I’m Not Perfect

June 9, 2015June 9, 2015Leave a comment

You may read my blog and think I have it all together, but I assure you that I am a work in progress just like everyone else! This also reminds me to point out that there is no one out there who is perfect, so don’t be tempted to put anyone on a pedestal. It may not seem like it, but we’re on level playing ground with everyone else on Earth. We’re all on the journey of joyous expansion, and we all have good, really good, bad, and really bad moments! Without this contrast we would become complacent; we would lose our drive if things were good all the time. Don’t worry if you’ve had a particularly bad past, because you can use it as leverage to propel yourself into the future you desire. The past does not predict the future.

turnonthelight

I set a daily intention to see through the eyes of Source, to see the love in all people and the lessons I need to learn. I ask that my will be God’s will and that I be guided to be loving in all situations. Most days are amazing, while some days I seem to get stuck. Yesterday was particularly challenging. I decided to go down memory lane and got stuck there, stuck in a place where I couldn’t see the love in a person. I knew that nothing good could come from it, but I did it anyway. But something good did come of it. I saw the contrast between my denial state and my awakened state once again, and once again I was grateful for the awakening. The vision I have for my future wouldn’t be the same without my past.

I let go of the past and set myself free. Again. For the last time. Again. I doubt it really was the last time, but each time I am able to come out of it faster and with gratitude. What I find really interesting is this last dance with the past occurred on a full moon during mercury retrograde, which explains a lot! I had an energy appointment the next day, and apparently I wasn’t the only one having issues, as they had THREE emergency phone calls that day from people having personal crises!

When I find myself in a funk and not being my usual chipper self, I first focus on grounding myself, which for me usually looks like a walk or run in the forest, and as I walk or run I focus on all of the really great lessons I have learned. This time it went something like this:

I am strong, loving, courageous, and worthy of my dreams.
I reclaimed my power and set boundaries for how I expect to be treated.
True love comes from my own heart connection, which I can feel whenever I wish. Yay!
I found a connection to spirit, my inner being, and Source.
Things happen for me and not to me.
I have the power to be, do, and have everything I can imagine for myself.
I love to write. I must write. It feeds my spirit.
I must exercise daily, it grounds me and makes me feel safe and secure.
I found my life’s mission: to help others take their power back.
I wouldn’t be who I am today without the challenges I’ve encountered.
All is well, and it always will be!

success

I want you to know that you have the power to overcome great adversity. If you don’t willingly change what you know you must, the Universe will conspire to change things for you. Whatever happens, stay conscious, strong, confident and listen to your heart; follow your inner guidance. The more you listen to your inner guidance and do what makes you happy, the more you will raise your self-esteem and the more confident you will become.

Know you are worthy of great things, and listen to that voice in your head that pushes you to change the status quo. Stay calm throughout the storm so that you can better see the lessons. Take your power back from outside forces and stand up for your beliefs. Know that everything is working out in the best interest of everyone involved. Nothing can go wrong when you follow your heart. You’ll either encounter pain now, when you make the tough decisions you have to make, or pain later, when you are holding yourself prisoner in an unhappy life.

What feels like a horrible situation can actually be your greatest blessing. You won’t find the blessings if you are concentrating on the despair. If you are asking “Why did this happen?” you are never going to find the answer. Something that wasn’t working in your highest interest had to come to an end, and the sooner you can find the lessons, the easier it will be for you to accept it and move forward with your life.

Most likely, like me, it doesn’t mean that you won’t return to those dark feelings occasionally, but it is your choice to visit them, and it is also your choice to let those feelings go. Letting go means that you choose not to live there. You choose to use past hurts merely as a contrasting feeling to the joy that you seek. I choose to feel good because it feels good! Is there any other way to live your life? I don’t think so!

Whenever the darkness creeps in, turn on the light. Go to the best feeling thoughts and visualizations that you can come up with. Think about all the things you are grateful for and the lessons you’ve learned from your struggles. Where are you now that you wouldn’t be if you hadn’t struggled? What amazing new life has come out of the ashes? What would be the best thing that could ever happen in your life? The light always beats the dark.

Is Your Inner Child Running Your Life?

May 26, 2015May 26, 2015Leave a comment

innerchild

Whether we realize it or not, we carry a lot of baggage from the past. The abandonment we felt as children when our parents wouldn’t play with us, the betrayal we felt when our best friend chose to sleep over at someone else’s house instead of ours, and the sadness we felt when our beloved pet suddenly died – all reside deep within our subconscious mind.

Our inner child learns that we need to perform spectacularly if we want more attention. We become perfectionists. We learn that negative attention is better than no attention at all. We lash out in anger. We internalize the external, (I guess I’m not good enough to have Daddy’s attention), take things far too personally, and begin to talk badly to ourselves.

