Heartbreak sucks. When you finally learn and feel in your heart that you are the greatest love of your life -- not in a narcissistic way, in a way that you understand you are your own best friend -- everything begins to fall into place. It's like the world was waiting for that missing piece of the puzzle so that things could right themselves again.
When you learn to fall in love with yourself -- and I mean it, as cringey as it sounds and as hard it was for me to just do it and let go of the shame -- what is no longer aligned with your true heart falls away. And the temporary and utter heartbreak of all the things you thought you wanted slips off and makes way for your life to unfold not in weary repeated patterns, now in unimaginable ways. A truly new adventure. No maps. You have found your home in yourself. Your clarity zooms in, your intuition is unshakable. And the miracles including breath, life, nature, faith, an open heart guide you into a gorgeous unknown.
You're no longer afraid to face the darkest of feelings because they are just passing through and have so much to teach you. And still there is crystal clear knowing. This is a daily practice. Keep it up. It saves your life. Or, at least, it has mine.
You see people and situations as they are. With compassion and clear boundaries. The rose tinted glasses come off and something so much more glorious emerges. An unbreakable connection with yourself and the true life emerging through you.
You are tethered to the divine you. Nothing else matters. You realize your life has always been about how you relate to yourself. Sovereignty, true freedom. It has begun. The shame that you grew up with being a woman, an immigrant, queer, it all falls away.
I share this journey and knowing with my kids. It has felt at many times harrowing and rife with trauma, and there IS life beyond that while accepting all of you. I grew up an intellectual surrounded by academics on Stanford campus. I spent years working with leaders in corporations, schools and nonprofits.
Here's my take away: the greatest education available to us runs in the face of our current culture which has harmed both men and women, the greatest education is to learn to fully love, embrace, honor, adore, cherish and care for yourself and your body. Commit to yourself. Full stop. The dynamics of the world then shift. And the fear of difference, of the other, falls away when you accept all the parts of you, even the ones thought you discarded.
I wrote this on the Persian New Year, Nowruz, which translates to New Day. It's a new day. Let it dawn for you. Release the past. Magic happens when you're present with yourself. Onward. We've got this. And we were never meant to do this alone.