trust the sadness
Three questions for a friend living with cancer, and a short Letter from Love.
Teacher, dear friend and source of inspiration,
has been in my field for several years—her quiet presence and care keep me close. After our recent conversation on the Practice You Podcast, I awoke earlier this week with three questions to ask her; she’s generously offered us her insights.Founder of Meditation Pusher, The Practice and Theine Foundation, Alicia’s been teaching meditation and mindfulness to dynamic teams, professional athletes, entertainers, and young people for over a decade.
And she’s currently thriving with cancer.
And as her friend, I’m learning to trust the sadness.
Our interview is below—one timely note regarding today’s free session…
Simplify, An Introduction, is a free gathering for all today.
Tuesday August 20th, 11am Eastern, 8am Pacific, 4pm UK, 5pm EU.
Click this link to download your guide. Bring a journal, pen, and a willingness to listen to your own heart.
Here’s my interview with
EB: If you could stand in front of our fraught and fragile world for a few minutes and offer us some words regarding what cancer is teaching you, what would you say?
AM: I encourage us to make tenderness a daily practice, and one of our core values. It's important to keep meeting people and moments in our lives with gentleness. It's very powerful to be a quiet, steady, and kind person now—this is real strength in the face of a world that keeps telling us to harden.
Being is so much more effective than telling. Through our presence, we can be deliberate, radical, and informative.
The ripple effect of our confident humility is the most potent teacher.
EB: Secondly, if you could whisper into the ears of all the ten-year-old girls on Earth about what’s truly important as they grow older, what would you offer them?
AM: I wouldn't try to tell them anything. I would ask them what it's like to be ten right now, and then I would just listen. I think we need to teach our girls what it's like to be listened to without interruption, so they can feel what it's like to be heard without being fixed.
Every time we talk to a young person, we are contributing to their internal dialogue—this is a privilege. Don't be intimidated by their raw emotions (or your own). Stay present.
Live your advice. Children respond very well to integrity. I believe this awareness would offer them a path to self-trust which is something we all need.
EB: Why meditation?
AM: Meditation because practicing every day fulfills its promise to us. We do come away more peaceful and compassionate—sure, but we also come away transformed.
We experience our lives without the veil of our past or the pressure of the future. We learn that today, here, right now, is still the most important moment.
The present is the only place we can be all in—what a gift! Every time I sit, I meet with myself, I meet with God, I meet with the transformative power of silence. No longer am I interrogating my intuition or negotiating my self-worth with the outside world. It's a long journey, but the freedom to risk your own significance makes you invisible.
Thank you, Alicia, thank you. Reader, for an uplifting perspective shift, our recent conversation is worth a few minutes.
Two questions for you…
What’s shifting your perspective in these days?
If you have connections to illness in this season, how is this experience a teaching for you?
…And briefly, from me, from Love.
When asked on this week’s Letters From Love with Elizabeth Gilbert to listen for what Love would have to tell me regarding being proud of myself, Love spoke swiftly. Still convinced it’s just my mom talking.
Dear Petunia,
You dropped your child off in another state this weekend as he begins a new life, for which you have amply, aptly, appropriately prepared him. I know you left a piece of your heart there as you drove away, and I know you were smiling, trusting, knowing he's safe and sound, but it wasn't easy.
And I catch you these mornings as you go into his room and "clean" while you're really watching the kite tail of life's moments unfurl and wave across the sky of your consciousness.
And I know you cry, and that's exactly right. You did it, and you can be proud of this full circle completion. Stay in your heart. Don't run too fast to finish editing the book and getting all the work and laundry done. That's the easy route. Linger in the sensation of finishing and starting again.
Savor it. Be sad.
Let yourself feel everysinglething. Because it will change, this flavor of sadness, but it won't end. Other things will begin in place of your parenting, but you will always be his mama.
Thank you for hearing this,
Love
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Ah Elena… petunia that is. May your heart feel the fullness of your own presence as you wander around his room, pretending to clean… sending big hugs.
Alicia is one of those rare people who is truly a Light-filled Magical creature (most likely an Angel) ❤️. I’m so grateful for this podcast episode.
Xo
As for Jonah - I promise every day gets a little bit easier. I feel so validated knowing even my Mentor had a hard time with this mental event! Xoxox