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«Empowerment» TOPIC

Coveting Calm – An Introduction

Across the country, the lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have lifted, are lifting, or will soon lift. Things will begin to look and feel a little more familiar than they did when you were sequestered in your home, juggling work, family, health, and financial commitments – just to name a few.

As you emerge from the chaos, and enter into what has become your new experience of life, you have the opportunity to look back at the past weeks and assess how you weathered the storm. What behaviors, attitudes, and actions brought you the most happiness and joy during quarantine? How could you improve upon them moving forward? Are there things you would do differently if faced with another lockdown or similar limitations?

Like Jack Canfield says, ‘If you want to change the results you get in the future, you must change how you respond to events in your life starting today.’ OR: As I always say, “If you want a different future, today you must do something different from yesterday because today is tomorrow’s yesterday.”

In the coming weeks I will revisit many of the emotions you may have experienced, or are still experiencing, as you cope with these uncertain times. I will focus on feelings of Fear, Calm, Disconnect, Anxiety, Depression, Lack, Gratitude, Relationships, and Living for Today.

So, please join me to identify opportunities to find strength and courage within yourself and use even the most trying experiences as a launching pad to blossom into the person you’ve always known your Self to be.

We Are Not Born Judging Each Other

Hate is fear; fear is the absence of love! Within your Self, when you judge and hate you are not able to feel love. You may think that your hate and judgment are about the other person or group of people but it is only happening inside you. You are the one living with the hate, rage, anger, and heavy density. It clutters your mind and shadows your heart. Consequently, you are the only one who ends up suffering until, of course, your anger causes harm to others.

 

We are given this life and we were given free will. Free will says you have the right to live with your hate, anger, rage, and judgment. Free will also allows people to live in harmony, love, unity and peace. Free will gives each of us the opportunity to live this life as we choose. What it does not do is support the destruction of the free will and the rights of another human being.

 

You are not born with fear and anger or any of the fear-based emotions. You are not born with judgment since judgment comes from fear. You learned all of that, and the beliefs associated with them, in this lifetime. You thought you had to believe as you were taught to believe. But now you have a choice. Do you want to live with love for you, from you, and for others? Or do you want to live in absence of love? Do you want a life filled with pain, suffering, anger, and heat or a life filled with love and happiness?

 

Can you be grateful for who you are at the same time you’re hating another? The answer is no. So, yes, it is your right to hate, judge, and be angry. It is your choice to live at that level of suffering. Just remember suffering begets suffering and fear begets fear. It is love that begets gratitude, joy, and love. So, I ask you which do you prefer? And be clear, because even if you were feeling anger and hate at those who are angry and hateful you are feeding the darkness not light.

 

May each and every one of you be graced with gratitude, forgiveness, and love.

 

Paying It Forward With Intention

Paying it forward

 

What does it mean to pay it forward? What are you truly paying forward? How do you pay it forward?

 

It has always been known that what we put out comes back to us. That wisdom is just that, wisdom. It is not learned knowledge that becomes a task or something we “do”. In other words, if we dish out judgment it is what is passed forward and what we then experience in our lives. If we spontaneously offer random gifts to others we are going to receive some sort of life gifts in return.

 

Notice that in both examples there is only a flow of passing forward. The intention is not in the return. It is easier for most people to see that purpose in the example of judgment. Most people understand that they do not judge to receive judgment back!! Yet, many people will give gifts with the hope of receiving gifts in return! All of a sudden the giving is with a purpose to receive. That is a closed loop!

 

Notice the phrase is paying it forward or passing it forward. It is unidirectional. Yet, if everyone is passing it forward then obviously each person would receive someone else’s passing! Furthermore, if each person lives with an internal intention or awareness of what they exude, say, or do as a paying forward then many good things can occur. For example, the person may gently become more aware of their compassion for life. Also, by living with that intent, they are affecting many many people in their lives. In fact, they would be affecting everyone with whom they come in contact. This would obviously increase the probability that you and everyone would start to receive the gifts of paying it forward.

