If you've lost your heart -> I want you to find it again.
That’s the first thing I need you to read. I need you to have a spark of hope of encouragement, but more than that, I want you to know there is someone in your corner. Someone who believes in you. Someone who gets the excuses and understands the chaos and knows how deeply, deeply painful it can be to look in the mirror and not know the person in the reflection staring back at yourself.
I know, because that once was me.
It would quickly get squashed, so I would tuck that heart part of me, that deeply happy part down just a bit more, hoping it didn’t spill out and I would throw myself into life. Do more, be more, be better, deny yourself and all of that.
I starved my heart, in a way.
But in that starving came this bit of me that would look around at everyone else and think when will I get to be happy?
And I hated that space. It was lonely. And it felt daunting – especially when the demands of my life seemed to crowd out my own heart. I felt lost.
I want you to know that it’s okay that you feel lost a bit. It’s not because you messed up or you didn’t do your job, in fact, you are doing amazing things every day. Because sometimes it is very easy to think if I was a great --- I would be fully happy and satisfied. But that? That’s not true either.
But listen, just as you cultivate and fight for your kids, you have to fight for your heart too.
Your dreams? You’ll get to them someday. They’re not important. When self- talk like this it is more difficult.
You must love yourself too.
It is not selfish to fill your heart. To follow your dreams too. You may be unique, beautiful, full of talents and gifts. And maybe right now it’s not even about doing crazy things but is rather about just a bit of permission.
Permission to breathe.
Permission to take a night off.
Permission to laugh again.
Permission.
You don’t need to ever apologize for being you. For saying no when you need to and yes when it’s urgent. The only way that you will start to recognize the reflection in the mirror again is when you, yes you, decide that that heart is just as valuable as everyone else’s.
Because you are valuable. You are wonderful. You are powerful.
I don’t want you to storm out of your life and leave everything behind. I do want you to decide that every single day you are going to do one thing that will make you smile. One thing that could change your life. I’m talking one simple thing.
Can you imagine a year of doing one thing? All of a sudden that one thing becomes a story, an adventure, a journey, and that your journey is your dreams, your heart matters.
I seriously cannot think of a more beautiful lesson.
It starts with you.
I wrote this because I believe in you. I truly deeply do. I may not know you... I may never meet you face to face, but my calling, my journey, my heart is to speak a word of truth.
Dare to dream. Be brave.
Fight for your heart.
Because this is your story, your life, your journey too.
~Rachel
