#The power of self-reflection

[justsaying4041]

Why self reflection is so important

Self-reflection is an essential practice that allows individuals to examine their thoughts, behaviors, and experiences to gain deeper insights into who they are and how they interact with the world. By taking the time to reflect, people can better understand their strengths, identify areas for improvement, and make more informed decisions about their future. The power of self-reflection lies in…

[luxuryandlilacs]

[notbecauseofvictories]

there are many indignities about being alive, but one of the very worst is when you're forced to treat your own brain like a small child screaming its lungs out in a public place for some undisclosed and indiscernible reason---but critically, your brain and the child both won't stop until you fix whatever it is, and your first 20 guesses will be wrong.

[ash-says]

Being in touch with your sensuality:

On today's episode of ash-says we are going to talk about how to get in touch with your sensuality. Personally it's something I am very passionate about and kind of indulgent too.

Sensuality helps me in feeling alive and in tune with myself. I can't guarantee it for everyone but for me it works wonders. It's like the "Amrut" or "rejuvenating water" (for a lack of better terms) for me. Along with that it's the most healthy way for expressing my sexuality and keeping it in control to not let it affect my day to day functioning.

Here are some ways I incorporated in the last five years of my life to be in touch with my sensuality:

1) Exercise: No matter what I am going to vouch for this always. The way it helps me in expressing the surplus energy and controlling my desires is a chef's kiss. Plus helps in tackling the sluggish feeling.

2) Dance: Especially the slow sensual seductive dance. Not only it's a good outlet but above all that it validates the emotions and creates a space to delve in it to create a beautiful synchronisation with the body movements.

3) Art: Create! Create! Create! Nothing better than creating beautiful art or writing poems, stories,etc to voice your passion for the world and it's offerings.

4) Music: I have playlists on Spotify that specifically cater to my sensual mood. It has all the songs that can set a tone for the bedroom (iykyk). Singing to it or dancing works wonders. It's a magical experience.

5) Meditation: You can meditate on those feelings to internalize it and put all that energy in proper use for achieving a goal,etc. This is something I very rarely do because I am a very active person but putting it out here cause it works for some people.

6)Play Barbie: This is my personal favourite. After all I am just a girl. I put on some makeup, wear a bold sexy outfit or a cute dress (depending on the mood) then spend my time reading a romance novel and listening to sensual songs. It's my kind of therapy🦋🦋

7) Be a model: Being all dressed up but not clicking any photos you got to be kidding me!!! Come on girl! Pose and click! You are not going to be this young again. The best thing I do is this. It literally helps in skyrocketing my confidence. I don't click pictures daily but boy when I do, God forbid!!

8) Unlearn the shame: The basic one. You need to own your body first and appreciate it. I know saying is easy but hey you won't get there if you never start.

9) Imitate things that you find sexy: I will explain this with an example, so I find laying on the bed on my chest with my legs dangling in the air extremely sexy so when I am alone I will lie on the bed in that way as a way of expressing. Secondly, we all know sipping wine while reading a book is incredibly sexy while being dressed all slutty but I don't consume alcoholic beverages so as an alternative I drink pomegranate juice. Plus I find pomegranate as the sexiest fruit for obvious reasons.

10) Invest in things that make you feel sensual and seductive: It doesn't need to be costly. Find your sexy and invest!! For me it's aroma candles, jewellery, deep neck tops, skirts, ribbons, art honestly I have developed a knack to turn any ordinary thing into something seductive atp I feel. Everything works for me. So exploreeee!! If you are experimental enough and don't have parental risks you can try out sex toys too.

That's all for today's show on ash-says. Stay tuned for more illegal tricks and explosive opinions.

[glowettee]

✧・゜: lessons that changed everything: what i learned from tam kaur :・゜✧:・゜

hey lovelies! ✧

i've been deep diving into tam kaur's videos lately (at 2am with a face mask on, as one does) and honestly? her advice has shifted something in me that i didn't even know needed shifting. i wanted to share some lessons that have genuinely changed how i move through the world, in case any of you need these reminders too.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ you're allowed to prioritize yourself ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

this seems so simple but was revolutionary for me. tam talks about how we're conditioned to believe that putting ourselves first is selfish, when actually it's the foundation of everything good we bring to the world. i used to feel guilty for saying no or taking time for myself, like i was somehow failing at being a good friend/daughter/person.

now i understand that filling my own cup first isn't just okay, it's necessary. i can't pour from empty, and neither can you.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ confidence is a practice, not a personality trait ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

i always thought confident people were just born that way. tam taught me that confidence is actually built through tiny, consistent actions, speaking up even when your voice shakes, trying things that scare you, and slowly expanding your comfort zone.

