her boss’s home — one of the wealthiest women she had known at the time. The house was large, but what stood out most were six large trees in the backyard. Oprah remembers thinking, “Rich people have trees. If I ever have money, I want six trees in my yard.”

Years later, standing in her own kitchen, she looked out the window while making coffee and saw six trees. She stepped outside to count them — and realized beyond those six were thousands more on her property.

She could imagine six trees. Life imagined far more.

Psychologically, this illustrates something powerful: we often limit our vision to what we believe is possible. Our nervous system, our conditioning, and our past experiences quietly define the boundaries of our imagination.

The work is not just to dream — but to expand what we believe we are worthy of.

You Don’t Get What You Wish For. You Get What You Believe.

Many people spend their lives hoping and wishing. But in therapy, we see this truth repeatedly:

You don’t get what you hope for.
You get what you deeply believe you deserve and can handle.

Beliefs shape behavior. Behavior shapes outcomes. Outcomes reinforce beliefs.

If you believe:

  • “I’m not good with money,” you avoid financial risk.

  • “Relationships never work for me,” you unconsciously withdraw.

  • “Success isn’t for people like me,” you self-sabotage opportunity.

Changing your life requires changing your beliefs — but not through denial.

Why Positive Affirmations Often Don’t Work

You’ve probably heard affirmations like:

  • “I can achieve anything.”

  • “I am wealthy.”

  • “I am confident.”

  • “I have abundance.”

They can temporarily boost mood. But if your internal experience contradicts the statement, your brain resists it.

If you have $300 in your bank account and repeat, “I have unlimited abundance,” your nervous system knows that isn’t true. The brain craves congruence. When affirmations feel false, they can actually increase anxiety and shame.

This is where positive truths come in.

What Are Positive Truths?

Positive truths are grounded, emotionally honest statements that acknowledge your current reality and your forward movement.

They integrate cognitive restructuring with self-compassion.

Instead of denying your struggle, you honor it — and pair it with agency.

Examples of Positive Truths

  • “I am frustrated with my income right now, and I am networking weekly and exploring new revenue streams.”

  • “I feel scared about launching my business, and I am building confidence by taking one consistent step at a time.”

  • “I feel lonely at times, and I am showing up, meeting new people, and learning to trust myself more.”

Notice the difference.

There is no pretending.
There is no bypassing.
There is honesty — and momentum.

From a psychological perspective, this works because:

  • It regulates the nervous system.

  • It reduces cognitive dissonance.

  • It builds self-trust.

  • It reinforces adaptive behavior.

Why Honesty Creates Real Transformation

Personal transformation requires:

  • Self-awareness

  • Emotional honesty

  • Respect for your current reality

  • Loving accountability

When you say something that is true, your body relaxes. There is alignment between your thoughts and your lived experience.

Positive truths are not about toxic positivity.
They are about grounded optimism.

They say:
“I see where I am. I respect it. And I am actively participating in change.”

That builds confidence far more than fantasy ever could.

A Practical Exercise: Creating Your Own Positive Truths

  1. Identify one area of stress (money, relationships, career, confidence).

  2. Write the honest emotional truth.

  3. Add one concrete action you are taking.

  4. Repeat the statement daily for two minutes, three times per day.

  5. Pair it with visualization — not of fantasy — but of the feeling you are cultivating.

You can also create a visual symbol — a collage, a painting, a written statement — that represents your vision.  The Expressive Arts is a wonderful technique to externalize your desires and create a visual reminder of what you are working towards each day.

When you see it, pause. Breathe. Repeat your truth.

Consistency rewires belief.

Surrender and Psychological Flexibility

Here’s the deeper paradox:

You do the work.
You tell the truth.
You take aligned action.

And then — you let go.

In therapy, we call this psychological flexibility: the ability to commit to values-based action while releasing attachment to rigid outcomes.

You are not passive.
You are participating fully.

And then you allow life to meet you.

Final Thought

You are capable of making your dreams real — not through denial, but through honesty.

Honor yourself with truth.
Respect your current reality.
Take loving action.
Then release what you cannot control.

Growth happens in that space

About

I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT #96155) providing online therapy in California and Florida. I work with individuals and couples navigating anxiety, depression, grief and loss, trauma, and life transitions. My goal is to offer a safe, non-judgmental space where you can explore destructive beliefs, heal childhood wounds, and build a healthier relationship with yourself and others.

