Archive for the ‘Personal Development’ Category

At the end of December I decided to participate in a 21 day blog post challenge.  We write one blog post everyday for 21 days.  Today is day 14, so a little over halfway there.

Today has been the first day that I am finding it challenging to write a post.  We received news about the cost of fixing the leaks in the basement and it is quite a hefty price tag!  We found out that the house has no drain tile around the house.  We have an older house, built in the 70’s.  So, we will have to be waterproofing and adding drain tile to the outside of the house.  I’m sure this sounds stressful, but really I feel OK about how things are unfolding.  I am trusting that everything is going to turn out perfectly, so the decisions we are making around this are going to be just fine.

The challenge I am facing with writing a post is one of pure habit.  When things get a little tough, I have had this habit of using the tough situations to not follow through with commitments I have made.  I have been working on breaking this habit for a while, and for the most part I don’t do that anymore.  However, today I could really feel that energy creeping in.

I became aware of what I was saying to myself after we found out the news (about 2 hours ago) and I was aware of how I was feeling.  I found myself starting to say things like, “I don’t feel like doing a post today”, or “I need to focus on other stuff before I do my post today”, or “I REALLY don’t know what I am going to write about today”.  I was really working on a way to justify getting out of this commitment.

So, I decided to do something to change the state of my energy.  I was feeling OK, but I knew I could feel better.  So in that moment, I asked myself what would make me Feel Good Now?  My answer was a coffee and a Nanaimo bar.  So, I made that coffee and had it with a piece of Nanaimo bar.  It was damn good!  I enjoyed it!  While having that little break, I decided that I wouldn’t break this commitment, and surely there was something I could write about!  That I could provide some piece of value to the Universe today!

I guess where I am going with this, is this.  If you have made commitments to yourself (as it is New Years and the time of resolutions), then find a way to keep those commitments.  Find a way to change your state and re-align yourself with those commitments.

If you have to break the commitment down into smaller pieces to make it more manageable, then do that!  Make it easy to win!  For example, if you have decided to lose 50 lbs and you are finding this too daunting, then modify.  Start with part one of your 50 lbs weight loss, which is to lose 10lbs.  Just making that distinction changes the energy around the goal and changes your energy.

I’ve learned that it’s really important to keep our commitments.  It allows us to feel good, to feel proud of accomplishing something.  If we have to start small, that’s awesome.  It allows us to grow into bigger goals, bigger dreams.  We want to feel like winners, right?  What better way to do that than with setting an attainable goal, keep it easy to win and tackle it!

So here I am at the end of my blog post now, and look…it’s done!  I won!  Post 14 of my 21 day commitment.  😀

I thought I would write about a few ways that you could raise your vibration on a daily basis.  These are fairly quick methods and will help you when you are feeling a little down, or off.

1. Meditate for 15 minutes.  Meditation will help you release any dense emotions you are holding onto and bring you back into balance.  Just this alone will raise your vibration.

2. Go outside for 10 minutes and connect with nature.  Even if you are at work and all you have around you is a parking lot, you can do this.  Go outside and look up at the sky.  Focus on what the sky looks like.  The colour, shape of any clouds, where is the sun.  Feel the sun if it is out that day.  Feel the air and temperature.  Give thanks and gratitude for your surroundings.

3. Make a list of things you are grateful for.  Pick 5 areas in your life and start to make a list of things you love about them.  Focus on loved ones, pets, yourself, your job, your car, your house, friends, food you love to eat.  Anything that brings in joy to your life.

4. Go outside and thank the Universe (or heaven..or whatever name you have for it) for the the spirits that are focused on you, helping, encouraging and uplifting you.  Acknowledge them and give them gratitude every moment no matter what you are doing, where you are or who you are with.  Do this every day.

This video I am posting below is a great video on how we create and co-create the things in our lives.  We are responsible for EVERYTHING that happens in our lives.

Five years ago I co-created 2 car accidents in my life, within a 3 month period.  At the time, it was very stressful and I didn’t understand why this “happened” to me.  I had injuries, chronic pain and felt much anger because of these events.  I learned much of what Abraham is speaking about here on how we create events in our lives that match our thoughts and vibrations.