That inner child stays with us, yearning for the love, connection, and safety that eluded it over the years. When we lash out in anger at the smallest of details, it is a red flag that we have neglected our inner being for far too long. When we berate others for their shortcomings it is simply because we can’t stand to look at our own. We deflect. It’s much easier to point out what others are doing wrong than own up to our own failures. The funny thing is, others mirror our faults back to us. Whatever bothers us about someone is something that we need to work on!

Our actions are a direct representation of the way we feel about ourselves. The way we hold ourselves in public reflects the emotional terrain of our inner world. When we feel poorly about ourselves we tend to lash out at anyone near us – especially the ones we love. They have a front row seat to our baggage show. Our flipping out has nothing to do with the empty toilet paper roll, and everything to do with our need for love, connection, and fulfillment.

Denial of our problems is not a long term solution. Problems get bigger the longer we let them fester, not smaller. The fastest, easiest, and least painless way to deal with our inner unrest is to simply listen to it and begin to take care of the inner child that is begging to be heard, that inner being – the real you – that needs love and attention. Your inner being doesn’t need love and attention from just anyone, it needs it from YOU.

Now that you’re an adult, it is your responsibility to meet your inner being’s deepest emotional needs. If you don’t take responsibility for fulfilling these needs, the unrest will only worsen until there is a complete blowout (divorce, mid-life crisis, job termination, etc.) and you have no choice but to comply.

You are the only one who can give you what you need. When you take your power back from others and realize that you are fully capable of nurturing your inner being, your whole life will change. As you start to listen to your inner being you will build awareness around what it needs to feel happy, safe, and fulfilled. Take some time to reflect on where you are and where you want to be, and when you are the most you – what makes you really light up? Get silent sit in meditation, and let the answers come.

As you begin to act on this new awareness and the information it provides, you will feel whole, complete, safe, secure, and loved all on your own. You won’t feel the need to lash out at others because you will be following your heart, giving your inner being the love and attention it so desires. You won’t need to point out what everyone else is doing wrong because you won’t even notice it. In time, rather than focusing on everything that is going wrong, you will be excited about everything that is going right!

When you provide your inner being with unconditional love, you create a space within you to freely love others, flaws and all. When you love yourself, you don’t need to take power from others, for you will have all of the power you need already within. As you sit in the seat of awareness, always listening to your inner being, you are able to thwart or deal with perceived attacks on your inner being as they arise. Though the inner work never ends, neither do the soul-fulfilling payoffs, authentically beautiful relationships, love and peace it provides your inner being.

Whenever your inner being is feeling insecure, unloved, unfulfilled, or uneasy, you can acknowledge the feeling, knowing that you are a limitless being full of love and creative power. Focus on your strengths. Focus on the solutions to the problems and the best possible outcomes. Focus on the inner being and follow your heart. It will never steer you wrong. Take a deep breath, push through your fears and remind yourself that “All is well. There is nothing to fear. I’ve got this.”

Material Objects as Life Purpose Replacements

May 15, 2015May 15, 2015Leave a comment

Symptoms of detachment from spirit can feel like anxiety, fear, sadness, discontent, failure, and discomfort, among others. This happens when we get sidetracked from our right and perfect path and take a detour through procrastination and other behaviours that don’t serve us. The discontent will simply keep growing until you answer the call to get back on track and serve your life’s purpose.

If you feel a deep longing to do something fulfilling with your life but let your fears talk you out of taking action, you can get stuck for a very long time between the fear of moving forward and the fear of staying the same. Your discomfort is caused by not keeping up with your soul’s lessons.

As you learn in this lifetime, you are constantly outgrowing your old circumstances and gearing up to change, to grow, to learn, and to master each new level you encounter. Your guides and angels leave little clues and synchronistic events along the way to make life fun and exciting, and even extremely hard if you must learn a difficult lesson. It is all for your greatest good.

Though you may not consciously know what you are longing for, taking courageous action toward what feels good each and every day can illuminate the path ahead. One day, when you look back to where your journey began, you will do so in awe of the cascade of fortunate encounters and events that guided you right to where you wanted to be!

If you know what you desire, yet aren’t taking action, the discomfort will only grow until you listen to your authentic self and start making changes in your life. No matter how hard some decisions may initially seem, the pain you will endure from not taking action will eventually become so extreme that you have to change.

The Universe will support you always.

We all have a little voice in our head that cheers us on. This inner voice tells us when something needs to change and when we need to take action. It always has our best interest at heart. We also have a little voice that tells us we are not good enough – this is the voice of fear and anxiety, and the more attention you give it, the stronger it will get. Take your power back from this voice and take action in the direction of your bliss. You are and always have been worthy.

