One of my relationships is ending, and I’m being reminded of the opportunity I have to experience this with an open heart.

What’s happening is that I’m ready to end this working relationship, but the other person is challenging my decisions.

Even though I know this is the right path for me, I’m seeing my old default patterns of wanting to protect myself being triggered.

This looks like:

• Needing to make the other person “wrong”
• Being righteous in my “rightness”
• Shutting down my emotions
• Feeling myself put up energetic “armor.”
• Wanting to just end this and move on.

It’s all fear.

Fear of being judged. Fear of being hurt. Fear of being wrong. Fear of losing this person’s high esteem.

But my going into “lock-down” mode hurts me. Quite literally.

• It keeps me stuck in negative emotions that are setting off cascades of harmful chemical processes in my body.
• It keeps me from seeing solutions and making decisions that will help this experience be of benefit to both of us.
• It keeps me from being Who I truly am—and want to be.

Even though I know better, there’s a part of me that wants life to only be happy and feel good.

It’s the belief that if I can evolve enough spiritually, or get out of my ego enough, or be loving enough that nothing “bad” will ever happen.

Shazam! The magic wand will have been waved and the perfectly smooth path to everything I want will appear.

If you didn’t already know, I’m sorry to inform you that life doesn’t work that way.

And it’s not supposed to!

There is a reason we have ALL the emotions that we do.

It’s not to shun any of them or make any of them wrong.

It’s to feel them, experience the full range of human experience, and to glean the guidance from it all.

We cannot fully understand love and forgiveness if we have not also experienced hate and anger.

In her book, “Powerful and Feminine,” Rachael Jayne Groover shares a story of having to walk over a bed of hot coals during a personal development retreat.

The first time she does it, there is no pain and she’s exhilarated! To her this means you can face your fears and not get hurt.

It was such a powerful experience that she volunteers to work the next event, and walks the coals again. This time she gets burned.

The message, she felt, was that you can be hurt and still be OK.

So often I see the women I work with close their hearts to love because of past—or present—hurts. This is one of the roots of the rebound weight-gain cycle.

What if fully living is knowing we will experience pain . . . and keeping our hearts open anyway?

Knowing that we can get burned and still be OK.

And embracing that being burned is a part of being alive, a part of being human, and part of what we came into this life-time to experience.

Knowing that the depth of the pain experience is balanced by the amount of love and joy we can feel.

Life is not about being protected. It’s about experiencing it all.

So that’s my intention.

I choose to move through this experience with love and an open heart . . . and fully experience it.

There is no reason to defend anything. There is no reason for protection.

I can listen to what she says and gratefully take in what is truth—even if it’s painful—and I will allow myself to feel all my emotions.

It is my absolute intent to respond with love. To accept this experience as a gift.

And I can lovingly appreciate the heck out of the relationship that has been, the woman I am dealing with, and the incredible benefits she and this realtionships has brought into my life. As a result of this relationship, I am forever changed.

Even through there is fear, I choose appreciation.

Even though there may be pain, I choose love.

How about you?

Together we can do it!

You Have Today!

I want your feedback on this blog!

If you have received value from my posts, I’d love to hear your thoughts on where I should go from here.

If you get me your thoughts early today, I’ll give you the chance to get Your Slim IQ for FREE!

This is a $250 value!

I’ll randomly select a winner from all those who give me your feedback.

Provide a comment here, or send your answers in an email to Hanna@LoveYourWaySlim.com. 

• What are the questions you would like me to address in a blog post?
• What are your weight or wellness concerns?
• What is getting in the way of your getting the body you want?
• What do you like about the blog/posts/messages, etc?
• What has inspired you the most?
• What would you like to see change?
• How often would you like to receive blogs?
• How often would you like to receive wellness tips?
• What do you need to help inspire you to get the body you want?
• What do you feel is missing?
• What other suggestions do you have?

Thank you for your input! I’ll announce a winner at 8 p.m. EDT tonight!

Get me your feedback before then!

Much appreciation for reading and sharing your thoughts!