Looking back on these 2 events, I can tell you that they were the best things to happen to me.  My life completely changed, for the better.  I am so grateful and thankful that I had those accidents.

In a future post, I’ll write about how I’m manifesting what I want in my life nowadays without the need for such drastic measures.  At that time in my life I wasn’t quite aligned with who I was, so the Universe had to take more drastic measures to get my attention.

Hope you enjoy this video.

Grounding the energy in our bodies is something that should be done on a regular basis.  By regular, this could be several times a day depending on your energy and how you react to things.  The more we ground our energy, the easier it gets to do it and the frequency in which we have to ground can become less and less.  We can relieve stress, anxiety, dizziness, and become more calm, centered and focused with grounding.

One of my favorite ways to ground my energy is to bring my focus to my feet.  I become aware of my feet and allow my energy to flow down to my feet.  Often when I am meditating I find myself floating out of my body, and this is a really quick way to get back into your body and feel centered.  It wasn’t easy to do this at first, but with practice I can ground my energy and be centered within seconds.

If you are new to grounding, a really great and simple way to ground your energy is through visualization.  There are many different ways to visualize yourself grounding your energy.  What worked best for me was to visualize a ball of energy at the base of my neck.  It can be any colour you like. I would then send that ball of energy down my spine and once I hit the base of my spine (Root Chakra) I would shift it into a cord and continue moving downward from the base of my spine towards the ground.

Once I reached the ground I then shifted the cord into roots and allowed the roots to permeate the earth and go deep into the ground.  At that point I would focus my attention up to my Crown, and bring white light in through my crown and travel down through the same path as I started until I reached the bottom of the roots.  This was great for me.  It took a few minutes to do, but also became faster to do each time I practiced it.

It’s great to try out a few visualizations, and then find what works best for you.  You can even take bits from different types and create your own.  What’s important is to feel centered and balanced at the end.

If you have a favorite grounding technique, feel free to share below!

Last night we had a storm and heavy rain blow through our area.  Rain is a common occurrence for us. The challenge with the rain this time was that the ground was partially frozen and was unable to absorb all the water.  Because of this, we ended up with quite a bit of water coming into our home (in the basement) in the late evening.

We had been working on solving a minor leak in this area for a few months now, but it wasn’t anything major.  Last night it seemed that the dam broke and we had water pouring in one area of our basement.  My husband was working down there for about an hour and the atmosphere was quite tense.  I went down to try and move some of our things around to make space for easier access.  I was moving a few things to the other side of the basement when I noticed a pool of water coming in from that area too!  Talk about adding to a stressful situation, right?  So I called Paul over and showed him, and he immediately went to work on that problem.  I took over for him in the other area where he was before.

As I’m wringing out the towels and soaking up the water on the floor I could feel myself becoming anxious and stressed.  Anyone would be, right?  In that moment of awareness of what I was feeling in my body, I had a decision to make.  I could decide to allow the stress and anxiety to grow or I could trust that everything was going to be fine and just relax.  I could just focus on the task at hand, which was soaking up the water and wringing out the towels into a bucket.

I chose to relax.  I grounded my energy and just focused on the task at hand.  I worked on calming my husband down, told him things were going to be fine.  What’s funny about this, is that Paul is usually very calm and balanced.  Last night he decided to allow the situation to get to him a little. I could have chosen to participate with him and get angry and frustrated, rather I decided to stay calm and diffuse the situation.

When things were a little more under control, we talked and made a plan of who we could call for help in the morning.  This is all we could do at this point in time.  We were handling the water coming in at that point.  There wasn’t anything left to do.  We could choose to get angry, frustrated or sit in fear at the unknown.  But why?  I learned a long time ago that everything is fixable…so it was just a matter of time.

We always have a choice on how to react to the situations presented to us.  All of them.  Some are easier than others.  It’s about remembering what energy you want to create within and around you.

How will you decide to contribute to situations presented to you?

