Day 6~It's All About Love by Abraham-Hicks

Self Reflection 

1. What easy thing can you focus on today to practice being loving?

2.  Can you remember a time when you were absolutely feeling radiating love despite outer circumstances?

3.  Find  a thing that you can focus on for 17 seconds that brings on a loving feeling and then hold the thought.  What happens for you?

I would love to know what you have experienced as a result of this exercise.  Please feel free to leave your comment below!

40 Day Love Feast Challenge

Greetings Friends!  Today marks the first day of the 40 Day Love Feast for Lent.  During this period of time, I am asking people to join me as we fast from negative attitudes, behaviors, and limiting ideas and beliefs.  During this time we will feast on love messages.

Each day there will be an uplifting story, an affirmation or meditation that will give us the opportunity to see how love increases in our lives and share with one another the ripple effect it has created in our community.  To join in please visit http://www.facebook.com/lovefeast40.
I hope to see you there!

The "I DID IT!' List

This is a time for slowing down and contemplation for me.  To that end, there have been no newsletters mailings, blogposts or even status updates.  I just need this time to reflect and renew and most of all rest. 

I did have the pleasure of reading from one of my favorite bloggers and fellow goddess Jo Crawford.  She has a wonderful blog and in it she shared her I did it list for 2011 and that inspired me to do one of my own.  I encourage you to reflect on what worked for you in the past year and bring the joy of accomplishment into the present to create more of that for 2012.

I created the Wise Woman's Guide to Soulful Success.  It started out as a free 7 day ecourse and evolved into a workbook and planner.

 I rebuilt my website to reflect a lighter more inspiring tone.  You can check it out here.

 I joined the gym and started going consistently.

 I completed 13 days of a 21 day community juice feast. I met some wonderful encouraging women through that process that I still communicate with today and there are still a great source of inspiration.  One in particular is Roni who helps me get my local fresh food on.

 I met a wonderful soul sister and fellow coach Naila at the Girls Rock Columbus program.  Although we became facebook friends first, when we met in person I felt instantly drawn to her beautiful energy.

 I met one of my favorite authors, Iyanla Vanzant and had my picture taken with her! Teehee!(Pic coming soon)

 I began making jewelry again, this time with the focus on bracelets of intention.  Which happen to be beautiful in my humble opinion.(pic coming soon)

 In my quest to become a true Warrior of the Light, I started a pilot program and asked women to join me on a 12 week quest to conquer our adversarial thoughts and move ahead to play a bigger game in life.

 I joined the Goddess Guidebook Circle and met some wonderful women.  Oh my gosh! That is one inspiring place to be. Oh, and I created my first ebook for that Circle entitled,Permission Granted.  A mini course in saying yes to your greatness.

 I helped one client end limited thinking which kept her from playing a bigger game in her relationships and her business.  She is now married and poised to take her business to the next level.

 I was able to help another client remove some of her fears related to job loss and creating a sustainable income.

 I kareoke'd, I Zumba'd.

 I laughed alot, I cried some, I practiced radical appreciation daily, even to the dismay of some.

 I loved more openly, I reconnected with my creativity.  I was more truthful about my feelings and practiced forgiveness on a deeper, more soulful level.

 I also learned to connect with Source through writing with a wonderful author by the name of Janet Conner and soul writing.

 I took the leap and worked with a wonderful business consultant.  She helped me create products, she listened to me whine when I was too afraid to move foward and after all of that, she is still my friend! Thank you Jo for inspiring to reflect on what was good. 

Now that was momentum that I didn't realize that I had! It kicks me in the pants and gets me going into the next year strong and confident that my path is filled with passion.

 Happy New Year!!!!!

Taking A Soul Rest

Life has been a whirl-wind of activity lately always.  After moving into a new home, closing-not closing-closing on the previous home, project deadlines, working a full time job, writing, taking care of family, and everything else that we do, I need to sit down!

I wanted to rest.  I wanted to just sit and revel in the nothingness of the moment when I was reminded by Daniel Laporte with a wonderful post she wrote.  She reminded me of sivasana or corpse pose.

In yoga, after you have finished with your session of deep stretches and breathing and sweating, you complete with sivasana or corpse pose.(Which is greatly needed I might add.)

This is the position I was in "off the mat".  Yoga is a practice where the lessons are taken "off the mat" and into life such as balance, strength, awareness of the moment etc. I was taking the practice of sivasana off the mat and into life.  I was in a neutral position and completely relaxed and my spirit was soothed. My stress was reduced and my body's healing process was supported.  I was non-doing.  That is what the essence of sivasana is.

I will not rush to the next project, I will not force myself into positions that my body is not yet ready to maintain.  Instead, I will ease myself into the next agenda and gently notice how I feel while I am there but until then, I will remain in corpse pose for as long as my soul requires it.

