Welcome Home
by Najwa Zebian
What genre? personal growth, autobiography, diversity & inclusion
Why read? in a book part-memoir, part-poetry, and part-teachings, author Najwa Zebian describes a powerful blueprint for healing, through building our home within ourself, for which she lays out prompts and practical tools for self-understanding
3 concepts that inspired me:
Build your home within yourself: home is where we can unapologetically be ourselves and where our soul feels it belongs. Today, some of us build our homes in other people (waiting for their validation - to feel we belong), or in other times (living in the past, or projecting to the future). This, Zebian explains, leads to disappointment, frustration and a lack of stability. Building our home within ourselves, and in the moment, is the way to experience feeling grounded and fulfilled. And the best way to build it you ask? It is to create within ourselves (and frequently visit) rooms for self-love, forgiveness, compassion, clarity, surrender and dreaming.
Enter the self-love room everyday: to show up as the best version of ourselves for us and for others, self-love would ideally be an integral part of our daily lives, not a luxury. To achieve that, we would need to define ourselves by the love we have within us, not strictly by the love we receive from external sources. For that purpose, the author shares ideas and tips on how to practice self-love (beyond taking care of ourselves or indulging) such as practicing how to create a bubble to not get enmeshed with other people’s emotions, deliberately recognizing all the places we are receiving love from, or simply setting an intention in the morning: “Today I am going to see proofs that I am worthy of love”.
Welcome negative emotions as visitors of your home, not permanent residents: the next time we start feeling negative emotions, let’s remind ourselves that they are temporary visitors, not permanent ones. And the best way to greet (and therefore process) them is to welcome them, acknowledge where they’re coming from, ask them about what they’re trying to tell us, and then patiently know they will be leaving soon as they have fulfilled their purpose.
2 excerpts I enjoyed reading:
On showing ourselves compassion:
“These mountains you are carrying… you were only supposed to climb.”
On being whole and becoming whole-r:
“You were always a masterpiece.
The difference now
is that your pieces
found more beauty in being
together
than in being scattered.
The difference now is that you are the master
of your pieces”
1 question I’m asking myself:
Which room within myself requires most attention (the room of self-love? forgiveness? compassion? dreaming? or surrender?) and what can I do to help build it up?
With love, Vanessa