Every single moment is a new opportunity to achieve greatness.  I don’t mean that you have to go off and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro right this second, but that life is what you make it. Life is the ultimate choose your own adventure experience. The past is a very poor predictor of the future, so don’t rely on it to tell you where you’re going.  You get to decide; you have unlimited creative powers, so you may want to use them to your advantage.

Each little moment adds up. Each moment is a building block that will shape your life. Your past actions, and inactions, have gotten you to this moment right now. How is the view? If you don’t like where you’re currently sitting, that’s ok, because you possess the power to change where you are headed. It’s so exciting knowing that we are the creators of our reality, isn’t it?

The biggest reason why we don’t get where we want to be is because we are afraid. We let our fears hold us back. We’re scared to try because we might fail, or we sabotage ourselves when things start to get really good. We’ve always failed in the past so we want to cushion the blow by quitting before we fail.

The easiest way to defeat fear is to run right through it. Keep your eyes on the prize knowing that everything always works out in the end. Often, it works out better than planned! It’s impossible to fail if you keep moving forward. You only fail if you quit. If you learn something along the way then you haven’t failed.  Mistakes allow us to revise our plan of action, which means the more we fail, the closer we are to success.

I have so many goals and dreams that I am chipping away at that I get a little overwhelmed at times. I thought I knew where I was going, but I hadn’t gotten incredibly laser focused about my destination.  Knowing exactly where you are going really helps. You wouldn’t drive from Toronto to New York without knowing where you’re going, so why do so many of us live our lives without a clear destination?  A clear destination can save us a lot of time and a lot of pain.

My latest success tool is something that Yuri has been telling me for years: “know your outcome,” and it wasn’t until I started listening to Tony Robbins’ Personal Power program that I really understood what it meant.  I had been visualizing broad success but nothing that was really measurable.

I’m currently breaking down my vision board into subcategories.  I’m figuring out exactly what I want my life to be like on every level.  Family, Marriage, Physical, Business, etc. In fact, my business category has a ton of subcategories and I’ve never been more excited to work!

Because of instituting my Massive Courageous Action Plan, I’m feeling a lot less overwhelmed these days. Instead of taking broad action steps toward my dream, like “write every day,” I’m mapping out mini laser-focused steps to get to each destination.  I use my intuition and follow my bliss along the way, and do what feels really, really good.

I used to get caught in the trap of doing all the mundane things that you have to do to get through the day-to-day operations of being human. Some days I didn’t feel like I really got anywhere except deeper and deeper into anger and resentment. That’s just the way it was and I felt powerless to change it.

But once I stepped into my power and realized that I had to take control of my life instead of my life controlling me, I started making better choices.  I started choosing happiness over anger and I chose action over inaction.  I chose to create the time for my passions, started my life coaching business, and started taking action toward my dreams!

I had the vision of doing all of this years ago, but I finally got the kick in the pants I needed to make it happen when I went through my personal crisis. My spirit was begging me to take action and when I did I felt a million times better.

If we don’t keep up with the expansion of our soul, we can get really unhappy here in Earth school. It is my experience that as we learn and learn, we have to start taking guided action or our spirit starts to suffocate.  Eventually the pain of inaction became much greater than the pain of taking action and I started thinking about what I really wanted to create in life.

Any action is progress, but massive courageous action is unstoppable. It’s what outstanding lives are made of. It’s time to run right through your fears and give yourself a massive high five on the other side.

You don’t have to be unhappy at a job that you don’t enjoy, and you don’t have to make sure everything around you is perfect before you start what you really want to do. That’s another lesson I learned along the way. Perfection creates paralysis!

Start NOW. Write out a game plan for your life and follow it.  

To start, get out a piece of paper and write down 3 action steps that you can accomplish today. Start with things that you have been putting off and get them done. This is something that you can do each evening so that you know exactly what you’re going to do the next day.

