heartsteps

You hunger to be touched, but deny your hunger. Allow me to love you. Permit me to teach you loving ways to treat yourself. Every hair on your head is precious to me, every inch of your skin. You are not a beast of burden. I do not intend you to work yourself to exhaustion, calling it virtue. Rest in me, my little one. Allow me to brush out your hair, to knead the sore muscles of your back. I am tender to you. Eat, sleep and refresh yourself.

When you regard your body, do so with tenderness. You are beautiful to me. You are unique and priceless. Learn to praise the beauties of your form. I have made you sturdy. I have given you health and strength. Your body is graceful to me. I am able to love an endless myriad of shapes and sizes. Do not turn a cruel eye to your body. It is the beloved vehicle for your spirit. It carries you faithfully.

Let me teach you to love yourself. Let me bathe and clothe you. You are a divine child. I find beauty in you always. It is my pleasure that you have comfort. It is my pleasure that you use your senses. I created your body for your enjoyment. Your sense of touch is sacred. Do not be cold and loveless, calling that grace. Warmth and compassion are my gifts to you. Relax and enjoy the gift of your body.

Julia Cameron

I am music waiting to be heard. I am a song unfolding. My notes are the voice of Life singing through me in majesty. I open my throat to the word of creation. I speak my truth and build my life upon it. I open my mouth to exclaim the glory that I feel within me. I give voice to God and God’s plan for me. I refuse to be small when God intends for me to be large. I expand without pride, without arrogance. I expand through love. I open my heart and mind to the brighter, clearer and more joyous vistas Life intends for me. I allow Life to create through me the better life which I speak and see.

Julia Cameron

“If we face our unpleasant feelings with care, affection, and nonviolence, we can transform them into the kind of energy that is healthy and has the capacity to nourish us.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

In times of loss and difficulty, I choose to consciously deepen my strength through actively seeking the blessing hidden in my adversity. I do not deny my painful feelings or run from them but I do choose to move through them seeking the opportunity for insight that lies for me on the other side. I do not suffer for the sake of suffering or mistake pain as the only soil for my spiritual growth. Instead, I remind myself that suffering and pain are temporary while my spiritual comfort is eternal. Knowing this, I open my heart to the timeless comforts which Spirit provides. I take comfort in the moistening rain, in the scent of flowers, in the tall oak offering me its shade. Even when deeply troubled, I seek to find Spirit in the midst of my suffering. I soften my heart to the gentle touch of comfort. I allow Spirit to touch my grief.

Julia Cameron

Each of us has an inner compass. Its voice calls us to our highest good. Sometimes it requires that we alter a long-standing but stifling situation. It is difficult to face the severing or alteration of a relationship even when we know such change is for the highest good. Faced with a divorce or separation, faced with the need to terminate a long-standing friendship, I must remind myself that sometimes the most loving involvement is a non-involvement. It is tempting, always to try to go back, to hold onto what once was rather than face what that relationship has now become. I resolve with a loving heart to accept appropriate endings. I do not grasp at straws when the reality is difficult but clear. Instead, I release the past, bless it and turn with resolution to the future. I listen to the dictates of my conscience, knowing that it’s voice calls me home. Today, I place my humbled heart in universal care, asking for healing and direction.

Julia Cameron

“The changes in our life must come from the impossibility to live otherwise than according to the demands of our conscience.” Leo Tolstoy

"heart and soul"

The human heart craves certainty yet life is sometimes uncertain. In times of ambiguity, doubt and apprehension, I claim the certain safety of my spiritual connection. Reminding myself that even in the face of difficult change, my grounding in Spirit remains secure, I find ground on which to stand. It is timeless and serene. Spirit is the bedrock beneath all experience. When I am threatened and adrift, I remind myself Spirit is an inner fortress, constant and secure.

Today I embrace Spirit as the rock of my existence. Spirit gives my soul an earthly home.

Judith Cameron

My gift for unconditional love is a great blessing in my life. I am able to manifest an inner nobility in my relationships. I accept those who love me as they are. I allow them to love me at their speed and tempo as they are able. I do not dictate or control. their love for me is a gift. I allow them the right to choose how and why they give it. Those who love me are part of God’s love for me. They are part of the larger plan of my life. I allow God to remain the whole. I root myself in God, accepting the relationships which come to me as a part of something larger that holds all of us within its scope. I find the steadfastness of divine companionship. I allow God to be my primary security, the deep soil of my heart’s safety. Rooted in God, I allow human love to gift me and grace me but I do not demand a god-like security from human love. I find perfect love, perfect security, perfect safety in God. I allow my human loves to be human and I love them in their humanity.

Julia Cameron