Design vs. Default

Do you tend to let your outer circumstances set the tone for each day?  Do you allow other people and events to trigger feelings of anger, frustration, impatience and more?
When you do this, you are not using the power you have available to you!  By using the Law of Attraction, you can turn every day into a great day.  One way to do that is by using intentions and visualization to create your day.
When you first wake up in the morning, spend 10 minutes or so thinking about the types of things you’d like to experience that day.  How would you like your workday to go?  What kind of people would you like to meet?  Would you like to receive some great opportunities to advance your career or financial situation?  How would you like to feel for the majority of your day?
Grab a blank journal or notebook and jot these details down!  Once you’ve gotten all the details written down, spend a few minutes vividly imagining each scenario in your mind, exactly as you would like it to happen.  Pretend you’re watching a movie in your mind, seeing it all play out exactly as you’d like it to.
Most importantly, allow yourself to feel as if they were actually happening now.  Immerse yourself in feelings of excitement, joy, happiness and gratitude as you enjoy one great experience after another.  Use this same process for every experience you’d like to have that day.
By the time you’re finished you should be feeling fantastic; buzzing with good spirits and high expectations!
Then continue with your normal routine, taking special care not to be “attached” to any specific events or experiences, just simply staying open to whatever comes.  Keep affirming that great things are going to happen to you that day, and you feel great about all of the blessings and abundance in your life.
At the same time, avoid getting entangled in feelings of worry, anxiety, frustration, and anger as much as possible throughout the day because those feelings will interfere with the positive energy you’ve already put out.
As often as you can remember, call to mind images of the things you visualized earlier and allow good feelings to flow over you again.  Affirm and know that wonderful things are happening, even if you don’t see them quite yet.
By using this process on a daily basis, you’ll eventually start to notice that good things are starting to happen.  You’ll find yourself being in the “right place at the right time” and generally enjoying greater opportunities and abundance.
 

Have You Heard Yourself Lately??

Did you know that you talk to yourself all day long?  No, not the mental chatter about activities and chores that you need to remember throughout the day.  That’s a form of self-talk too, but I’m referring more to the things you say to yourself on a regular basis; and more importantly, the tone in which you say them.

When you make a mistake, do you berate yourself angrily?  Do you put yourself down or call yourself derogatory names?  When you have a hard time making positive changes in your life, do you bemoan what a “worthless” person you are and conclude that you’ll never do anything right?

Negative self-talk can be incredibly damaging to your self-esteem, especially if it’s a big part of your daily life.  When you keep saying things like that to yourself, eventually you begin to believe them!

Most often these messages begin as statements uttered by the adults in your life when you were a child.  They may have said something negative about you when your actions displeased them, or perhaps they had a habit of saying unkind things even when you didn’t deserve it.  As painful as these experiences can be, even worse is when you pick up where they left off and keep repeating the same negative messages to yourself over and over!

The good news is that you can change your self-talk any time you want.  You just have to know how to become aware of the tone of your messages and consciously replace them with more encouraging ones.

Try these simple steps for starters:

1) Develop awareness of your self-talk.  It may take practice, but if you keep “listening” in to your inner voice, you’ll begin to notice when you talk negatively to yourself.

2) Challenge the negative messages.  When you notice yourself saying something negative such as, “You’re such a screw-up, you can’t do anything right” – stop yourself and challenge that belief.  Is that really true?  Maybe you mess up sometimes, but do you ALWAYS mess up?  Probably not.

3) Replace the negative messages with positive messages.  When you realize you’re saying unkind and untrue things to yourself, simply turn it around in your mind.  Using the above example, you might say, “Wow, that’s not true at all!  I do plenty of things right.  It’s true I make mistakes, but so does everyone.  I’m a good person and I try my best.  That’s good enough for me.”

Over time, your efforts will pay off in the form of stronger self-esteem and respect for yourself and your capabilities.  It probably won’t happen overnight, but the more you work at turning your self-talk in a more positive direction, the better you’ll feel about yourself.


 

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Some Will, Some Won't, So What!

Sitting here wondering what did I think was going to happen when I finally decided to unstrap my status quo leash and run free with who I really am and what I believe.

Apparently, there have been some questions to a colleague of mine who began helping me promote my services.  She began receiving feedback regarding the Law of Attraction application on the front page of my website.Her questions were coming from fellow colleagues who were wondering how could she promote the Law of Attraction?  I have to admit, it did strike a nerve but I stand strongly in what I believe which is...

That is a story for later. 

A series of God Winks lead me to this very point. To be able to withstand the criticism that goes along with being percieved differently. As I explained to her, I knew that as soon as I started opening my big mouth, this was going to happen.  I say this light heartedly.  I understand the need for some to feel safe and comfortable and stand in judgement of someone who has a different belief system than the one they hold dear.  I am not a threat to that.  I honor and repect the lives of others and what they believe.  I only ask for the same treatment.

