Akosua Dardaine Edwards's Blog, page 74

Let the Truth Exist...

darling, you feel heavy because you are too full of truth.
open your mouth more. let the truth exist somewhere other than inside your body. della hicks-wilson


How many truths exist inside of your body?

How many requests remain stuck in your throat?

How many denials have you made to yourself?

And why?

How many days have you missed?
How many nights have you been missing?
How many evenings have you given up?

And why?

Darling, this is your life, your monent, do yourself a favour and show up, speak up and keep your word to yourself!

Peace

Have you read any of Akosua's work?

What Did I Learn Today? Lessons on the Journey to Unconditional Self Love
Nyabo (Madam) - Why Are You Here?Daily Lessons on the Journey - A Journal
Follow Akosua onTwitterInstagramFacebook

All Roads Lead to Self

When you are truly self-aware of your true value, you won’t be defensive .

I have been conducting an experiment over the past few weeks.  The experiments has been  - I watch very closely how I respond to comments with which I share a different view. 
For the first few days, many of the responses were habitual. Reactive, no major thought put into them, just a response with little thought.

Now, that I have learnt that we are always creating through our thoughts, words and deeds, I know that my words have power, that what I say and think whether mindful or not creates something in my life. I have started paying attention.

I noticed when I would have  a defensive response - usually when I wanted validation or I wanted others to agree with me, or to prove them wrong.
We humans can justify any action and argue any point to get our own way - I have learnt from this exercise that there can be respect in differences and everyone doesn't have to agree with us. That external valiation is not always required for me to feel good about the point I am making.

I have also learnt that there is nothing to prove. The moment you believe that you have to prove something to someone, pay attention to that. It may be your negative ego looking to rear its head.

All of the actions of respecting differences of opinions, looking to self for validation and being okay with other people's choices without proving them wrong, come from loving and honoring self. 

The more comfortable you feel with yourself there will be less need to be defensive, to want validation and to prove that you are right.

You can sit with the differences respectfully knowing that if someone does not agree with you, validate you or acknowledge you how you want them to that it is not personal and it does not invalidate you and your views.

All roads lead to self- as usual

Peace

Have you read any of Akosua's work?

What Did I Learn Today? Lessons on the Journey to Unconditional Self Love
Nyabo (Madam) - Why Are You Here?Daily Lessons on the Journey - A Journal
Follow Akosua onTwitterInstagramFacebook

Know that....this too shall pass

In truth, I’m not great with panic or hysteria. I actually don’t like it. I am not truly shaken by things. So, when stuff happens I comprehend it but I just take everything as it is. I also rely on the thought that society is resilient and like all of history we will survive. Charlie's Toolbox

People, be safe out there!
Know that we are resilient
Know that Fear is not an option
Know that we can choose to respond in a calm way
Know that....this too shall pass

A tale of me and the Corona Virus scare
Peace

Have you read any of Akosua's work?

What Did I Learn Today? Lessons on the Journey to Unconditional Self Love
Nyabo (Madam) - Why Are You Here?Daily Lessons on the Journey - A Journal
Follow Akosua onTwitterInstagram
Facebook

What Does Your Resistance Look Like?

Turns out that compassion and acceptance is like kryptonite for resistance, contrary to the feet-to-the-fire, tough it out approach that many espouse. Chela Davidson


At times in our lives there is a need to change, to shift, to re-focus. If we are lucky we get to that point on our own, with little pain and without a major meltdown
Sometimes we may not be that lucky and experience both the pain and the meltdown
However you arrive at the cross roads of having to make a shift or a change in what we have been doing and become comfortable requires that we do something new.
As soon as the brain recognises something new is about to go down, guess what? resistance appears
Resistance may look like procrastination, it may look like justification an excuses, it may look like ignoring. Resistance may take so many forms. Rest assured, once you are finding ways and avoiding the inevitable, this is resistance.

If resistance is strong and determination is weak, you are not ready. Give it some time. Give yourself the ample amount of love and compassion and positive self talk because trust me, self berating feels so much worse!

Love yourself through it.

Peace

Have you read any of Akosua's work?

What Did I Learn Today? Lessons on the Journey to Unconditional Self Love
Nyabo (Madam) - Why Are You Here?Daily Lessons on the Journey - A Journal
Follow Akosua onTwitterInstagram
Facebook

love isn’t chaos and conflict.

divine love should bring you peace and stability. love isn’t chaos and conflict. love isn’t pain and torture. love isn’t sacrifice and should not leave you feeling half empty. divine love radiates. divine love should bring you nothing less than understanding, kindness, divinity. Mindful Musings

How many of us say that love is the reason why they do what they do. Love made me do it.
Love made me lie.
Love made me cheat
Love made me run away
Love made me hide.

Really?

Love made you do that?
 Something as powerful as love, a vibration and energy that has the power to change the entire world caused you to lie, cheat, and react with anger?
I think love and the word love is used conveniently when a poor choice is made.
Make another choice when you notice yourself going down a road of self dishonour.

Peace
Have you read any of Akosua's work?

What Did I Learn Today? Lessons on the Journey to Unconditional Self Love
Nyabo (Madam) - Why Are You Here?Daily Lessons on the Journey - A Journal
Follow Akosua onTwitterInstagram
Facebook

Emotions need a Voice

How many times has someone said; “You shouldn’t feel like that” or, “Don’t feel that way! That’s ridiculous!”  More often than not, their comment and the judgments attached to the statement will send us swimming down the river of emotional denial.  Emotions need a “voice.”  They need to be “aired out.” When feelings are not acknowledged, they do not go away.  They fester, spread and infect every aspect of your being and life .  Iyanla Vazant


Everyone's feelings are valid. They may make you uncomfortable, they may not make sense to you, they may not be what you know, they may not mesh with your own feelings.
We have a choice to be around the people who have shown and expressed their feelings which we are not alignment with.
We have a choice to deal with our own discomfort when it comes up
Make enquiry with yourself when someone else expressing their feelings makes you feel a certain type of way.
Feelings buried alive do not die, they fester. And we all know when things fester in the darkness
it becomes more than usual, toxic!

