Category: Life

Inspiration, Life

Nature’s Healing Gifts

Erin Keane

When we take the time to see nature around us, we can learn deep truths about life. I live in the Northeast. The changes in the weather from one day to the next is a complete mystery this year….You never know what the day may bring. This can be true in our life too…we may wake up and expect the day to be one way, and it brings something completely different or unexpected. But when this happens, we have the choice to embrace the opportunity to be inspired by the experience or we can choose to completely miss it. This morning, I looked out my doorstep and saw this image in nature speaking to me.

This image is ironic in some ways. It’s the image of snow embracing a plant that has died for the season, against the backdrop of new life ‘springing forth.’ Walking out my door I could have just seen the snow, and the decaying plant, but instead, the green…the image of inspiration, and HOPE, caught my eye, and thus, changed the way I woke up to my day.

I felt

HOPE: New beginnings are just around the corner, for each of us, if we just open our eyes and take the time to look for them.

INSPIRATION: if nature can break through the winter and live, then we can break through those things that hold us back and LIVE our lives!

My invitation to you:

1.Take some time today to pause and look at life around you.

2. Note what you see.

3. Let yourself feel the inspiration within you.

4. Put the inspiration into your day and see where it leads you.

5. Write down what inspired you and where it lead you.

 

Blessings on your day!

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue

©Bella Bleue Healing™ All Rights Reserved.
Please also visit my photography site: Photography by Bella Bleue.

See my Facebook page for daily inspirations and messages.

Healing, Life

Taking time to Reflect & Heal

Erin Keane

How often do you give yourself the permission to reflect on your life? How does this time for reflection effect your well-being?

These last couple weeks I’ve been needing some time to just sit back and be a part of life, rather than trying to push life in the direction I want it to go in. Allowing myself to be fully present in my life (accepting life as it is in a moment rather than trying to change people, things etc.) has been very healing. So often we hear how important it is to be proactive about our lives,to take action, to be intentional about the change we want to see in our lives. So I decided to be intentional about bring present in my life. I have been able to reflect, pray, and be fully present in the moments of my life instead of being distracted. As a result I’m appreciating more deeply the blessings I have in my life like my health, my son, my husband, my friends and family, and my spiritual life. This deeper and more intentional presence in my life is allowing me to feel happier, to not be as frustrated, and to be appreciative of my life.

This has been a much needed break for me. I often get angry and frustrated when life seems to be pushing or pulling me in directions I don’t want to go in. And feeling angry takes away from my happiness and diminishes my relationships. Therefore by shifting my focus and by being reflective and calm I have been able to reconnect to my feelings of happiness, and a sense of goodness in my life again.

I am also reading daily spiritual writings that invite me to intentionally reflect, and thus keep my focus on the positive instead of the negative. This has been my saving grace in so many ways because it grounds me back to where my heart and mind most naturally live: in a place of love rather than a place of disconnect.

And a big reminder that has resurfaced in my time of reflection: just be patient, the right answers, the right path will always be shown when the time is right…

20130221-211738.jpg

How about you? How does taking the time to be reflective enhance your life?

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue

©Bella Bleue Healing™ All Rights Reserved.
Please also visit my photography site: Photography by Bella Bleue.

See my Facebook page for daily inspirations and messages.

Healing, Inspiration, Life

Getting in Your Own Way: Missing out on Love

Erin Keane

“Who holds you?”

This has been one of the most powerful questions I have ever been asked.(I was in my spirituality residency [chaplaincy] at the hospital, and my supervisor asked me this as a reflection question). I was stunned that as I tried to respond, I began to cry. It was the kind of cry, where you have to work really hard to get yourself together. My tears seemed to be the only answer I could give, because I honestly didn’t know how to answer the question at all. After I left our meeting, I reflected some more, and I still couldn’t put my finger on it. Why was I feeling so broken, so confused by this question?

I did the natural thing for me: Evaluate my feelings…figure out where they stemmed from…what was the reason for my tears? I even sort of fought with myself internally about my tears: I know I am loved. I come from a family that loves me. I have people around me who love me. I believe God loves me. So why then do I feel so darn empty inside, each time I try to answer this question?

This happened in 2004. Here I am 9 years later, and I still reflect on this question. The question of, “Who holds you?” for me has always meant “Who loves you?” For many years, I kept searching for what Love was supposed to be like: that perfect kind of love. But as time has gone on I realize that by searching for perfect Love, many times I’ve missed the opportunity to really embrace moments of Love in my life, because I was afraid that it wasn’t the “right” kind of love, or the way love was “supposed to be.” So I walked around life feeling empty, when Love was all around me, waiting patiently for me to let it in.

