The Evolution of Self: Returning to Your True Self with Mindful Practices
From surviving to thriving—that’s the path I’ve walked, stumbled, danced, and sometimes crawled along.
They say you don’t really know you’ve arrived until you’re on the other side. And wow, have I had many moments where I thought I had arrived. And I had—in chapters, in versions, in lives lived over these 50 years.
For a long time, I wore survival like a badge of honor. My trauma became my identity: the one who could carry it all, handle anything, survive everything. But here’s the truth: that kind of strength is forged in fear. And that fear began young. I was hyper-aware of energy and intention long before I had the words to explain it. I saw behind the masks. I felt the misalignment in places that were supposed to be safe.
So I did what many do—I armored up. I projected fearlessness, power, resilience. But underneath? That armor was heavy. It was intense. And while it kept me going, it also kept me disconnected from my own softness, my truth, my peace.
About a year and a half ago, I began taking that armor off—link by link, piece by piece. It wasn’t graceful. It wasn’t easy. It was therapy (hello, EMDR), outpatient treatment, and deep healing work I had once only offered to others. I turned my own tools inward. And what I found under the armor wasn’t weakness—it was wholeness.
For the first time, I don’t feel like shards of a stained-glass window glued together. I feel like a living mosaic—whole, ever-evolving, and deeply rooted in truth. I’m not surviving anymore. I’m blossoming.
Mindful Practices for Returning to Your True Self:
If you’re on a similar path, here are a few gentle practices to help you reconnect with your essence:
1. Daily Check-Ins
Pause for five minutes each morning to ask: How do I feel? What do I need today? Journal your answers or simply breathe into the awareness.
2. Grounding in Nature
Take your shoes off. Touch the Earth. Let your nervous system soften. Nature doesn’t rush—neither should you.
3. Emotional Release
Movement, tears, laughter, sound—let it out. Feel what you need to feel without judgment.
4. Forgiveness as a Ritual
Offer love to your past selves. Write them letters. Light a candle. Say thank you. And let them rest.
5. Sacred Silence
Carve out time each week to simply be—no goals, no performance, just presence.
6. Reaffirm Your Wholeness
Try affirmations like:
I am already whole.
I release what no longer serves me.
I return to myself with love and grace.
I’ll leave you with a poem that reflects the layers we carry and the sacred self we return to:
“i have been a thousand different women” by Emory Hall
Make peace
With all the women
You once were
Lay flowers
At their feet
Offer them incense
And honey
And forgiveness
Honor them
And give them
Your silence
Listen
Bless them
And let them be
For they are the bones
Of the temple
You sit in now
For they are
The rivers
Of wisdom
Leading you toward
The sea
I have been a thousand different women
We are not broken. We are becoming. And we return to our true selves, again and again—with softness, with strength, and with sacred mindfulness.
#mindfullyrising #sassyandcentered #healingjourney #mindfulpractices #returntoself #fromsurvivingtothriving