My integrative approach blends mindfulness, trauma-informed care, and compassionate insight to support meaningful and lasting change.

If you feel ready to begin, you’re welcome to contact me in the comments section. I respond within 48 hours.

How Your Wounds Share Wisdom

Posted on by helpingsoul

Many people begin their spiritual journey focusing on all that is whole and good in their life. Gratitude for the things we value is a key to having mindful living but equally important is continually excavating the long buried wounds you’ve hidden beneath layers of a protective shell.

Oprah says, “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” She likes to think of it as this way, “When you are triggered by something, like an argument, pressure at work, money issues, or even someone cutting you off on the road, this is an opportunity to bring awareness to your feelings and how your body feels.”

How to Let Go of Pain

During triggered moments, unresolved feelings of anxiety, confusion, and frustration will rush to the surface.

Pause.

Take a deep breath.

Become still long enough to ask the question, “What is this experience here to show me, or to teach me?”

As you learn to interpret your internal responses, you’ll begin to recognize a pattern. We all have them.

The more you become familiar with that emotion, allow it to rise and unfold without resistance.

Welcome it.

Experience it in the body.

Release it.

Spiritual Disturbances

Think of these moments that trigger something inside of you as spiritual disturbances. A spirit of disturbance is a troubled heart, a stress-filled life, or a disturbed heart.

Since stress is part of most of our personal lives, either in our homes, part of our families, found in our churches, and experienced in our nation. It is slowly killing and robbing us of our daily peace of mind.

Pharmaceutical companies make a fortune off prescriptions to help reduce stress and other spiritual disturbances.  No matter how hard we try, pills can’t and won’t cure a disturbance of the heart when it is really a spiritual issue.

Spiritual disturbances lose their power the moment you stop pushing against them. The result is a constant and exhilarating sense of flow.

Perception of Time

Our perception of time changes according to our stages of awareness. This means our awareness can be a powerful agent for healing the past.

We’ve all heard the adage, “Time heals all wounds.” This is not truly accurate. Time does not heal all wounds because this implies a passive attitude; just wait long enough and time will do everything.

Attitude With Time

For this to be true, our attitude toward time has to be active, not passive. We need conscious responses, not unconscious reactions.

The negative experiences that happened yesterday or years ago linger as memory and trauma. These wounds are the main obstacles to making every moment matter.

Emotional Debt

Whenever we relive the past or anticipate a painful future, we are allowing old wounds to take on new life. Some psychologists call this emotional debt from the past.

Emotional debt can be equated to a bank. During negative experiences, when we react by just putting our head down and getting on with it, this response builds up emotional debt. Anger, hurt, stress, and grief withdrawals money out of the bank while conscious awareness, relaxation, and nourishment deposits money in the bank.

A Healing Approach to Past Pain

Things we have choice over, attitudes, beliefs, lifestyle, and self-care; allow us to consciously heal the wounds of conscious time and avoid their unwanted effects.

A healing approach to time begins with noticing your reaction in the moment. When you are in a stressful situation or are reminded of painful experiences from your past, take a few deep, long breaths, and be aware of how you feel. Notice your emotions and how your body feels. Be aware of any instinctual reactions, to retaliate, to resist or runaway.

Recognize that those responses are coming from your past hurt but your inner awareness, which notices these reactions and feelings is not hurt or limited in any way by the past.

This conscious presence is your real self. And it is the place through which you are free to choose a new response, different from your conditioned response.

Continue breathing and open yourself to an appropriate response to the situation that isn’t solely determined by your past pain.

But don’t try to respond like a saint or pretend to be indifferent. An artificial response does not heal your past hurt because it’s not coming from your present moment awareness.

As you become more familiar with the remaining connection to the conscious self during stressful situations, you become free from your conditioned reactions and heal your past.

By directing your attention to your inner awareness, you align your heart and mind to living in the present moment. When you learn to live from your timeless self, every moment of time is healing and everyday is filled with the joy of transforming yourself.

This is what is means to make every moment matter.

Centering Message

A centering thought for mediation is, “I heal my past by being in the present.”