My answer to this question has changed over the years. I’ve found a peace inside myself over time…instead of trying to figure out my reaction to this question over the years, I’ve learned to  “Let it be;” i.e., trust more deeply that life will reveal its answers to me, when it is the right time.  And in many ways, I finally feel I have come to an answer that I feel to be most truthful to who I am both in my every day life and in my spiritual life. I now recognize that each time I was trying to figure out where Love was in my life,  I was actually preventing myself from experiencing it because I was searching too hard for it; i.e. I was getting in my own way of  really being able to feel “held.” Instead of searching for love in my life, I now allow myself to feel Love, to experience Love, and most importantly Love myself so that I can even more honestly share my love with others and receive love from others. In other words, I allow Love to be what it is, and not what I expect it to be. I’ve gotten out of my own way! Now I feel safe and secure with Love’s arms holding me up, with a strength that will  never break. Love is always there for me, and for you. It’s everywhere in nature, in people, in God, in the Spirit, in this amazing gift of Life, and inside you…you just need to give yourself the freedom to experience it without putting up so many walls.

How are you going to let Love into your life?

Rumi Love Quote

We all search for relationships in our lives, and deeper connections…open yourself to looking deeper within you, so that LOVE may spring forth anew for you.

You are Beloved. You are Loved.

So I leave you with my question today, “Who holds you?” 

…and just remember that whatever your answer is today, it may change again tomorrow: be gentle with yourself, offer yourself love…and your answers will come. I have faith that they will for you.

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue

©Bella Bleue Healing™ All Rights Reserved.
Please also visit my photography site: Photography by Bella Bleue

And if you use Facebook and would like daily inspirations and messages check out my page Bella Bleue Healing

Inspiration, Life

Taking Time to Reflect

Erin Keane

I took a journey over the last couple weeks to my home where I grew up. These last days, I have been soaking up the deeper meaning of who I am, my life’s journey and what I believe in [since I went on this journey].

So I have not forgotten about sharing in this journey with you. I have found myself needing more time to reflect, which has taken the pen out of my hand, and allowed me to pause. Soon I will write more.

How are you today? Where has life taken you over these last 21 days?

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue
©Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Inspiration for Your Life™ All Rights Reserved.
Please also visit my photography site: Photography by Bella Bleue

And a special Blessing to all those who have been effected by Hurricane Sandy.

Healing, Inspiration, Life

Inner Strength

Erin Keane

Do we all have inner strength within us, no matter what we’ve been through in life? Or is inner strength something we have to develop?

What do you think? 

These two questions were brought to my attention after my post last week.

And, I replied:

I believe we all have inner strength within us…each time we have survived we have because of a longing to live, which is strength to me. I also believe that we become stronger as we go forward…and by going forward I mean we choose to live and not give up…and although we may not recognize the strength we have in ourselves as we go through the challenge we are facing, when the time is right we can begin to learn more about ourselves, and by learning more about ourselves we hopefully lean to love ourselves deeper, which also allows that inner strength to be stronger.

When I was 6 years old, my life changed suddenly. I changed from a healthy little girl, who was swimming state times in the pool, to a little girl who couldn’t crawl down the hallway. I was blessed to survive and recover from all that happened to my little body as a result of a horrible infection. But that illness changed who I was, and transformed me into who I am now. There were days when I would look at photos of myself before my illness, and wonder what my life would have been like if I never had been ill. That wondering, diminished my self worth; i.e., it took away from my ability to find meaning and enjoyment in my present life—we easily can take strength away from ourselves when we diminish our self worth.  But then I would walk away from the photo, and I would go about my day.  I wanted to LIVE, and that desire was stronger than any other. And nothing was going to get in my way to survive.  So even at 6 years old, I discovered that I had an amazing inner strength. And as I began to Live my life the way it was after my illness I began to recognize and accept that my life wasn’t split in two:  I was being unfair to myself to say, “if only” I hadn’t been sick then who would I have been? Instead, because I chose to Live, I had to recognize that  the experience of my illness is a part of my life and my story. The person I am today is who I am meant to be. And each day, I learn more about who I am. This is STRENGTH.