There is a lot of fear entwined with change, but there doesn’t have to be. Fear and anxiety can’t survive the light. They will disappear the second you acknowledge your worthiness and take action toward your dreams. Use them to guide you out of your comfort zone – you really have nothing to lose but your discomfort, and you have a lifetime of happiness to gain!

It all comes down to this:

You can either listen to the unrest and question it, asking yourself what kind of life you must live in order to feed your spirit and live with passion, or you can continue to live in denial and room with anxiety, fear, and discontent. If you choose the latter, you will certainly feel the pain of disconnection and try to remedy the pain by acquiring material objects.

Material Objects as Life Purpose Replacements

Do you have a lot of stuff?
Do you have a need to shop?
Do you feel fulfilled in your life?
Are you constantly fearful and anxious?
How are your relationships?
Do you think about why you are buying something before you complete the purchase?
Do you need to buy something to be happy?
Are you feeling inspired or blocked in your life?
Do you have a lot of energy or is your body tired and stagnant?
What do your closets look like?
Is your house clean?

Are you numbing yourself by acquiring material objects? Do you try to cover up your pain, fear, and anxiety by purchasing items to gain happiness? Until you listen to your spirit and pursue your life’s purpose, the high you get from buying things will come and go hundreds of times until you wake up to the truth that nothing outside of you can make you happy. Happiness has been and will always be an inside job. Listen to your spirit.

Not only will objects not make you happy in the long run, but the more stuff you have, the more energy if takes from you. The more electronics you have, the more responsibility you have in making sure they run properly. The more cars you have, the more insurance you must buy and the more upkeep you must perform or delegate.

The more pets you have, the more you must feed them, walk them, and seek veterinary care. The more clothing you have, the more clothing you must wash/dry/fold/dry clean/repair. The more stuff you have laying around your house, the more stuff you have to dust, and the harder it is to find anything anywhere!

Material accumulation is a symptom of spiritual disconnection – a symptom of not fulfilling your life’s purpose.

When I am feeling stuck and anxious, it is almost always because I have been hanging out with my fears and not pursuing my life’s purpose. The only thing that truly makes me feel better is listening to my inner guidance and taking action on it. For instance, I may be procrastinating by cleaning the house instead of writing. This little voice in my head tells me that I need to write. About a minute after I sit down at my computer and begin to type, all fear and anxiety disappear and I feel completely connected to my spirit and my life’s purpose once again. I know I am following my life’s purpose because it makes me happy.

Maybe you have a habit of numbing out in front of the television, and while you needed to relax the first night, the second night your spirit may pipe up and start making you feel uneasy. Our spirit selves remind us that we didn’t go through the trouble of being born on Earth to sit on a couch night after night after night. If you watch television every night would put money on the table that you feel you were meant for something more, because you are.

There is nothing wrong with watching television sometimes! I know there is nothing better for my spirit some nights than to snuggle up with my husband and watch a good movie, but some nights my spirit would rather read a book, play with watercolours, spend quality time with my significant other or kids, make love, go for a walk, post an inspirational quote on instagram, or sit in the back yard and eat a popsicle!

When you are feeling fearful or anxious it is important that you question the unrest. Ask yourself what your spirit needs to thrive, and listen to the guidance, feelings, and images that come to mind. Spend some time in meditation and quietly reflect.

The next time you want to buy something, ask yourself why. This simple question can make you dig deep and figure out what you are really trying to achieve by acquiring something else.

We recently cleaned out our entire house, from the depths of the closets to the cupboards, drawers, and crawlspaces. We simply asked ourself this one question about everything: Does this give me energy or deplete it? If something didn’t feel good to, it got thrown in the donation pile and left the house a few hours later. Make sure your donation pile doesn’t stick around for months. Take it away immediately and feel the energy in your house soar!

Getting rid of the old creates space for the new without your energy getting lost. There is flow. Life. Beauty. Peace. It opens the door to possibilities you’ve never even considered. Take your power back from the material objects in your life and start visualizing a life of purpose and happiness. How can you serve? How can you bring joy to yourself and others? What do you love to do so much that you would do for free?

Feel the anxiety and fear melt away into excitement as soon as you commit to taking action in the direction of your dreams!

Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

March 10, 2015March 21, 20152 Comments

Do you ever think about how many masks we wear on a daily basis? We tend to change our behaviours based on the situation, the environment, and the people around us. We do things to be cool, fit in, and to make other people like us. We may realize we’re doing it, or we may not have a clue that we’re not being our true selves. We wear masks so often that some of us don’t even know who we really are or what we like!

