This liberating premise from Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown reminds us that prioritizing our pleasure and attending to our personal wellbeing is an act of social justice.

Coupled with the wisdom from Audre Lorde that “rest is resistance” and made popular by Tricia Hersey’s book of the same name, we honor ourselves by attending to our wellbeing and desires–awakening to the dignity and joy that is our birthright and the foundation for respecting ourselves and creating healthy boundaries for others.

This basis creates the power and audacity to pursue the best for ourselves and the institutions meant to serve us.

While we may be tied to our epigenetic legacy, lived history and current events; we are so much more than what we experience and endure and owe it to ourselves to remember this. We can remind ourselves with compassion and kindness that we are safe to pursue pleasure, rest, abundance and thriving–even when it feels unfathomable. 

The world tends to focus on the hard truth that financial security is an essential part of survival. Indeed this matters, yet we often forget that scarcity of heart, health, contemplation and spirit can make tangible security even more elusive. Real and imagined fears of any kind are debilitating. Let’s consider the possibility of getting back to our powerful true selves by transmuting life’s trials and fears into wisdom and compassion.

We lose trust in ourselves and forget the ancient wisdom we carry when we’re disconnected. Let’s reconnect within and with each other, and in process reclaim our being, self-sovereignty and agency in life every single day.

Will thoughts be enough without action and compassion to change our lives or the state of the world? Are we engaging our minds with facts, civility and respect for human life or normalizing blame, judgment, blame and biased bits of information? A brain without full integration is really not that useful.

Throughout history and time, women have been taught to disconnect from their bodies as a means of control, manipulation and oppression. Listening to our bodies is a good first step towards liberation and satisfaction. It is also the simplest way to step back into being and reconnect to our whole wisdom in this modern virtual world. Accessing nature fosters this immediately.

There’s a reason why the phrases “thoughts and prayers” or “love and light”  don’t ever feel like enough. When applied to atrocities of war or the normalized mass murdering of children in schools, “hope is not a strategy.” Spiritual requests and gifts are so important, but alignment asks for our whole being to engage. We need the mind to make plans, the body to respond, and the heart to hold love and compassion because spiritual alignment is best expressed with accountability.

If we are overly protective or avoidant in welcoming love to help guide our decisions, how can we fully ease into the next right thing? With compassion and kindness, we are better equipped to transmute the healthy shame of discomfort that arises when it’s time to transform our lives for better. We need to love ourselves and others in the process of change and realignment.