Thank you for your beautiful beauty,
For the light that shines through your very being
Thank you for your wisdom
For your inner strength that propels life forward
because you touch this world with the gift of you.
Thank you for all that you are
and all you are yet to become.
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.
What changed in your life to help you heal? How do you continue to offer yourself the gift of healing each day of your life?
One of the main reasons I began writing this blog, was to heal from my postpartum depression, and to find a source of fulfillment outside of being a new stay-at-home mom. I notice that many of us who write do so for healing, and purpose in our lives. It is amazing how now, our thoughts can be shared with thousands, even millions in seconds, whereas, in the past you would have had to hope someone would want to accept your manuscript for publishing.
Thank you to all of you who have shared in this journey with me, and offered your support, your comments, and just being you.
This past year has challenged me to look deep within myself and discover more fully who I am, just as me, and it has been quite a wonderful experience. I’ve learned more deeply how important my spiritual life is, how much I love to love and be loved, how much I feel blessed to be a mother and wife, and how it is truly a gift to share the gift of healing with others, and in return receive healing.
Since I often find it challenging to sit down and write, with a three-and-a-half year old always by my side, I have enjoyed writing on my Facebook page and sharing brief messages with those who stop by. I want to share some of them with you because they are a great source of my healing, my heart, and my hopes for you & for me.
May you be blessed today and always!
Spending time with those who love you, and who you love opens your life for powerful healing, and pure experiences of joy. May you be blessed with love in your life.
____________________________________________________
Today is a new day!
It’s the start of a new week!
Your life can begin renewed when you choose to show yourself and others the gift of forgiveness;
when you choose to allow healing to bless your life;
when you choose to have a good day no matter where your path takes you.____________________________________________________
Snow is blowing and falling here, winter storm Nemo. But within my heart and body I am calm. Embracing this inner calm grounds me when my world is in chaos.We all need to try to find ways to be centered and calm when life throws us a storm–whatever we can’t control outside ourselves. Because we do have the ability to control how we feel and react to the outside world.
May you be blessed with calm in your mind, body & spirit today and always.
____________________________________________________
Grateful today for the gift of the human spirit, that has the courage and strength to move forward even after faced with difficulties or challenges.
You have an incredible ability to heal, and move forward along your journey.
____________________________________________________
Blessings come in all shapes and sizes, some are expected, some unexpected. Keep your eyes, your heart and your ears open, so that you may receive blessings throughout your day.
May your day be blessed with joy ♥ Bella Bleue
and one of my favorites:
What has helped you heal? I would love to hear your experiences or what kinds of rituals, or sources you use to offer yourself healing. Your wisdom is a marvelous and wonderous gift…
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.
So often we hear the statement, “Just have faith!” or the question, “Why do you have so little faith in me?” In every day conversation we may talk with others about what we believe. Or we may discuss what faith means. But how often do you take the time to really reflect on your experience of faith and feel faith alive within your body?
I’ve been reflecting on what faith feels like for me lately. I’ve been needing to connect to faith that is not just talked about, but felt within. For me faith that is really deeply felt is faith that is real. It is a tangible gift, that I can turn to whenever I need to, where ever I am, no matter what is happening in my life. It’s the kind of faith that is not just felt in my mind, but in my body. And because it is within my body, and because there is nothing more real than than what I experience through my body;I know that my faith is real.
When we are yearning for something good in our lives, something we can trust in, something we believe has benevolence and love for us, it can only fill us with hope. This faith fills our inner being with a desire to be connected to that which we feel desires good for us, and that will care for us. In other words, believing in the Spirit, the Divine, human goodness, etc. changes the way we feel within ourselves. Once we are in relationship with this Benevolence we become transformed within our very being.
For me, faith fills my heart with love. The kind of love that makes your heart soar to depths beyond you. My body feels transcended to the tops of the mountains where I become closer to all that is beyond me and at the same time my feet are on flat ground where I can bend down and touch the petals of the tiniest flower and their softness between my fingers keeps me grounded here on earth. This softness on my fingers travels throughout my being, and puts my body and mind at ease. The wind on the mountain top fills my breath with peace, and invites my arms to open wide, so that I might receive all that is being offered. I am in relationship with the Divine.
