Writings
Sanctuary for the Heart Monthly Reflections – Sept. 2023
I wish you a gentle and kind relationship with yourself as you navigate these challenging times.
The Spiritual Impulse
Honour her as your deeper self and let her guide you. She loves simplicity and slowness.
Survival Stress
As we wake up from the demands of the personal identity a new relationship with the body begins to awaken as well. The body is no longer seen as a means to an end but an innocent and alive mystery with an innate intelligence…..
The Right Conditions
Human beings are like plants. We do really well in the right conditions and poorly in the “wrong” conditions. It’s up to us to discover what the right conditions are for us to heal.
Sanctuary for the Heart Monthly Reflections
I wish you a gentle and kind relationship with yourself as you navigate these challenging times.
Living with Loose Ends
I sense that death will welcome us into her arms when she is ready for us. It won’t be one moment too late or one moment too soon. She will have her final say.
I Will Make Time
I will make time: Poetry by Candace Kirby
The Born and the Unborn
The Born and the Unborn: Poetry by Candace Kirby
A Very Strange Day
Did you ever have a day when the best thing feels like beginning again tomorrow. It wasn’t a terrible day just a strange day filled with little inconveniences.
Rage
“Rage and anguish exist underneath the veneer of niceness, no matter how sincerely a person mistakes the facade for her true self.” ~ Gabor Mate
The Body is Innocent
We have been taught to distrust the natural intelligence of our bodies. We send messages of rejection to the body repeatedly and yet she continues to breathe.
Sweet confusion
Sweet Confusion: Poetry by Candace Kirby
Even the Birds are Quiet
It’s not our natural state to be overbearing and heavy with unprocessed pain. There is a more embodied way of being that begins with truth telling, compassion, listening and a willingness to see.
Simple Sincere Sweet and Slow
The heart longs for the sweetness and sincerity of kind words, sensitive touch and merciful presence.
Resources for Self Regulation
Resources for Self Regulation by Candace Kirby
Grateful for Today
Grateful for Today: Poetry by Candace Kirby
Ode to Summer
Ode to Summer: Poetry by Candace Kirby
Resting in the Heart of God
An ordinary moment becomes a sacred moment when we’re willing to pause.
Are you listening?
Our physiology speaks to us through pain and although nobody likes pain there is absolute benevolence in the signals that say, “something is out of balance here”.
The Paradox of Spirituality
Even the deepest suffering will soften in your presence when you realize that you are the tender and unconditional space that pain arises in.
A Simple Presence Practice
A Simple Presence Practice: Poetry by Candace Kirby
The Reverberations of Trauma
The reverberations of trauma begin in childhood and echo throughout our lifetime. With loving attention new pathways can be formed in the brain and redirected towards wholeness.
Is Love Ever Absent?
I have learned that I can only know the truth of any situation by being quiet and curious. The mind is a constant feedback loop of the past. It doesn’t leave room for openness, wonder and listening.
The Soul of the Universe
Love is the simple unearned grace of being here. An alive mystery.
The Present Moment is Safe
If you notice places of tension in your body simply ask yourself, “is this tension necessary right now?” Just a gentle curiosity. No demand for the tension to release or let go. Be patient with yourself.
The Trauma Wound
The trauma wound goes back to the disconnection that happens during a traumatic experience in childhood. Our natural state is connection. Disconnection is the result of trauma.
Tenderness is for the Heart
The heart longs for the sweetness and sincerity of kind words, sensitive touch and merciful presence. When presence meets pain there is something magical and transformative that happens.
Simple Aware Being
Our true nature doesn’t argue with reality; it simply allows things to be as they are or in other words it is one with the way things are not in opposition with the way things are.
Living with Individual and Collective Trauma
We bring ourselves into alignment with the way things are right now. We stop fighting and allow ourselves to be deeply impacted by the goodness and healing forces of our benevolent nature.
Chronic Pain and Anxiety
The brain and nervous systems react to prolonged pain by going into a fight-flight-freeze response. There are neurosensory practices that support the nervous system to come back into regulation.