Trust In Your Path
Trust that your path is always perfect... That seems like a simple statement but as we know, simple is not the same as easy. Being a control freak is a well-loved tradition in my family - trying to control events, people and even the future can be exhausting. For me, learning to let go and trust the process of life has been nerve-wracking, nail-biting and ultimately, monumentally freeing. During one prolific struggle, a dear friend looked me in the eye and said, "You have to trust that your path is always perfect. It's the timing we wrestle with." Those words…
3 Issues To Tackle On Your Path To Success
I would share my thoughts on some topics that concern most of us.... Fear and Struggle There seems to be a lot of fear out there now, a lot of uncertainty. One thing most of us fear, to some degree, is the possibility of struggling. We fear the unknown. It may be a struggle to get a new job, or end a relationship that's really over anyway. I believe the pain of struggle is temporary, but the pain of staying stuck is much more devastating. But how do we overcome that fear? I suggest by learning, by trial and error, by getting…
Healing Your Pain
If I only had a few shards of wisdom to leave this world, I’d go straight for the bull’s eye. What’s life about anyway? I think it’s about being happy. However, that road to happiness includes learning how to heal pain and connect to that source of healing. It’s learning how to experience your version of God (or whatever you want to call it). It all begins in the mysterious world of the subconscious mind, the place where our pain is harbored. All emotion is born to be experienced. When we experience emotion fully, it will vaporize and dissolve into…
FLY – Forgive and Love Yourself
See your self more clearly by looking inward. That is where you come face to face with your true identity. Connect with your soul and love yourself inside out. Your soul is the beautiful image, behind your eyes, that stares back at you in the mirror. Connecting with your soul will inspire you to FLY, Forgive and Love Yourself, a personal mantra and mission statement for empowered living. Let go of disappointments, setbacks, criticism, pain, self-doubt and limiting beliefs. Forgive yourself for everything and love yourself unconditionally. You are worthy. Your worth is not conditional or contingent upon anything. You…
4 Essential Strategies for Changing Your Life
Be grateful. Gratitude unlocks the doors to your heart and opens your world up in ways previously unimaginable. Gratitude is the stage and the players are joy, peace, love, acceptance, belonging, and compassion. Make time to be grateful and happiness will be your reward. When you find yourself spiraling into thoughts and attitudes of scarcity, stop yourself and think of what you have to be grateful for. Stop spending time wishing things were different and focus on the good things in your life, at this very moment. It is no secret that where our thoughts go our lives go as…
I graciously blossom into my inherent receptive nature and open myself to receiving the goodness of life.
From Women Will Save the World by Absolute Love Publishing.
The Transforming Power of Letting Go
Have you ever let go of it all? The most remarkable things can happen when you surrender completely. Letting go and trusting in the universe is probably the all time greatest challenge anyone can face. Walking in the dark with total blind faith, not knowing where the next safe footing will be, afraid that the unknown will unveil more than we can take. One of my first experiences of consciously handing it all over to the universe was in 1980. I was in a job recruiting disk drive engineers in Silicon Valley and was failing miserably. Luckily for me, one…
A Radical Approach to Healing Your Pain
A friend of mine is having a lot of back pain and she hasn’t been out of her house in days. She is hyperalert around her pain and is afraid to do anything. The pain has so affected her life that she told me if it doesn’t get better soon, she feels like “checking out.” I invited her to consider the possibility of opening to the healing of being with her pain rather than always resisting it. I explained that so often we amplify our physical pain through our resistance to it, not realizing that we create more pain by trying…
How You can Recognize Fear and Be Present
Allowing yourself to be exactly as you are is such an important part of awakening. Author Jeff Foster, who is an amazing voice of consciousness in the world, talks a lot about acceptance and allowing. He says, “You do not have the power to accept this moment. You do have the power to allow it. This moment does not ask for your acceptance. It is already the way it is.” Jeff is saying that whatever is showing up in your life has already been accepted by life. It is all okay because whatever is happening is exactly as it should.…
As Is, I’m Here
During a weekend recently three big challenges came up for me and and I used one of my favorite mantras over and over again, “As Is, I’m Here.” Saying “As Is” reminds you of the willingness to allow yourself to be exactly as you are in this moment. It invites you to let go of struggling with whatever is (your usual mode), so you can move into the place of healing that comes from allowing yourself to be exactly as you are. “I’m Here” reminds you to be keenly attentive to what is, in a way that invites your heart to be open to…
