Sol Love

It took me 40 years to discover how to set good boundaries with others. If you were brought up in a family system that didn’t always demonstrate healthy boundaries, like me it might take a major life event to even realize you weren’t setting boundaries for yourself in the first place.

Much of this personal growth has been accomplished by working with my excellent therapist. I distinctly recall her first educating me about boundaries when discussing a difficult interaction I had with a loved one. I felt so puzzled at first by this notion of setting boundaries! It was so foreign, and as someone who has struggled with abandonment fears, really scary.

The first epiphany in setting and upholding my own boundaries was simply recognizing the inherent “okay ness” of doing so. It is healthy to set boundaries with those we love – and healthy people will not only respect those boundaries but will simply love us more in the ways we want to be loved.

Unhealthy boundary pushers will try to make us wrong for setting boundaries with them – trying to convince us that our personal boundaries are inappropriate or wrong. They will continually retest our boundaries to break them down.

Without this pillar of “okay ness”, it was difficult for me to uphold my boundaries at first. I would find myself overcome by the criticism. With time and practice, I’ve developed a greater sense of self that has allowed me to feel confident in the boundaries I set, even if continually tested.

One thing I’ve experienced when setting boundaries is that the best boundaries are those that I alone can enforce. If am I relying on a difficult person to respect my boundary for me, I’m going to have a hard time. It’s far more effective if I find a way so that I’m the one who gets to respects my own boundary.

I’m still learning how to set better boundaries and identify areas where I can better stand up for my needs. Lately I’ve become interested in exploring how to demonstrate and teach healthy boundaries for my kids so they may learn these skills earlier in life.

If you’ve struggled with setting boundaries in your life, or even if I’m speaking a foreign language to you right now, I’d love to hear your story. What has worked for you and what have you learned? How do you pass on these teachings to the next generation?

Interacting in a world of masks has been an insightful experience for me. Without visual clues as to the emotional state of those around me, the world seems somehow flatter and colder.

While shopping at Whole Foods today, I realized that in many ways I’ve always worn a mask, shielding my authentic self from the outside world.

In fact, wearing masks of self protection seems to be part of the human condition. They protect us from the fear that our inner pain might be exposed to the outside world.

Sometimes we put on a mask because others expect it of us. Like the checkout clerk who is having a bad day but is forced to wear a happy mask. Why is our culture so allergic to healthy emotional expression, forcing others to dehumanize themselves for our comfort?

Sometimes, we project our most painful masks onto others. Instead of expressing those dark and difficult emotions like feeling “weak” or “unimportant”, we put the masks on those in our lives who will wear them for us. We feel weak inside, so we make our loved ones feel weak. It’s a subtle and terrible thing we humans do to one another.

Most of us aren’t even aware that we wear masks. It’s one of the most difficult personal growth tasks you can sign up for, finding and removing these layers of protection. Exposing your authentic soul to the outside world.

All my life I’ve been wearing masks like this. One such mask protected me from my fear of abandonment. Calcified with age, it caused me to form relationships that were not healthy for me, abandon my own needs in favor of pleasing others, and be dishonest with myself and those that I love – all to avoid a fear that I wasn’t willing to face or share.

I don’t want to wear these masks anymore. I’m ready for a life of greater authenticity and deeper connection.

As the world starts opening up again and we stop wearing our covid masks in public – what of these inner masks will you remove as well, to emerge a more aligned and authentic you?

What is the first thing you do upon waking?

I got into the habit of reaching for my phone. I was so addicted that if I didn’t check my phone after waking, I’d get anxious.

In this impressionable time of day, I witnessed that the news of the day scrambled my thoughts and even soured my mood for the rest of the day.

Recently I’ve reconnected with the value of this liminal space and started reserving my mornings for screen free time.

What do I do instead? Lately I’ve been starting my morning with journaling or meditating. It’s the perfect time of day for such activities in the space between dreams and waking life.

I’ve also started making myself a daily cacao elixir as a ritual. I purchase cacao from a local manufacturer called Firefly Cacao, and add in a variety of mushroom powders and adaptogens from Sun Potion. Finally I add a green or herbal tea and blend it all in the Vitamix. I love starting my day sipping the creamy chocolatey beverage filled with healthy nutrients.

