“Live from the overflow.” Oprah’s
words of wisdom inspire and shape my daily practice of nurturing a richer
connection to self.
***
I’ve fallen back
in love with Oprah. I return to this phenomenal woman in a time of transition.
A love affair rekindled. Happenstance reintroduction initiated by David
Rubenstein, famous financier whose interview with the TV Talk Show Queen I
caught in the midst of late-night packing.
She appears on
the screen on my hotel’s TV the last night that I am in Austin. The trip to
apartment-hunt and secure a place of my own in a city soon to be my new home
required grit. The housing market is competitive, and the Universe tested my
resolve to move with waves of challenges. I pass the test because I do want
this – a beginning bathed in Texas sunlight, a chapter written in response to
answering a call heard years ago now propelling forward movement.
I stand tall in
the knowing that this move from Lexington to Austin aligns with my spirit, my
evolution, my expansion, my purpose; however, my attempt to explain to
grief-stricken loved ones has not been a success. Sadness is an entity hovering
around conversations with family, and for a few, the hurt spills out in anger
and bitter put-downs. Boundaries become vital to contain and sustain my own
hope, clarity, and pride in choosing to begin again, a forging of an
independent path.
Oprah arrives on
the TV screen as an answer to a question circling on how to stay strong, on how
to stay so close to self as I proceed on.
“Live from the
overflow.”
Live, love,
speak, act from a rich, reverent connection with self.
Living from the
overflow shapes into a mantra informing my daily decisions: Does this
person/place/project drain or uplift me? What do I need to do to take great
self-care so I can be a peaceful and powerful presence? Revolutionary questions
I dare myself to ask, because I’ve existed in the alternative of barely living
from a constricted, shallow flow of energy.
My experience
from overdoing, from saying yes (Oprah calls it the disease to please), and
pushing down my needs to instantly respond to the wants and whims of others
burnt me out. Exhausted martyrdom left me bitter and hopeless. The overflow to
water my creativity dried up. The overflow to spin lightheartedness and play in
my relationships vanished. The overflow to replenish myself evaporated because
the shriveled streams of energy were instantly recycled to push toward
accomplishing the next to-do.
The past year
ended with me emotionally drained on the bare floor of my being, and those
experiences are teachers instructing me that my self-rejuvenation is the key
priority. And only I can be responsible for attending lovingly to the tides and
currents making up the universe of my being.
I possess – as we
all do – a sharp intelligence emitting constant signals to guide me. The trick
for me is to trust what I feel, what I am gleaning intuitively from my
environment, the vibe behind a person’s words and actions. I can trace all my
difficulties back to one core flaw: second-guessing my intuition. Always, I
know when I am overcommitting. Always, I know that I am begrudgingly saying yes
when my inner voice is whimpering no. Always, I know when a person is not
showing up authentically, and in my second-guessing I am eventually proven
correct when their behavior mirrors my original interpretation.
Living from the
overflow refines trust in feeling and intuition. Living from the overflow
occurs when I redirect my focus to honoring my truth. This actualizes in firmly,
unapologetically responding no when I feel the quiet panic of overwhelm. This
appears in answering to the yes. I commune with my instinctual self to hear and
discern my true yes and valid no. I rewire automatic people-please circuits and
practice pausing, breathing, feeling into the befitting response. I choose the
path that befriends self.
In the
befriending, in the active decision to live from the overflow, there is an
assured embodiment of peace, clarity, presence. Living from the overflow
restores and replenishes and is a remedy, a gift of light in a heavy-hearted
world.
In transition, I
learn to live from the overflow. I rewrite my narrative to exist and thrive
from a sacred and renewed place of energetic abundance, and ultimately this is
the lush space that I intend to live and direct my life. I desire energized
compassion to course through my systems, so I can beam love to my adored ones,
and river love and intention into my passions, creative endeavors and
purposeful projects.
I think of Oprah,
this feminine flame who burns in empathy, joy, resiliency, spiritual understanding.
Thank the Universe she lives from a joyfully tended, deep well of connection.
Look at how her luminous presence illuminates the world.
You are a flame,
too. Take care to be exceptionally bright. And blaze.
