Recover or thrive
I did the most beautiful thing for myself yesterday (well, yesterday and a couple weeks ago). I bought a ticket to and then attended a live virtual conversation with Liz Gilbert and Rachel Cargle. And last night I almost didn’t go because it was late on a Friday and Chema was cooking and I was tired, but I decided I needed it and helped cook before and took the hour for myself and I’m so glad that I did. Liz was Liz, and Rachel was sweet and thoughtful and brilliant and funny. I was blown away by Rachel’s trust in herself. She talked about how her intention for the year had been becoming infinite possibility. That she has faith in what could be. That she trusts herself enough to know she can recover or thrive regardless of the outcome. That “risks aren’t as risky when I’m betting on me.” That she has pride in moving towards and creating the life she wants for herself.
Both Liz and Rachel talked about engaging their future/older and younger selves. And Rachel said she trusts her younger self so much because she led her here, and so she has to think Older Rachel trusts her now. Liz engages Future Liz to ask, “Can you tell me what we did this week that got us through the week?” And Rachel imagines the full conversation—the space the two selves are in, what they’re wearing. Rachel described it as learning from and praying to herself at the same time. And they both talked about doing things for Future Liz/Rachel. Liz makes the bed for herself in the morning so that whatever the day holds, Future Liz has the comfort of crawling into a freshly made bed at the end of the day. Rachel talked about putting on lotion for her future skin and future self that will inhabit her body.
I love those kindnesses and that framing of being in relationship with yourself. It feels so important and yet doable. And it all made me excited to engage this mindset of trusting my own Younger and Future Liz, and relentlessly believing in myself. I wrote last night: I have relentless belief in myself. I have relentless faith in myself. I have relentless belief in the earth. I have relentless trust in myself. I am relentlessly on my own side. And just like I don’t have time to rush, I don’t have time to not believe in myself or not be on my own side.
It was wonderful. I’m grateful to 3-weeks-ago-me for signing up. I’m grateful to yesterday-me for showing up. I’m excited for the power of the conversation and how I can propel myself forward with this renewed trust in myself.