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Last week I invited you to consider how living life is an endless opportunity to practice peace. I also shared that peace isn't an absence of conflict. Rather, peace is being calm amidst all of it and choosing to respond with love.
How is it going? Tell me here. This week I encourage you to take the next step: Revisit the garden of your life and prune it. Why? Life is too short to live otherwise...and as I mentioned last week, in addition to the challenges you may be facing in your own life, you are perhaps also feeling the collective depression/anxiety that is occurring on the planet (em-path?). Absorbing all this intense energy creates distraction, complexity, and ultimately depletes your precious energy. By pruning your inner garden, you will begin to simplify your life and amplify your energy so you are able to focus on that which brings you JOY. By the way, if you know you are an em-path, I suggest you attend my workshop this Saturday. How do you prune your garden? It's 2 parts. You must first weed the dead. After that, you seed that which brings you joy. Try it: Set a timer for 5 minutes. Close your eyes. Ask yourself the questions: What makes me come alive/energizes me? Upon opening your eyes, jot down what came to mind. As you do jot down what came to mind, also think about: 1. What needs to be weeded from the garden of my life so I have more energy to seed? Example: Weed negative behaviors such as gossip, negative thinking, people... 2. What do I wish to seed instead? Example: Positive thoughts, nourishing, positive friendships... Make sure you list at least 2-3 things for each question. Say thank you to yourself and commit to taking small steps over the next 7 days to weed and seed. What kind of small steps? Weeding- When you notice yourself in the gossip or negative thought, stop it. Distance yourself energetically and physically from negative people. Seeding- Commit to getting support (a mentor, class, book, etc) around weeding these behaviors and people. Attend a social activity with the intention of meeting a new friend. As in nature, when we nourish our garden - by the consistent activity of weeding and seeding, we bloom. Remember to be courageous and compassionate as you face the facts. I will check back with you next week. Questions/Support? Connect with Me.
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In honor of the Super New Moon on May 25, I share my poem to inspire you to act with a sense of urgency for that which makes you come alive...and once alive, you must awaken.
Find your way. Stay. In faith you are free. Don't you see? Nowhere else to be. Time and space eludes us all. Sweet child, it's why you continue to fall. Make a pact. Don't look back. Clean the grime. It's time. Prune your garden. Weed the dead. Lift your chin. Look ahead. It's time to sow. It's time to grow. Faith...all you ever need to know. Super New Moon it's to you I bow. I seed intentions and release the how. It's about the journey, this we know. Oh sweet child--go play and let the rest go. Be true to you. Speak your voice. There is -- no other choice. Claim your life! I promise it's so worth the temporary strife. One day you will see, it was all meant to be...exactly and perfectly. Close your eyes now. Be still and go slow. Dear one...you must become un-done. How sweet it is to let it be- to open our heart and simply see. Looking for nothing. Simply being AWAKE. My loves, AWAKE is the only step we must take.  Last week I introduced the idea that nothing is wasted, encouraging you to see all experience as teachers. Why? To empower you!!!
How is it going? Tell me here. This week I want to keep it soft and simple by reminding you that living is an endless opportunity to practice peace. If you are reading this, it is likely you are more sensitive than the average person. As such, in addition to the challenges you may be facing in your own life, you are perhaps also feeling the collective depression/anxiety that is occurring on the planet. It's real. So, this week my invitation is for you to practice peace as you live your life...until it becomes a way of life... What do I mean by peace? May you find this "definition" practical and workable: Peace isn't the absence of noise, challenge, hard work... Peace is being in the midst of all of this while having a calm mind, open heart and absolute faith...in a word...LOVE Love is THE way, the only way... As I've shared in my book, when we choose LOVE as the path, it also becomes the practice and the fruit. PS: I am talking LOVE without condition. Practice living peace by choosing love... Love your mind to calm with meditation, love your heart open with possibility, love your life by walking in faith. Respond with love, no matter who/what. Try it. See what happens. I'll check back with you next week :) When I pause and stop to be, I reconnect to the deepest part of me;
There is love there is light, sweetheart there's no more fight. This place is pure, for this I am sure. My mind wipes clean, my body let's go, my heart blooms open to all the unseen. I am here. Now. Present and Alive. Sweet child. Open, dive and enjoy the ride. We are ALL meant to THRIVE. I pray. I play. Thank you for THIS day.  Last week I talked about confronting the facts...the good/bad/ugly in order to gain knowledge, a key ingredient for success.