How You can Find Healing that Lasts
How would your life change if you trusted that your challenges are a part of your journey home – back to yourself and back to Life – instead of feeling that your challenges are here because you have done something wrong or you are being punished or God fell asleep on the job? What would happen if your illness, your difficult relationship, your demanding boss, your compulsions, and maybe even your troublesome dog were showing up in your life to help you heal? The healing you long for comes when you discover how to play the warmer, warmer/colder, colder game. Remember that…
Allow Kindness to Heal Your Struggling Self
With the return of my son’s cancer, I have had lots of opportunities to be with fear and despair. Sharing this journey with my son has taken me to a deeper level of presence than I have ever known. My body has been a very dear friend throughout this fierce process, especially my belly and my breath. Whenever I am caught in the fear-based mind, sometimes all I can do is soften my belly and allow a deeper breath. The belly is one of the best biofeedback mechanisms we have. If it is tight, we are up in our…
How To Use The Mantra, “Just This Much”
If you watch your mind, you will see that it goes into the past or future all day long. It especially loves to go into the future and when it really gets activated, it moves from a whole different place. It will convince you that that you can’t do it right, or you can’t do it at all, or something bad is going to happen, and the thoughts go on and on. These thoughts are just not true because we don’t know what is going to happen. All we have is this present moment, but you can begin to see…
How to Truly Forgive Yourself
What would happen if you were to realize that everything you have done is just a part of the natural unfolding of life, and that it is forgivable? What would it be like if you forgave yourself for all of it? I have been reading the book, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed, and I want to share this inspirational excerpt about forgiveness: “What if I forgave myself? I thought. What if I forgave myself even though I’d done something I shouldn’t have? What if I was a liar and a cheat and…
An Open Heart Heals
The willingness to meet whatever is showing up in our lives takes courage. Did you know that the root for the word courage means “of the heart”? It takes an open heart and deep compassion to see all of the conditioned stories in our heads that keep us separate from life. It takes courage to see them, love them and, under that gaze of compassion, allow them to evaporate like the summer fog when it is touched by the morning sun. I have been experiencing a lot of pain in my back and leg for quite some time now. …
Struggling? 10 Steps for Overcoming Tough Times
As a member of the human race, we have more in common with one another than we have differences. Just like death and taxes, we all experience tough times, and therefore, we can learn from each other’s mistakes to make our walk on the road just a little bit easier. From the more than 1000 Luminaries that we’ve featured on InspireMeToday.com, here’s the collective wisdom on how to get through tough times, that just might help you get through a difficult experience. Look at the worst thing that can happen. Feel it. Mourn it. Cry through it. Then picture the…
How To Let Your Brilliant Being Shine
I recently came across one of my favorite poems, My Brilliant Image, by the fourteenth century Persian Poet, Hafiz: One day the sun admitted, I am just a shadow. I wish I could show you The Infinite Incandescence That has cast my brilliant image! I wish I could show you, When you are lonely or in darkness, The astonishing Light Of your own Being! Hafiz is telling us that the astonishing light, the brilliance of our own being, is already with us. We are filled with great light that permeates everything. Brian Swimme, Evolutionary Philosopher and Co-Collaborator of the documentary…
The Zen Master and the College Professor: Letting Go of What You ‘Know’
Transformation, self–realization, enlightenment – is not understandable through what you already know. In fact, what you already "know" is keeping you from discovering what is possible. There is a story that demonstrates this idea: There once was a college professor who was interested in learning about the study and practice of Zen. He decided that the best way to do this was to find a Zen master to interview. Being struck with an inspiration, the professor did his research and found one on the Internet by Googling, "Zen Master". The professor shot off an email and made an appointment. On…
4 Ways to Manage Workplace Stress
Workers seem more and more stressed every day. Technology has created expectation of an immediate response 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Short-term thinking and planning based on the focus of quarterly stock reports has increased the sense of importance for every project. We feel everything is an urgent priority needing instant attention. The “doing more with less” mentality has increased the amount of our responsibilities and what is expected of us. This has created a culture of inefficient multi-tasking. Below are four ways you can reduce the amount of stress you feel at…