Take a Walk Through a Castle To Learn More About Yourself

Posted on by helpingsoul

Have you ever wondered…

How easily do you take risks?
What do you think will happen in the future?
What images do you believe others have of you?

Use your imagination to take an imaginary walk in a castle to discover more about your character.

As you go through the exercise, the symbols provide perceptions of your overall view of life, your attitude toward new experiences, the image you have of your life, and how you imagine your future. Take into account that culture influences and signifies your personal context on how certain metaphors, images, and symbols suggest various uses and understanding of your life.

It is up to you to decide for your self how the symbols function in your life. This exercise is offered as an aid to enrich the activity and perspectives of your life.

You will need a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil to note your responses.

Begin by taking a few long deep breaths to relax your mind and to settle into your seat. Now imagine you are in front of a castle. Continue to read and answer the following questions to unfold your personal storyline.

  1. You are in front of the door of the castle. How exactly do you imagine it?
a. It is a simple door
b. It is covered by plants and is somewhat hard to find
c. It is a huge wooden door with metal details and it looks a little frightening

2. You pass the door of the castle and realize that there is no soul. It is desert. What is the first thing you see?

a. A huge library, wall to wall full of books
b. A huge fireplace and a hot fire burning
c. A large banquet hall with huge chandeliers and red carpets
d. A long corridor with many closed doors
  1. You look around and find a staircase. You decide to climb the stairs. What does the staircase look like?
a. It looks sharp and massive, leading nowhere
b. It is an impressive spiral, grand staircase
  1. After you climb the stairs, you reach a small room in which there is only one window. How big is the window?
a. It appears normal
b. It’s small, like a porthole
c. It’s massive and take up most of the surface of the wall
  1. You look out the window. What do you see?
a. Large waves crashing furiously on rock
b. A snowy forest
c. A green valley
d. A small, vibrant city
  1. You go down the stairs and you’re back in the area where you were when you first entered the castle. You go ahead and find a door at the rear of the building. You open it and go out in a yard. What exactly does it look like?
a. It is full of hypertrophic plants, grasses, broken wood and fallen barbed wire
b. It is impeccably maintained with countless colorful flowers
c. It’s a jungle, but you can imagine how beautiful it would be if someone cleaned and put it in order

RESULTS

QUESTION 1 – The Door

Your Attitude to New Experiences

The door represents your attitude to new experiences.

a. The Simple Door

If you imagined a simple, everyday door, you probably are not afraid of any new challenge and will test your luck in new things and situations without a second thought.

b. The Hidden Door

If you have chosen the hidden door, you probably do not know what you need to do in the future and your life in it, and it looks blurry and undefined.

c. Big, Scary Door

Of course, if you have chosen a big, scary door, then you probably are afraid of the unknown and find it difficult to get out of your comfort zone and try new experiences.

QUESTION 2– Inside the Castle

Idea You Believe Others Have of You

The space inside the castle is what you believe others perceive of you. For example, if you saw a library, you probably think that you are the person who supports others and helps them find answers to their problems.

a. Large Fireplace

The large fireplace gives a feeling of warmth and passion that you think you cause in people.

b. Fancy Ballroom

A fancy ballroom suggests that you feel that you can dazzle people around you and that you have a lot to give.

c. Long Corridor

If you ended up in a long corridor with closed doors, you feel that you are difficult to understand and others will have to try much to ‘penetrate’ more within you.

QUESTION 3– The Staircase

The stairway shows the image that you have of life.

a. Sharp and Massive Staircase

The sharp and massive staircase shows a person who sees life as suffering, with many difficulties.

b. Beautiful Spiral Staircase

The beautiful spiral staircase shows that you are a romantic person.

QUESTION 4– The Window

The window is the way you feel right now. The size of a window is relative to your culture, where you grew-up, and your environment. Thus what one person may call “small” may be “large” to another person. What matters most is your interpretation.

a. Small Window

A small window means that you feel depressed and trapped in your life. It may feel like there’s no way out of what you are experiencing in this period.

b. Normal Window

A normal-sized window shows a person with realistic demands and expectations of life at this stage. You realize that there are limitations, but the future is here and it looks clear for you.

c. Gigantic Window

If you chose, the gigantic window, you probably feel invincible, free and able to achieve what you want.