 

Does this mean you always must be happy and think of the other? NO. It means that when you are experiencing a challenging time, you may want to ask your Self what you need in order to move through the challenge and back to happiness. Then allow your Self to be open to receiving that. You are then paying forward the intention of healing wounds rather than the suffering from them.

 

In terms of life, you are always paying forward. The question becomes what are you paying forward and are you conscious of your “gifts”? If you find your Self worrying a lot or buying into the fears of life or living as if it is you and them, then your world of existence is probably full of events to worry about or that scare you or that elicit a defensiveness about your views being right. If you find your Self living with your heart open to compassion, acceptance and healing, you will probably find your Self surrounded by rewarding and healing events. You are paying forward with intention.

 

Often times you read about paying it forward with suggestions of random acts of kindness. This is such a wonderful experience to share! For someone who has not really experienced living in a state of paying it forward, this task allows them to feel the excitement of being a change agent in life in a positive way! Often, I find myself pitching in the amount of money someone in line is short or paying their bill because their card did not go through and they were purchasing groceries. Something as simple as allowing someone to merge or leaving an intersection open or moving into the left lane so the person behind me can make a right on red. All of these are acts of kindness that each of you can do for a day.

 

Too often people think “what’s in it for me”. I have a simple answer. If everyone took from the pot of gold, how quickly would there be nothing for everyone? If everyone put into the pot of gold for each other, how quickly would the pot would be abundant with gold? If each person puts in to take out, would we need the shared pot?

 

When was the last time you paid it forward? Did you feel the freedom and expansiveness of the act or experience? Or did you feel the closing and frustration from wondering when you were going to see the return? Open your Self to the opportunity to pass it forward without stopping the forward motion by wishing it to come back. Just pay it forward! One day, when you are least expecting it, you will be gifted beautifully!

 

I wish you all an abundant life filled with gifts from the pot of gold!

 

Love, Does it complete us?

Love! Does it complete us? Or, are we complete in and of our self?

 

This weekend is Valentine’s Day. Happy Valentine’s Day to you all. Last year I asked you what Valentine’s Day meant/means to you. To me, this day is a day to honor love in our lives, all love in our lives. The greatest love is of spirit or god. The next greatest love is of self. Without love of self how do we know love?

 

Love is an experience. Love is a plethora of experiences. In this American language we use one word for all of those experiences. Consequently, it’s confusing to many. It’s confusing because we don’t know the love of our Self. As we introduce ourselves to our Selves we begin to fall in love with who we are. It is that love that allows us to feel complete within our Selves. As we evolve into a state of enlightenment, mastery, or unconditional freedom, we begin to feel a longing for a partnership. It’s a partnership different from what we thought it was when we first started in this lifetime. It is different because we felt a completeness within our Self that expanded to a desire to unite with a greater completeness.

 

Let me give an example using a portion of what occurs within Self. We begin with an imbalance of energy. Women tend to have greater female energy and men tend to have greater male energy. Then we realize that the combination of the male energy and the female energy that can exists in such perfect balance within us is something we want to achieve. Once achieved, we want to experience that with another. For those who are gay, they have been blessed with the balance of the male and female energy that they then have to learn to express comfortably in a society where that may not be the case. The longing for a partnership for a gay or lesbian person is very different than the longing for a partnership in someone who is not gay. There is no longer a gender difference defining the balance of the energies. The energies are internally experienced and defined even though not completely balanced.

 

If ultimately we are here to find great balance through unconditional love and acceptance, then love of our self becomes quite important. It is in the development of love of your Self that you begin to feel complete in who you are! It is then that you begin to feel the longing for the unity with the complement of an Other’s energy. It is an experience. Your partner is the Yin to your Yang or the Yang to your Yin. As love of Self grows so does love of Other. It is infinite in its growth and possibilities. It is at that point, that we can experience true unity and harmony with One. It is worth celebrating daily!! It is definitely worth honoring with a special day annually.

