This week, we take the time to look within. Self-reflection is an essential part of growth. By looking at what we did, what we lived, how we acted, how we lived it, what we learned from it, we have a better understanding of ourselves and the world we hold within.

I love to take some time during my day to reflect. I make a good cup of tea, and while I drink it, I let memories come to the surface and face them. Some of them are good, and they bring me joy, peace, a smile on my face. They are those I can call whenever I feel a bit down, or overwhelmed. Others are darker, and require my attention to recognize them, welcome them (they are my memories, they are home), extract the lesson I learned from them, as they made me grow, without any doubt. Then I accept them as my own, and let them go.

I know that when I am confronted to challenges, these memories will remind me how I dealt with past experiences, how I lived through them, and how I went out of them. They are past. I am here, standing strong. They brought me what I needed in terms of experience and feedback. Now they bring me the wisdom I need to be able to face whatever comes my way.

The most difficult task to accomplish in self reflection is to be non judgemental. These memories are ours, these emotions were ours, with lived these experiences in our flesh. But they are not what we live now, what we feel now, what we experience now. They are lessons, they are knowledge we can reach whenever we need them. They are the comfort we can find whenever needed. They are part of us, and we are the only ones able to make them surface when required, to learn from them and grow.

Sometimes, one of them jump to the surface while not requested and require our whole attention. Flashbacks, shivers, they can feel really uncomfortable. There are those we didn’t deal with till now, those that may be too traumatic, or too intense, those we needed time to process. But if they jump in your mind, it’s probably because now is the time to face them and to accept them as they are, not bad memories, not bad experiences, but things we lived, things that made us who we are, things that we can let go, as they don’t exist anymore. I still have flashbacks on the last weeks of my daughter, Emma, and they still bring me tears, but I know that with time, they are less and less painful. I can’t always spend the time to analyze them with a clear mind, but if I can, I just close my eyes, let the memory come, let it tell me all it has to tell me, let the pain express itself, recognize its truth, admit to have lived it, then let the pain go. It was true then, I don’t need to feel it now, at I am not living this truth anymore. I moved on, I went back on my own personal path, I changed, I lived other things since then… I let it go. It can’t hurt me anymore, I accepted it as mine. Then, when and if it comes back, I just whisper, « I know what you want to tell me, yes it was really painful, but I made peace with that part of my story, I acknowledged it, I accepted it. But I don’t need you anymore. But, yes, it was a very painful time, and it changed me. Thank you to show me how far I grew after that experience. » I don’t deny it, I don’t refuse to remember. I just don’t accept to hurt as bad as I did. Because I am not living it anymore. I am drinking a tea, peacefully, at home. I am grounded in my reality.

The magic of self reflection is that you don’t have to only deal with sad, traumatic memories. You can also choose to check on those times of happiness, and let them cheer you up.

The card

When I think about self reflection, I visualize a pool filled with deep water. This time, I went far outside my comfort zone, and I ended up tracing it, after 2 days of dead ends. I had this in my mind, I couldn’t draw anything else, this is what I needed… I learned a lot into the process, and I guess I really didn’t go for the easiest path, but it was such a good experience to live, I don’t regret it. So this pol it was. When I think about self reflection, I also imagine my memories as pictures lying at the bottom of the pool, emerging now and then, when I call them. I also imagine myself looking into the water, seeing my own reflection and learning from it. It’s a very intimate time, and I wanted to express the secret and sacred time it can be if we allow it to be. And in the grove, everything is about our personal magic, so I had to let it show. There is something magical in the fact to be able to reach something that no longer exist if not within ourselves. Our memories, the lessons they taught us, the path they had made us take. The wisdom they hold. If this is not magic, I don’t know what is. We can draw into them each time we desire and they sometimes surface to warn us, or to comfort us. This, my friends, is magic.

So this week, dive into your own personal pool within, look into it, learn from it, remember, enjoy, find yourself.

My journey

Our journal

Our cards and stickers

And that’s it for now. I wish you a soft and peaceful week.