Our minds chatter 24/7, but it’s not our true selves talking. We’re the consciousness behind the voice. The voice keeps us small and doesn’t want us to take risks because it wants to protect us. We believe everything the voice tells us, and tend not to question ourselves because they’re OUR thoughts. We’ve invested a lot of time and energy amassing them and we just go with the flow. Until now.

It’s time to challenge your beliefs

I had the time of my life this past weekend in New Jersey with Tony Robbins and 7000 other people. Life will never be the same again. It really is a life changing experience. We danced, we laughed, we cried, and we fell in love with ourselves and each other. The love created in that room was palpable. No one wanted to go home. Do yourself a favour and sign up for the next Unleash the Power Within seminar right this second! Bring your significant other, bring your kids, and bring all of the bullshit you’re ready to put down.

To give you a little itty bitty taste of the experience, below is the incantation that Tony is known for. Say each line with power, and repeat the mantra several times to get into a peak state. If you’re familiar with this particular mantra (pointing to my fellow firewalkers) don’t be afraid to get out of your seat, make your power move, and tell the voice who is in charge!

We all have a set of beliefs that we carry around that we think are absolute truths. They are intimately tied to our identity, and along with our values, they run the show. However, these beliefs carry consequences and they hold us back. If you’re optimistic, then you’re really in trouble because you think things will get better, but they won’t, not until you get the root of those limiting beliefs and pull them out of your body forever.

What are your limiting beliefs? Maybe the voice in your head sounds like this: “I’ll never lose weight. I don’t like speaking in public. I’m scared to be alone. I’m not smart enough. I don’t have the education. No one with hire me. I’m too young. I’m too old. I’m…fill in the blank.” Do yourself a favour and start paying attention to your mental chatter. What excuses do you use on a regular basis? What complaints would your friends recognize that you say all. the. time.? Now ask yourself this:

What have these thoughts prevented you from doing or becoming? What have you missed out on?

Think back 5 or 10 years. What haven’t you done because of your fears? What beliefs have kept you small? Until last year, I used the excuse “Having young kids is hard.” Having given birth to 3 kids in 3 years I wholeheartedly believed that my kids were holding me back, and my story is pretty valid, so I REALLY believed it. Then one day I decided that enough was enough and I was done with my excuses and that I going to make things happen in my life!

Change happens in an instant.

One second I was a victim of 3 little kids and the next second I was successful with 3 little kids. What happened? I raised my standards. I went from putting my kids first and being unhappy and stressed to making time for myself and ensuring that I do things that make me happy on a daily basis, if not all day long! I took back my power from the situation, changed my thoughts, and became the voice!

If there is something in your life right now that you can’t change, think again. What are the limiting beliefs at the forefront of your excuse? Realize that you’re telling yourself a story. The second you realize your thoughts are holding you back is the instant you can take back your voice and regain control of your life.

Rewrite your story.

Write down 3 limiting beliefs. Below them, write the truth. For instance, if your story is that you can’t lose weight, cross it out and write “I live in Divine health.” “I have a beautiful, sexy body.” or “My body is finding its ideal weight effortlessly.”

If you’re struggling with confidence and you think “life is hard,” cross it out and write “I love how easy life is,” “I wake up each day knowing that something amazing is going to happen”, or go all in with “I am the creator of my reality!”

The stories we sell ourselves matter. They shape our experience in every single moment. If you believe people are assholes, then that is what you will experience. If you believe people with money are ungrateful trust fund babies, then you’re going to get that experience as well. But, if you rewrite your stories to include “strangers are nice,” “I’m so lucky,” or “this is the best day yet,” then that will be your experience.

Every thought we have is a prayer sent into the Universe. When we think happy thoughts, happiness is what we perceive. When we’re negative and lashing out, we get that back as well. The silent saboteur behind all of these feelings are the beliefs that we carry about the world. What energy will you be sharing the universe today? Be outstanding!!

Everything is a Gift

March 5, 2015Leave a comment

We tend to think things happen to us when we’re powerless and suffering. We take things personally and we feel angry and defeated. We think things are out of our control or that we’re being punished. But things never happen to us – they happen FOR us. Each and every moment is an opportunity to create a new reality for ourselves. There is a huge difference in reality between thinking things are happening to us vs. for us. Each moment is an opportunity to grow.

“The world is only in the mind of its maker.”

– A COURSE IN MIRACLES

We are constantly being guided. When we haven’t been listening to the soft little nudges to change that the Universe gives us, it throws something big at us to get our attention. It’s not because we’re being punished. We’re being helped. The energy on the planet is shifting. Mediocrity is no longer being accepted. The status quo will no longer suffice. It’s time to get off our asses and change things, or things will change for us.

