Inner Journey with Dr. Saliha Afridi

You are feeling painful, difficult, and scary feelings. I want you to close your eyes and see the emotion inside you and then take a deep breath and I want you to expand all the space around it. Breathe in through nose and out through the mouth. Imagine that space growing with every breath. So the emotion stays the same but you expand. Make room for the emotion(s). Expand. You are not your emotions. You have emotions. You are vast. Your spirit indestructible. I know you don’t like these feelings, I don’t like these feelings too. They feel so painful and they feel they are breaking you, but if your heart is capable of feeling them, then you are strong enough to bear them. Soften into the feeling. You can cry… sob… just keep softening with your breath…stay soft.. It’s ok… let your heart break. I promise, it won’t break down. That’s the thing with hearts… the more the break… the bigger and stronger they get… the only way to a resilient heart is to let it feel and let it break.

One of the most complicated relationship we have is the relationship to ourselves and then we wonder why we struggle in our relationship to others…if we can’t even be with ourselves, how and why do we expect others to? Why self-love- you make the world a better place and free the people in your lives when you love yourself. What is *not self-love (hint… it is not selfish) What is self-love…as I see it, it has 5 aspects self-awareness, self-discipline, self-care, self-compassion, self-acceptance. What you can do to cultivate love- cultivate self-awareness, be honest with yourself … for that you will need to learn self-soothing, and be compassionate with yourself… meaning hold your self to the highest standards but support yourself as you make mistakes along the way… Ps. Once… it’s a mistake … twice it’s a mistake… but 3 times it’s a pattern. If you keep making the same mistakes again and again… then you need to understand why and make efforts to change that.

So much talk about purpose and passion. What if I work and it isn’t my passion but it feeds my family? How do I find my purpose? Why are relationships so confusing these days? How do I get rid of my anger? how to sit with difficult feelings… I share my experience of sitting with regret. (Yes I cried and yes I am very ok with crying) how do I make my child less angry ? How do I get out of my comfort zone?

Trauma is anything that overwhelms our capacity to cope. It can negatively impact the brain and nervous system. But you also have the power to heal the impact of trauma. Body Emotions Thoughts All need to be part of the treatment and healing of trauma in the mind/body.

This episode is for parents and children but really for all people who want to know what it takes to have healthy relationships in today's world. The skills needed for healthy adult relationships are cultivated in childhood… but even as adults you can start cultivating some of these skills if you struggle with relationships.

Relationships are not easy, and they are not always painful or difficult either. In this episode I talk about how something’s that we hear and see can really mess up our ideas about what a ‘perfect relationship’ is and what can we expect from a long-term relationship.

Integrating our anger/aggressive instinct does not mean you act aggressively- on the contrary, people who have worked on and are working on integrating their anger are often the most assertive, kind, confident, honest, and courageous people you will meet.

Healing journey / therapy journey/ inner work/ psychospiritual development / self-awareness … Call it what you want… here I share a few thoughts from having walked the path with people as well as walking my own path over the last 18 years… Things to keep in mind … what you may encounter on the path… what you may need to make the journey/experience safer …

One of the most complicated relationship we have is the relationship to ourselves and then we wonder why we struggle in our relationship to others…if we can’t even be with ourselves, how and why do we expect others to? Why self-love- you make the world a better place and free the people in your lives when you love yourself. What is *not self-love (hint… it is not selfish) What is self-love…as I see it, it has 5 aspects self-awareness, self-discipline, self-care, self-compassion, self-acceptance What you can do to cultivate love- cultivate self-awareness, be honest with yourself … for that you will need to learn self-soothing, and be compassionate with yourself… meaning hold your self to the highest standards but support yourself as you make mistakes along the way… Ps. Once… it’s a mistake … twice it’s a mistake… but 3 times it’s a pattern. If you keep making the same mistakes again and again… then you need to understand why and make efforts to change that.

What does it mean to have generosity of spirit and having greatness of spirit? What can you give/be generous with? You are a custodian of everything you have/nothing you have belongs to you (time/money/love/belongings/talent/education) What is *not generosity? If you expect anything in return- you have lost the benefits of that -do it for your karmic account /God/Higher self account How can you BEcome more generous? you are what you repeatedly do - do generosity to be generous I also answered some questions about “boundaries” and “toxic generosity” (not sure what that is but I answered it accordingly)