Seven years old.  Does a learning label carry forward for over 40 years?  Today I learned it does. Today I embrace my learning challenges as they truly make me special.

Hi wellness journey followers,

I did an energy massage on the weekend and found a key blockage to my healing. I realized my own sense of self is around not feeling stupid. When I was seven years old, I was provided with the gift of assisted learning however I have always viewed it as the “special class”. That internal label has followed me throughout my amazing career and has pushed me to prove I am not stupid. I realized only after my energy massage that my “label” stops me from healing and I need to love my learning disability which has inspired me to share complex ideas in a simple format.

Last night I started to read “Anatomy of the Spirit, The Seven Stages of Power and Healing” by Caroline Myss, PhD.  This book is very insightful as it provides guidance to understanding energy and vitality and  how they affect wellness.  While I was reading it, I kept thinking about my seven-year-old self and wondered if she was still needing to feel OK about her “label” – her secret.  We moved when I was seven so no one knew that I was in a “special class” in my new school.  They just knew I was a in a group with the slower readers and math students which was how the class was set up.

This morning I received in my inbox an amazing blog post from Kris Carr.  As usual, Kris’ message seems to provide guidance at the times of my life when I need it.  Her post was about self acceptance – to love all your flaws and imperfections.  Embrace them for the great things that they are as they truly do make you “special”.

That post provided the last bit of the acceptance journey I needed to embrace. As I write this the tears of release are flowing.

Today I embrace my learning challenges and forgive myself for not accepting them – they are the key to my future to help people to learn about wellness in a visual and auditory environment.

Thanks Marcela (my energy massage healer), Caroline (the author), Kris (for your post).  A special thanks to my sister (J) to help me remember parts of our old school, my friend @organicexpert for listening (again) about my healing journey and my amazing husband who let me read out loud to him Anatomy of the Spirit and listened to me discuss how the energy massage had discovered a seven-year-old girl who needed to feel loved and accepted for her learning disabilities.

May you embrace your challenges, forgive yourself and fill surrounded in your own self love.

To your self love,

Jo, your 9CupChallenge partner