A Blog?

"Don't shrink.  Don't puff up.  Stand on your sacred ground."  -Brene Brown

I've been thinking about doing a blog for awhile.  But I have struggled with the tension between feeling like I have something to say and feeling narcissistic.  But I am reading a book from Brene Brown called "The Gifts of Imperfection."  And it is rocking my world.  Paraphrasing extremely, she talks about how the idea of needing to be seen as strong, perfect and not vulnerable leads us to a life where we're not living a life full of love, belonging, connection and compassion.  She uses big scary words like "shame" and "perfectionism" to explore what gets in the way of getting those things.  While I think I've explored and improved in my quest not to be a perfectionist (I like to consider myself a "good enoughist"), I still worry way too much about what others think rather than what my soul really longs for. 

So I'm going to do this blog--part as a way to discover what I really feel.  Part as a spiritual practice to put something out there and risk you not liking it (and feeling confident in my perspectives anyway) and part as a way to connect with others who may be on their own journeys. 

Many years ago I was in a special group that studied Starhawk's Twelve Wild Swans.  Starhawk had an exercise related to the quote above.  She had us imagine several states: deflated self (which is the Shrinking state), inflated self (which is the Puff up) and Core Self (which is the self that I equate to being closest to your core spirit).  The quote above takes me back to that and is going to be my mantra for staying grounded in blog world.  Don't shrink.  Don't puff up.  Stand on your sacred ground.