What does your experience of faith feel like for you?
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.
“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?
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
Yesterday, afternoon, my son and I were visiting a friend and her daughter. The children played and we talked about the challenges of being parents, and how hard Life can be when we love our children so deeply. We had no idea about anything that was happening in Newtown, CT, as we discussed the challenges of life. Life was happening right where we were, and yet LIFE was also happening only a couple hours away from our home.
As we went about our visit, we engaged our children, resolving conflicts and teaching them how to acknowledge each other’s feelings, especially when they hurt the other child’s feelings. Sometimes the children freely went up to the other to say I’m sorry, other times they resisted feeling they had a right to defend themselves. And yet, through it all we offered them our LOVE, in the very best way we knew how…accepting and receiving both children as beloved, beautiful, and whole…we affirmed them, redirected them, challenged them, we mirrored empathy and compassion for the other, as well as for self. Both my friend and I, acted out of LOVE for our children, and for each other’s child as Sacred, Beautiful, and Whole.
After we said our good-byes my son and I got into our car, and turned on the radio, and then we began to hear The News. But none of the radio stations mentioned what had happened. It was as though, God, was watching over me as a mom, to not know what happened as I drove, because when I took a moment to cook dinner and go on my phone to check the web, I began to sob, and the sounds of the cook vent drowned out my tears, as my son played on the floor with his cars in the other room. I would have probably had to pull off the road if I had been driving, and how would I tell my 3 year old son why mommy was crying?
Our hearts ache as parents, as people who love, as people who are deeply good. Every day, we Live, we have to work at Life. There is something about encountering the Sacred innocence of children in pain, that breaks at our souls. Its a deep hallow grief that goes to our core. This pain we feel, says something about who we are as we have been created: We were not made to be so broken. We were not made to ache the way we do. Our created selves were made to be whole, to be filled with love.
So I ask myself, deeply, as a parent, a mother, a wife, a friend, a sister, a daughter, am I loving the right way? As I engaged my child and lead him in conflict resolution, and learning to accept and love the other even when your feelings have been hurt, I wonder, am I teaching him LOVE? I hope and pray that I am every day of my life.
What happened in Newtown wasn’t just about one person, it is about all of us. It’s about our culture that glorifies violence, and death. We hush our voices when we talk about God, and so often we give up on trying to learn how to Love the other, because it’s too hard or he or she doesn’t complement us the way we feel they should, so we give up and fill ourselves with emptiness or loneliness instead.
Life goes on around us all the time. We may not be in the middle of the chaos, or we might be right in the center of Ground Zero; where ever we are Life is happening. We have a choice each day, how we are going to offer our love to our children, our spouses, our friends, and neighbors. We have a choice to stop and pause, no matter how busy our days are, and let someone else know, “I SEE YOU. I AM TOTALLY PRESENT TO YOU: TO LISTEN TO YOU, TO LOVE YOU, TO HEAR WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY BOTH IN YOUR WORDS, AND IN THE EMOTIONS OF YOUR BODY.” We also have a choice to let God, Spirit, Love, into our lives more, so that we don’t have to do all this hard work alone. For we have a Creator who desperately wants to be a part of our lives, and to carry our burdens for us. But so often we don’t want the help, or we are too lost to ask for help, because so many of us are just too busy to notice when someone is hurting or we turn away.
So today, and every day, remember to take the time to LOVE. It will be the greatest gift you can ever give, and ever receive. And keep trying, Keep Loving the Best you can every day, for you, and for all those you cross paths with.
May God, ease the pain of the brokenhearted, and enter our lives, to teach us more deeply about LOVE.
Tell and show those you meet along your walk in life & Tell and show yourself:
May you be blessed by Love, Erin, Bella Bleue
©Bella Bleue Healing™ All Rights Reserved.
Please Visit my Photography blog: Photography by Bella Bleue
Sometimes life is extremely challenging, even when it seems there is no reason for it to be. It’s the kind of challenge when something just feels off inside you. Maybe it’s that your heart just isn’t happy, and you don’t know why; maybe you’re feeling lonely, even though you saw your friends today; maybe you’re feeling sad, even though the sun is shining; etc.