Take an evening to map out your destinations and start planning the action steps that will help get you there. You don’t have to have it all figured out in one evening but I imagine that you will have quite a few aha moments if you take the time to do this.

Remember, it’s going to take courage to step through your fears.  When you feel the fear, acknowledge it and take action anyway! You are a lot stronger than you may think you are. Action takes courage, especially if it’s an action that you have been putting off for a long time. Know that courageous action is needed for success, and if you can muster up the courage to step through your fears, miracles are waiting for you on the other side. If you need another push into action, ponder what your life will be like in 5 or 10 years if you don’t take action.

Tell the Universe that you’re ready to fly. When you do this exercise each evening, ask your guides and angels for help solving these problems while you sleep. Your guides are always with you and they want to help you, so ask them! I would be very surprised if you don’t start getting incredible intuitive hits around the topics you have asked for help!

Each evening when I ask for guidance, I have amazing vivid dreams.  Don’t forget to ask for help remembering your dreams and the messages within them, though you will subconsciously remember the lessons, it’s always fun to remember the dreams!

The berries that flooded into the grocery store last month were so deliciously sweet that we made this recipe nearly every day for a week.  The kids couldn’t get enough dessert and we didn’t mind at all!  I can’t wait for our local berry season to roll around!

Berries with Coconut Cream

Serves 6.

• 2 cans full fat coconut milk (refrigerated)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• pinch of sea salt
• 1 tsp erythritol (confectioner’s style swerve sweetener or 6 drops stevia)
• 1 pint blueberries
• ½ pint blackberries
• 1 pint strawberries

Scoop the solid mass of coconut cream off the top of each can of coconut milk and place it in a large bowl. Discard the liquid or save for another purpose. Add the cinnamon, vanilla, sea salt, and sweetener of choice. Carefully beat the mixture with an electric beater for 1-2 minutes.

Divide the berries into 6 serving bowls, cutting the strawberries into bite size pieces. Spoon the coconut cream mixture overtop, top with cinnamon, and serve!

If you want something a little more decadent, a tsp of maple syrup really takes this dish over the top!

Above all, I think the one thing we all want for our children is for them to be happy. Kids don’t need the latest and greatest toys, and they don’t need you to shuffle them off to sport after sport, camp after camp. What they need is your unconditional love and guidance as they calibrate themselves to this world and learn to guide themselves.

Our children are constantly watching us.  If our words don’t line up with our actions then they will take our actions as our truth, as what we really mean.  They’re constantly accumulating information, guidelines, and rules as they learn and grow, so we need to be on our best behaviour as parents.  They are our mirrors.  They will show us how we are doing as parents in the way they mirror our actions back to them.  If you don’t like what you see, it’s time to change your own behaviour.

If we are to raise conscious children, then we must be conscious ourselves.  We must lead by example.  We must show them that no matter what is happening around us, how we feel is our choice.  Make the choice to feel good anyway. We must show them that outside circumstances do not control us.  We control us.

In any moment it is our choice to feel good or to feel bad, and our children must learn that they are in control of their choices as well.  Lead by example.  If your children see you constantly crack under pressure and just freak out, what do you think they’ll do the next time they’re stressed out?  Right on, they’re going freak the F out.  But if they see that you are calm when confronted by a stressful situation; looking for possible solutions and reaching for the best feeling thoughts, how do you think they’ll react in a similar situation?

Teach Confidence

We must teach our children to believe in themselves, that anything they want to create in life is possible. Build their confidence. Teach them how to laugh at themselves. Teach them to let go of things that they can’t control and focus instead on what they can.  And above all show them how to love themselves.  How do I do all of that? I can hear you asking… Believe in yourself.  Show them your confidence. Laugh at yourself. Let go of the things you cannot control. And above all, do it all from a state of deep self love.

Fear teaches us where our souls need to grow.  We needn’t be afraid. We need to push through those fears and have a dance party on the other side.  Show them how.