A year ago, I never imagined that I would be the person I’ve become. I wanted to be here very badly, but it wasn’t a possibility in my mind. I thought about how I wasn’t living the life I wanted. I was unhappy and I knew it. I felt powerless to change my relationship, myself, and where my life was headed. Then one day, it happened for me. My relationship imploded and a new beginning was thrust upon me. But as hard as it was, it was my chance to reinvent myself for the better, and that’s what I set out to do. I stepped into my power and knew that something amazing was going to happen. The Universe was happening for me. Intense growth occurs in times of intense strife. After all, what have we learned when things went well?

Blowups in relationships are blessings. They tear down falsities and beg us to show our true selves. Anything that is not true will fall away and we’ll be standing there bare anyway, so we may as well take control and be true to ourselves. I didn’t know I had the power to change it all back then. I wasn’t listening to the little nudges to be a writer or become a life coach, and I wasn’t happy. My spirit was suffering and I thought I had to follow through with my commitment to be a stay at home mom. I focused on everything that was wrong and that got me nowhere. Now I think to myself, “What is going right? How is my life really awesome?” Better questions, better answers.

If something terrible has happened to you recently, take it from me that the earlier you can see the blessing in the situation the better. Everything is a gift. The good and the bad. It’s all awesome. No matter what it is, a year from now, you’re going to have an entirely new vantage point. The sooner you can see the blessings, the sooner you can get to the other side.

Is the Universe nudging you to change something in your life? Do you have a nagging feeling that something is off, something that you need to face? I encourage you to think about your daily life and ask yourself if this were the last day of your life, would you want to do what you’re going to do today? What would you rather do? What really gets you excited?

Today I believe my life is about to change again. I’m in the driver’s seat and I’m at another tipping point and I cannot wait to see what the future has in store! Now that I am completely aware of my power to create the life of my dreams, I can’t wait to use it every single day to manifest the life that I have imagined for so long. Today I will Unleash The Power Within some more. Only 2 hours until we see Tony Robbins and I cannot wait!!!

Love Yourself First

December 10, 20142 Comments

Eleven months ago I was snapped out of the deep fog that I was in and awoke to this great need to be more, well, me. I realized that part of me was slowly dying and I needed help ASAP. I turned to the Divine, opened up communication with my angels, and never looked back.

The time had come to stop making excuses.

We have 3 young boys: presently 3, 2, and 9 months, and they were my evergreen excuse for everything and anything. “I’m tired. I’ll live my life when they grow up” sums it up. What I didn’t realize was that putting my life on hold was pretty much killing me. I had fallen out of love and I was suffering.

You simply cannot give love to others if you don’t love yourself first. That was the lesson I was learning. I send so much love and respect to stay at home moms. It is the hardest job anyone will ever have. For years I tried to love it but it just wasn’t me. I was so unhappy sacrificing my spirit that I had nothing left to give. I had it so backward. I needed to show myself some honest love. I needed to admit that I didn’t enjoy being a stay at home mother.

I thought that I had to give all of my love and all of my time to my kids – that’s why I had kids in the first place, right? I thought that I was a failure if I wanted anything other than to spend all of my time with them. But if you are not doing something that you absolutely love, if you are not giving love to yourself first, then you are withholding the only thing that is real from your spirit. I wasn’t doing anything to feed my spirit and I was suffocating. Between drowning in the fear of failure as a stay at home mother and the lack of oxygen my spirit was receiving, I was barely functioning. Throw my negative mindset into the heap and you have one very unhappy individual.

Once I let go of the belief that I had to be a servant to my children 24/7 and started to ask myself what I really wanted out of life, things started happening. Once you start to follow your bliss and start feeding your spirit, life gets magical. If there are excuses that you’re used to making, it’s time to call yourself out on it. Notice the patterns, the choices, the addictions, and start questioning the status quo. Are you growing, or are you wilting?

loveyourself

Most of the time, we hold ourselves back. We hold limiting beliefs that keep us right where we are. We build the boxes that we’re stuck in, and we build them ourselves. It’s not because we’re scared of not making it, but that we’re scared of what will happen in our lives if we DO make it.

There are choices that we have to make in life that we simply cannot come back from. Once our eyes are open, we can never close them. When we’ve tasted Divine love and grace, we want to share it with the world. Negativity will feel like a magnet pushing you away. Your ability to tolerate negativity will be high, and anyone and everyone who exhibits a lower frequency will fall away. When you start to focus on love, fear falls away as well. New opportunities and people will notice your high vibration and they will be attracted to it.

When I opened my eyes to Divine love, the world ceased to exist as I knew it. I came to know so many truths that I hadn’t even thought about before. I came to know that we are all Divine beings; we are one. Only love is real. Fear is an illusion that we create in our minds. Most things that we are fearful of, we have made up! If you are warm, dry, fed, and not in the path of an oncoming car, your fears are probably in your head.

