I’m just posting here a link to a talk I did back in March at the Activate Conference. If you want to listen to the talk you follow the link and it’s on itunes but it’s free. I was blown away by the generous response to this talk when I gave but maybe you had to be there. Any way here it is:
The talk is my own story about the difference it makes to think of yourself as ‘beloved’, it feels quite scary to put it out there as in the talk I speak honestly about my own struggles with mental health, trying to keep my own emotional balance through waves of expectation, set-backs and some of life’s sad and puzzling experiences.
The basic message is that because God loves us, we must love ourselves. We must learn to speak to ourselves with compassion, remind ourselves that while we are not perfect, we are worthy of being loved, we are loved, we do belong and we are ‘enough’.
Here are the slides that went with the talk, if you are going to listen it might help you to see them.
(also half way through there is a point where I use a visual aid but I don’t describe it. I release a red heart shaped helium balloon from a bag which floats gently upwards as you’d expect. The ribbon attached to the balloon is ‘anchored’ by being being stuck to the bottom of the bag – so although the balloon (which is my emotional state) gets buffeted, it remains tethered/grounded).
We began by reflecting on this verse:
We can only be deeply loved by those who see us as we really are…
The slide above takes some unpacking. I talk about that for quite a while.
(spot the difference from point 1? There is none. This is a one point talk in disguise, I’m just saying the same thing in a couple of different ways)
This is my tatoo
Live Life Loved 