My Healing Manifesto
I love manifestos. My favorite ones include the Holstee Manifesto and Sark's Being a Succulent Wild Woman. I like to think of manifestos as guide posts for the courageous journey of coming home to ourselves. After years of holding space for women, I have come to value the following guide posts.
Karina Maria's Healing Manifesto:
Mindfulness is medicine. This moment. This breath. This tight tummy.They are all portals to greater intimacy with yourself and the world around you. BE HERE NOW. This very moment is all you have, and it is full of loving potential.
Your body speaks. Your body is infinitely wise. By slowing down and learning to listen to the body's messages, you can discover a radically new way of connecting to your life and intuitive knowings.
Self-attachment is the way to a joy-ful you. Most of us learned to judge and abandon ourselves at an early age. Those days are over. The extent to which you can connect to and accept yourself (yes, even those parts that are really difficult to love) is the extent to which you can connect to your life and others.
Your inner work benefits every-body. Doing your work is not self-indulgent nor "selfish". On the contrary, the way to healing the world around you is through healing yourself first. When you gift yourself this gift, every-body benefits from your presence. In Marianne Williamson's words, "as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same".
There is nothing wrong with you. I believe in the basic goodness you possess and the innate brilliance that has allowed you to go through everything you have to be here today. The parts of you that cause you suffering want to feel supported and be seen. Transforming shameful perceptions and patterns into love is a cornerstone of this work.
Your emotions are longing to be felt. Emotions are energy that wants to move. As big and scary as your emotions may seem, by turning toward them in a supported and mindful way and giving them loving attention, you can free yourself from a life full of constriction, avoidance and pain.
Vulnerability pays off. Vulnerability. That excruciating sensation of feeling raw and naked as you are seen in your uncertainty and emotional exposure. Often, you want to avoid it at all costs and yet research shows that when you allow yourself to be vulnerable your capacity to belong, love and empathize significantly increase. It is through the discomfort of being cracked open that you can re-awaken to a new way of being where authenticity and freedom lead the way. In Dr. Brene Brown’s words, “Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, accountability, and authenticity.”