The fear that you’re not good enough and that you don’t have what it takes to be successful? It’s in your head. And that fear that you’re not worthy of great love? It’s also in your head. Tell the Universe, your angels, and God what you want from life. Expect great things. Have the courage to rise out of fear and act out of love. Love yourself first, and you will see magical things happen in all of your relationships. Do the inner work and your outer world will start to reflect your inner world of great love.

What are you scared of? What is holding you back? Are you making excuses? Are you being truthful with yourself? Are you being truthful with others? Is there something that you want to do in life that you’re not doing? Why? Do you love yourself?

For example, finding productive time is really hard with 3 young kids. Lately I’ve been getting up at 5am so that I can have time to myself. I write, I work, I meditate, or I go to the gym. It’s my time to follow my inspiration and I love it. I get more done in those 2 hours than I do in an entire day looking after an infant! It’s magic time when you are fresh off a night of sleep. Your mind is calm and rested and laser focus is the norm.

Know that you are worth great love. Take the time to meditate each day and ask yourself some questions, even if can find only 5 minutes a day. Meditation time is one of the greatest gifts that we can give ourselves. It’s time that we use to connect with our Higher Selves. Ask for guidance and see what comes up for you. The results really could change your life.

Book recommendation: I highly recommend The Courage to Love Yourself by Janice Parviainen. It amazes me that Janice lives in my small town! I have met her and her energy is amazing. Her book is amazing. It’s definitely at the top of my must read list for personal growth and empowerment!

How to Love Yourself

October 30, 2014November 19, 2014Leave a comment

How are you? What’s new?

How would you answer these questions? I used to answer them with responses like “fine, well, ok, not much, same old… etc.” but I’m aiming higher these days. I refuse to let “good” get the best of me. I’m in it for great. Revolutionary. I want to wake up every single day and have to pinch myself because surely I must be dreaming. I want to stay up late and wake up early because I get to be me.

Life is in a constant state of change. We’re always moving from A to B to C to wherever. There are about a zillion ways to get from A to B but I want to get there in a flying car doing 150 at least. I’m fully in it for the ride, wherever I go and whatever I do, I do it with joy. I try to find acceptance in everything. While cleaning up the kitchen for the 50 millionth time isn’t my favourite thing to do, I accept that it must be done, and I look for the joy. It gives me an opportunity to check in with myself in a sort of moving meditation kind of way where I get to hang out with one of my favourite people: Me.

I wasn’t always this way. There was a time when I was completely unsuccessful at loving myself. I didn’t think I could do anything right and I disliked myself for not being smarter, thinner, and more outgoing. I was withholding love from myself, and I was suffering for it.

I don’t know what happened in my childhood to make me think I didn’t deserve love. Maybe I’ve been holding onto this indoctrination from a past life. I’m actually certain of it. Wherever I picked it up from, I am incredibly glad that I have come to know that I deserve an epic love story. My Aha moment came during a soul shattering breakup in which I finally learned my lesson: Love yourself. I kept ignoring the signs that told me to put myself first, but my angels were persistent with this lessen. I couldn’t ignore them anymore. My oxygen mask was finally on and my sole focus became making myself happy.

Your Ideal Best Friend: What Qualities do They Have?

What qualities do you look for in a best friend? Write them down. Here is my list: Supportive, communicative, authentic, honest, keeps in touch, inspiring, passionate, appreciative, funny, easy to talk to, good listener, not too serious, kind, loving, generous, trustworthy, adventurous, driven, joyful, understanding. Now, look at your list and ask yourself if you’re being a good friend to your friends. Now ask if you’re being a good friend to YOURSELF. What areas do you need to put a little more work into? What areas are you doing a good job in? Journal about your successes and what you can do to improve in certain areas. I certainly had a lot to write about after I did this exercise.

Words of Affirmation to Love Yourself

Look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself: “You are worthy of great love. You are loving. You are loved. Thank you, body, for being an amazing place to live. I give you nourishing food and plenty of water so that you may keep me healthy and energetic. I love you.” Feel free to change this and add some personal touches. Make it perfectly and authentically yours, and make it full of love.

Support yourself every single day. Every time you see yourself in the mirror, give yourself love. If you ever start getting negative toward yourself, remind yourself that you have always done the best you could do. But now your best is better, so you can do better!