QUESTION 5 – The View From The Window

The view from the window is the overview of your whole life.

a. Stormy Sea

A stormy sea shows a hectic and erratic life.

b. Snowy Forest

A snowy forest is associated with a person who lives isolated and detached from the crowds.

c. Green Valley

The green valley shows that your life is calm and steady, without much stress and anxiety.

d. Vibrant City

People relate the vibrant city to someone who generally lives life with lots of socializing and is generally surrounded by lots of people.

QUESTION 6 – The Courtyard Of The Castle

The image of the courtyard is the image that you have in mind of your future.

a. Neat and Shiny Garden

If you chose a neat and shiny garden, then you feel that your future will be heavenly.

b. Picture of a Neglected Garden

Picture of a promising but neglected garden shows an optimistic person, who is worried if he can find the energy to take control of his life and make his future more beautiful.

c. Grassy Damaged Garden

Those who chose the grassy, damaged garden are pessimistic that do not have a nice picture of the future.

The symbols represent aspects of your life but are not like most typical symbols where there is a code or rule to obey.  An example of common, modern symbols include traffic lights, where red means stop and green means go.

The images here are part  of a complex language in which green can mean jealousy or fertility or even both, depending on your personal background. It is up to you to explore the script you chose in the walk through the castle and work through it sensitively.

How to Turn Work into Joy

Posted on by helpingsoul

pathTOparadiseThis article written by Bruce Kasanoff of Now Possible, LLC. provides a good explanation how fear can prevent us from going after the life we seek.  He gives clear mental and physical steps to push fear aside and let that encouraging voice come through. First is to be aware of that inner critic and then provide positive reinforcement to encourage change and small actions toward your dreams.  I hope you find the article useful and informative to conquer your fears and start making those changes toward living the life you have always imagined.

We are standing on the edge of a mountain in Utah, and the slope below is frighteningly steep. Under normal conditions, it would too steep for my son and I to ski.

But the night before it snowed 22″, altering our relationship with the laws of physics. We know the powder will slow our speed, so we point straight down and push-off. It’s not scary, it’s magical… we are floating, seemingly flying down the mountain.

You can’t experience this sort of exhilaration at work, or can you?

The thing is, I still remember, long ago, when skiing scared me. I remember countless times when fear caused me to tighten up, to be over-cautious, or to hustle for the safety of the lodge. Skiing reminds me that the path to the high points in life often requires overcoming fear.

Much as I love public speaking, I still get nervous before a big speech. No, nervous isn’t the right word. Scared is. This fear is what motivates me to rewrite the speech five times, and to practice until it’s just right. And, yes, I get the same sense of exhilaration during a speech as when floating down a mountain.

The secret to finding this sort of joy is to create goals so bold they scare you. It’s to dream so big that at first you dare not share your dreams with others, for fear of embarrassing yourself. “You want to be the CEO?” your friend might question, “You’re only three weeks into being a product manager.”

But as you pursue your dreams, and face down your fears, something magical happens. Your dreams start to become realistic. You can say them out loud, and others don’t laugh.

As you develop the habit of dreaming big and chipping away at fear, you expand what’s possible in your life. You start to understand the difference between impossible and difficult.

When I stand on a mountain at 10,000 feet, my brain often sends me two messages. The first is: stop, it’s too steep! The second is: nonsense, you can ski this safely. The first message never completely goes away, I just move it to the back of my mind.

This is what we have to do to turn work into joy… at the right times, we have to stand on a mountain so high it scares us, and then we have to move fear out-of-the-way.

If you’re bored by work, or frustrated in your career, perhaps you need to take on a bigger mountain. Often times, boredom is your brain screaming an important message: you are capable of greater things, aim higher.

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Bruce Kasanoff is the founder of the personal branding agency, Now Possible. He is the co-author of Smart Customers, Stupid Companies, with co-author Michael Hinshaw.

Love, Jealousy, Rejection and Control

Posted on by helpingsoul

Love is an expression of our emotions, feelings and affection toward someone. When it comes to a spouse, love can bring to life our full potential and creativity. When love proceeds with abuse, it can be debilitating and demeaning. Love is a choice followed by action. Our personal values, beliefs and actions determine what is real love versus fantasy and abusive “love.”

