“Being kind means responding to the needs of others—and people can be kind, no matter how old or young we are.” —Fred Rogers
Dear Friends, I’ve been thinking a lot, this past week, about last week’s blog post and specifically about ways we can both show up and be genuine in our own selves, and simultaneously have a willingness to listen, learn, soften and shift with those in our lives. A few days ago I stumbled upon the above quote…”being kind means responding to the needs of others”. As a bit of a born people-pleaser who has tried my best to find better ways to show up in my own life and with my own needs, I have looked for ways that I can create boundaries, listen to my own needs, and, instead of automatically bending to the needs or desires of those around me, listening deeply to what I want and need. But I think kindness, responding to the needs of others, being aware of the needs of those around us doesn’t have to be an either/or situation, but in many circumstances can instead be a both/and solution. I think there are ways we can both respond to the needs of others, and be aware of the needs of others while simultaneously thinking about our own needs and creating good boundaries for ourselves. We don’t have to live in a perpetual state of either/or. Sometimes it takes slowing down, really listening, and maybe some creativity to come up with both/and instead of either/or solutions, but I do think it can be done with regularity if we are willing to put the effort in to slow down, to listen, to perhaps think a little more creatively about solutions. I hope you have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista
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Your purpose is to be yourself. You don't have to run anywhere to become someone else. You are wonderful just as you are.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh Dear Friends, You are wonderful just as you are, my friend. You are wonderful just as you are. I took the Washington DC building museum tour recently, and one of the things that struck me during the tour was the builder/engineer/architect's insistence that his vision come alive in that building. Instead of building in the Greco-Roman style like so many buildings in our area, he based his design on a few buildings from the Italian Renaissance. He had a vision for his project, and saw that vision come to fruition…but as we were on that tour it became clear that the builder had both his vision and also had a deep unwillingness to deviate from that vision. Our purpose is to be ourselves….but how do we stand in our right to show up to life in our most genuine way…whether that is with our families, in our workplace, in our movement practices, with our friendships? What does it look like to be genuine and true to ourselves so that we can be more genuine and true to the world around us? At the same time, what does it look like to both be genuinely ourselves in our lives and simultaneously listen to and be interested in the needs and opinions of those in relationship with us? Can we both be genuinely ourselves and also willing to listen, learn, soften, shift with those in relationship with us? I don’t think those two things are mutually exclusive…I think there is a way that we can be both genuine in who we are, and interested in the opinions of those around us with a willingness to listen, learn, soften and shift when needed. I hope you have a week where you can genuinely be your wonderful self, with a willingness to listen to those around you. Love Krista Dear Friends,
A dear friend of mine and I were talking about those emotions I was feeling last week, specifically grief, in the lead up to and after last week’s blog post…her children have long since grown and formed their own families, but she was saying that even years later, she’ll once in a while have waves of grief over the time that her kiddos spent under her roof…missing that time and space even years later. Another friend told me waves of grief hit her at random, in unexpected times and places, even years after her father passed. In both conversations we talked about those experiences and feelings, and about the lack of words we have in our language to express those different types of grief. The grief we experience when our kids have grown and gone is not the same as grief when we lose someone we love, but I think those emotions are all a form of grief, even if they manifest and hit differently. Perhaps you’re in the middle of the grief of mourning the loss of a loved one. Maybe it’s the loss of a dear animal. Maybe it’s an unexpected or even a long anticipated change in your life. Perhaps it’s a sickness in yourself or someone around you, or a change or shift in abilities. Maybe it’s the change of a family dynamic or structure…or perhaps it’s something completely different. Grief is a universal experience, my friend, with some experiencing it more deeply and more fully than others, but with all of us experiencing grief throughout this life of ours. I think there are times when we try to dismiss our own emotions because they might not compare to, they might not be “as bad” as the experiences of those around us, but dismissing our feelings does not mean they will go away…those feelings are still in our body even if we dismiss them as less than important. Grief is a universal experience, but I don’t think we’re meant to walk through our grief alone. So perhaps, if there happens to be grief in your life that you are walking through during this season, perhaps you might be willing to open up, to talk to those around you, to allow someone else in to walk with you in your grief. We are not meant to live this life alone, in good times or in bad. I hope you have an amazing week full of connection and vulnerability, even in the hard. Love Krista Dear Friends,
Sometimes emotions hit us at unexpected times in unexpected places, right? As some of you know, my older kiddo is in his freshman year of college. My younger is in the midst of figuring out where he is going to go to college this coming school year…it’s been a lot, these past two years of applications, stress, change, excitement. It has been a lot. I feel like I did a lot of processing in the months leading up to my older son’s senior year of high school and scattered throughout the year…there was, in fact, a lot to think about and process. Even so, I feel like I have done less so this year in terms of processing. I wonder if the fact that I did all that processing last year, I felt all those emotions a few short months ago made it so those emotions already felt processed, familiar, like I knew how and what I would feel during this time. Well, last weekend my boy got an acceptance letter the day before I taught a prenatal class…and let me tell you my friends, walking into that room full of beautiful expecting mamas, those emotions that I thought I had already processed hit me like a freight train. It was staggering, the emotional weight of that college acceptance coupled with those beautiful mamas just starting their motherhood journey…absolutely staggering. I had no idea, I had zero idea I would be so emotionally affected by the dichotomy of our different spaces and places in life…the starting and the ending. I know, I know, it never really ends, this parenting journey, but it does change, as it should. My dear friend, there are times when we just get hit by unexpected emotions…and the best we can do is hold on, breathe through them, recognize they are happening, and sometimes…well, sometimes cry in the middle of teaching a prenatal class…and all those reactions are just fine, my friend, they are just fine. Have an amazing week. Love Krista |
Hi, I'm Krista!Krista Mason is a movement instructor based in Washington DC. She founded an online strength, yoga and movement studio, teaches group classes, hosts both local and overseas retreats, hangs out with private clients, and absolutely loves the work she gets to do. Archives
November 2024
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