mindfulness

Surfing the Weight: How to Hold Steady When You’re Holding It All

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth

There comes a time when you’re asked to carry more than usual—when your strength is not an option but a necessity. You’re the anchor, the support beam, the space-holder. And in the quiet of that responsibility, your own voice feels muffled. You’re asked to say less, allow more, and hold steady while someone you love fights a battle that isn’t yours to fix.

But where do you go with the rising tide inside you?

When your own emotions have no safe landing, when your celebrations are whispered and your struggles swallowed, when you’re waiting and then waiting again… it’s easy to feel invisible. Unacknowledged. Alone.

You may feel like a stranger in your own environment—holding back tears while offering smiles, suppressing your ache to be present for theirs. It can feel like every part of you is being asked to expand, stretch, and bend without breaking… and still be okay.

But what if okay isn’t the goal?

What if, instead, it’s about honoring the weight you’re carrying?

Because there will be times when you’re holding more than others. In family, in work, in faith, in love. Life isn’t always balanced. But within the imbalance, there’s an invitation—a calling—to learn how to ride the wave.

Waves crash. They rise and fall. They come fast, or they move slow. Sometimes, they catch you off guard. Other times, you see them coming and brace. But one thing is certain: making decisions while you’re inside the wave is never where clarity lives.

Clarity comes after—in the stillness, in the center, in the in-between.

The high and the low are not your measuring sticks. They are motion. They are movement. They are meant to be surfed, not fought. And certainly not judged.

So, what can you do when you’re in the thick of it?

You take care of you in the most radical ways possible.

You ground.

You journal.

You walk.

You cry.

You move your body.

You call a friend.

You take five minutes of silence in the middle of chaos and breathe like it’s your only job.

You whisper to yourself, “Just surf this one… don’t try to fix the ocean.”

The wave doesn’t disappear because you ignore it. It disappears when it passes—on its own time. Your job isn’t to stop it. Your job is to ride it with as much grace as you can, and when you fall under, trust that the spin may just toss you right onto your feet again.

You don’t need to always be efficient, or perfect, or endlessly strong.

You just need to be human.

And brave.

And willing to wait for clarity, even when the wait feels unbearable.

Let the wave carry you to it.

Surf

Sometimes,

the strongest thing you can do

is not hold it all together—

but let it rise.

Let the ache have space,

let the silence breathe,

let the wave wash through

without the need to speak.

You are not failing

because you’re tired.

You are not weak

because your soul is soft.

Hold space for your own becoming

as you hold others in their storm.

Let the tide return you

to your own shoreline.

You are not lost—

you’re surfing.

–Kerri Elizabeth–

The Space Between Our Timing

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth

Some things don’t arrive when we call for them.
Answers. Apologies. Understanding.
Sometimes, even love itself can feel like it’s running on a different clock.

And when you’re the one waiting, it can ache.
When you’re the one needing, it can stir a deeper awareness—
a noticing of how timing shapes everything.
And when you’re the one who can’t respond yet,
it can bring a quiet tension you don’t yet know how to name.

We don’t all meet life at the same tempo.
Some of us move fast—urgent to solve, to connect, to resolve.
Others need time, silence, space to feel their way forward.

But what happens in the pause between one person’s need and the other’s delay?

A whisper sneaks in:
“They don’t care.”
“They’re avoiding me.”
“This always happens.”
Something quiet begins to sharpen beneath the surface—
not rage, not cruelty—just the subtle weight of unmet timing.
An edge forms. And it cuts without anyone meaning to.

This obstacle can teach.
And it can take away.
It can open us to compassion
or close us in resentment.

The question becomes:
How do we meet each other with honor
when we’re out of rhythm?
How do we stay kind when we’re tired of holding the silence?
How do we not make their timing mean something about our worth?

Not every pause is punishment.
Not every delay is disregard.
But the stories we’ve lived may whisper otherwise.

It’s not just a language barrier—it’s a life barrier.
Different nervous systems.
Different stories.
Different shapes of presence and processing.

But if we can pause—not to press, not to fix,
but to see the other in their timing—
maybe we create a space where no one is wrong.

Maybe we say:
“I’m feeling the weight of waiting. I just need you to know.”
Or:
“I don’t have the words yet, but your heart matters to me.”

And just like that, we step out of the battle,
and into the bridge.

A Rhythm We Haven’t Learned Yet

Sometimes,
I wait for you
like the moon waits for the tide—
knowing it will come,
but not knowing when.

Sometimes,
you need space
like a mountain needs mist—
not to disappear,
but to breathe.

We move like dancers
to different songs,
feet aching
when we try to lead each other
through rhythms we haven’t learned yet.

But what if this is the music?

What if the space between us
isn’t a problem to solve,
but a sacred silence
where trust
and truth
begin to rise?

So I’ll stay present—
not in pause,
but in practice.
Not waiting to live,
but living in love
while the dance finds its shape.

Whether we meet in step
or drift apart like waves—
I am still whole
and still here.
Breathing. Becoming.
With or without the answer.

-Kerri-Elizabeth-

What have you learned about your own rhythm—and how do you honor it while loving someone whose pace is different from yours?

The Antidote Is Within

Posted on by Kerri Elizabeth

There’s a kind of expansion that doesn’t look like more doing, more chasing, or more becoming.

It looks like shedding.

Softening.

Listening to what’s already been whispering inside for years.

People ask all the time—

What do you take?

What do you eat?

What do you think about this herb or that cleanse?

But the deeper truth is this:

The best health advice I can ever offer

Is to turn down the noise

And ask yourself…

How do you feel?

Are you rested or are you rushing on borrowed energy?

Do you move your body because it brings you life,

Or because you’re trying to fix what was never broken?

Do you fall into sleep like a prayer

or collapse into it like a last resort?

How much of your day is spent

in silence,

in breath,

in the untangling of thought from truth?

Do you scrub your skin like punishment

or like ceremony—

exfoliating the layers not just of yesterday’s dust,

but of the weight you’ve carried too long?

We hold the antidote inside.

Not in a bottle,

Not in someone else’s method or miracle,

But in our ability to return

to presence,

to rhythm,

to the quiet knowing we’ve always had.

There’s a lot out there telling us how to feel better,

how to do more,

how to chase a version of beauty that was never our own.

But what if we’re not meant to do more?

What if we’re meant to realign where we give our effort—

To stop over-performing in some areas

and under-nourishing others?

What if your wholeness doesn’t need to be earned,

only remembered?

We are not trends.

We are not opinions.

We are not before-and-after stories.

We are stories still being told,

and no one else gets to hold the pen.

Expansion is personal.

It begins with small choices that honor what’s real:

a breath,

a stretch,

a kind word to the mirror,

a walk without your phone,

a plate of vibrant food grown in soil, not manufactured in labs.

Play your instrument.

Take the trip.

Paint what you see in your dreams.

But do it because something inside you calls you forward—

not because an algorithm says you should.

You don’t need to change who you are.

You just need to come back to yourself.

And from there,

everything expands.

-Kerri-Elizabeth-