Becoming Yourself

“Coming home to the person you were before the world told you who to be.”

We spend much of life becoming who we think we should be. These reflections are about remembering who we already are about remembering who we already were beneath fear, people-pleasing, perfectionism, and expectation.

Blooms in this Garden

Messages from the Garden
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I thought love was something I had to prove I deserved. I didn’t realize it was an endless assignment. I kept carrying more water, hoping that eventually I would have poured enough into someone else to finally receive the love I was trying so desperately to earn. But I was asking someone for water when they were thirsty too.

Now I understand: someone else’s inability to hold what I offer does not determine its value. I don’t have to pour myself empty to prove that I am lovable. I am worthy before I ever pour a drop.

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Cast Your Vote How We Become Ourselves One Conscious Choice at a Time
Becoming Yourself
Cast Your Vote How We Become Ourselves One Conscious Choice at a Time
Becoming Yourself

For a long time, I thought becoming a better person meant simply making better choices.

But healing taught me to look deeper.

Two people can make the exact same choice for completely different reasons.

I can help someone because generosity reflects my values.

Or I can help because I’m afraid they’ll stop loving me if I say no.

Same action.

Different vote.

Little Jasmine first learned to change her behavior because she was afraid of what would happen if she didn’t.

Adult Jasmine gets to choose differently.

Not because someone might yell my middle name.

Not because I need approval.

Not because I need to prove that I’m good.

I choose because I know the kind of woman I want to become.

Maybe character isn’t built through one enormous decision.

Maybe it is a lifetime of tiny elections.

And every time awareness places the ballot back into our hands, we get another opportunity to ask:

Who am I voting for today?

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Becoming Yourself
I Didn’t Heal the World. I Healed Mine. And maybe that is how the ripples begin.
Becoming Yourself
I Didn’t Heal the World. I Healed Mine. And maybe that is how the ripples begin.
Becoming Yourself

For a long time, I thought healing had to mean something enormous.

I thought maybe if I healed deeply enough, I could somehow heal the world.

I don’t know that anymore.

What I do know is this:

My healing healed my world.

It changed the voice inside my own head.
It changed what I tolerate.
It changed the way I love.
It changed the way I experience an ordinary day.

I stopped living in other people’s opinions.

I stopped living entirely in the past.

I stopped waiting for the future to become better than the life I already had.

Healing didn’t give me a perfect existence.

It taught me how to live the one I was already standing in.

Little Jasmine kept walking long enough to get me here.

Now I get to live the life she carried all this way.

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Becoming Yourself

Take your time.

Gardens aren’t meant to be rushed.

Perhaps the flower you needed most is the next one you’ll discover.