See Only Love

August 13, 2014August 13, 20142 Comments

It seems that the angels are answering all of my prayers lately. My life is streamlining in the exact fashion that I wish it to, and I have a feeling that it’s no accident. That’s what happens when you make the decision to be happy. All you have to do is decide right now that you’re not going to give away your power to anyone else, that you are going to be happy no matter what is going on around you. You are an extremely powerful spiritual being, and you have the power to be happy whenever you choose. You can also choose to stop criticizing, stop comparing, stop expecting the worst, and and you can choose to see only love. If you’re always judging and complaining about things, maybe you’ve trained yourself to focus on the bad things.

I challenge you to retrain yourself. For 24 hours, I challenge you to focus only on the good in all areas of your life. Focus on what you love about your kids, your partner, your job, your parents, etc. How may people do you know who constantly complain about their jobs? Take a moment and just be grateful that you have a job. Many people are struggling to find one. Focus on what you love about yourself. What does your mental chatter sound like? Do you tell yourself how amazing you are, how smart you are, or do you belittle yourself? Send yourself loving thoughts.

See how your partner reacts when you stop criticizing them for not taking out the garbage. Instead, shift your focus. Say “You know, it really means a lot to me when you take out the garbage. Thank you for doing that every week.” Focus on the positive instead of the negative. Why did you marry your partner in the first place? What made you fall in love with them? Relationships improve immediately when you stop focusing on the bad and start focusing on the good. Look past the misunderstandings and mistakes, and see only love. If you catch yourself complaining, judging, comparing, etc. that’s ok! It’s great! It means you are becoming more aware of your negative thoughts! Awareness is what you want. Control your thoughts or they will control you.

Love is light. The opposite of light is dark; the opposite of love is fear. Where there is love there cannot be fear. For some reason, so many of us are living in a fear-based reality, and we don’t see a way out. Well, the way out is love. It all starts with digging deep and finding out what you love about yourself. What makes your spirit happy? What do you simply love to do? What makes you smile? What makes you laugh? Do some of those things right now. Show yourself some love. Loving yourself is the first step out of the fear-based illusion we have created for ourselves.

Realizing that I could instantly create a happy life all by myself was the first step to setting myself free from the fear-based illusion I was living in. I was always striving for perfection, but since perfection doesn’t exist, I was holding myself back. Realizing this, my self-imposed walls broke down, and suddenly I was free. I am the creator of my life. Whatever I want, I can make it happen. With that realization came excitement. I used to be scared to be in charge of my own life, but now, the exact same realization makes me feel so powerful. What changed? I chose love. I chose happiness and excitement over fear. How do you want to feel? Stop focusing on what’s wrong in your life, and start focusing on what’s right. Start focusing on creating the life of your dreams.

Once I started focusing on being happy, I realized that all I have to do to make my dreams come true is work on them a little more each day. How cool is that? No matter where you are today, just imagine where you could be a year from now if you did one thing each day that carried you closer to the realization of your dream. It doesn’t matter how big or small the steps are, it’s the direction that matters. Don’t let fears make you take steps backward. Realize that you are a powerful co-creator of your dreams. Step into your power. Own your dreams. You are worth it.

The Power of Intention

August 10, 2014August 10, 2014Leave a comment

There is something extremely powerful about intention. It’s a goal that is present in the now. The problem with most goals is that they are feats that will occur “someday,” but someday never happens. Don’t wait for someday. Do it now. What I like about setting intentions is that they laser focus your attention so that there can be only one outcome. The intentions I have on the front-burner right now include creating a fitter body than ever before, and the intention to be happy. There is no other option in my mind. I know I will get to my goal physique and I will be happy – most of the time anyway.

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Once you set your mind on something it is as good as done. Simply making the decision to do (or not do) something is a game winner. Once you make a clear decision, the universe has your back. Your angels will go to work behind the scenes, setting up synchronistic events that help to ensure the outcome you desire, so long as it is in the best interest of anyone else involved. Of course you still have to do the work, but setting the intention to get something done sets you up for success.

For instance, I love to run, test my boundaries in a hot yoga class, and push myself with a 24kg kettlebell. I have always loved to work out, but since setting the intention to get the body of my dreams, getting a workout in every day has been incredibly easy. There is always someone who is willing to help me out so that I can get to the gym or that yoga class. I even dropped my 2 month old off at the local coffee shop where the owners looked after him for 2 hours so I could play hockey! Life is full of synchronistic events that want you to succeed. All you have to do is ask for help, and recognize that help when it comes along.

We all have guardian angels who want to help us, but since we have free will, we have to ask for their help. They won’t interfere in our lives without our permission. I ask my angels on a daily basis to help me, and I tell you it works. My inner dialogue in the morning sounds something like this:

“Angels, I ask that you help me to release the pounds that no longer serve me. I love my body. It is an amazing place to live and I am so grateful to have it. I am excited about what I have accomplished this far and I am so excited to see my progress every day. Thank you for helping me to make healthy decisions so that I can have the body of my dreams.”