Being still within.  Bringing yourself to the moment of now.  Mindfullness.

I practice these on a daily basis.  It can be a challenge some days.  I found that over the Holiday Season it was easy to forget to do these things.  I would find myself getting wrapped up in “have to do this or that” process of the holidays.  The rushing around, making lists, wrapping presents, cleaning, cooking, and entertaining.

There were many times I would feel the anxiety from the perception of not having enough time.  Am I going to get everything done? What am I forgetting?  Will it be enough?  These are some of the questions I asked myself.  These are some of the questions that I allowed in to escape from the stillness I create within.

I think the month of December is one of the hardest months to practice these life skills.  It is very easy to get caught up in the doing and getting to the next thing on our lists.  I would find myself doing one thing and thinking of what was next rather than focus on and enjoy the moment of what I was in.  Can anyone relate to this?

Don’t get me wrong, I did have many moments of stillness, being in the now and mindfullness throughout the season and I can tell you that I get better and better at it every year.

One of my favorite things to do this time of year is to watch the snow as it falls.  I either watch through the window or go outside and just allow myself to focus on the beauty of the snow falling.  I listen to what I hear, and allow myself to be wrapped up in the silence of the snowfall.  I feel the coolness and crispness of the air.  I admire the beauty of these little magical white flakes as they fall from the sky and hit the ground.  I allow myself to be completely in the moment of it, to create stillness within and just be.

When I found myself in a moment of chaos, anxiety or feeling rushed, I would first become aware that I was in this state.  I then would go to that moment of being in the snowfall.  This would allow me to first change my state of being.  I would become aligned with joy, with something that makes me happy.  Once I was in this state, it was easy to then focus on the moment I was in and create stillness within and around me.  I was able to enjoy what I was doing in that moment…even if it was chores or driving in holiday traffic.

I have many other “go to moments” that I can use if need be.  It’s great to have many to choose from.

When people ask me how to create more peace and balance in their lives, simplify or become happier, this is what I do.  I create stillness within, live in the moment and practice mindfullness.  When I am not aligned with these things and have trouble getting into alignment, I would use a “go to moment” to get there.  The more I practice doing this, the easier it is to get to the moment of now, in a balanced state.

Take some time and think of a few moments that bring you back to joy and use those when you find yourself feeling anxious, rushed or unbalanced.  Feel free to share your “go to moments” below!

Every thought I think is creating my future.  Every thought you think is creating your future.

Sometimes it can be challenging to become aware of the thoughts we are thinking.  Some of us are busy, distracted and disconnected.  Some of us are caught up in and addicted to drama that runs our everyday lives.  Some of us live in constant loops that can be challenging to disengage from.

So where do we go from here?

We begin by becoming more present in the moment of NOW.  We get clear on what we want for our future.  We disengage from the drama, the distractions and the stress.  We take a look at what we are creating in the moment of now.  What is it that we see?  What are we thinking?  What has been created up until this point?

How are we reacting to the situations in our life?

For me, I want to and have been creating more joy and abundance in my life.  One of the things I focus on all the time is how I am feeling in the moment that I am in.  I have become very aware of when I feel good and when I don’t.  When I don’t feel good, I stop and become aware of what is transpiring around me and work towards getting back into feeling good.

A great example of what I am working on right now is how I react when the dogs are barking.  We have 2 amazing dogs, Zoe and Eddie (we call him Bubba).  They are so damn cute and hilarious!  The one challenge I am working on with them right now is that they bark insanely at anyone that walks by.  Let me tell you…people walk by all the time.  Up until recently, I would get major anxiety and get angry when they would bark.  It would irritate the hell out of me!  Instant reaction on my part of not feeling good.

So, first, I thought about the situation and became clear on what I want to see from this.  I came to the understanding that people are going to walk by…and those cute-ass dogs of mine are going to bark.  That it was up to me to change how I reacted to them barking.  Yes, I could bring them inside every time they bark…but that would get annoying really fast!  And I would still have the emotional reaction to deal with!

