Paige Pukajlo’s Reviews > How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self > Status Update

We can change the way
we connect to our Self and in doingchange
the way we connect to the universe. There is
always an opportunity to grow, evolve, and
inspire, which trickles out into the collective.
The point is to return us to our authentic essence, our pure awareness, the embodiment of who we were before conditioning
took hold. to reconnect with the col-
lective access the deep well
of Self-empowerment within us

I am a powerful creator of my world, and my
energy and thoughts shape the world around
me. Yes, there are things outside my control
and we do have power over the way we ex
perience the world. We can change the way
we take care of ourselves. We can change the
way we interpret our surroundings and relate
to the ones we love.

Every moment, we make a choice: we can
live in the past, or we can look forward and en-
vision a future that is different.

Achieving intimacy requires expressing your
authentic Self (as shadowy as it can often be)
without fear of being misunderstood or facing
reproach or retribution. When we are in a safe
space of mutual respect, we can express our
divergences without fear and still return to
homeostasis. This knowledge-that we have a
core resting state within reach--gives us the
flexibility to tolerate discomfort.

As the large majority of us are living with a dysregulated nervous system, we find ourselves literally unable to feel safe enough to connect with others. We are trapped in fight, flight, or freeze responses that make it psychologically impossible to form authentic bonds. This state is reflected back to those around us, who can’t help but internalize it.

Once we’ve expressed our needs and openly established our boundaries, we can enter an arena where we feel secure.

The more we learn self-accountability, the stronger our faith in our Self will grow. This allows for failure. It allows for flexibility and forgiveness when we inevitably fall off the path. When we have self-trust, we know that the path is still there waiting for us. This is the essence of self-accountability that leads to empowerment.

Emotional
maturity is about combining softness and
toughness when necessary-not only with the
people around you but with yourself.

as we continue to dig more and more to try to understand their conditioning and life circumstances, we can begin to empathize without explaining the problems away. You can relate to their wounds and
feel for their suffering while maintaining the
boundaries that are necessary for your men
tal, physical, and emotional health.

As you cultivate more grace toward and acceptance of your own imperfections, you may find yourself extending a similar compassion to your own parent-figures (as hard as that may be) and other
loved ones. coming to accept that they are
fallible beings can be frustrating, even rage in
ducing.