Breathe and feel those feelings, find tools to express them but don't bury them or supress them

Peace

Have you read any of Akosua's work?

What Did I Learn Today? Lessons on the Journey to Unconditional Self Love
Nyabo (Madam) - Why Are You Here?Daily Lessons on the Journey - A Journal
Follow Akosua onTwitterInstagram
Facebook

Accceptance vs Resignation

Acceptance is different than resignation. In resignation, there are still residuals of the previous emotion left. There is reluctance and a delaying of the true recognition of the facts. Resignation says, “I don’t like it, but I have to put up with it.” With acceptance, resistance to the true nature of the facts has been relinquished; thus, one of the signs of acceptance is serenity.


One of the greatest lessons that I have learnt is the difference between acceptance and resignation.
I learnt that acceptance does not signal that I like the situation but I have embraced the reality that it exists in that moment and I cannot change it.
Acceptance is making peace with it
Resignation has some resentment tucked in there somewhere.
So I know that once I sense a feeling of anger, or bitterness of anxiety, that acceptance is not a state where I am, it is resignation.

Sometimes it is difficult to let go, to surrender, to accept
This is where I have to pull out other tools to get me there - affirmations, deep breaths, prayer.
These are where these tools come in handy- to get me to a space of peace.
Sometimes, the choice to accept in the moment is the only one that will allow us to move forward and make better decisions
Looking at how things actually is rather than what they should be saves us time and gives us clarity to move forward.
I love my peace, so I choose Acceptance
Peace

 Have you read any of Akosua's work?

What Did I Learn Today? Lessons on the Journey to Unconditional Self Love
Nyabo (Madam) - Why Are You Here?Daily Lessons on the Journey - A Journal
Follow Akosua onTwitterInstagram
Facebook

Bodacious Girls Rule

       In Acceptance, we: ·         Are able to forgive ourselves and others. Hence the meaning of “judge not, lest ye be judged.” ·         Let go of the inner guilt-monger ·         Focus less on doing and more on being. ·         Take responsibility for ourselves

Thank you are two words, and they are, for me, the two most powerful words that I know and use.Today it seems so small to say, thank you.Thank you to Patricia Toby - without her none of this would be possibleThank you to Denyssa David - always selfless, always willing, always kindThank you to Natacha Jones - even in her injury she came out and trained the ladies to be the hosts for the eveningThank you to Nastasha Davis - making a difference in her own wayThank you to Cleopatra Borel - making time in her busy schedule to lend a handThank you to Candice Guppy Sobion and her sister Tenille - for guidance and support on the dayThank you to Erica Ashton - always showing up, with a smileThank you to Avinash - our lone male soldierThank you to the volunteers, the sponsors, the make up artists, the hair stylists, the caterers, the staff at the Castle Kilarney, the sponsors and the people who attended.
The more I say thank you, the more I feel empoweredPeace

Have you read any of Akosua's work?
What Did I Learn Today? Lessons on the Journey to Unconditional Self Love
Nyabo (Madam) - Why Are You Here?Daily Lessons on the Journey - A Journal
Follow Akosua onTwitterInstagram
Facebook

Stay True

  trees do not ask permission to yield fruit. the sun does not need supporters in order to rise and set. you do not need people to believe in you to do what you were created to do. Diamond Dorris

Sharing some views from my girl Maxie McCoyWhen we're focused on what we're saying in order to get the desired response we want, we aren't really saying what we need to say. Now yes, do certain professional communications, negotiations and back 'n forth require calculated strategy? Of course. But when it comes to matters of the heart –you know, that thing you feel like you really need to tell them –What you say, what you write, what you communicate shouldn't ever be about what you hope to get in response. You simply need to speak from a space of your feelings, your truth, your heart.

The things you address or call attention to or give feedback on or communicate are best said when they're because you need to respect yourself, to love yourself, to uphold your boundaries, or to stand in your own truth and expression.
You just need to ask yourself: do I need to say this for me? Or am I saying this because of how I hope they'll respond? PeaceHave you read any of Akosua's work?
What Did I Learn Today? Lessons on the Journey to Unconditional Self Love
Nyabo (Madam) - Why Are You Here?Daily Lessons on the Journey - A Journal
Follow Akosua onTwitterInstagram
Facebook

Who are you keeping in the front row?

Sometimes, people have to be removed from your life, so you can see your own: beauty, strength, purpose, and power—more clearer .Lalah Delia

I look around my life now and I see so many changes in the people that are now around me. Some by choice and some by force. In some instances I was holding on to people being in my life due to history, due to fear, due to ignorance, due to ego.
What I have learned is that as we change, as we evolve, as we rise, there will be others around us who will not move in the same direction nor the same pace. And that is A-OK. I now know that people are in our lives for a lifetime, a reason and a season. Once I can discern the difference, it makes the journey so much more pleasant. Gone is the need to hold on to relationships which have run its course, to force friendships, to feel ashamed if a relationship has ended, to pretend and to dishonour myself just in order to keep people around
Friendships and relationships are now based on honour of self, flow, knowing who I am and reciprocity. It takes a level of practice and discipline to get to this space - and maybe some tears.
But its all worth it!
Peace
Have you read any of Akosua's work?
What Did I Learn Today? Lessons on the Journey to Unconditional Self Love
Nyabo (Madam) - Why Are You Here?Daily Lessons on the Journey - A Journal
Follow Akosua onTwitterInstagram
Facebook