the most powerful part? she talks about how confidence isn't about never feeling insecure, it's about feeling the fear and doing it anyway. this changed everything for me because i was waiting to feel confident before acting confident. turns out it works the other way around.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ your worth isn't tied to productivity ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

in one video, tam mentioned how we're taught to tie our value to what we accomplish. i felt so seen because i've always been that person with the endless to-do lists, feeling like a failure on days when i don't cross enough items off.

learning to separate my inherent worth from my output has been the most freeing thing. i'm still working on it (catching myself when i say "i didn't do anything today"), but just being aware of this pattern has helped me be gentler with myself.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ healing isn't linear ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

tam talks about this a lot, how personal growth isn't this neat upward trajectory. it's messy. you'll have days where you feel like you've figured it all out, followed by days where you fall back into old patterns.

this helped me stop being so hard on myself when i slip up. healing isn't perfection; it's progress over time. those setbacks aren't failures, they're just part of the journey.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ other people's opinions aren't your responsibility ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

this one hit me hard. tam has this way of explaining how we waste so much energy trying to manage what others think of us, when ultimately, their opinions are shaped by their own experiences and insecurities.

i used to contort myself trying to make everyone like me. now i'm learning that some people simply won't, and that's okay. it's actually freeing to release that impossible responsibility.

what i love most about tam's approach is how she balances aspirational content with reality. she doesn't promise overnight transformation, she talks about the daily practice of choosing yourself, again and again.

have any of you found creators who've shifted your perspective like this? i'd love to know who else i should be watching!

xoxo, mindy 🤍

make sure to follow + check out my substack newsletter, i'm going to post a lot of amazing content on there: follow it right here!!

[beccawise7]

Take a breathe.

Refocus.

Begin again.

~beccawise7💜🖤

🎵🎶 ~ What Was I Made For, Billie Eilish

[lovelylouise25]

[know-the-self]

NONDUAL MEDITATION

Key pointers:-

1. You cannot practise being Awareness. You are it, here and now.

2. Remember:- Whatever I am aware of, that I am not.

3. Keep it real.

4. Stay with the teachings of Vedanta, read the teachings, contemplate/think about the teachings, till it becomes clear - I AM THAT.

[shallowseeker]

“but shal, how could crowley have slept with naomi when fergus macleod wasn’t alive yet????”

well. for starters, “mesopotamia” could’ve just been a general poetic.

but also could be as simple as… he didn’t.

he has intel on her. and he’s posturing, as usual. because that’s what crowley does.

double entendres and innuendos are his weapons of choice to sow distrust, suspicion, discomfort, derision. to put you off balance, if he can. (and if that fails, he’ll switch to insults or, at worst, incessant goading.)

And the thing is… almost ALL his posturing is sexual. it’s how he wields power (from what traditionally tends to be from a weaker position)

it’s more about how he operates and fergus’s victimhood/ historical demon trauma more than it is a statement of de facto truth

he wants you to read into it

get distracted; get discomfited

just long enough to take your eye off the ball or give him the upper hand in a power struggle

[rosykims]

thinking about how that solavellan ending actually Works for lavellans who want that hopeful ending but arent as forgiving abt the whole situation as veilguard presented it. and i do think in ashara's case, yes, she goes with him out of love, but more so out of duty. post trespasser she drops the name lavellan in favor of her family name, dhavise, since her place in the clan had already been cast into question and her allegiances with the chantry/solas are cause for doubt as to whether she's even welcome back anymore. but i think by the end of veilguard she's reaffirmed her identity as Lavellan no matter what, and truly does see herself as the Keeper of not just her own clan but of her whole modern people, and with that rekindled purpose she chooses to watch over them all by way of watching over fen'harel. protecting them by protecting him from himself. which ironically is the reason the dalish HAVE keepers in the first place

[gai-sucks-titties-in-my-basement]

Gai saw a man burn alive and longed to be engulfed in the same flames. His idea of heroism was tainted from the start, a sacrifice of self to power, so much power you die. Anything less is not good enough. He has never valued his life as anything other than his status and name. He wanted nothing more than to burn after he released the 8th gate. He was kept alive as punishment for his ego, Maito Gai needed to learn how to live life as a human being.