What are you noticing? Are you being kind to yourself in the process? Tell me here. This week I want to remind you that nothing is wasted. Meaning, when we choose to look at all experience as teachers, we begin to build/strengthen our faith. Maybe we even begin to build/strengthen trust in ourselves...in what we love and then in how we choose to live this love. Yum. Gives me goose bumps writing this. Living what we love!! In Chapter Two of my book, Reclaiming Joy I introduce the concept of "Powering Up for Joy." This was by far the most intense and challenging chapter for me to write and for many to read as it connects to their story. In this chapter I share the darker times in my life and how kicking and screaming I finally learned how to use the darker moments to empower me toward the light...love...JOY. What's amazing about choosing to live the concept that nothing is wasted-- is that it's empowering!!! Why? Since we are what we repeatedly think, because thoughts are energy and turn in to actions, concepts that empower us, build our energy. Empowering concepts build the good kind of energy required for us to make manifest our love (aka = to really enjoy life). Remember, energy is our #1 asset. If we are unaware of what energizes us and also what depletes us, we will end up being unaware and too exhausted to live the life we love. As I was sharing my darker experiences in Chapter Two of my book, it was from a place of having learned and therefore my experience became a "teaching" story. Meaning, I experienced so much healing once I confronted the facts, I was able to move beyond my "personal story" - the intensely emotional dis-empowering one - to a story that would serve others. Nothing is wasted.... Being able to share our experience as a teaching story happens from a place of emotional balance and therefore clarity. This place is very different than if I had been sharing several years ago when it was still too raw and I didn't see the whole picture. Know what I mean? Usually when we are in the storm, we are unable to see. At the time of my storm, I still had too much healing to do and it would have been a deeply personal, emotional story that wasn't in service to sharing. Note I am not saying it's bad/wrong to share our intense emotions with people who are willing and able to hold space for us. Sometimes we blow. Having an emotional release for the sake of release is normal and healthy. However, having an intense emotional release is very different than sharing a past emotionally intense experience from a place of calm with the intention of teaching. The key, as you hear me say often, is to stay the course, weather the storm, ride the waves. Keep engaging in practices like meditation that enable you to observe your experience in a less emotional way. I promise it is from this vantage point that you will begin to move from the personal story to the teaching story. And by the way I am not saying you have to share and teach your story. That's up to you. I will say if you believe nothing is wasted, then you will likely find some way to share your story to help others. It's empowering to do so and keeps you on the path... This week I encourage you to continue working with confronting the facts and bringing to it this concept of nothing is wasted. As you do, may the words of Geneen Roth (love her & her book, Women, Food and God) remind you to trust-- and then do-- what you love that makes you come alive!!! "The Voice-induced decisions - those made from shame and force, guilt or deprivation, cannot be trusted. They do not last because they are based on fear of consequences instead of longing for truth. Instead, ask yourself what you love. Without fear of consequences, without force or shame or guilt. What motivates you to be kind, to take care of your body, your spirit, others, the earth? Trust the longing, trust the love that can be translated into action without the threat of punishment. Trust that you will not destroy what matters most. Give yourself that much." -Geneen Roth Last week I talked about how each and every one of us is born to THRIVE.