Build their confidence by helping them speak their truth.  Draw focus to their strengths and their passions. It doesn’t matter what it is as long is it feels good to them.  Teach them to follow their bliss.  This is how they’re going to thrive in the world when they’re not holding your hand.

Listen.

I remember begging my mom to let me play hockey.  I kept getting “no, no, no” because she didn’t want me to get hurt. Thankfully she let me quit figure skating for the sole reason I wanted to quit: “Because I’m too cold.” I didn’t miss it at all. I entered a bowling league for a couple of winters, which was fun, but it wasn’t my passion, it was hers.  One day, out of the blue, she said I could play hockey.  I don’t know what changed her mind but I loved it, I was good at it, and I still play today. Your kids know what turns them on. They know what feels good and what feels bad, so keep the communication open and let them follow what feels good.  Let them try new experiences. Let them quit others. Let them simply be themselves without trying to control them.

Tantrums

Our 4 year old can get into some pretty bad moods.  We used to fight about it.  Now I ignore it completely so I don’t encourage that type of behaviour by giving him negative attention.  Instead, I offer him a chance to change his state.  I turn on some dance music and start having a dance party.  I know that the positivity of the rest of the family will draw him into the happiness vortex that we’re creating, and sooner or later he’s going to find staying angry to be a lot more effort than giving in to the overwhelming happiness in the air.

When he’s back in a good mood, we talk about what happened, about how he himself is in charge of how he feels, and how life is so much easier when we choose to be happy.  We’ve had the same conversation many times and I don’t mind.  We’re building a pathway to success. When he’s in a bad mood, it’s important for him to learn how to change his state.  We’re giving him the tools he needs to choose happiness.

Of course, the easiest way for kids to change their state is to ask them if they want some ice cream, but we want to teach them life skills that are not dependant on anything but their own mind and body!  Food is the most abused antidepressant in the world, and we do not want to use it to bribe our children out of a bad mood.  It’s ok if you’ve done that in the past, because really, what parent hasn’t!?  But that’s not the pathway to happiness you want to use with your children on a regular basis or it will become a big problem for them in the future…

Be the you that you want your children to grow up to be!  Remember, they’re ALWAYS watching.

We live in a time that is so fast-paced, we practically have to run to keep up.  And there are times throughout the day when I do run to keep up!  This morning I dropped my three kids off at three different destinations, which meant that later on I had to pick up three kids at three different destinations!  I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when they start playing organized sports, which will probably be right around the corner at the pace time is flying these days.

Just thinking about how stressed out our society has become makes me think back to taking Toronto transit.  If you want to see insanity, just try to take public transit during rush hour.  People literally run from trains to buses at the end of the work day.  It’s like watching a herd of humans in the wild – wait, that’s exactly what it is! They’re in a rush to get to work, in a rush to get through the work day, and in a rush to go home. When do they slow down?  So what if you miss the train?  Sit on a bench and just be present. I’m fairly certain herd behaviour isn’t there yet…

I never really understood it.

I’ve spent my entire life as a watcher, not knowing exactly where I fit into this insanity.  I was always too aware of myself to really fit in and not aware enough to know who I really was.  It wasn’t until I started connecting with spirit that I finally understood who I was; who I am.  And do you know what made that possible?  I sat on the bench.

I slowed down.  I took time to get to know myself.  I meditated, I wrote, and I simply existed as much in the present moment as my expansion allowed.  I started questioning my actions, my reactions, my thoughts and my beliefs.  I picked apart the answers to those questions and asked myself what I wanted instead.  It wasn’t pretty, but the result is pretty ridiculously amazing.  Now, instead of feeling like an Earthly outcast, I finally feel like I have built a home inside this body of mine.

