“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Wayne Dyer
Radio announcing was one of the most fun jobs I’d ever had until corporate mergers and automation radically changed the industry and I left to reinvent myself. I was sad for what I’d lost and even somewhat bitter for a few years. One day, I finally realized that I’d actually had the opportunity to work in radio while it was live, connected to the local audience, and FUN! That was something my predecessors would not get to do. My perception changed from one of loss to one of gratitude! I was thankful to have ever had that experience which many won’t have.
We spend a lot of time working to earn money to pay for things we already have, yet how often do we stop to truly appreciate them? Do we really love everything that we spend so much time and money to buy, maintain, decorate, clean, and house, or are we just caught up in the routine of it all until it’s more bother than reward? What if we sold or donated what we don’t want/need to recycle it back into the world for someone else to love it, and we actually committed ourselves to spend time/money only on what we really love? This applies to work, leisure, home, romance, friends, possessions, etc.
Life is too short to spend energy on less than what we really love! What else actually matters anyway? If we love it (them), do we appreciate it (them) every day, or instead spend our energy worrying about how to keep it or get more?
Let’s try the trick I discovered about my radio career. Let’s give thanks for having experienced all that we have to this point in our life, and then release our need to hold onto it or control our own destiny long enough to see what else the Universe has for us. This shift immediately increases our abundance as we recognize all that already IS in our life, choosing then to either continue holding and perpetuating that or releasing it for whatever else the Universe has for us, re-opening the flow of energy in our lives.
JOIN US for our first Sacred Wisdom Circle of 2013 from 12:30 to 1:30 PM on January 13th at White Eagle Lodge in Montgomery, Texas. All are welcome as we gather to support and encourage each other during this time of great change. Call 281.252.6600 for details.
To create the best possible Journey of Possibilities for you and me and everyone involved, I decided to take Brendon Burchard’s Experts Academy. He’s such a phenomenal business development teacher for anyone desiring to share their message and make a difference, and part of the course features video interviews with famous successful people. Today I watched Paula Abdul and developed a deep respect for all she has overcome and achieved. Did you know she was born 3 months premature and crying as a baby was fatal? Have you ever realized how petite and soft-spoken she really is? Yet this small giant stood firm in her heart and knew all she needed was a chance, often funding her own ventures to prove herself and then blow them all away with her talent and results. She’s now such an accomplished choreographer, dancer, singer, and yes, even a judge with heart on American Idol. (She thanks Simon for being one of her greatest teachers by being off-camera exactly who he is on camera!) Anyway, one lesson she spoke of that resonated strongly for me is that of nurturing the success that presents itself right here and now, and leveraging from that space to catapult into new arenas with open-hearted authenticity. Or, as another friend of mine put it so simply years ago, “bloom where you’re planted.”
It’s so easy for us to become frustrated about where we are when we feel ‘stuck’, especially when we know we are capable of so much more! Believe me, it has happened each time I learned enough about myself and my role somewhere to feel like I’d outgrown that job or relationship or place to live or whatever, and prepared to move on. Between my need to be challenged, my pesky ego’s need to be fed with new spaces in which to shine, and my A.D.D. ways, it’s so easy for me to quickly set my sights elsewhere and set sail for my next opportunity, be it personal or professional.
However, as Brendon Burchard, Paula Abdul, and many other happy and successful teachers and business professionals attest, staying in that space and exploring further for more opportunities to expand that success is how we can best grow and achieve our own greatest heights. All of these individuals have found new avenues within the same space to let their talents shine to expanded audiences, in new ways, and their happiness and success truly skyrocketed. I see the lesson as deepening our relationships and successes right where we are.
What a great lesson! Instead of moving on to a new space and comfortably creating again, we can live in the discomfort and awkwardness of stretching our familiar self and surroundings into new possibilities and relationships, and then following those into new things from exactly where we are.
The topics that I share with you are not just to update you about where I’m at in this Journey, but in hopes that you will see connections to your own situations and the posts will help you. Can you see yourself in this week’s message? Are there new ways you can explore what may currently be a frustrating situation by opening your heart and allowing more of your true gifts and passions to emerge? Are there others “stuck” there with you that you can love through it who may then be able to see possibilities for themselves? Why not try? What have you really got to lose? Believe me, you will all begin to bloom where you’re planted this spring!
It has been my pleasure this week to visit briefly with Mario Rosales, Founder of Tech-Life Balance to discuss how we can choose the best way to communicate in different situations:
There were a couple of points we didn’t make in our conversation I’d like to add regarding how we can best take care of our relationships as we communicate. First, others appreciate when we notice and respect their feelings. Some people are more comfortable talking on the phone, while others prefer email or text. Some never text at all. It is very helpful to consider the other person’s feelings in choosing how you communicate so as to make them as comfortable as possible.
Second, other people do not owe us anything! We’ve often come to expect that others ‘should’ respond within some imaginary amount of time because we know they have a phone or ‘should’ be checking their email at work. How did we ever come to think this way? They are the master of their own Universe and we can never know all of their circumstances! Again, we are back to patience and respect. It really changes things if we instead assume that they will get back to us as soon as it is convenient for them to do so. Even if they are doing nothing, isn’t the need to relax and unplug just as real and important as the need to do anything else?