Being able to say, ” I am me. I am who I am meant to be today,” is STRENGTH.  And each day, that you remember this, and make this a part of your daily belief, You grow STRONGER.  Each and every one of us, grows STRONGER when we trust in ourselves.  And trusting in yourself becomes even STRONGER when you realize that you are where you need to be in life, But,  if you are uncomfortable where you are [within] yourself, then you need to make a change. And even recognizing this need for change, is STRENGTH.

  How about you? What makes you feel STRONGER or allows you to celebrate and care for your own Inner Strength? 

Your life is a GIFT. No matter what befalls you, if you choose to LIVE, you will always be STRONG, because you are giving yourself permission to survive, and this inner strength,  will grow stronger, the more you celebrate your life, and let go of the  “if only.”

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue
©Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Inspiration for Your Life™ All rights reserved.

Please also visit my photography site: Photography by Bella Bleue.

Discovering Strength, Inspiration, Life

Life’s Unexpected Travels

Erin Keane

Lately, I’ve been needing to remind myself that some of the turns and twists that I am faced with in life, are not just to fault me, or disrupt my feeling of balance. But these twists and turns are an invitation to discover something else about myself…

How do you make sense of unexpected disruptions in your life?

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue
©Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Inspiration for Your Life™ All Rights Reserved.
Please also visit my photography site: Photography by Bella Bleue

Inspiration, Life

Being Playful is Essential to Our Humanity

Erin Keane

Children running around at a city fountain. Laughter everywhere. Cameras flashing.  Water spraying. Horns honking. Music playing in the air.

I am always awe-struck at how much I learn about myself, and what it means to be human when I’m watching my son  run around and play. I think part of the reason we were made, is to simply have fun. There’s something very invigorating and inviting about being spontaneously playful—like running through a fountain just because it’s there. This playfulness seems to awaken our bodies and fill them with life. Maybe it’s the surge of energy running through our veins, or the positive endorphins that ignite playful cheer in our cells that makes us feel alive.  But I’d like to think it’s more simple than all that: You feel alive because being playful is a part of what makes you fully human!

This is a good reminder that life needs to be fun..and to get there, you should return to the roots of your early days. Return to the freedom of being a child; return to the spontaneity and worry-free mind-state of your younger self—the one who sees splashing water as an invitation for being playful, for laughing, and for freeing your spirit.

Let go of the worry, the responsibility, and the pressure you put on yourself to be a certain way, and instead just be.
Be free.
Be human.
Be YOU.
And run through a sprinkler…

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue
©Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Invitation for Your Life™

Please visit my new site: Photography by Bella Bleue

Discovering Strength, Life

A Prayer for Healing Your Sorrow During A Tragedy

Erin Keane

When tragedy finds its way into our lives, we need to mourn, and to reconnect to LOVE.

In the midst of sorrow

I breathe,
I take a breath,
I open myself
and receive gratitude that moves within me
for Life,
Life that I live,
for all Life

I breathe
trusting in the ability for redemption
for a newness
a gentle awakening,
that surfaces within me,
and within the deeper parts of individual souls,

believing,
having faith,
that LOVE is
still the greater force,
that prayer is heard and answered
that no one is truly alone in this world,
and that healing is always possible
even when brokenness seems to be king.

For it is in breathing in
this faith,
this trust in LOVE:
that what is good will conquer,
and that when there is pain,
that the LOVE and prayers of many
will be the powerful force, and energy
throughout Life
that transforms hurt into healing
always,
every time,
somehow.

 

Grief and healing are an every day journey…there is no set date and time that they have to be completed. Take all the time you need.

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue
©Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Inspiration for Your Life™ All Rights Reserved.

 

Connecting to the wonder we are, Life

When Love Hurts: Keep on Loving and Living Anyway

Erin Keane

It’s inevitable that love and pain will dance together in our lives, no matter how hard we try to keep them apart.

A really beautiful woman, who I have been blessed to have in my life, now has Stage 4 Cancer. She  is a woman “full of grace” and absolutely amazing.  She is a warrior queen who rages against her battle with a softness and love for life, that breaks all boundaries of the kingdom of the “Big C,” and day by day she gently and powerfully conquers with another day of living life.  She often dresses up with a colorful scarf atop her head, that draws out the beautiful colors of her eyes, that sparkle every time she smiles. She reminds me that every day life is worth smiling about, even when it really sucks. And even more importantly, she has taught me: that even when life seems like it is trying to close its door on you, keep reaching out in open arms and gently say to it, “I’m still here. And I’m ready to receive you and accept you, even if what you are placing in front of me is not what I want because I WANT TO LIVE.”