What I started doing was shift the energy I felt when they would bark.  They start barking, I have an emotional reaction, and then I counter that emotional reaction by thinking about something that makes me happy, joyous and feeling good.  This was the new pattern I created.  I would think about what I love about the dogs.  When Paul and I get home from being out (even for 30 minutes) Zoe would be greeting us at the door with her tail wagging and her ears all crinkled up.  We started calling her Yoda ears..because they looked like Yoda ears.  So CUTE!!!  Sometimes when Eddie is outside he rolls around in the grass with his legs flailing all over the place…so CUTE!!  There are so many moments, it makes it easy to turn this energy around.

The more I practice this, the less I react to the dogs barking.  AND GUESS WHAT??  The more I practice this, the less the dogs are barking!  How cool is that?

We can do this in all areas of our lives!  We just have to get clear on what we want to create and then start making changes with how we think and feel so that we can create the future that we want.

Start small.  Make it easy to win!  Pick something in your life that you would like to see change for the better.  Choose to think thoughts that support that new future.  Choose to think thoughts of balance, harmony, peace, joy, love, and start to express it in your life.

Where can you create more thoughts of balance, harmony, peace, joy and love in your life?

This morning I decided that I wanted to write a blog post and that I would take a little time to see what came in as inspiration to write about.  So I waited a few hours, and still nothing.  I waited another 30 minutes to see if anything came up and while I was waiting I kept noticing these cards I had.  They are a set of Thought Cards from Louise Hay that have words of wisdom and empowerment on them.  At the end of the 30 minutes I still had nothing!  So I decided I would pick a card from the deck and write about the card that I chose!

I Love and Approve of Myself was the card that I chose.  On the back it says, “I appreciate all that I do, I am good enough just as I am, I speak up for myself, I ask for what I want, and I claim my power.”  I thought to myself, what a great card!  So, do I love and approve of myself?  Yeah!  I do!

There was a time when this was definitely a different story.  I used to have a lot of negative self talk and was very critical about myself and how I looked.  I constantly had thoughts of not being good enough or feeling good enough.  I would go to work or out in public with anxiety, wondering what people were thinking about me.  This is completely different now.  I love who I am, every aspect of myself.  Even the temper that flares from time to time, the outspoken part of my nature, and all the lumps and bumps of my body!  I accept, approve, honor and love all that I am, in totality.

How did I start this leg of the journey?  The first step was to become aware of what I was saying to myself.  I would hear/say things like…”Man, I’m so fat!” or “Why do I do that??” or call myself stupid if I didn’t get something. I would make fun of myself or feel bad about myself if I didn’t meet someone else’s expectations.  I became aware of how I would interact with the world on all levels.

Then I started to change how I was thinking.  I caught myself in the midst of the feeling/thought and shifted it.  This took some time, and I still catch myself once in a while.  It’s all good!  I went for energy work and did some Psych K balances.  I forgave events and people in my past in order to move forward.  But most importantly, I focused on living in the moment and aligning myself with gratitude and joy.

Did the transformation happen overnight?  No!  I have been on this leg of my journey since 2006.  This may seem like a VERY long time for some, but for me the time has flown by.  My life has gotten better and keeps getting better and better everyday!  See the thing is, you can still live your life and have a fantastic time while doing this work!  You can still make memories, go to parties, read books, go out for dinner, travel to far off lands and meet fabulous people while improving how you feel about yourself.

How does it get any better than this?

Is there a part of yourself that you could choose to love and approve of today?

One of life’s challenges is to be aware of our thoughts and emotions and see how they contribute to what we are creating in this world.

If we are thinking negatively and feeling bad, then this energy/vibration is what we are putting out to the universe.  In turn, the universe will use this vibrational energy to help create our reality.  The universe is always matching our reality to our vibration.  Like attracts like, we must remember this.  What we put out to the universe, we get back.  So, if you are constantly living in a stressful, negative state and things don’t go your way…then look at what you are thinking and feeling to create this reality of yours.

You can change your reality at any time.  Within moments, shifting can take place and you can start creating a reality that works for you.  It starts with something so simple.

