Obstacles vs Opportunities

Earlier this week I was listening to Dr. Kimberely's Manifestation Moments and she made a comment that stuck with me. When I listen or read something, I like to stop, reflect, and re-read or listen to it again, just to keep the wheels turning. She was talking about perception, how we perceive the things in our lives. What she said was "change the way you look at things and the things you look at change". 


Society these days likes the victim mentality. That life is happening to us, that we have no control or power. And though it's true that you can't always change the circumstances, you can always change your perception of that circumstance. 


Sometimes it takes a few times for me to really let these ideas sink in. I can't seem to apply it to my life until I really get it. I watched a movie called Another Earth and one of the main characters told a story and it made me really get the idea about our perception. I want to share it with you. Don't worry, it doesn't spoil the movie.

“You know the story of the Russian cosmonaut? So the cosmonaut, he’s the first man ever to go into space, right? The Russians beat the Americans. So he goes up in this big spaceship, but the only habitable part of it is very small. So the cosmonaut is in there, and he’s got this portal window, and he’s looking out of it, and he sees the curvature of the earth for the first time. The first man to ever look at the planet he’s from. And he’s lost in the moment, and all of a sudden this strange ticking begins coming out of the dashboard.

He rips out the control panel right? Takes out his tools trying to find the sound, trying to stop this sound, but he can’t find it. He can’t stop it. It keeps going. A few hours into this begins to feel like torture. A few days go by with this sound, and he knows: this small sound will break him. He’ll lose his mind. What’s he gonna do? He’s up in space, alone, in a space closet. He’s got twenty five days left to go! With this sound!

So the cosmonaut decides the only way to save his sanity is to fall in love with this sound.

So he closes his eyes. And he goes into his imagination. And then he opens them. He doesn’t hear ticking anymore. He hears music. And he spends the remainder of his time, sailing through space in total bliss, and peace.”

Isn't that a great way to help you visualize the idea? We can't control people, situations, etc., but we can control ourselves. We have the power to choose! Everyday! You might be stuck in a situation, relationship, job, city, whatever, but in the meantime, choose peace. Choose happiness. Choose to see the situation differently. Change your mind about how the story is going, don't just go along with it if you don't like it.  

Every time we're faced with "obstacles", see them as opportunities to learn, and to grow. Choose peace, even if it's only in your head.

LOVE

Happy Valentine's Day! Today is my FAVORITE holiday. I love the hearts and flowers everywhere, the colors, the candies (especially the chocolates), I love it all! I was at the store earlier and I wished the cashier a happy valentine's day and she said she was sad because she didn't have a valentine and I said "of course you do, you have yourself!". She just stared at me like I was crazy. But it's true! You always have yourself.

Maybe you're in a relationship and it's not the best, or maybe you're single, or you might be blessed to be with an amazing person, but you always need to love yourself. You are the most important person in your life. You have to love yourself and in order to love your self, you need to know yourself. How are you going to share yourself with another person if you don't even know who you are?

What makes you happy? What kinds of foods do you like? What are your morals and values? If you don't know those things, how do you expect to express them to someone else? Communication is so important in a relationship and you need to be able to ask for what you want. You have to know yourself so you can effectively communicate what you need from your partner. A lot of the time, we get into arguments over dumb stuff, but what's really happening is we aren't getting what we need from them; affection, attention, appreciation.
You need to know yourself so when you notice you aren't getting those things you need, you can ask for them. And by loving yourself and putting yourself at the top of YOUR list, you are teaching people they need to love you the way you love yourself.

Look in the mirror and love the person you see. We aren't perfect, we all have things we don't like about ourselves, but don't beat yourself up. Take those things and learn and grow. Love yourself in the process. Treat everyday like it's Valentine's day. (But don't go overboard with the chocolate).  xoxo

What should you do with your life?

What do you really want to do with your life? Are you doing what makes your heart sing? Or do you have a job that just pays the bills. Life happens so fast that a job that you took "in the meantime" has now turned into your full-time job. I know it's hard to spend time doing anything when you're just making it, or barely getting by. I'm just trying to plant some seeds here. 


First of all, you are in that job because YOU chose to be there. You got an interview or maybe someone got the job for you, either way, YOU chose to be there and you choose every day to go. You also have the power to chose to find another job. 