We are all looking for ways to make ourselves feel better. But no matter what works, we all know feeling better, comes and goes. It is a natural rhythm of Life to have ups and downs, and a plateau every now and again. It is easier to share the good, than to allow the bad to have a voice. Because it is easier to share with others that you are “put-together,” and can handle anything that comes your way. Otherwise, you assume, others will think you are weak, even though they are putting on the same mask as you.–Life–our everyday making it through–has created us to believe that we always have to be strong on the outside. But our real LIFE—says You are human just like me, and me, and me, and me…and we all feel a total arrange of emotions.
So maybe we all just need to be a little kinder to ourselves: Allowing ourselves to be really who we are: beautiful and broken, broken and beautiful. Maybe strength is really about giving ourselves permission to be honestly who we were each created to be, rather than being the “well-put-together-all-the time” persons we think we need to be or ought to be. Maybe LIFE is really all about LOVE–accepting yourself, and accepting others; choosing to forgive and allow yourself to be forgiven; welcoming the Sacred into your life, whatever you call it God, Universe, Spirit, Beloved, etc., so you always have someone to share your journey with.
Yesterday, I was having a difficult day. Everything, seemed to be overwhelming me, and no matter how hard I tried to keep my spirits up, I just couldn’t get out of my funk. But then I remembered something as I washed the dishes, I had forgotten to talk with God. So I did. I just said, “I’m having a hard time, and You know how I am when I feel this way. If there is anything You can do to help me feel just a bit better…” A little later my husband called me, and told me the thing I was worrying about, I didn’t need to bother myself with any longer, and then suggested I take my son to the playground. His reassurance made me feel a bit more at ease. When we got to the playground my son ran around, until he planted himself at the sandbox, with a bunch of little boys. I sat down next to another mom. She was very welcoming and friendly. When we got in the car to go home, I realized I was feeling better. God had listened to my prayer and gave me the phone call from my husband, and brought me to a playground where there was a kind mother to share with and feel listened-to. I experienced Love from God, my husband and this mother.
I wonder what kind of world we would live in if each of us gave each other the gift of Love? Maybe these hard days wouldn’t be so hard. And maybe we’d all realize we are all just as human as the next person. Just maybe being “put-together” would mean you are a person of many feelings and emotions, but most of all you are a giver and receiver of LOVE; instead of being able to do it all, have it all, and always be happy.
Yeah, I wonder…how about you?…
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
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.
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:
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.
So one of the formulas for living Healthy:
Live in the Moment: In the Here and Now and
1.) Let wisdom guide you:
2.) Lead your life with your heart and mind:
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
It is amazing how a simple car ride can suddenly ignite your imagination. I was sitting at a red light and glanced at a few people walking through the bus stop parking lot. It’s a special parking lot. The people who put their feet on its grounds bring stories with them: they are on their way to a life journey after a flight in the sky.
I noticed an elderly couple walking to a car: I began to create scenarios in my mind: I imagined they must be returning from a trip. So often people return to the Northeast for the summer after a winter down South. I imagined they were feeling happy to be back…and then I saw a woman approach. She gestured to them, and they walked toward her: luggage in hand.
And then the moment: Open arms reaching and connecting bodies, hearts and “I’m so glad you are here” all in one spontaneous moment of a Hug.
My imagination took me down a new path. I imagined the women are sisters. They live across the country from each other. Over the years their children have played, but are grown now with children of their own. They have a long history of memories. They recall how they used to talk about moments like these when they were young women, but now these moments are real. They are living these moments right now. And they create a memory for their future moments starting with a Hug.
There’s something about the connection of human touch sprinkled with love that ignites a feeling of gratitude for being alive, either as the observer or the actual receiver of this love.
What do you imagine when you watch people connect to each other through out the day? Here’s the opening clip of Love Actually to inspire your imagination.
Blessings, Erin, Bella Bleue
©Bella Bleue Healing, Health & Inspiration for Your Life™ All Rights Reserved.
bellableue.com 