In my own mind though, I sometimes struggle with the fear of saying something that may not go over so well.  What does that boil down to really?  Fear of rejection.  We have all experienced this at various times in our lives.  So who are we really living for when we do this?  Are we living for others as they dictate to us the name of the God we serve, the gender of the people we love, even the shape of our bodies.  When we walk and talk in a way that is not in harmony with who we really are, we die a little every second. 

You get one shot at this, make it yours, make it count and be a light the way God(not man) says you should.  Only you really know what that looks like for you.

Unconditional Love, Blossoming & Transformation

The End of an Era

The beginning of my healing and personal development started partially because of Oprah.  When I was about 20 years old she became part of my daily routine.  This was the first experience in thinking differently and doing more than just the status quo.
She showed me through her stories that no matter what has happened, you can gain strength and rebuild a new life.  I learned that if it was possible for the guests of her show, it was surely possible for me.

I learned that I can forgive.  Not the false letting go of the past and still believing someone owed me something type of forgiveness.  A deeper, more divine forgiveness that allows me to free myself and others from a bondage that holds us both down.  I was able to silently offer forgiveness to my parents, for example.  Understanding that they made their own choices and did the best they could with what they have and the outcome was me.

I learned that no matter what your age, wage, or stage in life, you have something to offer the world.  We have been given plenty, despite the appearance.  There is so much that we can pay forward in this life to help someone else in this world.  It creates such a tremendous ripple effect and the light we shine is truly a bright one.

It's a work in progress.  These transformations don't take place overnight.  It works only if you work it.  It takes self-awareness and  to make the decision of how you will serve humanity each day.

I choose to be a blessing by sharing my stories, my triumphs and my challenges.  I choose to give back to the world by helping women answer the call of their vision.  I hope you have been moved to do the same.

Who has been a catalyst for your growth and improvment of living?  I would love to know.

The Unfolding

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.  Here is the first step in stripping it all away.  No editing, no filters or trying to find the politically correct way of stating it.  This is who I AM.  In the Spirit and Love of the Creator.  I have discovered my path, my purpose, my vision and some understanding.  I invite you to go to the depths along with me and when we meet fear we can hold on to each other.

What, Me Worry?

There is song by Kanye West on his 808 and Heartbreak CD in which the song says "You're worried about the wrong thing." I connected with that song instantly because a lot of times in my life, I was worried about the wrong thing and that worry increased the very essence of what I was worrying about in my life.

So what is worry? Dictionary.com defines worry as verb:to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; fret or as a noun: a worried condition or feeling; uneasiness or anxiety.
a cause of uneasiness or anxiety; trouble.

For many years I was worried about not having enough money and I attracted into my experience the condition of not having enough money. Here is where the paradigm shift comes in. There is a very subtle difference between needing and wanting. Simply speaking, wanting is a focus on that which you want to experience, needing comes from a feeling of lack.

The book Law of Attraction by Jerry and Esther Hicks states it this way, "Focusing on a solution(wanting) makes you feel a positive emotion. Focusing on problem(worry) makes you feel negative emotion, and while the differences may be subtle, they are very important, for when you are feeling positive emotion, you are attracting into your experience that which you want. When you are feeling negative emotion, you are attracting into your experience that which you do not want.
So I ask the question, are you focused or worried?

White Stone~New Year New You

After you have completed your releasing ceremony( i.e. Burning Bowl) and have released that which no longer serves you, you now have a clean slate.

The white stone ritual is based on the scripture, Revelation 2:17 which reads" He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches:To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that recieveth it.

In ancient times when a person was released from prison, they were given a new name.  The white stone represents the na name change that one receives when an obstacle is overcome.  The bible demonstrates many name changes but one well known example is when Abram grew into spiritual awareness, he became Abraham. Name also refers to the nature of things.  Your new name could be the nature of forgiveness, prosperity, gratitude, health etc.

Performing Your White Stone Ceremony

For the White Stone Ceremony you will need

• white stone or tile
• paper
• pencil
• candle
• soft music to set the mood

The ceremony begins with a period of meditation.  During this meditation allow yourself to release any thoughts of lack and limitation.  Become still, focus on your breath and ask Spirit to reveal the new name or nature to embodied for the year.  Don't force it, just let it flow naturally.  When you feel comfortable and you believe your name has been revealed to you, write it on your stone and your piece of paper.  Give thanks to Spirit for what has been revealed.  Place your stone and your paper in a place where you will see it daily.

Now you have been given a clean slate.  You have the power of Spirit to love more fully and conciously with this symbol of new beginnings.  Your white stone will serve as a reminder that you have the gift of choice and the ability to connect and co-create with Spirit.

Many Blessings to you! Happy New Year

Sharonda