holding the faith, not the breath

There is a heaviness in the air right now, one that presses on our hearts and begs us to question if we can endure. Around us, there are fractures: in our earth, in our systems, in the way we treat one another and this planet. Fear lingers in these fractures, waiting for us to falter, to shrink, to succumb to the lie that we are powerless.

But fear is not the whole story.

Beneath the weight of this moment, there is something stirring—faith, courage, and the power of love. I want to share this reflection today because it feels urgent, not as a solution but as an offering, a reminder that even when the world feels impossible, we hold the capacity to rise, to remember, to act.

Today, I shine light on my shadows in hopes of reminding anyone who finds their way to this message: You are not alone.
Fear thrives in isolation. It wants to keep us stuck, hidden, and small.
But today, may we move into a space of renewed faith—both in ourselves and in each other—by turning toward the very things that scare us.

Scared is what happens when the Sacred gets scrambled.

I love that quote. It’s so simple and true.

We forget that we are divine beings having a very raw and human experience. And in this experience, we are here to learn hard lessons.
But here’s the good news: We signed up for this.
That means we knew, from the very beginning, that we could handle the adversity, the challenges, the disappointments, the fear, the shadows, the struggles, and the pain. We knew we would be strong enough for this warrior’s journey.

But somewhere along the way, we forget.
Fear scrambles us.
Trauma hijacks us.
Ego traps us.

The antidote?
Faith. Love. Compassion. Truth.

For so long, I carried shame for what I now see as blessings. I shamed myself for growing up in a trailer park—a home filled with love, safety, and enoughness, even if it didn’t look the way I thought it should. I shamed my name, Garcia, and my brown skin, which I now celebrate. I internalized harm and abandoned myself to fit into boxes that were never made for me.

And yet, somehow, I have chosen to heal. I have placed effort into challenging the absurdity, assumptions, and apathy around me and within me. I’ve smoothed out those imprints—not by ignoring them but by facing them—thanks to this practice that is radical compassion, radical reckoning, and radical remembering of who I truly am and who we truly are.

Shame cannot survive in the light.

I have been letting go of my shame by bringing it into the open. By giving it space to breathe and teach me. By learning the hard, but necessary, lessons it holds.

It’s not easy work. But I now see that every moment of discomfort prepared me for this path:
To do no harm.
To just be kind.
To heal.
To shine.
To forgive.
To have faith.

Because shadows only exist where there is light.

So when fear rises—when we feel scared, stuck, or alone—
We must turn on the light.
We must turn on the love.
And in doing so, we remember:

You are sacred.
You are strong.
And you are never, ever alone.

This path I walk has not always been faith-filled.
It has taken countless stumbles, falls, and freezes to get me here.
Even now, I know I have so much more work to do.

But I also celebrate how far I’ve come.
I honor the strides I’ve made in feeling deeply, slowing down, and navigating the grief, fear, trauma, and confusion that once consumed me.

When my world fell apart on 7.4.13,
I didn’t know that the destruction would also reveal so much of what had been hidden.
It cracked me wide open.

And it is only in the breaking
That the light can truly enter.

That was the beginning of my messy, raw, and relentless journey toward healing. It has been guided by gratitude and fueled by faith in the unknown.

To move from fear to faith, I must first acknowledge what I’m afraid of. For most of my life, I ran from my shadows, letting fear compromise my truth. Some of that fear was created in my own mind. Some of it was a response to very real, lived experiences.

But whether it was imagined or real, the result was the same:
Fear kept me small, afraid, and disconnected from my sacredness.

Ernest Holmes, a spiritual teacher and founder of the Science of Mind philosophy, once said that fear and faith have the same roots. Fear is the belief that something awful might happen, while faith is the belief that something good will happen. Both are beliefs that shape our behavior and influence how we feel.

When we replace unreasonable fear with reasonable faith, we have the antidote.

Faith brings stability.
Faith brings trust.
Faith brings truth.

And through faith, we can replace fear with love.
When we turn on the light,
When we turn on the love,
We remember who we are:

Sacred.
Strong.
And never alone.

So, I invite you to pause.
Hold the faith, not the breath.
Just for a moment—can you trust that every step, every discomfort, every shadow, is leading you to something greater?
What are the lessons hiding in the hard moments?
Let yourself sit with those questions and feel into the truth that, even in the struggle, there is something sacred happening.

Because here’s the thing:
There is goodness in this world.
And that goodness lives in you.
It lives in me.
It lives in us.

When we connect to that goodness, when we remember that it’s always there,
We align with something greater than ourselves.
We begin to trust, not just in what’s ahead,
But in the love that is already woven into our being.

And when we do that,
We have more faith in who we are,
And who we are with.
We have more faith in this world.

We can move from love,
We can keep showing up with faith,
We can continue on—hearts high and wide, shoulders down and soft.
Grounded in our sacredness.
And supported by the unshakable truth that we are never alone.

❤️ If this message resonates with you, I’d be so grateful if you would hit the heart button. ❤️ It helps my work reach more people, giving it the space and momentum to continue growing and sharing the love. Every heart clicked is a reminder that we’re all in this together, walking the path of healing, love, and faith. Thank you for being part of this journey. ❤️