[ferallafemme]

https://www.ferallafemme.etsy.com

[extravalgant]

i love that dasein was kind of meant to be the closest thing we get to seeing the wizard in "canon" bc its like. imagine being the wizard and teaching the ''nothing'' how to ''be'' and having to watch in horror as everyone and everything around him tries to twist him into something he doesnt want to be and taking advantage of his kindness and genuine urge to help and having to be like. holy shit. this is what its like to be on the outside of all that

dasein just wants to BE in the similar way that the wizard wants to be i think. and both of them are "outsiders"—they dont well and truly belong in the spiral, and give themselves away to the detriment of their own health and sanity. so when dasein understandably gets stressed out and starts malfunctioning, thats also a reflection of the wizard

[dailymusemaniac]

www.redbubble.com/people/Inspire76 sunflower sunshine

[lovelylouise25]

[woolly-aph1d]

I don't know if it's canon, but i wholeheartedly believe that Erik removing the bullet out of Charles is what caused him to be disabled.

The (assumed) fact that Erik's care and love would be THE reason is crushing, and ironic, and it reflects his modus operandi so so well.

That's because Erik is a man who wants to rip the proverbial bandaid off. He sees the issue (or what he believes to be an issue) and eliminates it.

Bullet was in, and it was the cause of pain. So he removed it. He "got rid of the issue". Simple as that.

Wrong.

In that moment, he redacted all control he had over the missiles, putting his everything into removing the bullet that was hurting Charles. He put his all in hope that he will save him from more pain or even death. But it doesn't matter how focused or serene he was, how deeply inside he reached for the ability to not fall apart where Charles fell and instead redirect himself into a saviour. And it didn't matter whether in that moment, in all his body and mind, he felt that all of his training was for that exact moment. It never mattered and it never will matter because however careful and precise he was, he was not about to succesfully remove a bullet from a spine without any prior anatomical knowledge or skillset in the field. Erik's love and desperation in manouvering the bullet out was disastrous, no matter how sugar-coated with care it was. (but he doesn't know that, no)

But the bullet was not alone, it had a source.

He sees Moira, "You. You did this" he stated before trying to suffocate her. She was the one who shot at him, after all. She was holding the gun - the physical weapon and he saw her as guilty. He was the judge, he was about to be the executioner.

"She didn't do this Erik. You did"

It hung in the air like a giant stop sign.

But Erik is the bullet, and he is in control of himself just as he was in control of it mere moment before it hit Charles. He can only change direction, never stop. At least not before he hurts someone, most likely someone he loves (and maybe not even then).

He shifts in his route, no less doomed than the previous one; he is searching for unity. "We are brothers" he believes, he also believes that "us turning on each other, it's what THEY want". And it doesn't matter who he means by "them" either, any would be good if it would align their paths. But just like in that deleted scene in the empty corridors their eyes meet, each of them knowing they were trying to reach the other briefly before turning around, neither of them willing or able to join paths, only to cross. Charles wants to be Erik's "friend" while Erik searches for an ally. Charles is the home and Erik is the battlefield. Its the status quo they cannot break out of.

Charles, no matter how daft and out of touch he is, stated the truth; "they were only following orders" and Erik knew that. He heard it before. He felt it before. He lived through it. Survived it.

He was not about to follow anybody's orders ever. He was his own man, ruled by his own emotions. Same emotions that took a hold of the bullet. Same disobedience and lack of order that took Charles' legs.

Its the modus operandi, that's the source of it all.

He will take what he sees for granted, and eliminate what he sees. Sometimes its a bullet, sometimes its humanity. Or all humans, because he felt a lack of humanity from them. He doesn't see his own reflection in Charles' eyes. He cannot see his own faults.

In front of him, he sees the big picture just right, but the devil hides in the details. Sometimes what ruins the system isn't a bullet lodged into it. Sometimes issues are internal and you can't rid of them.

Mystique is a proof of Erik's faults as much as Charles'. She is what destroys the ideal and points out the inevitable. Its the internalised phobia and hatered we see throughout the movie. Getting rid of humans isn't what makes it go away. It becomes the microsegregation of palatable and non-palatable mutations within the mutant group. Erik and Charles being privileged and shown time and time again manufacturing a standard for Raven to meet, without once allowing her a safe space to decide who she wants to be - who she chooses as her most authentic self. And Raven becomes a source of hurt and discrimination herself as she abandons her child for being outwardly mutant in appearance, because she can be privileged too, if she so wishes.

Erik will not save the world, nor mutants. He will not destroy, or turn it into ashes either. It will be the same movie with different cast. Same world with different faults for Erik to see.

Erik and Charles are on the edges of a society that has to accomodate truth and find respect, but neither of them give us the resolution. Maybe because neither of us know how to save our own world either.

If you were able to spend time reading me tripping over ideas and words, you have time to interact and maybe even donate to Farah who is in great need of aid in order to get basic necessities and save up to evacuate from Gaza in order to escape the ongoing massacre caused by Israel.

Please donate and help a person in need through this link,

https://gofund.me/3523e2a7