“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.”
Messages I need to hear have a way of showing up. And showing up. And showing up some more, until I pause long enough to actually hear them. Do you know what I mean? After I posted the video I made about working to overcome my fear of public speaking on Facebook, something unexpected happened.
Read MoreThe experience I had at Gabby Bernstein’s Spirit Junkie Masterclass training, just a little over a year ago, is almost indescribable and no words can really do it justice, but giving you a snapshot of what it was like for me is something I felt like I needed to share. Here is a snapshot of what the opening night of that weekend was like for me...
Read MoreIn my experience, being indecisive is not about putting off choosing because you just don’t feel like doing it. It’s not about being lazy or unmotivated. It’s not about being selfish or inconsiderate. You may feel vulnerable and exposed when you put an idea out there that you think other people might think is stupid. But the alternative—staying small and quiet and never making a decision about anything with conviction—does not keep you safe. All it will do is keep you stuck.
Read MorePublic speaking has been one of my biggest fears for as long as I can remember. Just the thought of it has always made my mind go blank, heart race, and mouth run dry. So, one night when I was thinking about all of this, I chose to stop listening to that fearful voice in my head, and tuned in to something else. Before I knew it, I was actually letting the deep full body feeling of that fear wash over me. I didn't try and numb it or push it away. I let myself surrender to it and really feel it. And then something I never expected happened.
Read MoreHow we choose to perceive a situation or a person's behavior is totally up to us. You might be thinking, "Sure, that sounds good and everything, but all the people I have to deal with on a daily basis are super annoying!" That may be your experience, but it doesn't have to be. Every relationship and interaction is there to teach us something. When you can look at your daily annoyances or frustrations with that in mind it's much easier to let things go and keep your cool.
Read MoreIt's pretty much a given that there will be moments where you feel stressed out, overwhelmed, or frustrated. The thing is, it's completely up to you how you deal with those feelings and moments. It a nutshell, you can snap and react or pause and respond. I am far from perfect in this area, believe me, it can be super easy (and tempting!) to get caught up in the drama and feed the beast by throwing up your hands and believing that's just the way it is. But there is another way.
Read MoreI never had the privilege of meeting Dr. Wayne Dyer in person, but his impact on my life was great nonetheless. It was through his teachings that I began to shift my perception about forgiveness, and take my willingness to want to forgive and transform it into something I could actually apply in my life. While listening to one of Dr. Dyer’s lectures I heard him tell the story of how he forgave his father years after his death and it resonated with me deeply.
Read MoreOver the past year, the intentional practice of kindness has been a part of the teachings in many of the books I've read and taken to heart, two of the main ones being; The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and May Cause Miracles by Gabrielle Bernstein. So, sometimes I play a game with myself to see how kind I can be to everyone I meet in a day. And by kind I don't mean just to be nice or polite. I mean real, honest to goodness kindness.
Read MoreSometimes I think what we forget is that words have the power and meaning WE give to them; when we speak them aloud, and maybe even more importantly, when we repeat them in the inner dialogue we have with ourselves all day long, we are in a constant state of deciding, no, choosing, what we think they mean and how they make us feel.
Read MoreLike peanut butter and jelly or paint and canvas, some things just go together. For me, perfectionism and procrastination have been like two P's in a pod; they've just always gone together. The two P’s and I have been well acquainted for quite some time. They became coping mechanisms I used while trying to prove to the outside world that I was "good enough," and seemed like a way to avoid judgment and rejection which, it turns out, could not be farther from the truth.
Read MoreOn August 20, 2014 I made a seemingly small decision that changed my life in a major way. I said, YES. Up until that day I'd always liked the sound of being "spiritual," but I have to admit that the word didn’t actually hold much of a deep personal meaning for me. That is, until I saw Gabrielle Bernstein speak live for the first time. I had discovered Gabby on YouTube at the beginning of the summer, and the way she broke down the spiritual principles she was teaching really resonated with me.
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I was listening to a women's empowerment type podcast recently and the interviewee was talking about something she’d been trying to figure out when she said some of the words I most hate to hear crossing women's lips.
I came across this quote the other day and couldn't believe how perfectly it described something I'd been trying to put into words. "Be patient with yourself. Nothing in nature blooms all year."
I've always loved coffee. Like really, really, really loved it. But I finally hit a point where I was doing so many things to relieve the stress in my life and boost my energy that it started to irritate me that I couldn’t kick my coffee habit to the curb.
I didn’t write or talk about it at first because I didn’t want it to be happening to me. I didn’t want to admit that I couldn’t “do it all” and was worried what people would think. I was ashamed I couldn’t just suck it up and push through like so many other people seemed to do.
If you listened to your thoughts for even 5 minutes you’d likely see that you’re bringing a whole lot of the past and the future into your present. The idea of being "more present" is easy to talk about, but it can be a challenge to put it into practice, right?
People have many different ways of trying to be more present, but understanding why I was bringing the past and future into today is something that has helped me to actually be more in each moment as it's happening.
Think about some of the things that you might deal with day in and day out—making decisions, brainstorming, negotiating, helping a friend through a hard time, being there for your family as a mom, daughter, sister, wife, the list goes on and on.
Now think about how you want to show up for those situations. I'm guessing you'd choose happy, centered, and calm over miserable, disconnected, and frantic, right? Right.
Do you ever find yourself falling back into old habits and not even really realizing it? One of mine is frantically polling everyone around me and asking them what they think I should do.
And the crazy thing is I know when I'm doing it that what I'm really doing is looking for external validation to either affirm or contradict what I maybe kind-of sorta think I should do. But the thing about searching outside yourself for the answer is...it doesn't work.
It's a simple truth that you must witness your behavior if you want to change it. Obvious, right? Not always.
Often times our unconscious reflex can be to push down any negative or fear based thoughts we have without even thinking about it. We don't want to look behind the curtain to see where they’re coming from, or fact check if they’re even true because...why?
So what does it mean to let our light shine, or to “be the light?" You might not even know what I'm talking about, or perhaps you're surprised to realize you are afraid of shining bright because you're worried about what people would think of you.
Or you might feel like stepping fully into your light would extinguish the light of those around you. On the flip side, some people can feel like letting the people around them shine will in some way dim their own light. But in my experience, quite the opposite is true.