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Centering Morning Prayer

8/29/2017

In previous posts I've shared my morning prayer ritual and how it has served as a powerful and intentional way for me to begin my day. I've been practicing a new centering morning prayer that I really love and want to share with you. It's a morning prayer that I learned from author Shauna Niequist.

Here is Shauna's centering morning prayer. Start by envisioning a symbol that represents God. Picture a word or an image of God. It can be anything. It can be the word love. It can be a heart. Whatever for you is a symbol that represents or reminds you of God. Focus the full attention of your spirit, mind, heart and body on this symbol for several minutes. Shauna recommends at least 3 minutes.

As you are focusing on this symbol, recognize that there is nothing you need to do to get more of God's love because you can't get more love than you already have. There is also nothing that you can do to relinquish this love because it's always there no matter what. You are already worthy.

Have a sense of freedom to go off and journey through and experience your day with the knowingness that you always carry this love with you. Don't be afraid to take risks, to fail, to experience, to rest and relax because your worth is not on the line every day. You can't do anything that will take away this love.

Isn't that a relief? You don't have to be perfect, in fact you don't have to do anything to receive God's love. You can experiment and possibly even make mistakes and still be loved.

I wanted to share this prayer with you because it not only reminds us that we are unconditionally loved, but it helps to take that intellectual concept and allow it to settle into our bones, into our heart, our soul and our spirit. It reminds us that we are deeply loved and created on purpose. That we are all perfectly and beautifully imperfect. Every single one of us.

As Shauna states, "It's a reminder that there is nothing that you can do in the course of a day that will ruin, or squander, or break, or fracture his love for you. There's no mistake too great. And, there's nothing that you can do to get more of his love...to earn more, to prove more, to get more. It's already all there."

I also wanted to share it because with this prayer comes a sense of freedom. Freedom to not have to prove your worthiness. Freedom to not be perfect. Freedom to experience life and make mistakes. Freedom to afford yourself some slack to explore. Freedom to offer yourself compassion and forgiveness.

I invite you to give it a try. Start your day off with this centering morning prayer. And while you're at it, consider adding my morning prayer ritual to it as well :) Here it is:

Good morning Soul. Good morning God. Who am I? Where would you have me go? What would you have me do? What would you have me say and to whom?

Pausing after each question to listen for an answer and to intentionally answer the question...who am I? Each and every day affirming who I am. I am love, I am peace, I am a child of God, etc.

My morning prayer continues with expressions of gratitude and of a willingness to serve, and includes other personal items that I may have on my mind that day. I've mentioned in previous blog posts how very important I believe gratitude to be. I start and end my day with gratitude and spend time several moments throughout my day offering up expressions of gratitude.

I would love to hear your feedback on this post. What do you think of Shauna's centering morning prayer? Do you have your own morning prayer that you would like to share? Drop me a comment or send me an email.

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A Grace Soaked Grounded Soul

8/22/2017

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In a recent episode of Super Soul Sunday, Oprah interviewed Shauna Niequist, author of the book Present Over Perfect. Oprah asked, "What are some of the practices we can all do to become a source of healing in the world?" Shauna Niequist responded, "When you bring a grace soaked grounded soul to any room that you walk in you are offering yourself as an instrument of healing." Don't you just love that? Savor it for a moment, bask in it...a grace soaked grounded soul.

What does it mean to be grace soaked? For me, it means living the essence of God. Living the true essence of who you are at your core. Acting with divinity. It's strength and empowerment to bring love and kindness and to do good works.

What does it mean to be a grounded soul? For me, being a grounded soul means living with intention. Grounded and anchored with intention. Grounded in who you are, what your purpose is here, and what you stand for. Being able to fully answer the question, "Who am I?" Being centered in that answer and aligned with it. It's living from a place of integrity. It's living with faith. It's a place of practice and more practice.

Can you envision how we could be an instrument for healing in the world if we were all grace soaked grounded souls? Can you imagine the amazing and powerful ripples that would be created in the world? Ripples of healing cast out into the Universe.

I ended last week's post by saying that I believe that the world will be healed by the human spirit. By and through more and more of us rising up. By more of us having grace soaked grounded souls. By more of us being able to firmly answer, "Who am I?" By more of us speaking our truth. By more of us being curious and listening with empathy. By more of us finding our purpose. By more of us aligning ourselves with integrity. By more of us offering up forgiveness. By more of us being brave, opening our hearts, rising up and creating ripples of healing change in the world.

I invite you to ground your soul and soak it up in grace to help be a source of healing in our world.

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I Need To Talk About Charlottesville

8/15/2017

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I just finished watching a documentary piece covering the horrific events that took place this past weekend in Charlottesville. The video interviewed leaders of the white supremacy group. It was disturbing to my core. I am sick to my stomach. It was hard to finish watching and hard to fathom that there are people in our country who think that way. I want to sit and cry.

I wanted to turn it off. A part of me wants to go back to living in my bubble. Part of me wants to pretend that I didn't see it and that it isn't happening, but I can't. I've done that for too long. I need to write about it, I need to do something about it. My white privilege allows me to walk away from the conversation, to say no I don't want to be uncomfortable. To go back to my life.