Love is not ownership. Humans are not pieces of property, objects, nor possessions. When mates consider lovers “theirs”, it leads to abusive, imprisoning and damaging behavior.

In moderation, jealousy can be healthy. Suspicion can signal we feel threatened. Feelings can be useful to alert us that we need to investigate and evaluate the particular situation at greater length. Healthy love involves asking questions and honestly sharing concerns and fears with our loved one.

Jealousy becomes destructive when assumptions overrun any reality or truths. Envy overrun goals of connection and real intimacy. Jealousy usually comes from hurt, neglect, or sense of abandonment. When we react to those feelings with jealousy and don’t address core issues, pain continues to spiral downward.

Further investigation into understanding our jealousy may reveal personal insecurity, unworthiness, fears, unhappiness, and false beliefs projected on our partner. The solution begins when we become aware of our reactions and instead response mindfully. Confront jealousy by labeling and noticing feelings and thoughts and then nurture those feelings of hurt with self-care and finding the facts.

First gain personal power and gain control of your emotions by acknowledging them. Refrain from reactive, abusive behavior.

Second, shift the focus and examine other perspectives. As we look at the situation from the other person’s point of view, we give ourselves time to access the condition from several outlooks.

Next identify core beliefs that are creating the reaction and determine any truths and falsehoods. Remember insecurity and low self-esteem can create false images.

Call a friend, talk to a therapist, or contact a neutral, unbiased person to aid in awareness and broaden perspectives. Communication with uninvolved friends, family, or professional can help us validate reality, confront inadequacies and develop control. Finally, we can consciously choose the most logical approach for the most effective and kind response.

If it comes to fail, our jealousy is warranted, and we feel rejected, it hurts. Rejection stings and it burns a lot. However, it is no excuse to cause harm or react with vengeful words. It is an opportune time to practice self-love and nurture. Most times rejection is not personal even though it may feel that way.

When we are enmeshed rejection feels like abandonment, primarily when we abandon our truth and feelings. When we deny our thoughts and feelings, we usually then say hurtful things. We may blame our partner and portray the image that their decisions control us. However, we are responsible for our actions, our feelings, and our choices. Sometimes it is difficult to bear personal responsibility but turmoil only succeeds. Many people falsely assume that “she makes me happy” or that he “needs” her to be happy. Enmeshment presents this falsehood and limitless boundaries.

Our most intimate relationships often, trigger childhood memories of abandonment, hurt, or abuse. Enmeshment and no individuation position our lover on a pedestal to control how we feel about ourselves.

It takes time to build self-esteem, self-love, and acceptance to be entirely independent. We no longer need someone else to show us our value and worth. We know that we matter and treat ourselves respectfully and create healthy boundaries and tolerances of weakness and strengths. We mature into an independent, loving, kind and accepting adult. We can regulate our emotions by reaching out to a friend and taking care of ourselves with kindness.

Jealousy can be useful and with awareness we can use this natural feeling to our advantage by practicing self-care, reaching out, and exploring alternatives. We can choose to be happy independently regardless of how someone else behaves. Don’t let jealousy enter unhealthy false beliefs, and controlling behaviors enacted through fears and hurts.

If we feel jealousy or rejected, it is a good time to reflect upon ourselves, analyze and access the events. Evaluate from different perspectives, outlooks and points of view. It can be painful emotionally but also a time for growth and maturity.

We all make choices for many reasons. They may be due to a means of survival; to learn, to grow, to experiment. Whatever the reason, it is not a time to judge or demean.

We all make mistakes, and different choices than what we think are best, regardless it is not a time to judge. Our best solution is to look within and control the one thing we can; ourselves. We are all independent. Our happiness and emotions are independent of anyone else. We choose how we respond and not react. Choose with awareness and calmness. Remember, no one makes us do anything. Accept responsibility for our actions, emotions and behavior. There are always consequences when emotions such as jealousy, anger, and envy act outward or inward negatively. Focus on the positive and have the courage to ask for help when feelings reach adverse outcomes with drugs, alcohol, overeating, workaholism, gambling, and abusive relationships.

Mindfulness Mediation

Posted on by helpingsoul

Sometimes it takes hardship to get to know yourself in a real way, and within a coherent framework.  I got lost in a relationship but now I am stronger, more self assured, and have improved insight.

