Tag Archives: Self-Love

Loving Revelation: Being positive in the midst of cynicism

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So when I took the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment a few years back, one of my top 5 strengths was Positivity…which is, of course, a no-brainer for those who know me and/or even loosely follow my posts.

And I LOVE this strength–it is the essence of my enthusiasm, my authentic ability to see the good in all people and circumstances, my sense of humor and my ability to buoy the spirits of those around me…

What’s hard about it, though, is that I also wear my heart on my sleeve, and I can feel like a big, shiny target for (what I experience as) bubble-bursting cynics. And as much as it seems like “you can’t bring this girl down,” believe me, you can. And for what good reason?

My positivity can look like naivete to folks who don’t see life through the same lens, and I get that people might be trying to save me from disappointment or from some harsh future reality through “bringing me down to earth” or inserting what they think is reality into my experience, and yet, my reality has never colored the world as harsh and I like the life I’m creating. Life only ever feels harsh when I meet people who try to convince me that I’m going to soon discover that life is harsh. And as much as they might think that they’re sparing me from some nameless bad thing in my future…It just hurts me in the here and now…and then I have to do mental and emotional backtracking to get back to what’s true FOR ME.

One of the things it says in the StrengthsFinder assessment for people who have this strength is to choose not to hang around negative or cynical people because they drain me and bring me down…which is true. And I wish it were so simple to just “not hang around them,” and the reality of life, and especially of my life in meeting all new people, right now, is that I can’t avoid them all. I just wish it didn’t make me feel hurt and icky and less somehow when I encounter people trying to give me a “dose of reality.” In all of my capacity to rise above, to not take on other people’s stuff…I’ve not mastered this one. I’m so mutable and good at trying on other’s perspectives that I can lose my sense of what feels good for me in these kinds of interactions.

And I know those people will keep coming…especially as I’ve moved to a big city where people are trying to make dreams happen, and so many people seem to have a say on the right and wrong way to do that…and all I’m left with, right now is perhaps strengthening my ability to say, “Thanks for your perspective and my experience of life has been different…and I like my view.”

I may have just arrived in NYC 2 weeks ago, but I’ve been alive for 32 years and I haven’t lived in a vacuum. So far my life experience has said that no matter where I am, I get back 10-fold what I give…and what I want exists. And that’s the world I continue to choose–whether I’m in NYC, or Bangkok, or Monona, WI.

Sorry if this seems a little ranty–just feeling a little tender and drained tonight. I welcome your perspective, dear hearts.

(And, I also invite you to notice in your own life when you might burst someone’s bubble for the sake of being right…and assess: Is it really worth it?) xo

:)Melissa

©2014 Melissa Simonson

Love Revelation: Beauty = Home

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flowersAlter

For me, beauty = home.

Tuning in and giving myself what I need = home.

Cherishing myself through cherishing my space = home.

Going for walks and breathing in the crisp air = home.

Reaching out in kindness and creating friendship with strangers = home.

As it turns out, I’m quite good at carrying “home” with me, no matter where I am. And the lavender & vetiver aroma wafting from the lovely candle that I purchased at Whole Foods is certainly helping, too. 

©2014 Melissa Simonson

Coming home to ourselves…

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Yesterday, as I was connecting with a client, we were reflecting on the experience of “home” in light of my recent move to Brooklyn. She said something really powerful (my clients are brilliant): “I think all of us are just searching for that sense of home in our own way.” The search for clarity, for confidence, to “get it right,” to know why we’re here, etc…these are all just different ways of searching for the experience of being at home in our own skin.

And it hit me: This is what I provide through The Soul-Mapping Journey. I unveil the map of your core essence, I connect you to your inner truth, I guide you home to yourself. And what does it feel like when you come home? It feels like clarity. Like freedom. Like comfort. Like acceptance. It feels like “there is nothing wrong here”…because there isn’t, of course.

Through the Soul-Mapping Journey, my clients come home to everything that matters to them, to what lights them up, and they see clearly, the pieces that have been missing for them, they gain access to new paths to create the fulfilling lives that they are longing for.

When we feel at home in our own skin, we naturally become generous with our love, and life takes a quantum leap. Obstacles turn into opportunities. We create and call forth what we want with ease. Life just flows because we are in flow.