I feel vulnerable writing about it. What if I say the wrong thing? What if I don't get it right. What if I don't find the words to express what I'm thinking and feeling? But I, and too many others, have remained silent. I've chosen to play it safe, to let others engage while I sat on the sidelines feeling sad and overwhelmed. Afraid to use my voice, afraid to speak my truth. As long as I wasn't outwardly being racist than I didn't really need to say or do anything more right? What I've come to decide is that ignoring it is just as bad as supporting it. That silence is compliance.

Author, Glennon Doyle, expressed her thoughts in a Facebook post. Here is an excerpt from her post.

"It is no longer enough (it has never been enough) for white America to pat ourselves on the back because - at least we are not marching skinheads. No, we all have to get very, very humble. We have to look into our minds and hearts and families and schools and communities and together, we need to identify how we, as members of white culture- benefit from the system those neo-nazis desperately seek to protect.

White supremacy is the system that offers many of us picket fences and successful, cozy schools and healthy food and reliable medical care and protection from law enforcement and clear skies ahead while so many of our siblings of color are disallowed these things. The system we live and breathe and move in is white supremacy. The American dream is largely based upon it."

Brene Brown offers up the following, "The stories we don't own collectively, own us. The story of our country is white supremacy. We haven't had the courage to step in and own the story. The pain and discomfort of owning that story is nothing compared to the pain and discomfort of not owning it. Our work right now is to call it what it is."

I believe that the world will be saved by the human spirit. The ability that each of us has to be brave and courageous. The ability that each of us has to be greater than him or herself. The ability to rise up from our ordinary self to be something greater, something extraordinary. It's an elevation of us beyond ourselves. It is getting out of our comfortable bubble and into the discussion. It's stepping out from the sidelines and into the game. It's raising our consciousness with love, with curiosity and with accountability.

I invite you into the discussion. I invite and encourage you to be brave and courageous. Let's help each other bring awareness to this issue with love and curiosity.

Here is the documentary that I watched.
www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/charlottesville-vice-documentary_us_59930983e4b09071f69cc8f6?utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&utm_source=main_fb&utm_medium=facebook&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

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Make Growing A Daily Priority

8/8/2017

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I remember clearly when there was a day (or a year or two) where all I could manage to do was to muddle through and survive each day. I was knee deep with diaper changing, feeding, entertaining, keeping safe, teaching, cleaning, bathing, reading, laundry and trying to manage a household of 5 plus a dog. I also remember the days before I decided to stay home with my kids and I was juggling all of that plus managing a client base and a career. And before that I remember being a young adult and how exhausted I was working to build a career and find my way as an adult, as a friend, as a girlfriend/wife, as a daughter and a sister. I have to admit I wasn't so much focused on growing each day, as I was on surviving each day.

Fact of the matter is I was learning and growing, but I wasn't necessarily intentionally working at it, or focusing on growing, or determining where I wanted to focus my attention. I was focused on the tasks at hand. Yes, growth came a long with it and yes, I had goals, but as I reflect my growth goals centered around my career and what was needed to grow and change in my career. I didn't spend much time focusing on my own personal growth. Growth, outside of my career, came based on what life dealt versus what I sought out.

Is this just me, or can you relate to some degree? It was fairly easy to have years slip by without really stretching myself. Operating under the same status quo, having some of the same personal experiences happen over and over. Growing and stretching takes an openness, a willingness to put forth some extra effort. A willingness to own that you aren't perfect and have some things that you can work on to grow and expand yourself.

Certainly, some stages in life are more demanding of your time and energy and it's hard to do more than just survive, but mostly our busyness and our priorities are dictated by us. We can always make room for something if we make it a priority. I think it's important that we make growing a priority. It doesn't have to be huge, but taking a step each day to focus on your personal growth. Even if it's just reading a short paragraph, or watching a short video clip, or reading a blog post, maybe picking up supplies for a new hobby. Whatever it is, no matter how small it is, focus on how to grow a little bit each day. I often say...take small right steps everyday.

I once heard a suggestion that ten cents from every dollar you earn should go to help someone else, and ten cents from every dollar you earn should go to help invest in yourself. Tithing for yourself, to help you grow and improve, what an awesome concept! Maybe to help you attend a personal growth seminar or a retreat that you've had your eye on, or to participate in a mission trip, or to take a class on painting, or to purchase tools for your new hobby, or even to take a vacation. Investing in yourself, I love it! We think about investing in our future all the time don't we? Investing to buy a house, investing for retirement, investing for college funds, is there an account in there for yourself? I know it's hard, but I love the idea of investing in our future selves.

I believe that we are here as students of life. We are here to grow, to learn lessons, to have experiences, to remember. Don't let yourself become personally stagnant. Don't lose track of who your are and what your soul needs in the busyness of life. Carve out time for you to grow and shift and change and expand and learn each day. Some days in big ways and some days in small ways. I love this saying and I don't know who said it, "Each day try to be better than you were yesterday and tomorrow be better than you were today."

What are you going to do today to grow, to stretch yourself? I would love to hear how you make time for yourself to grow and what you are currently focusing on for your growth. Please leave me a comment or send me an email, I would love to hear from you!

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Centering Morning Prayer

A Grace Soaked Grounded Soul

I Need To Talk About Charlottesville

Make Growing A Daily Priority

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