One of the greatest lessons I have learned is to give myself permission to be self-ish. No, not narcissistic toddler selfish, just a little self-ish.  I created the time I needed to be myself amongst the chaos.  My modus operandus had been a highly stressed out state, and I had lived in that state for so long that I didn’t even recognize it as a stressed out state.  You don’t know what you don’t know, right?  So, if you’re not being self-ish now, I’m giving you permission to start.  The next step?  Meet me halfway, and give yourself permission as well.

Once I started scheduling regular time for myself; a long bath, a meditation, a walk in the forest, a trip to the gym, a workout at home while the kids crawled all over me, or even getting up at 5 am to write, my stress level came down and my happiness meter went way up.  Once I started having a relationship with myself again, using my emotions as built-in guidance, I started to realize all the little things that made me tick.  I started giving myself permission to let loose and have fun, something I had forgotten to do years before.  I started clearly seeing the cause and effect of my thoughts and behaviours.  I became my own science experiment.  And the experiment is still going strong.

All relationships you have will be intimately affected by the relationship you have with yourself.  So you may as well have a good one!  And the best pathway I know how to manifest a healthy connection between you and you is through your emotions.

Any time you are feeling stressed out or down, and don’t seem to know the source of your troubles, or, are simply in denial that a problem exists, draw your attention to your emotions. Also known as “gut feelings,” your emotions are a continuous feedback loop, letting you know in real time when you’re on-course for joy, or horribly off the mark.

Start paying attention.  Though it will be hard at first, the more you can be present with your emotions, the faster you will learn the Universal truth that you, and you alone are responsible for your happiness.  The more you use your emotions as guidance, the more often you’ll be able to take charge – forming the beliefs and performing the actions that bring you the most joy.

It’s time to give yourself permission to slow down.  Take some time to get to know that one person you have been neglecting lately, and start asking what it is they need, because only you can give it to them.

Love,

Amy.

I can’t even begin to count the amount of times I have been down on myself over my lifetime. It’s got to be in the 100s of thousands by this point.  This is why I am on this mission today.  It’s not okay for someone to treat anyone the way I treated myself in the past.  Today, I live moment to moment, filtering and changing my thoughts as I must in order to follow the most loving path I can.

It’s not what happens in life but how you react that determines the result.

I’m not perfect.  I still get down on myself.  But the way I respond to my mind chatter these days is much, much different.  In the past I would dig a hole and camp out with my failures.  I still don’t understand why anyone would choose that as an option, but it felt safe at the time I suppose.  Nowadays, whenever I watch a thought go by that isn’t in line with my true self, I think, “that was a crazy thought,” and let it pass by.  I don’t live there anymore.  Sometimes our minds come up with some crazy, crazy stuff, am I right?

Know that those thoughts are not you.  

You are the seer of the thoughts.  You do not have to own them.  Watch them go by and release them just as fast as they came.  After 90 seconds of ruminating on a thought, we own it.  So it’s important to filter your thoughts and move on. Take the long range view and realize that these momentary thoughts cannot harm you.  It’s the rumination of these thoughts that have the potential to hold you back and in the long run they will destroy you.  If you choose that pathway and give power to negative thoughts, you will be paralyzed in fear.

But momentary setbacks are just momentary. Momentary limiting thoughts are ok. Don’t silently accept them as truth.  Throw out the limiting thoughts and find the thoughts that will lead to future success.  Successful people fail more.  They don’t live with their failures, they focus on how they can improve them.

When you find the good in all situations, you can use intelligent action to get out of your momentary falls.  Falling isn’t failing.  You only fail if you don’t get back up.  So take each moment as it comes and get back up whenever you fall.  Don’t accept what the voice is saying as truth.  If it feels bad, then it’s not your true self talking.  It’s the ego.  Our higher selves have nothing but love and compassion for us.  Choose better feeling thoughts and you will feel better!

Wherever you are in this process is precisely where you are meant to be.  There is nothing to worry about and nothing to fear.  Be proud of where you are!  The fact that you are right here, right now is brilliant.  You are about to fly.