And so, as I navigate this next chapter in my own growth journey, I am acutely aware that even in this new place, I am naturally easing into a sense of home because I am living out the YES inside of my soul.

And I want to create the opportunity for you to have this sense of home wherever you go or whatever dreams you wish to pursue, too. Between now and March 31st, the Soul-Mapping Journey is available at 50% of it’s valued worth through my GoFundMe project. As I ease into this next chapter of my life, I want to make it really easy for you to do the same. Let’s come home together, shall we?

http://www.gofundme.com/MelissaNYCJourney

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If you want to explore and uncover what might be available for you through embarking with me on The Soul-Mapping Journey, I offer a FREE Discovery Session to explore whether or not the program is a right fit for you. In this session you will receive:

– Clarity around your core needs & longings, right now

– Clarity around how you can meet those core needs & longings

– An unleashed desire to pursue your passions

– Unconditional love & acceptance for who you are and where you are in your life

– Full access to tools that you can use to create a life that you love

That’s a lot of deliciousness, no?

Private message me with your request to schedule your free sesh and I will send you my calendar so that we can get that schedule.

https://melissasimonson.com/index.php/soul-mapping/

xo,

:)Melissa

©2014 Melissa Simonson

“I may not know what aisle the bread is in, but I can transform lives!”

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Funny statement of the afternoon, while in a phone session with a client: (Me to my client) “I may not know what aisle the bread is in, but I can transform lives!”

As I relish moments of feeling comfortable in my new city, and feel like it is taking all that I have just to meet basic needs day-to-day as every moment is a new discovery, I find that when I am doing my work, when I am holding sacred space for my clients as healer, freedom catalyst, and a beacon of radical self-love I am HOME.

When I am living in alignment with the call of my soul, when I am acting on what REALLY matters to me in my heart, I am HOME.

As I bring others home to the truth of who they are, I come home to myself.

I’m so grateful for this awareness today.

©2014 Melissa Simonson

Love Revelation: Listening for “home”

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It is a weird and uncomfortable experience to not have a clear sense of “home.” Today marks my 2nd full day in Brooklyn and Yesterday’s big accomplishments included finding a local grocery that I like so that I could actually have food at home, picking up odds and ends for daily living…I’m of course, already noticing the things that I forgot to bring, the items that I had no idea would be essential in this new space. And, oh, I didn’t get lost yesterday, which was cool. 

The emotional experience, right now is one of total ungroundedness, searching for center, for the SENSE of home. I find it and create it in little moments and then it’s gone again, to then, rediscover it in another moment. Lavender essential oil filling my room, time spent with my journal, watching a favorite TV show online and reading before bed, nourishing food, my favorite lotion, creating order in my new space. There is a deep need to find and create the familiar within this completely unfamiliar place. I feel invisible and disconnected from who I am, what matters to me, what I want, what I need. And yet, the preciousness of this time is that I get to rediscover and perhaps discover for the first time, the answer to these essential questions.

My main inspiration, right now, lies in creating and relishing in beauty. Nourishing my body with movement and good food. Making my space pretty. Creating a sense of grounded spaciousness with lovely smells. Creating softness and lightness in my experience.

There are powerful fears lurking beneath the surface that I’ll get stuck and consumed by a mode of survival, that I will lose sight of who I am, that I’ll forget and disappear somehow, that I won’t accomplish what matters to me in my heart…and my inner Wise Woman is smiling at me as she reminds me I’ve only been here for 2 days. Now is not the time to climb mountains, it is time to rest in the valley, to gather up strength, to listen within for what is “home” and then to lean into those experiences with all of my heart. That sense of home will guide me, will pull to exactly who, what and where I need to be.

And so I honor my fear for not letting me forget that I am a leader feeling called to accomplish big, loving things in the months and years ahead. And for now, I bring myself back to the here and now, I meet myself with gentleness and patience and ease, and I listen and follow the voice of home that lives in my belly and my bones.

And as I write these words while listening deeply to my inner landscape, I hear a soft whisper telling me that magic awaits, and I am smiling, tears glistening in my eyes.

xo Melissa

P.S. Feel inspired to support my soul journey to NYC while claiming AMAZING rewards–like the opportunity to be supported by me through your own transformation at kickass discount prices? Visit: http://www.gofundme.com/MelissaNYCJourney to learn more!

©2014 Melissa Simonson