The more we are respectful, patient, and loving in our own approach and expectations, the richer our own lives and relationships will become. This always begins with our relationship to self. Let’s take the time to unplug and respect our own need to rest and rejuvenate. When we value this, we understand and value others need to do this also.
Let’s use our imagination for a minute. Consider that an acorn exists that can reason and has emotions. It begins its life in the perfect conditions to grow tall and full and beautiful. How long would it stay in rich soil with plenty of sun and rain and space around it to grow? Would it move to avoid harsh weather, and later try to create its own perfect conditions, maybe working and living with other oaks? Would it evolve to need an exchange system for everyone to provide for themselves in this new community? Picture it: a bunch of oak trees living indoors creating perfect temperatures with artificial lights on timers, using what they want and discarding the rest, until they forget where they came from or their own potential.
I know this seems silly, but sometimes it’s easier to see ourselves from the outside. Like the young oak in our story, we come to believe that reality and possibility are limited to what we can see around us every day, or even what we see worldwide in our lifetime. Generations before us have built this community and lifestyle and we forget most of the time that we can really open ourselves to a universe of Possibility.
The skeptic in everyone… always the mind, never the Spirit…believes we are limited by the reality of our circumstance. However, this thinking can never do anything other than perpetuate more of the same! Thankfully there have been those throughout history who have awakened to recognize their…our own potential. They have acted to create their vision and altered the course for all who followed. Some of this was good, some of it was not. Either way, they were change agents creating a new reality. We all have this potential!
The word creativity, like what it describes, is rooted in the ability to “create”. We have only a brief time in this world to create what we visualize and reach our own potential. Wouldn’t it be a shame to waste a minute?
Embrace your dreams! Create new possibilities for yourself and others! When you doubt yourself, visualize our young oak tree sitting on a coach under a grow lamp playing video games…never growing tall and beautiful and being exactly what an oak tree can be. Silly? Sure! But isn’t there an unfulfilled acorn of possibility waiting inside of you right now?
When is the last time you got very still and simply allowed yourself to be flooded with gratitude for your blessings? As I sat in my home this morning next to my trickling meditation fountain, studying for a graduate course, I stopped to glance out the window at the trees and birds chirping and playing at their feeder. I allowed myself to surrender to a passing moment of thankfulness for that serene moment. Then I really surrendered.
As I felt that moment of rich happiness, I went on to ponder how blessed I am to have my own home in a quiet semi-rural area. Next I was thankful for being laid off so I can focus on school and starting Journey. I felt how healthy my body is, and appreciated its mobility and my smart brain.
Then I began to consider the opportunities that have come to me in the past few weeks for creative professional growth in directions I’d never even considered that are somehow perfect…as if they came about just for me. I looked at the contacts I’ve made by not being completely engulfed in a job and school. I realized how free I feel in my life, and how filled with joy and gratitude my body felt at that moment. Wow! I was moved to tears I was so truly filled with thanks!
Had I chosen in that moment to climb on board the pity train, I could have had that thing going full-speed in no time. Geez, I’m unemployed with no benefits. Now that I’m divorced, there’s no one to help me. Oh no, what if money doesn’t come! Shouldn’t I be out there pounding the pavement? That would cost money for gas and put more wear on my car…my car! What if that breaks down? How will I fix it? Fix it…my house! What if anything goes wrong around here? Man, this sucks. How could they lay me off? I gave all I had to that company, and then they…
You can see how it begins to spiral quickly! Thank God I can spiral just as quickly back into gratitude for having time to finish school, catch up with those I love, enjoy my home, play with my cats, pursue new opportunities…
Every day we choose our attitude, and in doing so, we choose what vibration we will live at and who we will attract, because like attracts like. Who do I want to be, and who do I want to be around? Today is a great day to sit very still and get lost in feeling each individual thing we have for which we can thankful (full of thanks) and grateful (full of gratitude). Try it; let gratitude carry you away!
Last weekend a long period of brewing concerns quietly drove me to my knees. The last night of a weekend can make us physically ill when we are anticipating return to a company in distress (or for many, returning to work that is not one’s best life). Working in the nonprofit sector where work means making a difference for others, the concerns extend beyond myself. As the knots in my stomach grew just below my awareness, I found myself walking into my meditation room with confused tears rolling down my face and hitting my knees in prayer.
I talk with God daily. I even do so in formal prayer with some regularity. Not so long ago, I surrendered some of my concerns to God and that cleared the way for me to receive the beautiful vision for Journey and some incredible people to be attracted into my life.
This prayer was radically different. I hit my knees with the most physical, emotional, and spiritual surrender possible. My prayer was simple and given fully upward, “God, I cannot do any of this without you.” More tears fell as I continued, “God, I don’t even know what I’m trying to carry anymore, but it’s too heavy and I give it ALL to you. I can do nothing without You. PLEASE take this burden from me and let your Light shine. Use all of me for Your Will and DON’T LET ME GET IN YOUR WAY!!! Make me an instrument of Your Will to do and say and think and feel exactly as You Wish. Thank you that I know it is now Done.” (Tears are again welling up as I write this and again feel this powerful experience.)
