Here is a beautifully written short piece on turning inward to see yourself – give yourself the validation, love, compassion you’ve sought externally from your friends and loved ones – written by a beloved teacher of mine, Andra West LeBauer.
“Some thoughts on adjusting to the middle portion of the life span: When we are young we find connection and validation through our peers, and they mirror back to us our beauty and accomplishments. But as we age and life gets busy, people couple, children are born, there is a natural turning into the self and the nuclear family. For most of us there is a longing, or a feeling of loss for the external validation and deep connections we experienced spending deep prolonged amounts of time with our peers. But what we can miss during this energy shift, if we are not careful is this: During this shift there is an invitation that arrives to turn that energy of needing to be seen, validated, loved and appreciated into the self. Seeing ourself, Loving ourself, knowing ourself, finding a gentleness with ourself, and finding validation from the self, and then we get an opportunity everyday to share that deep knowing of ourself with our partners and our children, and if we are lucky, every once in a while we are able to share it with our peers, and it is a beautiful, beautiful thing.”
This speaks to my previous post on being the catalyst for change in a dysfunctional system and turning towards oneself for the external validation or sense of belonging lost in the shift.
You can learn more about Andra here. She is a masterful yoga leader and compassionate teacher in Greensboro, NC.