Have fun and play with the things of the world, but please know they do not define who you are. Because who you are is the sun in your heart, and it is infinitely more powerful than any ‘thing’ you can find on this earth.
A 12 year old girl, in one of my workshops, once asked me “If you love yourself, then why do you wear makeup?”
Whether I fully lived the following truth in my own life or not, my answer to her was that makeup is fun. I like to play with it. Makeup becomes a problem when you need it to be who you are. When it defines you. When you need it to feel beautiful and worthy.
Money is the same. So are competitive sports. And achieving more in a career. It’s fun to make money. And exciting to win, and to gain success. But doing so, does not make you worthy of love. Because you are already 100% worthy of love.
Nothing has changed since when you were a baby. People were drawn to you because your presence was so powerful. It had not been covered up by the things of the world. This is why you were called ‘perfect’.
This perfection is still in you, shining fully like the sun. It’s just that it has been covered up by a cloud that has taught you that you need to do more and have more to be worthy.
I am here to tell you that you already are everything. People love you not because you have money, are good-looking, have lots of friends, or are successful at sports or your job. They love you because they connect with the presence inside your heart.
Bring that presence into your job, schoolwork, friends, sports, fashion, make up, and activities and you will deeply enjoy and find flow in them. You will dance in the beauty of the world with the sun in your heart, and paint the world with your rainbow 🌈.
The sun, cloud, and rainbow metaphors that make up the story in my children’s book The Girl and the Sun were molded piece by piece from my own pain and subsequent drive to overcome it. I use these metaphors every day to parent myself and my children. They are not my own ideas. They come from many teachers along the way: Anita Johnston, Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, Jeff Foster, Tara Brach, Marianne Williamson, and many counselors and colleagues who guided me along my journey. Through The Girl and The Sun I can now share them with the world. Please visit www.ashleyandthesun.com/free-handouts-parents-and-teachers for free handouts and www.ashleyandthesun.com for a thorough explanation of the sun, cloud and rainbow metaphors.