Tag: Love

Connecting to the wonder we are, Health, Life

Show Your Body Love: Creating a Ritual of Tenderness and Self Love

Erin Keane

Your face holds the stories of who you are, and where you’ve been. They are the stories that lie deep within your bones, your cells, your very being. These stories might not be visible to the eye with a look or a glance; those who see you may be completely unaware of how much you hold inside. Of course your whole body holds your story, but there is something extremely tender about how your face holds your pain,your joy, your excitement, your fear,  and so on. When you cry, the tears fall down your cheeks. When you laugh the sound comes from your voice, but your smile lights up your face. When you give and receive love, so often your face is a deep part of that connection.

Do you truly take time to notice yourself and tenderly care for your body?

I see myself in the mirror every day. I comb my hair, brush my teeth, wash my face, put on my make-up and go about my day. And I think very little about my body, nor how much better I feel after I care for myself, because doing these things are a normal part of the day and often done in a rush. But today, I paused for a moment as I dabbed the face-soap onto my hand and looked at my face, and said to myself,”Hey, there.” As if it was the first time I’d seen myself in a long time. And I thought,wait a minute why does this feel so strange? 

I looked down again at my hand with the soap, and came back to reality: the task at hand: Washing my face. I had to think for a second though, how do I do this, wash my face? Usually I turn the water on first, rinse my face off, and then put the soap on my fingers. But not this time. Maybe I was being more intentional about connecting with myself because of my glance in the mirror; or maybe it was the sensation of splashing water on my face with one hand. Whatever it was, I paused, gently began to rub the soap along my cheeks, and suddenly became profoundly aware of the  connection between my fingers touching my cheeks and my face receiving the tenderness of my touch.

As I stood there with my eyes closed and moved my hands around my face I began to have a knowing of my face through my finger tips: my cheek bones, my brow, the softness of my skin. The touch of my fingers awakened me to understanding why my glance in the mirror stuck me. I so often forget to take care of myself, and offer myself gentleness and love.  Touching my face with this love, intentionality and awareness connected me to my life, my story, who I am right now. This is the face people look at, and see through their eyes. My face quite often is how people remember me and make sense of who I am at first glance. But as I washed my face, I realized this wasn’t what was speaking to me. Touching my face with this gentle love, became less about how I was going to look to the outside world, and more about the deeper parts of me.

Love and connection.

  • Touch your face and be mindful about each and every bone, curve, bump
  • Hold your face in your hands for as long as you need to, to really feel and be aware of your story within.
  • Send yourself love, reverence, compassion through your hands, and thoughts

I’m learning and working on loving myself better every day. Sometimes I’m not so good at it, other times I get a gold star for effort. Today, I learned something important for me. To release the pain, the stress, tension I need to touch my face with intentionality and compassion. I need to hold my face in my hands and focus my heart and my thoughts towards self-love and reverence.

Usually, washing my face is a daily task, but I am going to be better at being mindful to practice it as a ritual. (I’ve included washing my face as part of the ritual to help me sleep at night, but never with the intentionality and mindfulness I am starting with today). Not only will washing my face be a ritual of letting go of the things that I want to wash away, so that I can find peace, but it will also be a symbolic action and mindfulness towards self-love.

Ahhh…I am already beginning to feel better.

How about you?

What do you do to offer yourself self-love: loving your mind, body and spirit?

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

Connecting to the wonder we are, Spirituality

Your Glow is Still on My Life even after Death

Erin Keane

Touch me and I will follow in your afterglow
Heal me from all this sorrow
As I let you go I will find my way, I will sacrifice
Now I’m living in your afterglow  —INXS “Afterglow”  

Whenever I lost some amazing person at the hospital I would listen to this song, and savor his/her memory. I often feel a  glow upon my life after a special person has died. Sometimes when people I cared for died, and I wasn’t there, they have come to my thoughts (even those who have suffered greatly) and tell me, they are okay, with a smile on their face. (This has actually happened to me a number of times.)

In my work as a spiritual counselor, people will often tell me stories about encounters they had had with a deceased loved one. Frequently, they will say, “I don’t know if you’ll believe me but…” And of course, I tell them I believe them. The power of the spiritual world and individual connection to it is very personal. I deeply believe that connection with the deceased does happen. It is real.

How about you? Do you ever feel the presence of someone you love, or dream about him or her? What has this experience been like for you?

I was moved to share this story with you because of Memorial Day*, but also because many of the people I follow and share in conversation with here, have expressed the loss/death of someone they have loved.

I invite you to open your heart and hold all those who are grieving right now in your heart, and send to everyone of them, and even to yourself if you  need it, a prayer of love and compassion.

I open my hands to catch your tears, and hold the sacredness of who you are and who you have loved within my arms. I ask the benevolence of the earth and all of creation to touch you with a gentle presence of grace in ways that you can understand and feel.

Whenever you need to be near the ones you love who have died, open yourself and ask them to be near you, and when you are ready to receive them I imagine they will find a way to be near you or to let you know what you need to hear.

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

If you are interested in understanding connection or want to connect more, a wonderful blog to visit: Necole Stephens

Photo is from a wonderful Facebook Page called Heart Centered Rebalancing

*This Monday we celebrate Memorial Day. It is traditionally a day of remembering men and women in the Armed Forces who have given their lives for service. It is also a time when people visit the cemetery…and remember and celebrate life of those they love.