September was a month that left my heart super full. We went on an anni-moon (like a honeymoon for your anniversary!), celebrated the marriage of two incredible couples, and caught up with a lot of close friends and family while we were in NYC. It was a go-go-go kind of month but full of absolute amazingness.

My TOP 5 soul reflections from September:

1.  What I’m nerding out to: “Braving the Wilderness” by Brené Brown

Brené Brown is my hero so of course I loved her new book. I feel it’s an especially important read right now in our current political climate and spiritual crises. Here are a few messages that really stood out for me:

• “I don’t think there’s anything lonelier than being with people and feeling alone.” – Boy does this ring true. Brené talks about the “lonely feeling” – not to be mistaken with actually being alone. The “lonely feeling” is that feeling we’ve all had when we don’t feel seen, heard or understood. It’s that feeling when you’re sharing something personal and vulnerable with someone, and it falls totally flat. Or worse, you end up feeling shitty about yourself. You all know what I’m talking about. And it feels awful. It was a big a-ha moment to think of loneliness as the feeling of disconnection.

• “But the more we’re willing to seek out moments of collective joy and show up for experiences of collective pain – for real, in person, not online – the more difficult it becomes to deny our human connection, even with people we may disagree with. Not only do moments of collective emotion remind us of what is possible between people, but they also remind us of what is true about the human spirit.” – this notion of needing to believe in inextricable human connection was big for me. That when we believe in something larger than ourselves, this faith gives us the courage to share our voice and not fear what will happen if someone disagrees. There seems to be a lot of focus right now on the “right” way to support a cause as opposed to embracing the many avenues of deepening human connection.

• “Stop walking through the world looking for confirmation that you don’t belong. You will always find it because you’ve made that your mission. Stop scouring people’s faces for evidence that you’re not enough. You will always find it because you’ve made that your goal. True belonging and self-worth are not goods; we don’t negotiate their value with the world. The truth about who we are lives in our hearts. Our call to courage is to protect our wild heart against constant evaluation, especially our own. No one belongs here more than you.” – Whoa. Love this. I am totally an offender of always seeking other people’s approval and getting down on myself if someone doesn’t respond the way I was hoping for/expecting. Such an important reminder that whether we belong or not is no one’s decision to make but ours. That our self-worth isn’t up for negotiation so we should stop treating it as such. And that by trying to fit in for someone else strips us of our own true belonging.

2.  What I’ve got playing on repeat: This month I’m switching it up from a song to an audiobook: “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah (narrated by Trevor Noah).

WOW. Just wow. This audiobook left me speechless. There were tears. There were laughs. There was a lot of reflection. This is one POWERFUL story, and an important one for us all to hear about what is was like to grow up in apartheid in South Africa. I highly recommend listening to it because hearing Trevor’s voice as he share his life story adds another layer of power.

Here is one of many inspiring quotes from this remarkable man:

“But I was blessed with another trait I inherited from my mother: her ability to forget the pain in life. I remember the thing that caused the trauma, but I don’t hold on to the trauma. I never let the memory of something painful prevent me from trying something new. If you think too much about the ass-kicking your mom gave you, or the ass-kicking that life gave you, you’ll stop pushing the boundaries and breaking the rules. It’s better to take it, spend some time crying, then wake up the next day and move on. You’ll have a few bruises and they’ll remind you of what happened and that’s okay. But after a while the bruises fade, and they fade for a reason—because now it’s time to get up to some shit again.”

If you want a sneak peak of what’s in store for you in “Born a Crime,” check out this video:

3.  What I’m grateful for: being able to spend two weeks traveling around Spain and France with Andrew.  It was so refreshing to disconnect from technology, re-center and catch up on sleep.

4.  What I learned: how to give myself permission to slow down. Usually our trips are jam-packed with activities from dawn until dusk. Now, I won’t deny that we put together a pretty aggressive Google Doc full of awesome things to do while we were in Spain and France. But, for the first time, we also built in some “down time.” Say whhhhhhat?? Coupled with the fact I got sick the moment my body felt it was safe to relax, we prioritized extra sleep, long walks to nowhere in particular and….dare I say…the spa (turns out there’s such a thing as a 2 for 1 matinee special!).

5.  Magical Moment of the Month: spending our one-year wedding anniversary hiking in the Pyrenees and renewing our vows at the top of Monte Perdido.

Now it’s your turn! What were your TOP 5 soul reflections from September? Share them in the comments!
1. What are you nerding out to?
2. What song do you have playing on repeat?
3. What are you grateful for?
4. What did you learn?
5. What was your Magical Moment of the Month?