This morning country singer Clay Walker was on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet.  He was talking about the day he received the biggest wake-up call of his life.

Eleven years ago, he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.  The doctors told him that he was going to die.  Today, watching him, you would never even know that he had an illness.

He told Mike and Juliet, the hosts, that this illness caused him to re-evaluate his entire life.  When he was first diagnosed, he wasn’t happy.  His life wasn’t in balance. 

Today, he credits his health with healing his body, mind, and spirit.  He takes the time to do things he loves.  He spends more time with his family.  He makes a conscious effort to live a more balanced life.

What’s Your Wake-Up Call?

Seeing him on the show this morning really got me thinking.  How many times do you refuse to change part of your life until something bad happens?  It could be an illness, divorce, or getting hurt on the job.  Each one of these things forces you to change direction in your life. 

The tricky part is recognizing that it is God’s intervention.  So many times you refuse to make the change on your own.  If that is the case, God steps in and throws you a complete curve ball.  This curve ball forces the change on you.

How Do You Handle the Change?

When a serious life-altering event is taking place in your life, how do you deal with it?  It’s very easy to fall straight into the victim role.  It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself and think that the world is ending. 

The truth is, that the world is ending as you know it.  BUT it’s not ending completely.  Now is the time to take inventory of your life.  What is working and what isn’t? 

It’s time to do a lot of internal housekeeping.  What needs to change?  What can you let go of that is no longer serving you?  What emotions, pain, anger, or guilt do you need to release?

It’s time to start over with a clean slate.  It’s time to get back to who you are and who you want to be.  It’s time to thank God for this blessing.  It’s time to find the silver-lining. 

 

Life is a journey that is meant to be enjoyed.  It is a beautiful gift that you have been given.  It is your divine right to have a life that is filled with love, laughter, and much joy.  You definitely deserve it. 

More Pain Than Happiness

Well, what do you do if you don’t feel that way?  What if your life seems to be filled with more pain than joy?  Anger, sadness, grief, and guilt can be overwhelming emotions.  They can keep you stuck in a place in your life that is painful.  You know that you are “suppose to” let go of these emotions, but how do you exactly do that? 

These emotions can absolutely wreak havoc on your life.  The way you FEEL can affect many different areas of your life.

• Your relationships.  You have heard that everyone has emotional baggage.  This is past pain and hurt that you carry into present and future relationships.  It is important to work through past pain so that your current relationships can prosper.
• Weight Loss.  You can exercise and diet and still find yourself unable to lose the weight you want.  Your negative emotions keep you stuck with your weight.  Many people are “emotional eaters”.  You may eat because you are sad, lonely, or guilty.
• Your Finances.  The way you feel about yourself radiates out and other people can feel it.  This affects whether or not you get the job you want or whether or not you make the business deal. 
• Physical Health.  There is a connection between what is happening in your mind/emotions and what results in your body.  When you are able to let go of emotional pain, physical healings happen all of the time.

Break Free From the Pain

In order to live the joyous, happy life that you want, you need to let go.  You need to begin by making the decision that you don’t want to live in pain anymore.  Be firm in your decision.  Get help if you need it. 

By working with a professional, you are able to have another perspective.  You are able to constantly raise your awareness and see that there is a better way to live.  Just because you currently don’t have the resources to make your life better, that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.  If you are interested in living an emotionally free life, contact me and I can help. 

All you have is today.  Yesterday is gone and tomorrow hasn’t yet arrived.  What are you going to do with your today?