Our angels communicate with us through our intuition, little gut feelings that make us aware of this and that. They even communicate to us through the intuition of others. It’s why we may look at the clock every day at the exact same time, and why we tend to hear or see the same tidbit of information over and over. It’s said that if something catches your attention 3 times, your angels are screaming to send you a message!

I feel the support of the universe constantly when I am running. I get gut feelings that cheer me on. When I run past people on the sidewalk, they often smile at me, or even better, they say things like “great job!” I wish they knew just how much that encouragement means to me, but on some level I think they do. Often, I get these rushes of encouragement exactly when I need to hear them. It makes me think that it’s all in divine timing; my angels are pulling strings to ensure I succeed.

Since I ask my angels daily for help with my fitness intentions, my intuition is pretty bang on for steering me toward healthy foods and away from complete dietary disaster. I can have one piece of chocolate and not want to eat the entire bar. I can have a monster burger for lunch and have a salad for dinner. I’ve always known that my body craves movement every single day, but I made excuses before and I was unhappy for it. Now I listen to my intuition about fitness and my spirit is happy. I’m in a place of balance for once in my life and it feels pretty amazing.

In fact, I set the intention to write this blog post tonight while I was at the gym earlier today. I decided that I wouldn’t let how tired I might be (my usual excuse) get in the way. And so it is!

Don’t Get Comfortable: Push Yourself

July 20, 2014Leave a comment

What do you do when the going gets tough? Do you push through the mental anguish, or do you give up? How does your choice affect the way you feel? How do you want to feel? How you do anything is how you do everything. If you procrastinate in one area of your life, chances are that you do it in other areas as well.

Last night was night 7 in a string of “4 month sleep regression” nights. I had just gotten our 4 month old, Arlo, to sleep through the night about a week before, and now he sleeps worse than ever. In the past, I would have made excuses and taken a nap at the first opportunity, but I don’t want to be that person anymore. I want to create the life of my dreams, and I can’t do that if I’m napping every day! To the gym I went.

I’ve started doing hill run intervals during the past few weeks, and each time I am challenged at the exact same point in my run. And each time I am happy to say, I’ve pushed through it. How? It’s all in your head. Set an intention, and you’re 99% there. Your goal is as good as realized if you have a big enough WHY, and the intention to carry it through. It’s how I got through 3 natural births. I just set the intention to do it, and although it wasn’t easy, I knew that setting the intention meant that I would come out on the other side in just a matter of time.

How can you push yourself to run faster and longer? It starts with the intention. Ok, done. But how do you execute that intention? One step at a time. When I was enduring natural back labour, I took it one second at a time. One breathe at a time. Looking into the future or back at the past does you no good in the “right now.” There’s no sense worrying about having to run for another minute to finish an interval when you are working in seconds.

It also helps to have a workout plan. If you’re flying by the seat of your pants then you’re planning to fail. My go-to workout at the moment is Treadmill Trainer Volume 1. Every time I use this workout, there is a point where I seriously think about giving up, and every time Yuri comes on and says “Do not give up. You’ve committed to this interval so let’s finish it!” And every time it gives me that extra mental push I needed. Do you think I could run uphill intervals for an hour by myself. Heck no. It helps to have a guide.

Whether my interval lasts 45 seconds, 90 seconds, or 3 minutes, I take it one second at a time. In order to quiet the mental chatter, I count to 10. Over an over. My mental chatter sounds like this: “1, (breathe out) 2, (breathe in) 3, (breathe out) 4, (breathe in)…10 (breathe in) ONE!” That last ONE meaning I have finished one set of 10. And I just keep on counting until my interval is over, at which point I congratulate the crap out of myself for making it through, mostly in my head, until the end of my workout. Then there is one massive outward celebration that usually includes dancing and people staring at me :). I texted the hubby this photo today because I was so proud and wanted to share my moment with him:

You have to celebrate your successes, no matter how small they may be, because doing so adds gratitude, excitement, and happiness to your life and invigorates your Spirit. Happiness is vital for the momentum to keep going. If you hate working out, you’re not going to get very far with your goals. Find enjoyment in the process!

Don’t get comfortable. Break through your ceilings, again and again. Push yourself to get to that next level. Don’t leave the gym thinking that you could have gone harder. Put in the work and celebrate your successes as they come! Be grateful for your ability to push yourself and be grateful for the benefits as you notice them. For instance, you may notice that it’s easier to get up off the couch, you can lift your kids easier, it’s easier to breathe, you can breathe deeper, you’re happier, the people around you can feel it, and they’re happier because of the energy you’re bringing home.