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Reflections & Intentions

12/15/2019

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As 2019 is quickly coming to a close, it's common for us to reflect on the past year and begin planning for the new year. Reflecting on how the year went, what we accomplished, setting our intentions and goals for things that we plan to do in the new year.

What reflections do you have about this past year? Did you accomplish what you desired? What positive experiences did you have? I invite you to make a list of all your accomplishments from the year, both big and small. What did you achieve? Consider putting your list someplace visible, so you can savor them and be reminded of your achievements. 

What challenges did you experience? Consider going through each one looking at what effect they’ve had on your life. There might be lessons you learned through these challenges, setbacks, or disappointments. A great way to heal from negative experiences is to learn from them. 

I think it's healthy to productively reflect, to productively look back for a bit before setting it aside and moving forward. Not getting stuck in the past, just looking at it to savor the positive and learn from the challenges.
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What's your intention for 2020? Have you thought about it yet? Have you envisioned what the year ahead will look like for you? Have you set some goals for yourself?

​How are you feeling about the new year? I know a lot of us have mixed feelings as we are looking out at our world. We want  change, we desire change. How is that change going to happen for you? Are you willing to be the change that you want in the world? Are you willing to do your part to create the change in your own life, in order for that to ripple out into the world? 

If you desire the world to be a healthier and happier place, than be healthier yourself, be happy yourself. If you desire the world to be a place of more love and peace, than be more love and peace yourself. If you desire more acceptance, more compassion, more tolerance, more forgiveness, than be more accepting, be more compassionate, be more tolerant, be more forgiving. Ripple them out to the rest of the world. Create big bold bright sparkly ripples!

Grow these qualities in yourself and they will create huge ripples out to the rest of the universe. Create habits within your daily life to support those things that you wish to see not only in your own life, but also in the world. It's time to be the change, to be a change agent. The world is hurting, people are hurting, it is time for each and everyone of us to do our part to be the change. How can you be the change? How can you create big bold bright sparkly ripples in your own life that will ripple out into the world?

What is causing you to be stuck? Stuck in your life? Stuck in your body? Stuck in your mind? Stuck spiritually? Make some movement, set your intentions, make some change. 
I invite you to BE the CHANGE you desire to see in the world. This year I want to focus on being the change. This year I want to focus on making big bold bright sparkly positive ripples of change, will you join me? We can do this! We can each make important ripples in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Let's do it!!!

I will leave you with the insightful words of Wayne Dyer.


You become what you think about. If you think about giving, as God does, the Universe will provide. If you think about things being taken away, then that’s what you’ll attract. If you want to manifest your dreams, you must become a master at monitoring the thoughts and feelings you are aligning yourself with. Your thoughts and feelings become your reality, so become adept at observing the thoughts and feelings you are creating for yourself.

Do not let your imagination be restricted to the current conditions of your life, or what I call “being obsessed with what is.” Keep reminding yourself that everything that you’ve believed has gotten you to precisely the point where you are now. This is a rather persistent theme in my work, so it bears repeating here: if you want to elevate your life and become a manifester, then you have to change what you’ve believed to be true about yourself that has landed you where you are. The sentiments of This is reality, This is just the way things are, There is nothing that I can do to change what is, and the like are pernicious thoughts that will taint and defile your great gift of I am that I am, which is your Divine inheritance from your creator.

The words of all the great spiritual teachers encourage us to see ourselves as unlimited and to know that even the least among us has the divine power of God available at every moment of our lives. I know that you, if you practice studiously, can begin to manifest for yourself virtually anything that you are capable of conceiving in your mind. You must unplug from your conditioning and know in that private space behind your eyes that you can and will take on the challenge of manifesting your destiny. It is my belief that you are never given the power to dream without the equivalent power to manifest that dream and make it your physical reality.

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The Magic Is In The Mess

12/9/2019

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The holidays can bring up lots of mixed emotions for people. For some, the holiday season is not a magical time of year at all. One of my favorite authors, Brene Brown, shared her thoughts on the holidays and I wanted to share them with you.

​Every holiday season, as I think about my own life and reflect upon what my family and what many of the people around me are going through right now, I’m reminded that struggle doesn’t take off for the holidays. As a lover of Christmastime, my mantra has become “the magic is in the mess” and I always like to post a little love note to myself and our communities.