I find that giving myself the extra time to transition into waking life sets me off on a more spacious and thoughtful path for the rest of my day.

What do you do to start your morning?

A young man posed this question to me recently in the checkout aisle at the Rock Shop in Fairfield.

The answer came instantly to my lips: No, I am not. My companion, who happens to be a musician, brightly replied Yes I am.

The young man, satisfied with this affirmative answer, replied with a smile that he thought as much. “You look like artists” he said.

Here I am, shopping for crystals by feeling their energy, with a Flower of Life mask and a man bun… I admit that I definitely look like an artist. My earlier answer suddenly stepped into the spotlight for reinspection. Am I an artist?

These past two years have been a period of great reset and personal renewal for me. I’ve been diving inward to get in touch with who I am and what I want in this life.

I’ve undergone a transformation of purpose and self identification that is still unfolding yet feels foundational and future oriented.

My strong and immediate “no” to the young man’s question feels like a vestige of the past. While I’m not prepared to say “yes”, I am prepared to ask the question with newfound curiosity.

How am I an artist today, and how have I always been an artist? What parts of me have yearned for more artistic expression, yet been filtered by layers of doubt, fear, and limiting beliefs?

For the next 30 days, I’m going to explore this question by following the vein of my own creativity. Every day I will create something and post it somewhere online, such as Facebook or Tik Tok, that allows me to dig deeper.

If you identify as an artist, what hurdles did you overcome to get there? If you don’t, how do you embrace artistic expression in your life?

COVID is an undoubtedly tragic event that will cause ripples across all our lives. As I looked out at the gorgeous evening sky today I realized that hidden in our challenge is a growing awareness.

As factories are shuttered and travel all but stops, we are finally collectively doing the thing that allows the earth to heal herself. Perhaps we will see how changing the way we live can improve our lives and health, and the health of the planet.

Adopting remote work, reducing travel, simplifying our lives… I welcome this awareness.

1. Get out in nature. Being outside is not in and of itself dangerous, and it is so healing to your mind and body.
2. Get exercise, even if you have to adopt a new routine. Keep up the program, it’s healthy and will keep your immune system up.
3. Keep up your spiritual practice, don’t let the change of routine throw you off.
4. If you’re invested in the markets, don’t sell anything. Consider buying real estate if you can. Cryptocurrency is on sale too. This too shall pass and the market rewards bravery.
5. Drink plenty of water, limit sugar. Try to stick to a healthy diet as much as possible.
6. Ask for help if you need it, there are people able and willing to assist.
7. If you aren’t in a high risk group, don’t go to the hospital if you are sick. Isolate at home and allow the hospital to serve the elderly.
8. If you know a health care worker, offer to help if they need. Many will have children out of school and grueling schedules. They could use our help as they are vital right now.
9. Love one another. Send love when others send hate and fear. They know not what they do, and they will be healed with your universal love.
10. Find the positive in the negative, especially for children. Play games, catch up on Disney flicks (frozen and frozen ii are amazingly spiritual!) and have fun together. You’ve just been given the gift of time!

I find myself frustrated by today’s Instagram culture. The system creates an endless toxic cycle of envy fueled by inauthenticity, when we’d all be happier just being present.

Children are great reminders of what it means to be in the flow of joy. Below is a photo of my daughter at the Museum of Ice Cream that captures her authentic joy of being in that unique place. It wasn’t posed, edited, nor planned – she just ran over to this thing she liked (a swing!) and laughed because playing with it was giving her joy.

And below is a photo of an instagramer who was visibly annoyed by this display of authentic joy, which was getting in the way of her photographer snapping a photo that looked like authentic joy.

The juxtaposition above captured the irony of instagram culture so well. While I hope the Instagrammer was having a good time, it sure didn’t seem like this was anything more than work. Her followers of course only get to see her inauthentic joy.

I hope my children (and those of her generation) find a way to disavow this false prophet of incentivized social sharing, and never allow people like this to question the value of their authenticity.