Hey Girlfriends,
How are you? What is your life like, right now?
It’s so interesting when someone asks me, “How are you?”
I wonder,
“Which answer do I give?”
And it’s not about giving ‘the real one’ or ‘the easy one.’
Sometimes, it’s about giving the full one, that shares the expanse of what it’s like to live in my shoes
or
to give the ‘right now, in-this-moment’ answer?
Or, you know, some combination of the two.
How do we answer with self-honesty, so we can let people in while we’re still answering with self-empowerment so we can lift ourselves high?
And why does it matter anyway?
Because, the fact that the body has chosen the thyroid to attack is a signpost to the 5th chakra, where the throat is.
And self-expression
and self-representation
lives.
It’s the place where many of us may have had to remain silent when we saw abuse in our home or were abused ourselves.
It’s the place where
when we spoke our truth
we were rejected and told
in some form or fashion
to “come in line.”
It’s the place where when we got that lump in our throat and wanted to burst into tears someone told us, “You can’t! And you won’t!”
And we learned to not tell, to not speak and to not cry
“or else.”
Then, all these years after that, we lived in the ‘or else.’
Just not the one that was outside of us that threatened us but the one inside of us where our body had its own terms and limits
and because we didn’t take care of ourselves to tell, speak or cry our truth
Our body raised the little white flag and said, “Enough.”
That was the real ‘or else’ that no one who threatened us told us about:
That the holding in the words and the tears weren’t going to save them. Holding in the words and the tears we’re going to do undo us.
So, now we’re left with the job of undoing our undone-ness.
That means, girlfriends, We need to learn finally and again how to speak our peace to tell our truth to cry our tears
so that we can get what’s in out and we can be at peace with who we are even if someone in our life isn’t.
It may not start with a big, hairy conversation. It may not begin with a tell-all book. It may not begin with a cry that could flood the world.
It might just begin with a simple question from someone who stops to say, “Hi.” And then, pauses to ask,
“How are you?”
The practice we have is to be who we are and to live at peace with the wonderful soul within.
It takes time and it takes love.
Be sure to give yourself both.
Love someone today and let it be you.
Love you, girlfriends.
Love YOU,
Stacey Robbins Author of “You’re Not Crazy and You’re Not Alone” and Creator of The Girlfriends’ Guide to Hashimoto’s Course