Self Love
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Masks
As I sit at this bar table, eating some super delicious pumpkin deep-fried fritters and reading Joseph Campbell, I’m noticing when I am overthinking. Such as how I just walked around for an hour, deciding where to eat lunch rather than just making a decision and enjoying whichever restaurant I choose (and it’s always delicious).…
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We Can’t Do It On Our Own
Let love in from others and from yourself because the universe, the divine, will make you and this world so incredibly beautiful if you trust that what it wants to give you will in fact make your life more beautiful than you ever could alone. It made sunsets, blue oceans, yellow flowers, moss, singing birds,…
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Subjects
We leave our bodies when we create fantasies, take photos of ourselves, or dream up expectations. Those acts see our Selves outside of our bodies rather than as the subjects. When in fact, we are the camera, not the photo. Let’s write poetry and burn it. Let’s learn instruments and play alone in the mountains.…
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Fight For Her, Now
You felt that she was fading away, that she was getting further and further from you, that she was deeply unhappy, that she was being ignored because society was telling you to do so. But you felt in your heart, in that pit, in the deepest part of you, that that was wrong. That she’s…
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Respect
It’s respect. Respect is the key to self-care. At the times when my mind is angry at myself, it loses the respect for the divinity within me. The woman in the bubble. The times when I am most happy, the most forgiving, accepting, slow, joyful, are the times when I have respect for my body,…
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Ups & Downs
Whenever we do something that we’ve been practicing not to do, like being cruel to ourselves, overthinking, or reacting instead of responding, the solution is not to be upset with oneself and vow never to do it again, because that will only create more fear and guilt when it does happen again, and it will,…
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She
If she is who she is now, then she is exactly who I want to be.
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Lick the Spoon
Contentment is our natural state and we should be using every moment of our lives in order to get back to it. In society, we complicate our lives, distract ourselves from stillness, and take ourselves further away from that state of joy. Ask yourself what you can do each moment you feel clouded with anger,…
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Let Them Sit With You
Let the bad thoughts come up and sit with you as you still search for joy with them by your side.
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My Name Is Not Ali
My name is not Ali. I don’t even know what my name is. But this is not my body either. I have many bodies, but this is the one that the universe chose for me on this earth at this time. Just like the flowers didn’t know if they were going to turn yellow or…
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We Are Not Our Faces
Remember when we were kids and we realized for the first time that we were given a specific body that we could not change? Because of the genetic and ancestral circumstances that created our bodies for us? And how we will never be able to see our own faces? Even when we look in the…
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Whispers
Where do I go? What do I do with my life? Who do I spend my time with? How much do I need? What is the point? We often yell these questions in our heads. But the answers are never yelled back. The answer is always, always, whatever brings joy to the body and the…
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Brillo
I should give all the shine I give others to myself. If I did, I would enjoy every moment and so would the world.
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Wait For Gold
You miss out on more by moving too quickly. You miss out on good meals by eating whatever is in front of you without thanking the food and becoming numb with pleasure. You miss out on good conversation by walking past people and assuming they have nothing to offer you. You miss out on good…
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Bubbles & Snakes
A woman sits cross-legged in a floating bubble, eyes closed, smiling. She is the image of one’s divinity. Untouched, natural, in a vacuum, solely existing within the universe. Unconnected to any physical world. Unconnected to appearance or ego. She only listens to what’s in the bubble: the universe, her intuition, and her body. But she…
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Body, A Thousand Years Old
We forget the power of the body. Bodies are always trying to get us to a state of homeostasis, to a state of balance. They’re always trying to make us the most healthy, efficient, nurturing, and stable version of ourselves. And if we listen to what they need, we will always be okay. We forget…
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Bad Banana Bread
I want to be a baker. I literally and figuratively tasted the joy of baking while working for a chef in Argentina. I felt the joy of working with my hands. I tasted the sweetness of sugar on my tongue. I had unlimited opportunities to make something beautiful with very few ingredients and little time…
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Giving Love
The times when I am the happiest are the times when I am giving love and receiving love from others. Staring at a lover in the eyes, resting a hand on a friend, playing instruments in a jam session, sitting around a fire together, sharing a secret with someone. I feel complete by myself, but…
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Opposites
Trust is the opposite of control. Tranquility is the opposite of perfection. Letting go is the opposite of fantasy. And enjoying is the opposite of questioning.
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The Right to Forgive
We have the right to forgive ourselves of the things that other people never forgave us for just as much as we have the right to accept the imagined forgiveness that we wish would come from others but never did.
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A Note On Satisfaction
Let’s say you’re on a walk, and sit down to take a snack at a beautiful tree. When satisfied, you continue walking and just slightly down the road you see an even more beautiful tree than the one you just stopped at. You start thinking that you could have eaten there instead and had a…
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What If The Whole World Hated You?
First, ask yourself: What if the whole world hated you? What would you do with your life? And accept that imagined reality. Then, ask yourself: What if the whole world loved you? What would you do with your life? And accept that reality. And then, live them both.
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Extraordinary
Don’t tell your daughter to be extraordinary. Refrain from saying that she can get any job she wants. That now is the time to chase her dreams. To be bold. Because that will teach her that she hasn’t already achieved her dreams. That her dreams are outside of her, running away from her. That she…
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The Chapel
She stands outside a chapel in Santiago. Graffiti lives on the walls behind the people selling goods in tents. Fire trucks are lined up; dogs are barking, horns are screaming, tires are screeching. The city lives in chaos. But when she walks past it all, through the chapel doors, she is suddenly the only one…
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Twenty-Five
Throughout my travels, I’ve met many fellow twenty-five-year-olds who I’ve noticed are all going through the same brain exploding, euphoric, terrifying moment in life just as I am. At age twenty-five, our brains are fully developed. Of course, throughout the rest of our lives we are still learning and unlearning things, but our brains at…
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Deer
What if we just stopped thinking so much and just felt? Animals eat food and stay healthy without thinking, and some have brains the size of peanut shells. The ability to think and analyze and control and predict the future and imagine has made the human race rule the world. But it has also destroyed…
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Trees
Why does nature want to be alive and grow taller every day if it doesn’t do anything? Huh, capitalism? What’s your answer? I think maybe it’s because nature just wants to be alive. Trees don’t know what they look like. They don’t have fantasies. They just, become. Are consciousness of free will and imagined realities, such as…
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Forgiveness
Imagine everyone you love in your life telling you they forgive you. Imagine everyone who hurt you telling you they are sorry. Imagine everyone you feel shame around telling you they accept every flaw. Imagine yourself asking for forgiveness for all the negative thoughts and unloving behavior. Imagine your Self telling you that you never…
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Presence
The heat of the sun beams down on her back. Mountains surround her. The air is cold and crisp. The days have been cloudy and rainy up until this moment. She is so afraid that a cloud will come between her and the sun and take her warmth away that she doesn’t realize that there…
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Suffering
She feels she has to suffer to deserve joy. So she derives herself from joy, suffering each day, only to gorge herself with pleasure. The man taught her that in order for her to “earn” joy she must work and behave and be quiet but yet be different and be beautiful but yet be intelligent…
Ali Walks Around 