• Today is the day to realize your potential.  You are an intelligent, beautiful, powerful person and you are the creator of your life.  Anything you want is yours.
• Today is the day to use your imagination.  Just like when you were a child, close your eyes and imagine the life that you want.  Big or small, it doesn’t matter.  Don’t limit yourself.  The universe wants you to dream big.  Full color, full of feeling, full of love…..
• Today is the day to be the change you want to see in the world.  The world is desperately searching for change, for something different.  What you don’t realize is that it only takes you to change the whole entire world.  Once you change who you are BEING in the world, that new vibration will ripple out and affect millions of people.  So, go ahead, be the change.
• Today is the day to open up to love.  This means all types of love.  Love your spouse in a way that you haven’t in a long time.  Love you children without being angry and reactive.  Let the love of the divine into your life.  Take down your walls and your protective armor and let yourself love.
• Today is the day to release the past.  You can’t change the things that you did.  You can’t take  back the things that were said.  You can only accept that you were doing the very best that you knew how to do.  Let it go and move on.
• Today is the day to take a chance.  What have you been wanting to do, but never actually took the risk?  Today is the day to step out and take the opportunity that is being given to you.  Now is the time.  You are unstoppable.  Believe in yourself.

I don’t know about you, but today I am stepping out of my comfort zone and growing.  I am acting in faith and I am risking it all.  I create my future just as you do and I want my future to be bright and beautiful.  I am sending you love and I am sending you courage so that you can step out in faith as well. 

As I observe the people in my life, I have found one common thread running through everyone.  It doesn’t matter how it manifests in their lives, but it is still there.  I even see it in myself. 

What I am seeing is lack of self-love.  It is a term that I have heard many times, but struggled to reconcile within myself.  How do you know that you don’t love yourself and how do you begin to feel love?

Lack of Self-Love

When you don’t love yourself, it shows up in so many different forms.  It can manifest as:

• Judgement of others.
• Never trying something new in fear of humiliation.
• Putting yourself down.
• Feeling undeserving of anything good.
• Never putting yourself “out there”
• Staying in your safety zone

The truth of the matter is, that when you don’t love yourself, your entire life suffers.  You aren’t able to truly love and be loved by anyone if you don’t love yourself first.  This can affect everything from your relationships to your financial situation.

Steps to Loving You

There are a few things you can do to begin the journey of loving yourself.  It might take time.  So, be patient with yourself and realize it is a process. 

• Notice where you are starting.  You’ll never get anywhere on this journey of self-love if you don’t know where you are starting.  Do you recognize yourself in any of those manifestations above?  Do you understand that you are living your life without truly loving yourself?
• Choose to love yourself.  Everything good in your life begins with a decision.  You need to choose you.  You need to choose love.  You are the most important person in your life.  Take care of you.
• Heal old wounds.  A huge part of learning to love yourself is healing old wounds.  For some, it may be as easy as just letting it go.  For others, it may take the help of a professional.  It is important to let go of the past and release the beliefs that are keeping you down.
• Fill yourself up with love.  You can begin to love yourself by treating you the way you would want a lover to treat you.  Pamper yourself.  Get a massage.  Hire someone to do your gardening.  Do things to take care of yourself.  Take “me” time and do something you enjoy.  Buy yourself flowers.
• Believe that you are love.  You are created by God and God doesn’t make mistakes.  God is love and so are you.  Believe that you are worthy of all good.

When you truly begin to love yourself, you will no longer need to search for love.  You will no longer need to search for happiness.  You will no longer need approval from others.  You will already feel these things within yourself. 

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

 ~Anaïs Nin

Everyone sees the world in their own unique way.  We each have a perception of people, places, and circumstances in our lives.  Your perception is based on the filters that you see through.  Your filters are in place because of previous experiences in your life.

The common saying is, “Is your glass half-full or half-empty?”  I’m sure that you know people who have a glass that is half-empty.  Everything they see is negative, everyone is out to get them.  I know that I have actually felt this way at certain points in my life. 

Another way to say it is “If the world gives you lemons, do you just take a big bite out of the lemon and complain about how sour it is, or do you make lemonade?” People who make lemonade are the people who are able to see the upside in everything. 

• Out of tragedy comes opportunity. 
• There is beauty in everyone.
• The universe is conspiring in my favor.
• There are lessons to learn in every situation.

Now, I don’t mean just be insincere and pretend to live this way.  I mean truly embrace every person and every situation.  Be a detective and find the good in everything. 

Now, would you like  a glass of lemonade?