Forgiveness is a pathway.

Last night a lovely little soul reminded me forgiveness, towards yourself, is a form of self-compassion!

I 'knew' this in a cognitive sense, like in my brain - but I felt this gentle wave of lightness across my chest when I realised I'd been practicing self-compassion by constantly forgiving myself. Go me!

What do I mean by this? I've been feeling the sads lately, some big feelings and reflections have been coming up for me and I didn't know how to deal with them, especially all at once! Add some family drama, body pain and hormonal stuff and bubble, bubble toil and trouble - overwhelm sets in.

My age-old stress response is to sleep, which I can frame in oh so many ways...avoidance, exhaustion, the most well worn neural pathway when I feel overwhelmed...I can feel my shoulders rising as I even type this out...which leads me to how our body stores it all...again I feel like we all 'know' this on some level, but how often do we listen to it? how often do we listen to it AND do something about it?

Working at Tongue and Tonic for 5 + years, I've seen so many lovely souls come through the doors on their path to healing. It's inspirational, each and every single time I see it. It's inspired me, and I continue to learn - as I am right now.

I recently had my first one on one client for a yoga/somatic session - it was magical. She was so open, vulnerable and trusting, it gave me the unspoken permission to be the same.

I understand this as our nervous systems also mirroring each other, we were in sync. It allowed us to go deep. To bypass a lot of the brain-based ways of thinking I could have accessed and instead lead with intuition...I'd consulted some of the other practitioners working with her so had an inkling which poses might give her an inner sense of stability, power and strength, helping to clear energetic blockages and build a foundation of support from the inside out.

We came up with a sequence of shapes/poses that she felt she could do and look forward to in the mornings. As well as some mantras to repeat to herself, and some movements that would down regulate her nervous system\\ I repeated that it was about listening to her body rather than forcing herself to just move through the shapes...again, the theme arises - I could see that she 'knew' this but I could also see how much she wanted to 'heal' so I wanted to encourage her to remember gentleness and looking inward. During our time together, we both cried, shared with each other and discovered newness that often happens in co-creation.

I remind myself it is a practice, forgiveness, and something you need to tell yourself over and over again, to move forward, to soothe, to accept. Forgiveness is a pathway to becoming more whole. And perhaps a pathway to so many other beautiful things. 

I'm so thankful for being able to work with people on this level. If it's something you're interested in, please reach out. xo

The Writer.

Vicky.

Art Therapist, Somatic Movement Guide, Yoga Teacher, Jeweler, Artist + Self-Forgiver.