My job is to make people feel good. To help them with the aches and pains. To help ease stress and tension. I see people all the time who are stressed and grumpy and tired. Miserable with their jobs and just going through the motions. It breaks my heart that there are so many people who hate waking up every day to go to the job they hate, or maybe they love their job but hate their co-workers. You can read about that here. For now, let's talk about the person who hates going to work.

This is a bigger deal than most of us think. You might think "how can my miserable job be that big of a deal" or that you don't make a difference. I'm here to tell you that YOU DO. One person alone might not make that much of a difference but guess what, you don't live on the earth alone! We each have a part to play. And guess what else, we all know what we're supposed to be doing. (That little passion you have that you hid away when you were told to "grow up", that's a good start.) 


I used to think that we all had major things we had to do to change the world until I read another book that changed my life, "The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity". In this book, the author, Edwene Gaines talks about how we have these desires in our hearts that are a guide to what we should be doing. It doesn't mean you have to quit your job and go help build shelters in a 3rd world country. It might be something as simple as baking cakes,working with animals or building furniture. Here's an excerpt from here book about finding your divine purpose:


      "At one time or another you've probably asked yourself, "What is the purpose of my life? What is it's meaning? Why am I here on Earth, and what am I supposed to be doing?" Chances are, you work hard, whether you take care of a household or have a job outside of the home. Your days are filled with seemingly endless chores and tasks. Perhaps sometimes, when you get tired and stressed out, life can seem like just one long and meaningless "to-do" list with bland retirement and a gold-plated watch at the end of it.
       You may have a sense that given the right circumstances, you could do much more than you are doing now. Perhaps you long to make a real difference in the world, to assign meaning to your life, and to listen to the yearnings of your very soul. 
      All of the great and wise people who ever made a difference on planet Earth heard their soul's yearnings and chose a purpose for their lives. People such as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela seem to have been driven by a self-defined purpose that they chose for themselves. Now, we often think of such people with a sense of awe and respect as if they were somehow different from us- better, smarter, more saintly or more courageous. Sometimes they hardly seem human.
     But the truth is that the only real difference between you and those people is that they all seemed to have a clearly defined life purpose that they selected for themselves and then embraced with steadfast dedication and unshakable determination.
    You have that very same opportunity as well. Every single one of us has some special gift, some special interest, some special talent, some special way of impacting this world, so that it becomes a better place for everyone. You have the potential to live at the level of Gandhi or Mother Teresa. 
      The question you must ask yourself is, "Am I willing to define, embrace, and hold fast to my divine purpose, prayerfully, persistently, and patiently?" If the answer is yes, than the impossible truly can become possible in your life."


Please tell me that gave you chills?! If not, you better get to a hospital right away because you need to be revived. Her book is so incredible and I am so thankful for it to have been place in my life. You really should check it out, it's a great, easy read. I've also made it easier by giving you this link so you can buy it right now. 


The reason why I feel it's so important to be doing what you love, whatever that may be, is because of this: We're supposed to do a job that makes us happy, that we love, because when we do we spread joy. We are fulfilled. When we have a job we hate, we spread negativity. We are empty. And we try so hard to fill that void with stuff. When we do what we love, our words are encouraging and uplifting. When we aren't doing what we love, our words are hurtful and draining. We each have a job to do. And we won't be happy until we do it. 

It really is simple. Think about all the people who tell you you can't do ______. That it's not a real job. Don't listen. That is their own fear talking. And if they were doing a job they loved, I bet they'd be singing a different tune. If no one has ever told you that you can do whatever your heart is telling you to do, I'm telling you now. YOU CAN. 


Spend some time figuring out what you would love to do. A good place to start is, "If you didn't get paid for what you're doing, would you still do it?"  Next step is to have faith. When you take that leap of faith, the universe (God) will do the rest. 


Think about how different the world would be if we all were doing  jobs we loved? There would be a lot less complaining! And I bet all the Wal-marts in the world would have even less people at the registers they have now.