 

So, on this Valentine’s Day, each of you has a choice you can make. If there a partner in your life, you can choose to honor and cherish the love you share at this time or rebel against some external definition of this day and not celebrate? If there is not a partner in your life, would you like to honor and cherish a love that is growing inside yourself for your Self or would you like to not do that and feel the pain and suffering of longing for a partner. You can celebrate the love you have for your Self or get lost in the suffering of the loneliness, of the longing, of the doubt. Which would you prefer at this time of celebration of love, a day or weekend filled with love or a day or weekend filled with the suffering of loss or rebelliousness/anger?

 

I challenge all of you to really look at love in your lives on this weekend. How do you express it to your Self and others? How do you feel it in your Self and from others? While Valentine’s Day may be a “made-up” holiday, it is still a holiday that brings us back to our relationship with Self and Other in the name of love. May each of you find love that unites you with your Self, with your partner and family, and with all of those around you! May you feel the unity with all and with Spirit/God!

 

I wish you a very happy Valentine’s Day! May you all enjoy the love of Love!

 

We’re Moving to Boca!!

Life is a series of new beginnings! We are the creators of those beginnings. Each and every one of them. I am announcing a New Beginning!

 

February 1 is a new beginning in my life and in the practice. It is in part due to each and everyone of you reading this newsletter that I am able to begin this part of my personal and professional journey.

 

Let me explain. In 2002, I moved my practice, a traditional psychoanalytic psychotherapy practice, from Tamarac. I came to Deerfield Beach to begin a business for which it took me almost 2 years to build the business plan: The Center for Progressive Healing. My dear friend Laurie and I planned the first stage very well but the business grew faster than we anticipated. Unfortunately, there was a fatal flaw in the business plan that none of us caught and it failed. That failure has been one of the greatest gifts in my life. It was at the lowest point of the failure that Wilma hit and destroyed my home. So between 2004 and 2006 my life was fairly difficult or should I say devastating. Although I was able to pay off all of my incurred debt in 2006, I still found myself walking like a zombie going to work, working harder, working harder and doing what it took to survive. In 2007, I moved the practice with the verbal promise of others sharing the rent but I was left with 80% of the rent on my own and, again, I suffered. There were 3 new beginnings in that time frame. Each illuminated challenges and truths that propelled me forward in this life.

 

In 2010, I moved into the place I’m in now. It’s small. It’s cozy. It’s inviting. And, it was another fresh start! No one but me. A time to believe in doing it on my own. A time to focus on the unique aspects of my teachings and healings that had morphed over the years. A time to believe in those teachings and to focus on them alone! Beyond the practice and healing, these last five years have been a beautiful opportunity to grow and to heal from the previous eight years of my life. In the process, I have been able to clearly define the experience I wish to have in this life and to put the next phase of my dream into motion.

 

On Friday and Saturday, January 30 and 31st, we will be moving the business from Deerfield Beach to Boca Raton. The excitement is different than anything I have ever felt prior. A couple Saturdays ago, standing in my kitchen, I felt the most pure excitement I have ever felt in my life! It was Crystalline, it was Goosebumps, it was beyond description! It was the most pure experience of excitement I could have ever imagined experiencing. And so I begin this chapter! I could not have done it without the support of each and every one of you! Your willingness to read and share the newsletter is huge! Your friendships and acquaintances have all led to this day. I genuinely want to thank each and every one of you for being a part of my journey.

 

Please stay tuned!! We will be having an open house and all of you will be invited! I genuinely wish to see each and every one of you at the new office:

 

398 Camino Gardens Boulevard, Suite 104
Boca Raton, Florida 33432

 

Again I am so grateful for all this life offers, for all of you in my life, and for the more intimate support of my dear friends and family!

 

Speak Your Truth Radio: Health, Wellness and You: How Diet Affects Your Life

Join me as I speak with health and wellness coach, Deborah Paiva, about spiritual growth and how the food you eat can affect your life.

 

Realizing Your Inner Power

Have you ever felt so defensive that your heart was pounding, or you felt you had no choice in the matter, or you felt you were waiting for someone else to make a decision that was going to affect you and your life, or….? Learn how to remain in your power regardless of what is happening around you!