I am proud of my new found knowledge about myself through mindfulness mediation and writing.  I have a gift now to share to other women; helping them to achieve more healthier relationships, self-respect, confidence and boundaries.

With mindfulness meditation, you can re-wiring your brain.  You can literally change and grow neural connections which support finding and creating better relationships. It is possible for your brain to become more like those who grew up knowing how to love and be loved in healthy, sustainable ways.

We are all not so fortunate to grow up with healthy, attuned attachments. Childhood attachment is the emotional bond that typically forms between infant and caregiver, usually a parent.  It stimulates brain growth, affects personality development and a lifelong ability to form stable relationships. Neuroscientists now believe that attachment is such a primal need that there are networks of neurons in the brain dedicated to it, and the process of forming lasting bonds is powered in part by the hormone oxytocin.

Even though we may not have had childhood attachment, we can re-wire our brains for better relationships.  Mindfulness mediation can help with the nine essential characteristics for healthy relationships.

1. Better management of your body’s reactions; stress and anger management.

2. Emotional resiliency; regulating your emotions and restoring an unpleasant mood back to baseline with ease and efficiency.

3. Better, more adaptable, agreeable communication.

Mindfulness meditation helps you to be a more attuned communicator and it can be contagious to loved one as well. Good communication entails listening and understanding without distortion, and responding in a way contingent upon your partners needs instead of your own inner filters and desires.

4. Response flexibility.

Mindfulness meditation improves response flexibility and creates an emotional regulator where space and time allow careful thought for a more positive mindful, conscious response instead of just crying whenever receiving criticism or blaming others and yelling when you feel ashamed.

5. Improved empathy.

Mindfulness meditation improves the ability to identify with and understand somebody else’s feelings or difficulties but without losing your awareness of your own state of mind.  It’s the ability to separate a desire to support and feel affinity with but still remaining constant in your state of mind; without their solemn mood affecting yours.

6. Improved insight (self-knowing).

Mediation practice improves self awareness within a logically and aesthetically consistent credible and harmonious whole.  Mediating and writing regularly allows us to practice our ability to notice what our brain is thinking.  An increased knowledge and capacity to tell the difference between momentary and ever-changing events, and who we really are is achieved.

7. Better modulation of fear.

Mindfulness mediation allows you to soothe your feelings and be more comfortable when you’re afraid.  You are able to regulate things which once scared you (He’s going to leave me; I’m not enough for her).  It’s important in relationships to have ready access to being able to calm yourself when you’re anxious, so that your reactions and interactions aren’t overrun by your fight-flight-freeze response.  Once you are not as reactive to emotional fear, you change your entire experience of being in an adult-to-adult relationship.

8. Enhanced intuition.

There’s actually increasing neurochemical and cellular evidence of a second brain in our viscera; internal abdominal and intestinal organs. Our viscera, and the rest of our body – our muscles, eyes, ears, skin, and so on – are telling us something. If we pay attention to the messages our body is telling us, the mindfulness practice enhances the ability to be attuned to yourself, and what you unconsciously know – what we can refer to as “intuition.”  Becoming emotionally aware and act rationally and logically in conjunction with our body enhances your ability to be in conscious relationships with yourself and with others.

9. Increased morality.

Evidence shows that when people learn to meditate and practice regularly, their perceptions of their place in the world begins to shift – something corroborated by family members. They become more broadly compassionate, more likely to act on their highest principles, and demonstrate greater interest in the social good – what can very reasonably seen as living with higher morals. It’s like having a healthier relationship with your whole community, not just the people closest to you.

Try mediating for twenty minutes and open your mind to your thoughts, feelings and emotions.  Pay attention what is consistent and what fades.  Learn about who you are and the goals you want to achieve. Spend another twenty minutes and write down what you have learned.  Keep a journal and awaken yourself to a whole new awareness and brighter self.

Focus on the Good and Wash Badness Away

Posted on by helpingsoul

Instead of focusing on the bad in the world and everything that is going wrong, focus on the good.  The more we focus on the good, the more good will manifest and overcome the bad; creating more goodness, decency, kindness, honesty, integrity and righteousness.  With the power of a global community centering attention and energy only on goodness, bad will disappear.  We no longer have time for the bad and wrong!