4.26.20

I am so excited as I prepare for our 4 Week Course on freeing our inner critic-- I hope you’ll join me! It’s become so clear to me that all fears can be boiled down to one single fear--the fear of not being enough. We fear we are not ready enough, smart enough, attractive enough, popular enough, healed enough, good enough, etc. For most people, the marching band of “not enough” will parade its way down the main street of your headspace several times a day without your permission. You’ll convince yourself that you will never be ready to move forward in your life. The repetitive stream of “not enough” seems like a thoroughly convincing and a completely accurate summation of our inner most value. We conclude we are broken beyond repair and settle for strategies to hide this painful truth from others for as long as we can. Yet, new possibilities open when we realize that this voice is a FICTION. The voice inside you IS NOT YOU. Mindfulness practice develops in us the capacity to watch with curiosity, nonjudgment and nonattachment. What this voice says is simply not the truth, at least it’s not the FULL TRUTH. It’s the ultimate FAKE NEWS. Your inner critic has power only to the degree that you surrender your power to it. So, here’s one way to work with the inner critic when you are amid an important decision: 1. Observe with curiosity and non-judgment. 2. Offer yourself compassion. 3. Remember you don’t need a plan. 4. Just take the next step. 5. Repeat. And Repeat again and again. You are not alone. We are breathing with you.

4.19.20

I’ve been thinking a lot about my inner critic these days. You know the voice that tells you that you are not enough in a 1000 different days—you are not smart enough, attractive enough, wise enough, funny enough, confident enough…It’s the voice that says, “Who are YOU to do THAT?” It’s the voice that convinces us we are safer if we hide ourselves away and keep ourselves small. We create layers of armor to protect ourselves from being seen. The inner critic can feel like a shameful secret. For many of us, the Pandemic has been a time to do some important soul searching and truth telling about our lives. Perhaps in the quiet, you’ve heard another voice inviting you to choose a different path, one of authenticity, acceptance, compassion, and radical self-care. Lately, I’ve been sitting with these questions: What energy might be freed up and rechanneled if we weren’t battling an inner tyrant? How can these soul-stretching days also be a time for some important inner work? Maybe you too feel like it’s time to stop fighting. So, I’ve created a 4 WEEK COURSE for those who feel like they want to be a part of a brave conversation about healing an inner wound that has cast a long shadow in our lives. With gentleness, laughter, and honesty, we’ll bring curiosity and compassion to this inner voice of shame and self-blame. We’ll also explore the false stories we tell about ourselves and others. We’ll examine the myth of confidence—the story that others are walking around with an inner superhero and an inner voice of triumphant self-assurance. We’ll make space for the deepest truth to emerge—that there has never been a moment when you have been beyond love. Never. All of us are infinitely loveable and perfectly imperfect just as we are.

4.12.20

At Easter, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Theologians and spiritual teachers throughout millennia have debated the meaning of Easter and the soul-stretching reality of the resurrection. From the Latin, resurrection literally means to stand up again. One way to understand Easter then, is that it’s celebration of rising up from anything that limits our fullness of life. It’s literally a defiant and courageous standing up in the midst of all that seeks to hold us down. This standing up is not something we do alone. We stand together, empowered by Love and Life itself, to care, to celebrate, and to share compassion with the world. Our community here at Copper Beech Institute holds you and your dear ones in our hearts as we move through these spring days of rebirth. May courage and joy be reborn in you during these difficult days. And may we discover in us the bravery to stand up together in the face of challenge. When we stumble, may we inspire each other to get up again and again and again.

4.5.20

I’ve heard plenty of comments rushing to silver linings these days—"Thankfully we are forced to slow down,” I’ve heard several times. “At least our carbon footprint is radically reduced,” is another common mantra. Others have even noted that COVID-19 has raised awareness about the gross inequities faced by historically marginalized communities and has mobilized leaders to take action with a new sense of urgency. I certainly hope this is true. I hope whatever silver lining we are sensing in both our personal lives and on the global scale are real and enduring. Yet, in these early days of the pandemic, I confess that most of these silver words feel heavy as lead as if they were uttered in the desperate hope that they might be true. Of course, saying it doesn’t make it so. Americans are an especially pragmatic bunch—we want there to be some utility for all this discomfort and social distancing. We want to quickly draw up the life lessons garnered in the Great Pandemic of 2020 and then move on to binge watch the next series. I believe that lasting happy endings cannot be rushed or manufactured. Only when we give ourselves permission to sit fully with our own sadness and heartbreak, will we be able to learn with integrity and true depth the important lessons our world needs us to learn. Grieving is empowering. By feeling the full weight of sadness, anger, resentment, and heartache we will then be able to fully unlock the deep lessons and transformative wisdom that this moment holds for us. Otherwise, the upside lesson is cheap—a shallow intellectual platitude that we parrot back to ourselves as a form of self-encouragement, but which ends up feeling like cold comfort. The wisdom that our world needs is deep, radical, and not easily reduced to a social media post. So, can you give yourself unconditional permission to feel whatever you’re feeling for as long as you feel it? Can you courageously grieve what’s been lost? This will bring the true healing and liberation that we all truly crave.

Awaken Everyday Blog

April Weekend Wisdom with Dr. Brandon Nappi