Take a Chance.

This quote is offering me empowerment and encouragement today. I am starting a new chapter in my life, going back to the drawing board to evaluate how I can really be immersed in wholehearted living and reconnecting with my sense of intuition. I am leaving for a women's retreat today, to share experiences, questions, emotions, and nature with beautiful women that I have never met. Excitement doesn't even begin to describe how I'm feeling. I am ready to be open, to share, to listen, to help, to heal. While I don't want to pump myself with expectations about how the weekend will go, I have nothing but positive, high hopes for the transformations that are possible on this trip.


I hope that you all have a lovely weekend. There will definitely be more sharing once I'm back from my retreat. Remember, today and always, that you must MAKE a choice to initiate change in your life! Sometimes that means taking a huge "chance" - taking a risk - being vulnerable. Whenever I feel myself receding or hesitating to do so, I ask myself this: Would you rather be completely open and vulnerable to the love and hurt of the world than be numb to it all? You bet. 

Avoidance.

This weekend, while busying myself with cleaning my apartment and making plans for the week, I realized something pretty significant in my motives to get organized. While I convinced myself that I was being very productive and making good use of my time, I was avoiding a bigger task that awaited me: weeding through my conflicted emotions. All week, a whirlwind of questions have been flying around my mind and my emotions have been bumper-boating around my heart. Yet, the moment I have some down time, I choose to Swiffer. Really?! 


Often times, I use cleaning to avoid confronting more important issues, such as contacting someone I've been reluctant to reach out to, or journaling about my buzzing thoughts to gain some clarity. In the moment, I tell myself that I will feel just as satisfied and fulfilled if I, for example, do some tidying up around the apartment or take the time to paint my nails. When in reality, I'm just sweeping (hah) the most important "task" under the rug and will continue to trip over it until it's attended to. There are of course times when things like cleaning are merited and I am indeed in a peaceful mental state to enjoy doing so. But when I use mundane tasks and band-aid tactics to cover up the real issues I'm facing internally, it only causes further emotional turmoil. 

There are plenty of things we all do to avoid taking some "me" time for ourselves to check in and ask those heavy questions. After knowing what it feels like to be completely open and self-aware, I figure out pretty quickly when I'm playing an avoidance game. Ask yourself what you do as your quick-fix avoidance mechanism, and find a way to confront the reality of what you really want. For me, I like to blog about my feelings, share them with friends or mentors, or just do a stream of consciousness journal. That often allows me to get to the root of what's going on. Learn how to get in the face of your problems or questions instead of sidestepping them. Easier said than done... but it CAN be done. Avoidance may seem like the easy solution in the heat of the moment, but the resultant build-up is anything but easy or enjoyable to deal with.

Be the hero in your own life. xo

Live YOUR Life

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs

I have this quote posted at my desk at work. Each day I read this, it reminds me to look inside myself and ask what is it that my gut is guiding me towards. Sometimes I find it hard to find that balance between listening to others' advice (especially those who are truly offering it up for altruistic reasons) and following what my heart wants. Like anyone, I can be hasty in my decisions and leap before I look ahead to see a place to land. My friends and family are good at tipping me off, but sometimes we need to experience that drop to stay true to our intuition. After such a fall, the Universe is most always waiting to deliver a lesson or to hold up the mirror so that we can more clearly see the answers to our questions. And as we dust off the soot and patch up the tears, we are stronger for it and better equipped for our next challenge.

 

I think that it's always wise to listen to the advice of others - really listen and consider what they are offering - but that we should still prioritize our own inner voice. I am less apt to drown in a pool of regret or resentment after making a decision when I follow my heart. It's true what Steve Jobs says - your heart and intuition "somehow" DO already know what we want to become and what it is that we want to achieve. The Universe taps into our hearts and gives us cues, and the planets pull on our spirits to help guide us. Learning how to let those things steer us, rather than molding to what others in our life may expect or what society seems to suggest, is the key to pure happiness. It is what gives us a sense of control in our lives and it empowers us to accept responsibility for our own happiness and success, however you define those things. Be true to YOU and always strive to be what you envision for yourself.

 

Here's a song that lifts my spirit today. Enjoy!

Florence + The Machine - Spectrum (Maya Jane Coles Remix)

Timing.

Timing - it baffles me! There are times when something completely upsetting will erupt in my life (a car accident, harsh feedback at work, an altercation with a loved one), and I reel at the thought of having to deal with such turmoil. It feels like the world decide to take a knee, right on my shoulders, and is wondering why I'm struggling under its weight. Why me? Why now? Those are frequent questions that pop in our minds when we are playing victim in our own lives. 

But no sooner than I ask the Universe to provide me with better news, does it deliver a gem of encouragement or crack a window of opportunity. Sometimes we are so wrapped up in the seemingly life-ending occurrence to feel the breeze coming through that window. But if we practice trusting the Universe's choice of events and open our minds to greater possibilities than we could have imagined ourselves, then we will truly reap the benefits of all that is being offered to us. The Universe has a way of intrinsically restoring balance when things are off-kilter. So we must have patience and trust as it tips the scale one way or the other.

Timing... it can comfort us too, if we see it as a natural, fated entity rather than resenting its decision for our lives. We may not always be able to predict what the Universe has in mind for us, but we certainly have a very powerful ability to control our thoughts and cognizantly see things from a positive perspective.

I borrowed this sweet encouragement from my friends at the Bliss Sisters, which is a women's group that happens to be one of those special gems I reference above.

A Reminder...

I read a quote today that reminded me of the root reason I started this blog. I've been feeling a little off track in my spiritual practices, so I am using this quote to recenter.

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." - Rumi

Wow... it's not about striking luck and suddenly coming upon love. It's about removing all of the things that are inhibiting your heart from being totally open to it. This will probably feel counter-intuitive, as we often spend more time on the hunt for love than we do opening our hearts to receive it. It may sound easier to putz around and wonder why people won't love us than to hone in on our receptors and instead ask how WE are contributing to the void. But, in reality, one finds that it is more time and energy efficient to look inwards instead of outward.


What are some "barriers" that we build against love? There are so many... judgement, expectation, fear, dishonesty, jealousy, selfishness. Think about what you are doing, perhaps unconsciously, that is deflecting love from your life. BE LOVE, and you WILL receive it.


Have a LOVEly day, everyone!