And this is why Love and pain will always dance together. They dance together in this deeply real image of  my beautiful friend (our beautiful friends) moving in perfect rhythm to the music of life, while death keeps stepping on her toes and throwing her off balance every once in a while until it wins [in the literal sense]. It’s the deeper reality for those of us watching this happen: that at times Love Really Hurts.

Loving my friend brings with it a deep hurt: I know deep down inside that she is going to die: there will be an emptiness inside me when she is gone, and it hurts right now because her inevitable death seems so unfair because she is so good and she wants to keep LIVING.

And because I love her,  deep down inside my heart is that painful question of,”WHY?”

“Why if she is soooo good, and sooo loved, does she need to suffer? Why did she have to get sick? Why does she have to die at such a young age? Why….and the questions keep coming.

I know that I can answer these questions in a very spiritual manner…and connect to an understanding of spiritual, emotional and bodily suffering as a part of life, and a Creator and the Beloved who suffers with me, with her… and at times brings me great comfort…

But…that’s an answer that may only fulfill me, or still may not be enough…

And so I look deep inside myself and I feel it…and I listen to it. The sadness deep in my heart. The part of me that feels the grief. The inevitable knowing that one day, she won’t be here. The anticipatory awareness that others too are going to hurt. In other words, the parts of me that Love her. The parts of me that are LOVE.

And then the tears come slowly, but deeply. And then the quiet sobs, that make you hold your breath, because your body just hurts too much.

Then you get yourself back together. And you put your feet back down on the solid ground below you, and you move forward again.

And you remind yourself. She’s not dead yet. She’s still here.  And that she’s living life. And you’ve got to do the exact same thing: LIVE.

And the question is no longer Why, but HOW.

As I return to Love as a powerful force for living rather than for pain, I am able to learn from my friend. She is teaching me how to live my life by the way she shares  her love and welcomes and receives my love; and she teaches me to love life more fully by the way that she lives…

LIVING:

  • Embracing your own fragility,
  •  Being comfortable with questions that don’t have the perfect answer, or maybe even an answer at all.
  • Breathing & Smiling even when life gives you a hurricane when all you asked for was a little rain
  • Loving yourself even when your body is failing you
  • Loving others even when death is knocking on their door
  • Letting your body, mind and spirit weep from the pain with a good cry every once in a while
  • Connecting to your spiritual roots, and allowing them to nourish your spirit
  • Seeking out others to accompany on their journey, and inviting others to accompany you on your journey too

What would you add?

And Living and Loving is what makes you more fully YOU: When you LOVE: and allow all that is LOVE to touch your life, then you LIVE, and by LIVING a deeper more meaningful life—one that doesn’t stop loving because of fear of the pain—you become more fully who you truly are: you become more fully and deeply human.

—This is what I realize now that I have been able to step back from the pain, and going forward can embrace the beautiful reality of how my friend celebrates life through her ability to Love  Life and all that it is.

Below is the message I wrote to my beautiful friend, that I want to share with you.

*

May you always be blessed to know LOVE and to become more fully yourself each and every day by giving yourself the gift of Living life.

Blessings Always, Erin, Bella Bleue
©Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Inspiration for Your Life™ All Rights Reserved.

* If any of you would ever like me to write something for someone you love, or even for yourself with one of my images, I would always be honored.

Health, Life

Creating a Healthy Life

Erin Keane

So one of the formulas for living Healthy:  

Live in the Moment: In the Here and Now and 

1.) Let wisdom guide you:

  • choosing those things in your life that are right, just and true because these choices will lead you to have deeper more meaningful relationships with others;
  • and  you will have less worry about the future because you know you are living life the best way you able to.from moment to moment

2.) Lead your life with your heart and mind:

  • living life the best way you can comes from deep within you. When you choose to be intentional about allowing wisdom to guide you, you are connecting to the deep truths about who you are as a human being.
  • Thus, you are not denying who you are, and therefore you become healthy in your daily life.

If we are not able to be healthy within ourselves then no diet, doctor, medicine etc. will be able to really help us.

And thus, the challenge is to really deeply love yourself,

and by doing so, nothing else at any given moment, will have the power to take You away from Who you are.

Look at yourself in the mirror today and know that you are BELOVED.

Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue

©Bella Bleue Healing, Health and Inspiration for Your Life ™ All Rights Reserved.

*Post originally published March 2012