The next morning, I overslept again, just as I’d done for weeks. I scrambled around for work, fishing toiletries back out of my well-intentioned idle gym bag to get ready, and racing off to work thinking, ‘Well, a lot of good that did!’
As I arrived to the news that my position had been eliminated and my services were no longer needed, I withdrew into my own thoughts and feelings for the duration of that final meeting. As I watched his lips move, I couldn’t help but marvel at how calm I was. Me! The single homeowner raised in the belief that there’s never enough money for anything. He kept talking but all I could hear was deafening Stillness. All I could feel was complete and total Peace. I curled up inside myself onto a soft bed of Knowing that all is Right…a bed made directly on the hand of God. My Father who feeds the birds so they can soar worry-free will also feed me.
Less than twelve hours after complete and total surrender, I had my Miracle. The Peace continues today, and the miracles are just beginning! My phone and email have not stopped bringing love, appreciation, and opportunity to me. My gym bag actually goes with me every single day now to…you guessed it! All I have to do is stay in complete surrender in the hand of God and let His Light shine brightly in everything I say and do. How ironic that we are to give it ALL UP to get it all and then some!
What if we split up? What if I can’t find a job? What if I lose my job? What if I never meet the right person? What if I can’t pay my rent? What if my business slows down and I can’t pay my bills? What if I lose my insurance? What if my cancer treatments don’t work? What if I die before… What if? What if? What if?!
Have you ever noticed how our minds race at the first sign of trouble? We can work ourselves into a complete frenzy in no time! Before we know it, things seem hopeless and we are in complete despair. Yet honestly, if we stop outside our own little mental mania, all that has REALLY happened in the last five minutes is a lot of worry. In this moment, we are safe and none of our worst fears have even begun to materialize.
This is the most important moment ever! We can derail that fateful Train of Dread and climb on board the Train of Possibilities. Before we have begun to truly manifest anything negative for ourselves out of fear, we can change course and create a powerful future for ourselves! Here’s how…
Whether we attend a service at our favorite church or step into Nature, the idea is to be still somewhere. Even if we can’t physically go anywhere, we can go to our favorite quiet chair or floor pillow, light a candle or plug in a water fountain, and be still. We can mediate. We can pray. Spiritual ceremony is very powerful. In that space, we deeply sense the Divine within us.
Now that we feel Divine Energy flowing through our very body, mind, and soul, doesn’t it feel ridiculous to suggest that anything in this world is stronger than Divine Love? Seriously! What in this world is too big for God? It is only this strong sense of KNOWING that God has this covered that will begin to melt it away from our reality. The miracle is ours for the taking, and gratitude is our response.
Life sure can knock us down…low! At one point several years ago, I actually walked out of a well-paying professional job at which I was doing well and moved myself to an island. Stressed out and depressed, grieving the loss of my parents, new marriage struggling, I was hurting. This was just the sort of irrationally desperate move in which we surprise even ourselves! All I really knew for sure was that I couldn’t keep doing what I’d been doing anymore. It was only in this state that I finally gave myself the time and space I needed to heal. It was only in this place that I nurtured myself with endless walks on the beach. It was only through this move that I discovered I really was self-sufficient beyond my successful career. I lived on the barter system and met others on the island who’d arrived in similar condition. There was a large movement of healing in this community I soon discovered and connected into. That energy was so powerful! I participated in sweat lodges. I danced with scarves on the beach with a silver haired native American angel. I went back to school. I had an amazing time renewing myself! All of this was made possible because I had finally surrendered and sought healing.
Later in my life, I was again facing loss when I took a retail job at an outdoor recreational store. Not clear why I was shifting to retail, I soon realized that I had been drawn to another healing space to connect with nature and others in pain. Several coworkers from across the country had been drawn there from a myriad of experiences and were searching for their own healing and Purpose. Not only did we create wonderful bonds and memories, but together we went into nature to beautify, conserve, educate, and enjoy. Once again, sharing nature with kindred healing spirits strengthened and healed me.
Healing spaces are so vital to our happiness and growth! When we find ourselves grieving painful loss, we are more vulnerable and open than at any other times in our life. When we surrender, we find ourselves Divinely guided to people and places that facilitate our healing. When we don’t surrender, we find ourselves quickly getting lost in alcohol, work, shopping, drugs, food, and any other distractions we can find to avoid the pain. Ultimately, walking through the pain is the only path to healing, so how much better to face it now than to add addiction recovery and making amends to our healing process later!
One word of warning about healing spaces: know when to leave them. Such comforting places do not inspire us to move on when our healing time is passed. When the time is right, we must leave or we will not achieve our potential made possible by that healing. Maintain the beautiful friendships formed there. Visit the healing space for renewal. However, as Master Yoda would say, leave we must. Our final gift is to pay forward the love and healing we’ve experienced to those we meet who suffer. It is also to nudge along those who are ready to fly but afraid to leave the healing space themselves. In seeing us fly, we inspire them. A cycle is completed and we have ourselves become a healing space for others.
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Wayne Dyer