 

You have a beautiful, strong, graceful power within you that is part of your truth! We all do! Many times in life you may feel powerless and small. In order to not slip away from that powerful graceful You, you must know what challenges get illuminated when the power temporarily leaves or hides. You also want to understand that it is a force that takes you away from that truth of your own power. In this blog, I will address just that.

 

Someone or something that “goes against” you or your rights is a force. It is coming from a place of ego or prideful will. It is a fear-based effort. For example, if I tell you that you have to go to work at 8 AM even though you own your own business, I am forcing you to do it my way because my ego says I know best because I am fearful of you not doing good enough! You then feel the energy of my core feeling of not being good enough and feel your power slip and your confidence may eventually slip. If, however, you are aware of your Self and your power, your response to my ridiculous effort to control my own emotional chaos would be, “ Are you fearful or untrusting about my work? Tell me what is happening within you that makes you push me out the door before I would normally leave?” Most people would get defensive and then make assumptions about my comment that would lead them farther from their power.

 

Knowing that all people have a fear-based set of emotions that dictate their challenges in this life and a set of love-based emotions that define their truth, helps you to begin the process of letting their words be theirs. When you listen intently to the content of the other’s words in absence of this awareness, you are following their thoughts, worries, opinions, etc. By following another you are leaving your Self and truth behind. It is at this point that you leave your Self open to losing connection with your power.

 

As you go through this week see if you can watch others speak and see when they are speaking from their fear-based “stuff” and when they are speaking from their love-based truth!

 

I will address different aspects of feeling powerless in future blog writings. Enjoy this start!!

 

Letting Go To Receive Your Dreams

Create What You Desire

“We judge only in the way we are fearful of being judged.”© That goes so much further than the surface projections! While it is clearly about the judgments we make in our language and our thoughts of others and of Self, it also teaches us that we create, over and over, the very things we fear. How do we interrupt that frustrating pattern so that we do not recreate what we no longer desire? Better yet, how do we create the things we desire?

 

Sometimes, we actually create around us the very challenge beyond which we think we are trying to move. For example, somewhere in your life, you may have bought into thinking you are not good enough. So, maybe you think your dream can’t be your reality because you are not good enough. Yet you live your life as if you are going after that dream, as if you believe in your Self and, at some level, you do. And yet, one day you stop, look around and realize that the headquarters from where you are trying to create that dream is laden with the parts of the nightmare that keep you from ever believing your dream will come true. You may have people around you who judge you as not good enough, your own thoughts may have hidden doubts and/or judgments, you may be missing a key item that is required to move you forward in the dream, or more.

 

How do we break that pattern? First, RECOGNIZE IT! You must first be able to see what it is you are creating in the people with whom you surround your Self. You must also recognize those experiences and things with which you surround your Self. Then you must ask what each REMINDS you of in terms of your history and the people in it. It is at that point that you can begin to correct and let go of the pieces that are keeping you pinned to old patterns. Can you feel what people or things you are hesitant to release or change? It is important to identify the hesitation so that you can move through it. Any experience that is occurring in you but beneath the obvious has a great impact on you and your life. Finally, listen for the judgments you are making of people, things and experiences around you (especially as they relate to the dream you are trying to achieve). They will teach you where you need to heal, release, or transcend in order to further break an old pattern!

 

It takes the death of a minute to birth the next minute. Do not fear the release of what is not working for you. It will open the doors and make space for the new dream to manifest!

 

Avoiding The Hurt

Have you, or anyone you’ve known, ever said you would never let your heart get broken again or let your Self get hurt again? How did you think you were going to DO that? Keep your Self out of a relationship that may hurt you or may end? Or end relationships before the other does? There are myriad ways people choose to TRY to avoid hurt!

 

Inadvertently, these efforts extend the suffering in this life. Why? Because ultimately, in this life, everyone looks for love, joy, fulfillment. Furthermore, humans are a group animal not independent. Consequently, everyone is looking for someone (I think that’s a song!). So, if someone is trying to avoid hurt then they are also avoiding relationships in some way. Even if they are avoiding intimacy, they are avoiding significant aspects of relationships.

