Christy Carfagno,
Stepping Stone 17 Guide
"My name is Christy and my greatest passion is creating a more empathetic and loving world through my everyday actions. I enjoy nothing more than connecting with and caring for animals, spending time in nature, and having conscious conversations with the people in my life. Most days you can find me running with my dogs, creating delicious vegan meals, and writing about my thoughts on the world. I am here to listen, to create, and to connect with this beautiful community!"
Hi Everyone and welcome to the Opening to Love steppingstone that I am thrilled to be hosting.
To kick things off, I'd like to share a bit about my own feelings and experiences surrounding love. For context, I should let you know that I have a tremendous heart for the animal world and have been Vegan for the last 7 years.
For me, the experience of love has always felt quite natural. There is no uncertainty in me when I feel myself loving something. It's almost as if my body, mind and spirit are choosing to love in a way that is totally beyond my control.
"The hardest thing that I've learned on my journey with love has not been cultivating my love for my partner, but cultivating unconditional acceptance and love for myself.”
When it comes to romantic love, things are different. The first time I felt myself falling into romantic love I had this feeling of "WHAT IS GOING ON?" It was breathtaking, blissfully deep and all-consuming…and more powerful than anything I had ever felt in my life… as if I had tapped into a part of myself that I had no idea was even there.
Recently, I have been experiencing the deepest, most complete form of romantic love imaginable to me. But, the hardest thing that I've learned on my love journey has not been cultivating love for my partner, but cultivating unconditional acceptance and love of myself.
You see, like I mentioned earlier, feeling love and appreciation for other beings, and even other things has always come naturally to me, but loving myself has been challenging. However, as time passes, I am learning to embrace all that life brings to me and, in the process, I am coming home to myself by learning to accept and love myself, just as I am.
I have to confess that my self-love practice is imperfect, yet ever-evolving. I can fall into perfectionist tendencies where I over-analyze myself, and can sometimes cast a shadow within my own mind when I'm not in the right headspace. But, I've noticed that practicing self-love, takes me to a place of openness and wellbeing and I always delight in coming back to that place. Indeed, by nurturing self-love I have created my own safe space—my own sanctuary. I am actually tearing up as I write this because, man, it has taken me a while to get here.
Something that resonated deeply with me in this steppingstone—and that I have begun to practice regularly, is the Opening to Love—Tap-Tap-Tap—exercise. Whether it be in the midst of a challenging conversation with my partner or in moments of negative self-talk, or in any other moment when I feel myself shutting down, I stop and open my heart, by tapping lightly on my chest. This simple practice allows me to counteract my tendency to "shut down my heart, and, instead, to open to each moment with love.