We need to be kind with ourselves and remember that the gremlins don’t go on vacation. Checks bounce, chemotherapy appointments are scheduled, interventions are planned, relationships keep unravelling, being alone feels even lonelier, parents negotiate who will have the kids on Christmas morning, and the “never enoughs” are in full swing.

As I prepare to spend the next few days with my family and friends, my goal is to practice love and gratitude with the special group of folks who keep showing up and loving me, not despite my vulnerabilities and imperfections, but because of them.

I'm grateful for our community. For your generosity and the respectful way that we move forward together!
Blessings, Brené


The Christmas lights, trees, decorations, cards, neatly wrapped gifts and carefully decorated cookies are beautiful and magical, but to me, the real beauty comes in finding the magic amongst the busyness, physical mess, emotional mess, relationship mess, through any and all of the imperfections. Looking through all of the mess and working to find the magic.

​Remembering that beautiful and hard can coexist in the same breath, in the same moment. Finding the moment of connection with love, connection with gratitude, connection with compassion. Sitting with the messiness and looking past it to the magical spirit. Remembering that we are perfectly imperfect humans walking this earth and doing our best. 

May we see the magic in the mess this holiday season, however that looks for each of us. May we savor the moments of connection. Wishing you and your loved ones a very joyous and loving holiday season!
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Together We Can Create A Happy World

12/3/2019

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You have probably been bombarded by shopping ads and sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but today is all about helping others. Today is #GivingTuesday, a day dedicated to helping charities help people in need and that is something way more exciting to me! 

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving has been tagged as the global day of giving. Bringing people together around the values of service and giving back and to encourage and amplify small acts of kindness. Giving Tuesday unites people and countries around the world by sharing our capacity to care for and empower one another. 

Today people and countries are coming together to celebrate kindness and generosity. Practicing gratitude for what we have in our lives, as well as what we can do to help and be of service to others. I love the concept of a global day of giving for many reasons, two of which are proven to be key pillars of happiness...gratitude and generosity...service and kindness. 

The Dalai Lama in his book, The Book of Joy, says, "As one of the seven billion human beings, I believe everyone has the responsibility to develop a happier world. We need, ultimately, to have a greater concern for others' well-being." He goes on to say, "Too much self-centered thinking is the source of suffering. A compassionate concern for others' well-being is the source of happiness. We have to take care of ourselves without selfishly taking care of ourselves. If we don't take care of ourselves, we cannot survive. We need to do that. We should have wise selfishness, rather than foolish selfishness. Foolish selfishness means you just think only of yourself, don't care about others, bully others, exploit others. In fact, taking care of others, helping others, ultimately is the way to discover your own joy and to have a happy life. So that is what I call wise selfishness."

The Dalai Lama starts each day by setting his intention for the day. His intention is for the day to be meaningful. For him, meaningful means, if possible, serve and help others. If not possible, then at least not to harm others. He believes that, "Everybody wants a happy life...and our individual happy life depends on a happy humanity. So we have to think about humanity, discover a sense of oneness of all seven billion human beings." The path of joy is connection and the path of sorrow is separation. 

Bringing people and countries together to celebrate our oneness, our kindness, our gratitude, our generosity to care for, empower and lift each other up, creating a happy humanity and a happy world. 

Science supports that when we see someone perform an act of kindness or of generosity it warms our heart. This warm and fuzzy feeling you get when you have witnessed human goodness is called moral elevation. Studies have found that the natural high of moral elevation makes people want to behave more altruistically toward others, causing kindness to be contagious. Elevation motivates those who experience it to open up to and assist others. Elevation makes an individual feel lifted up and optimistic about humanity...something I think we could all use a bit more of these days!

Let's finish out this year by intentionally practicing giving, being of service, acts of kindness and of generosity. Let's create moral elevation, so we can all feel lifted up and optimistic about humanity, the world, and our future together.

What can you do over this next month to create moral 
elevation? What small act of kindness, service or generosity can you perform? What act of compassion will make someone else's day brighter and lighter? Let's practice wise selfishness instead of foolish selfishness during this holiday season. I invite you to join me in creating ripples of moral elevation.
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