 

What makes you or others go through such suffering to attempt to avoid hurt from loss or rejection? In some people, it can be that there was a loss in their life that was traumatic and they are trying to avoid the terror of the trauma that was. They are the few. For most, it is just not wanting to hurt. What about healing the hurt so that you can enjoy all relationships without needing to worry about where they are headed and if they are going to last?

 

Many are fearful not just because of the hurt, but because of hurt associated with other emotional experiences. Hurt, when caused by loss, can also bring up abandonment, loneliness, shame, and more. It is important to be aware of what you are experiencing so that you can heal and so that you can create the experiences you do wish to have. For example, if you are avoiding relationships because of hurt stemming from the rejection or abandonment then maybe you want to look at how to develop a relationship that grows rather than dissolves. In the meantime, you could work on healing the challenge of abandonment or rejection.

 

As you can begin to see that you cannot “do” this avoidance maneuver. It only causes the fear of the hurt to stay quite alive within you which will perpetuate the need to isolate which will perpetuate a loneliness. Avoidance will bring about the suffering in a different way while keeping the original pain alive in the background (so that you can avoid it!). Once the wound/challenge is healed you will not feel the same hurt you felt in the past. In fact, if you choose, you can heal to a point of not feeling hurt when a relationship ends – IF it ends!

 

Please share your comments on the blog OR if you have any personal questions please send me your question at AskKristen@KristenBomas.com. I look forward to hearing from you all!

 

A Parenting Romance

How does a couple maintain their love and romance once children are in the mix? So often I watch couples, with whom I work, struggle with how to define their relationship and their conversations once they have children. We are a people who have difficulty maintaining loving relationships in general: approximately 80% of our dating relationships dissolve and of the 20% that become permanent, 60% dissolve!! Do our children further enhance the difficulties??

 

Maybe! As parents, you are first and foremost partners to one another. The family structure was meant to be the parents as the pillar or backbone of the family. The problem is that we do not know how to develop our relationships. So, consequently, when the children come into the relationship, it is very easy to make them your focus! If the focus and the conversations are all about the children then, obviously, the relationship starts to fall apart or fragment.

 

Our children learn about relationships or partnerships by observing their parents. So, if the parents are not focused on themselves as a partnership, I wonder what the children are learning??

 

As parents, most couples struggle with the balance of maintaining their own relationship with the relationships they share with their children. Part of the imbalance comes from the “need” to entertain our children. Most comes from a breakdown in the communication: verbally, physically, and sexually. Parents who share in the observing and raising of their children feel the team work and camaraderie. Parents who divide and conquer are actually softly doing that to their relationship as well! Parents who maintain a traditional structure, have to adapt to a partnership that is not traditional! Although one parent may stay home, our culture today is not the same as it was many years ago. There are many influences on the individual at home working versus the one outside the home working and on maintaining household income levels.

 

There is a need to learn to communicate in a way that grows the partnership and continues to open each partner to the other. Life is infinite. It feels finite by the barriers imposed by fears and the past. As partners you have to constantly stoke your trust so that it is continually evolving as you evolve. This helps the two people to consistently open themselves to one another. Each partner is looking for fulfillment and happiness in their life. Rarely does one partner intend to be hurtful, distant or destructive. It happens because of the history in each of your lives. So, as a couple, you need to heal that which interferes in your intimacy and openness so that you can remain as your Self to the other and, so that, you can explore the other constantly. Further, as a couple, it is important to be conscious of the compassion in your heart. If, as a couple, you can be in a state of compassion when you communicate, you will not take things as personally and always be looking out for the best for your partner and your Self. There are many tricks I can teach to maintaining the romance but that is for another article. In the meantime, remember:

 

“The greatest gift you will ever give your children is your own healing.”

 

Pick up the March issue of Our Town News magazine for more on this topic. I’m also proud to announce my cover story will appear in their Broward edition.

 
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Kristen Bomas, PA
398 Camino Gardens Blvd., Suite 104
Boca Raton, Fl 33432

561.212.7575
KB@KristenBomas.com

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