Artwork by Sarah Love McCoy
Hello Love,
I know you're carrying a lot right now. In your life, in your mind, inside your emotional body, too. The load is heavy. I just want you to know, I feel you.
Today, I want to send you some tender love. It won't solve everything, but it might lighten the load for just a moment or two.
When I flipped my calendar and remembered what September's theme was, it felt like a much needed whisper in my ear. Be gentle...
Even the writing is soft and a bit hidden, so you have to look close to see it...
"I am gentle with myself and others"
Over a year ago, when I made this art for September, I had no idea where we'd be, of course. AND now when I look at it, I am grateful for the nudge to remember gentleness.
With so much healing needed and so much work to be done in the world, I can see where a bit of gentleness can serve us right now.
With that in mind, I want to gift YOU this screen saver for your phone. (Take a screen shot or click and save to your photos and make it your wallpaper)
Screen saver for your phone. (Take a screen shot or click and save to your photos and make it your wallpaper)
This phone art is part of the Everyday Love subscription I curate every month that includes monthly journal pages, a guided meditation and a musical playlist. It's a full sensory experience and an offering that's added so much to my own practice of mindfulness and mental fortitude. Check it out if you're needing a great tool to increase peace and expand love in your life.
How can you offer yourself some gentle encouragement and deeper rest, allowing what you've got to be enough? How can you practice extending that gentleness to those around you?
You are worthy of all the kindness and care in the world.
You are enough just as you are.
May this month bring us all a sense of softening, a gentle touch and much needed nourishment. With everything that we're carrying and all there is to do, may we allow for replenishment of our inner well. May we carry on with our tender hears intact.
Pondering Gentleness Daily
This week I'm sitting under an orange sky, smoke filling the air and my neighborhood officially on the Level 1 stage of evacuation preparedness (I live in a very suburban area, a few miles away from the Level 2 and 3 zones, so we are not too worried but it's still scary). Many people to the east and south have had to leave their homes and find a safe place to land while they wait for news if their houses still stand...
How awful.. How heart wrenching..
There's a lot of loss happening all at once. There's a lot of grief and big feelings inside and out. We are fragile beings living with multiple fears and very real tragedies daily. It's deeply concerning. And it wears us down.
So I have an ask of you today, an invitation of sorts. If you would help bring a moment of calm and love to yourself and the collective right now, I'd be ever so grateful.
Bringing A Moment of Calm and Love to Yourself and the Collective
Can you take this moment to put your hand on your heart?
Can you take this moment to feel your feet? Wiggle your toes.
Take a breath into your belly. Let your belly loosen and relax.
Can you soften your jaw and those tiny muscles in your face (your corners of mouth and eyebrows)?
Allow your shoulders to drop down with your next breath.
Can you tell yourself that you are safe?
If not that’s OK.. I understand.
If so, please keep yourself in this moment of calm, breathing slowly and surely, softening all the places in you that are carrying the weight of the world, as long as you can. Come back to it over and over if it soothes you.
You can bring to mind a person or event that could use your calming energy, and send a bit of love that way. See love and calm reaching them now.
For the firefighters, for anyone suffering, for yourself and your family, just keep breathing.
That's it... Just a moment of calm. I think it can really help.
Thank you, my friend!
Earlier this week I did a longer version of this practice on my facebook page. You can watch that HERE if you like.
Being Calm and Offering Calm
When I made the 2020 calendar last year 'being calm' and 'offering calm' were two themes that kept coming up in the process. I didn't understand what that meant exactly, but I knew it certainly doesn't hurt.
Now, I understand a whole lot better why calming energy can be a real gift. So however and whenever you can, if you have a moment of calm, if you can generate a bit of peace, for your nervous system and the greater circle of life, you are bringing a gift to us all.
Thank you for being here. I'm glad we are on this journey together.
©2020 by Sarah Love. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission.of the author.
Written by the creator of:
The yearly "I Stand for Love" Calendar
by Sarah Love.
This calendar was created to help you love yourself more. The I Stand for Love Calendar is filled with daily love nuggets. Every day you get a fresh morsel of truth and delight for you to take in, so that over time your thoughts become your friends. Daily love will transform you.
Click here for more info or to order this calendar (on Sarah's website).
About the Author
Sarah Love McCoy is the visionary artist behind the I Stand For Love movement and the creator of the "Life Is Beautiful and So Are YOU!" calendar. Art and magic intertwine in all of her creations. Besides firing up the Love Revolution, her most favorite things to do are finger paint, hike through lush landscapes, sip jasmine tea and ponder the mystery of it all. Say hello to Sarah (and find out how to become a Love Warrior) at www.istandforlove.
