Hi, it's Week Six of your failure to freedom. And I hope that you have been enjoying working with me over the last five weeks because I have really enjoyed working with you and hopefully inspiring you to move from failure from this constant feeling that you're at the depths of just the ditches and life and moving into freedom or at least beginning to see the light that freedom does exist for you. So Week Six, affirmation is all about compassion. And if you've noticed, we've really been building up to compassion over the last five weeks, cultivating courage, offering acceptance, developing, understanding, gratitude, and moving these tools into this idea that now we can come find compassion in our heart towards people, ourselves and situations in our life. So that we He kind of live the best life possible. So, to have compassion is to really understand and recognize when suffering.

And when we cultivate compassion, it does not mean that we agreed with that person or that situation, or the actions of that individual per se, but that we're able to see they are suffering. And we're able to really look at that part of the situation from our heart. To have compassion for oneself is no different. When we move forward and compassion, we are able to see things as they are more clearly and allow ourselves to move forward into the next step. So, for me personally, I found that I was able to develop compassion for other people. Before I was able to develop compassion for myself.

I was very hard on myself, I was very critical of myself. I would compartmentalize myself and really take apart myself to the point where I looked at in the mirror and see every little flaw about myself instead of the beauty that is within me. And because I wasn't seeing that I never saw the beauty with without me around me on the outside. So, when I think about compassion, though, I really think about a relationship in my own personal life. I'm gonna get really personal here. And that relationship is with my father.

So my father and I are a lot alike. And we have kind of similar personalities. We're slightly snarky and sarcastic. But we're funny, and we're creative, and we have a really big heart. And my father and I have both struggled with very similar things when it comes to addiction. And I chose to get well and I chose to move forward in my life and not be the reason that I hinder my own success.

And I have chose to look at my demons in my closet in order to fully propel myself forward in life. And for a long time, I had to actually release my father from my life. I had to step away from a relationship with him knowing that that might be permanent. And I had to come to terms with being okay with that. And in doing that I was able to personally feel in my life and really focus on me and focus on why I were was where I was. But when I did that, I created boundaries for myself, I created a safety zone for myself, and this is something I've never had before and was never taught.

And something really amazing happened. When I did this, in that I was able to create compassion for my father situation. He was never given the tools to build self esteem to build a healthy self confidence and perspective on life and himself here very hard life and struggled a lot and when you don't have the tools to be able to move forward from now. You can easily Develop a shell and a wall around yourself. And from that place, dealing with addiction can be a slippery slope, especially when you have never cultivated those tools. And so for a long time, I was very angry with him.

And I just looked at him like, you're a me, basically. And I don't want you in my life and with understanding, with developing appreciation and gratitude for what he has given me in my life, and the sacrifices that he's made, and the understanding that he only knows what he knows, and he knows nothing else. From that point. I was able to develop compassion for him. I was able to let him back in my life again, I was able to love him, for him for who he is. And that compassion is priceless.

And so I think for many of us, maybe your situation is similar to mine. Maybe it's completely different, I'm not sure. But pushing things out of your life without understanding of life can sometimes leave you feeling more empty than you would like. The truth is, I want him in my life. He's my father, and I love him. And he serves so many great things for me and I have kids that I want in their life.

But with developing compassion, I've been able to create boundaries, I have been able to use my voice to speak up in a way that I never have before. I am understanding that we're all human, and we all make mistakes. And with that, I have taken that learning lesson and those tools that I've cultivated with him, and I have brought them into so many other areas of my life. Because the reality is we are going to constantly come in contact with situations that we need to develop courage that we need to develop understanding that we need to learn to appreciate more than we need to develop gratitude that we need to really Least from. And with all of those things in place, we cultivate one of the most amazing tools in life that we can use for ourselves and share with others and that's compassion. So I am so compassionate towards you, in your journey and in your growth and I understand what it's like to struggle.

I understand what it's like to feel alone. I understand what it's like to feel like there is no hope you don't know what the next step is. But I want to let you know something. There are tools out there to help you there are people out there that support you and I am one of them. And so compassionately with gratitude. I want to support you on your journey in your next steps, wherever they lead you.

So from my heart to yours, from my soul to yours, I'll see you soon