Feel Good Now.

Stop what you are doing and check in with your feelings.  Are you mad, sad, frustrated, irritated, stressed, dissapointed, neutral, depressed, etc…etc.  Change it!

How can we change it when we are in a moment of complete frustration?  We must choose to shift our energy to something better than the state we are in.  What makes you laugh? What makes you happy?  Find things that make you feel better than the state you are in now and keep going until you have shifted your energy into a higher vibrational state!  Here is a picture of my cats.  This is one of the pictures I look at when I want to Feel Good Now.

I love this picture!  I have hundreds of pictures of my cats and dogs that I can look at when I am wanting to shift my energy.  I have certain music that I put on when I want to raise my vibrational level.  I can sit outside and look at the nature that surrounds my house.  I can dance.  I can sing.  There are so many things to choose from.  Get creative!

In order to bring what we want into our lives, we must be at a vibrational match or higher with those things.  If we want peace, love, and joy in our lives and in our relationships, then we must create peace, love and joy within ourselves!

The first step to this is to Feel Good Now.

I posted this quote from Abraham Hicks on my Facebook Page and I will post it here for you to read as well.

Whenever you are feeling less than good, if you will stop and say, Nothing is more important than that I feel good—I want to find a reason now to feel good, you will find an improved thought.

Anytime you feel negative emotion, you are in the mode of resisting something that you want, and that resistance takes its toll on you. It takes its toll on your physical body, and it takes its toll on the amount of wonderful things that you are allowing to come into your experience. -Abraham

When I read that quote this morning, it came to me at the perfect time.  I wasn’t in a vibration of feeling good this morning.  I woke up tired and a little frustrated.  I gave the universe a “thumbs up” and a thank you for the wink once I saw that post!  I want to make sure that I am in alignment with feeling good now as often as I can be!  I want to be open to all the possibilities that the universe has to offer me!  I can do the simple task of checking in with myself and make sure that I Feel Good Now!

How about you?

When starting out or continuing our spiritual path it’s important to be clear on why we are doing this.

What is the outcome?  Short term or long term goals?

It can be easy to lose sight of why we are working on growing spiritually if we don’t have a reason or multiple reasons why.  If you are feeling stuck on your path or not sure where to go with your own personal growth take a look at why you may want to make changes in your life.  Some examples of a few “why’s” are:

• to heal from the past or present
• to find your purpose
• to build a business
• to relieve stress or anxiety
• to create more happiness in life
• to create better relationships

When we have our goals or chief aims defined it makes it easier for us to look at the steps involved in getting there.  One of the first goals I started out with was to heal from my past and present.  So I took that goal and I asked myself, “Where do I go from here?”.  When you ask that question, you will more than likely get an answer or many answers as to where to go next.  All you need is one step.  Then once you take that step, the next step follows.  My first step on my healing journey was to take my Reiki Level One.  From there I branched into many different avenues.  You just need to take that first step.  Whether it be to take a class, read a book, meditate, clean your house, sell your car…just take that first step.  Then you can take the next step…and the next and next.

My life completely changed after I took my Reiki Level One class.  It didn’t happen all at once, but as I needed it to.  I am still on my journey and will be until the end of my time here.  As we continue on our path our goals change, and we want to look at re-defining or changing our goals on a regular basis.  As we change, our goals will change.  It’s very exciting really.  We get to re-create or create new adventures and experiences in our lives!

This is something you can choose to do on your own, or with help from someone.  I did both.  I worked on myself through healing and awareness of thoughts, and I also received mentoring and healing from a select few mentors.  I found that this was a great combination and it worked well for me.  One thing to remember is to be patient, and kind with yourself.  Also, to understand that it doesn’t always happen with one session (this would be rare).   Once we get clear on where we want to go, there is usually some work to do energetically to clear out old energy or beliefs.  This takes time, which is great!  We are able to enjoy the scenery on the way to where we are going!

If you are looking for help with clarity on your path or with clearing out energy that isn’t serving you anymore, booking a session could be your next step!