3 easy steps to manifesting

Have you ever had someone you hadn't seen in awhile tell you you look like you've lost weight but you know that you spent all morning trying to find a shirt that made you look the least fat but it still made you feel good when they said it, right? I'm sure you've bought things before too, that someone said would make you or your life better. If not, go to the mall and talk to those people selling junk in those kiosks. The point is, if you belief that something works, it will. All I'm asking is you stay open and hang in there while I share these ideas about manifesting.

man·i·fes·ta·tion: the act of seeing or visualizing something


You might have heard the word manifestation before, or heard of the Law of Attraction. I'm not going to get all new-agey and explain all about the law of attraction, I'm gonna sum it up and move on. The law of attraction is a theory or belief that we can attract anything into our lives. When you manifest something, that means that you are consciously attracting some thing or situation into your life. I'm not going to get into the details of manifesting or a detailed explanation right now, I'm going to get right to the good stuff.

This article is to help you understand the power of our minds and to hopefully expand your current beliefs.

Here are some examples from Psychology Today.


In 2006, Harvard Professor Ellen Langer solicited the help of 84 Boston hotel housekeepers. Dr. Langer told the workers at four of the hotels that their work provided good exercise and "met the guidelines for a healthy, active lifestyle." To the housekeepers at the other three hotels, Langer said nothing. Four weeks later, she compared the two groups. The women who hadn't heard about the health benefits of their work showed no change in weight, body fat, or blood pressure. The housekeepers who heard that their work was good exercise, by contrast, lost an average of two pounds and 0.5 percent of their body fat--and experienced a 10 percent drop in their systolic blood pressure.


In 2008, Dr. Lysann Damisch asked some research subjects to see how many putts they could make in ten tries. For half of the putts, her researchers handed the golfers a ball that "turned out be the lucky one" in previous trials. In the other cases, researchers told participants that their ball was the one "everyone has used so far. "What happened? Participants putting the "lucky" ball made two more putts out of ten then they made putting the ordinary ball.


On April 2, The New York Times reported on a Cornell University discovery about Cheetos without their flavorless artificial orange coloring:They don't taste cheesy. Kantha Shelke, a food chemist with the Institute of Food Technologists, reminded the Times reporters of previous tests in which tasteless yellow coloring was added to vanilla pudding. How did the vanilla pudding taste to the tasters?

"Banana" and "lemon" were the most popular answers.


Our minds are pretty incredible! Why not use that power to have the life you always dreamed of? There are tons of books and articles out there about the best ways to manifest but I'm going to share my experiences with manifesting things into my life. We are all different and things happen differently, try a few, learn other ones, do what works for you.


Here are the steps to manifesting:

1. Know what you want! Sounds simple, right? WRONG. How many people know what they want? Successful people know exactly what they want. It's not important to figure out all the details on how it's going to happen, but you need to know what you want! And be specific. Don't just say "I want a job". There are tons of jobs out there that I guarantee you don't want. You have to know what you want in order to get it. The universe is waiting to give it to you. Matt 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you"


2. Be grateful. Be grateful for what you already have. For example, let's say you want to manifest a new car. How are you treating the car you currently have? Same for houses, clothes, other material things. If you want a bigger/nicer house, how does your house look right now? Is it a disaster? What makes you think that a bigger house will solve that? Be thankful for the house you do have. Don't be discouraged, be thankful! Sometimes it's easier to dream of nicer things when the things we have don't look so nice. Clean your little house/ old busted car. Part of manifesting is being able to spend some time imagining and creating. If your living space looks like a war zone, you won't be able to relax and imagine the life you want. Wake up, clean your space, and be thankful!!

3. Make room for the life you want. We are very visual creatures. So use visuals to help you believe something. If you want to manifest a better job but you have a closet full clothes that say "I'm lazy and don't want to work", go buy a couple things to wear to an interview. Also, do you have a resume for that dream job? If you want new things, get rid of some of the crap that you have. Prepare yourself for the life you want. Do you want a great relationship? That's going to be hard if you have some dead beat boyfriend/ girlfriend hanging around. Now don't go breaking up with someone because they aren't exactly what you want, that's not what I'm saying. What I mean is, if you know that the person you are with is not what's best for you, let it go. How are you going to have the person of your dreams when you are spending your time with a nightmare. Sometimes manifestations happen very quickly so you need to be ready!


Be open and try it. It couldn't hurt to try.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all- Dale Carnegie