And yet- so many people do not believe they are born to thrive and live day by day in the struggle...also known as survival mode. I encouraged you to first, upgrade your beliefs/thought patterns (think positive) and then to really ask yourself 'what kind of life do I wish to live?'. How did you do? Tell me here. This week I want to discuss another concept, confronting the facts, that has to do with upgrading our belief/thought patterns. I have found both in my own life and in my work with clients there is often confusion about what it means to be positive. Being positive isn't about being an eternal optimist and ignoring the facts in our life that contribute to our unhappiness, etc. Rather, being positive is a mindset or way of being. In this mindset or way of being, that we strengthen by meditation and similar awareness practices, we actually confront the facts. The facts, the truth...what is real for us. When we confront the facts (the good/bad/ugly), we gain knowledge. My friends, this knowledge is key for success. Why? Well, if you don't know the issue, how will you change it? How will you know which actions to take if you are dealing with smoke and mirrors and half truths? Remember-- to change outcome, we must change actions. And the only way we change is to first accept that something has to change. And the only way we know that something has to change is if we are totally honest. When we realize that confronting the facts is the only way to thrive, we also understand the importance of having a positive mindset. A positive mindset gives us the courage to face the sometimes sobering hard reality we find ourselves living. Great, so once we confront the facts and gain knowledge, how do we stay positive? Faith. Faith is believing in the unseen, trusting there is a bigger plan for you and your life...that perhaps you don't yet see. Faith means you fall and you rise and you fall and you rise and you repeat the process as often as you need. Faith means you are open to guidance, support and doing what it takes to walk in faith. This is different for everybody and may change over time. As you continue on your journey to thrive, if this is how you choose to live, I encourage you be real. Confront the facts. Allow the truth to open you to possibility. If you aren't sure what your mindset truly is, let's play a simple game. Look at the words below and ask yourself how you see life experience-- all of it-- including your own: 1. Adversity or Advantage? 2. Obstacle or Opportunity? 3. Problem or Possibility? If you identity with the words to the right, awesome, you see life through the positive lens and are well on your path to thriving even more! For those identifying with the words on the left, accept it. And then choose how you wish to live and allow that to inform which action steps you take next. I am here to support you! Last week I talked about joy, unencumbered, meaning-- how do we walk the path of life, feeling JOY, unencumbered, once we open our eyes to the sometimes challenging reality of LIFE. What have you noticed? What choices have you already made & will continue to make, right NOW to experience JOY...unencumbered? Tell me here, I'd love to know and hold you accountable. This week I invite you to consider another concept: Each and every one of us is born to THRIVE. Truth. Thriving is part of the blueprint we are born with. Do you believe that? If not, why not? Watch those negative thoughts. Your beliefs/thoughts become your life. Why thriving? Over the past few weeks in my walking with protection workshop (Note: I am offering this workshop again in June), my sessions with clients and in my heart felt talks with loved ones, something has revealed itself... a gem of sorts. The gem? Many people do not believe they are born to thrive. Instead, at some point after birth they have come to accept that life is a struggle. This belief impacts their reality as they live each day in "survival" mode. Do you know what I mean? It makes my heart sad. Maybe this is you, has been you, or perhaps it's someone you love- living in this "mode". Whatever. This isn't about judgment, ever. This is about reality and choosing to THRIVE, to be ALIVE. I talk about this struggle of surviving versus thriving in my book Reclaiming Joy. I share that we spend so much time busy in the doing, trying to survive, we neglect to notice how we are being. In the process, we end up sleepwalking through life...holding so tightly onto threads of what may have been "if only"...waiting for some big shift to happen or for someone else to save us. I will tell you from my experience-- the big shift starts with you! Yes, often our circumstances drastically change (death/divorce/addiction/depression) and it forces us to open our eyes. Yet- it still comes back to us making a shift-- we still have to make the choice to THRIVE, beyond what has happened for us, (not "to" us remember?) Why would we choose to THRIVE when it seems like so much work/energy, even scary, etc to take the action steps necessary? Because at some point we realize it's the only path. So, yes, we are born to THRIVE! However, this birthright is not a license to be lazy and sing the "woe is me" song when life hits. Many of us get stuck in everything that we feel "prevents" us from thriving: Who has betrayed us, hurt us, stolen from us, broken our heart, let us down, abused us...lied to us, etc, etc. What to do? First, upgrade your belief/thought pattern to, "I WAS BORN TO THRIVE and I WILL". Free up that stuck energy and direct it towards LIVING. Second, look at yourself in the mirror, into your eyes and really ask yourself: What kind of life do I wish to live? As you explore your answers, perhaps you will list qualities such as: faith, truth, integrity, love, peace, abundance, adventure, ease, JOY. As you explore your answers and get clear on the life YOU wish to live, when circumstances present themselves that are less than the qualities you have listed, you get to choose.... Am I willing to speak my voice in this situation to advocate for the qualities I wish to live by? If yes, then there are only 2 outcomes. Either the other party/parties will step up, or not. Which leads to the next choice. Are you willing to stay because you have yet to learn "that" lesson....i.e.: you are enough, deserving to ask...and work it through? *OR* Is it time to prepare how you will exit a situation that no longer serves YOU and the life YOU wish to live. Hmm-mm!!!! Much food for thought. Take it in. Let is simmer. Write, Pray, Meditate, Share with me. I got it, I get it, I support it. We are't meant to walk alone. No judgment here-- Only ever Love to help you THRIVE. Speaking of THRIVING...have you chosen to join us??? Sweet Retreat Tulum, 10/31-11/5!! Experience the many ways we nourish ourselves. Learn More.  |
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