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Feed Your Soul

9/10/2019

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Are you feeding your soul? A friend of mine sent me an article from Oprah.com about nourishing your soul. The article touches on practices that I use to feed my soul and have shared in previous blog posts. I'm sharing the article in this week's post because sometimes we can all use a nice reminder, or to hear the information presented in a different way. I hope you enjoy it!
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6 Things You Need To Do To Feed Your Soul
You are what you eat - so make sure you're getting a balanced spiritual diet
By Martha Beck


Recently, I told a frazzled client that she needs to take time each day to nourish her spirit. "I’m not even sure how to do that," she said. "Can you give me a balanced spiritual diet? Like the old food pyramid?" Well, sure, I thought—except the food pyramid never worked for me. I’m gluten intolerant and have trouble absorbing fats: Once, my doctor wrote me a prescription for "less quinoa, more peanut butter." 

No one diet plan is right for everybody, and that goes for our metaphysical needs as well. But some spiritual practices are so nourishing that they’ve been recommended throughout history all over the world. I’ve outlined a menu of these "food groups" here. Add one of them at a time, the way your doctor might introduce a food to see how your body reacts. If a practice nourishes you, adjust the amount to find your own minimum daily requirement. Then add another practice. Eventually, you’ll create the perfect spiritual diet for you. 

Hold Still 
The most powerful nourishment is also the simplest: shhhh! Practicing stillness is a venerable art in many spiritual traditions, usually in the form of meditation. You may want to try formally meditating by focusing on your breathing, a mantra, or a question. If you want a more Western approach, follow the biblical instruction "Be still, and know that I am God." Eckhart Tolle believes this is actually one concept, our ultimate spiritual truth, expressed five ways: Be. Still. Know. I Am. God. Contemplating any one of them provides nutrient-rich sustenance. 

I used to hate meditation. Dropping my mind into stillness was like dropping a cat into a washing machine. Nevertheless, I could feel the practice feeding me, and between sittings I grew noticeably healthier and more peaceful. 

Talk It Out 
You may have been raised to recite prayers before eating, sleeping, entering battle, or whatever. Myself, I’m not a formal-prayer girl. My favorite invocation is silently shrieking Help help help help help! (I also like to write whiny letters; I figure if there’s really an omnipotent force reading them, I can just let it all hang out.) 

Prayer means talking to your higher power, in whatever way feeds your soul. Pray the rosary, or kneel by your bed, or just riff. Two friends of mine spend every morning chatting with God out loud, as if the Almighty were sitting happily at their coffee klatch. The only thing that matters is that you speak from your heart. 

Wise Up 
Generally when we pray, our higher power doesn’t get right back to us—but that doesn’t mean we can’t find answers. Some earthlings can listen so deeply that they actually hear the divine. They receive guidance and comfort to share with the rest of us, like spiritual receptionists passing along messages. Of course, there are plenty of frauds who only claim to hear higher wisdom—but I’ve found that when someone’s got a direct line to the universe, their words have such a profound resonance, you immediately recognize them as truth. 

I recommend consuming a wide variety of foods in this group; you’ll discover amazing similarities between the words of different masters, whether they’re from Tibet or the Middle East or Mexico. The lessons are simple: Indescribable peace is possible. Love is our highest purpose. We’re all one. Once you taste the sweetness of true wisdom, you’ll crave it every day. 

Feel the Beat 
Music is another form of divine communication, one that transcends language. According to some scientists, the rhythm and resonance of music activate areas of the brain that help us feel we belong to something larger and are connected to each other. The effects are even stronger if we sing or hum and let our bodies follow along. What music do you feel deep down in your soul? Gregorian chants? A lone flute? The soft sounds of the ’70s? Whatever form you choose, sing, dance and sway. Let the music move you, literally. It’s a joyful way to absorb spiritual nutrients. 

Come Together 
We all need solitude, but we also need times of connection, when we can talk to one another, help one another and love one another. This doesn’t require moving to an ashram or even going to church. You simply need to connect with another human being who shares your spiritual point of view. It could be a friend or a family member, or you might find someone in your book club, a 12-step meeting, or your African drumming class. The important thing is having a chance to feed someone else’s spirit and be fed in return. Miraculously, giving and receiving are equally nutritious. 

Go Natural 
If there is a Creator, then we can see that being’s self-portrait anytime, right outside our window: It’s called nature, and you can start to appreciate it right now just by looking up at the sky. Or take a drive through the countryside or a walk in the park. Contact with the natural world calms our nervous system and quiets us enough to hear our inner voice of wisdom and intuition. Trust me, it’s there. To coax it out, just breathe the fresh air, open yourself to nature and wait. 

When you give your body healthy food, you feel more vibrant and alive; the same is true for your spirit. Sample a few portions of everything on this buffet and you’ll instinctively find the diet that will help you thrive. What could be more delicious? 
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Transitions And New Chapters

9/3/2019

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This past weekend we moved our daughter into her freshman dorm room and our son into his off campus apartment (he's starting his senior year) and our other daughter started her junior year in high school.

We said our goodbyes to our college kids (thankfully they are both not far away) and the house is more quiet now, just one left. Arriving home last night after the final move, I looked around to the remnants left behind, the strewn empty boxes and miscellaneous articles scattered about. I peeked into their now empty bedrooms, it's hard to believe the summer has past and we are at this juncture. We'll be empty nesters soon and I feel it on the horizon. How did it all go by so fast?

​No amount of planning or preparation could adequately prepare for the change, it's something that you just have to work your way through step by step as it occurs. Feeling all the feelings, acknowledging and honoring them as they arise. 


Change and transitions, the beginning of a new chapter can be hard. Transitions can feel sad and scary and joyful all at the same time. Feeling the sense of loss and the newness that is beginning. Embracing it all, letting go, surrendering and leaning into the next chapter that life has to offer. Having trust and faith in the journey.

​Here are some tips to help move through life's transitions with more ease:

Connect with others...During life's transitions it helps to reach out and bond with others who are going through something similar. Getting connected with others, sharing and feeling supported is an important step to being able to navigate through from the old chapter to the new chapter with more grace and ease. 

Fill the void...Some transitions bring with them a void and it's important to fill the void with something nourishing to your soul. This might be in the form of service, finding something you are passionate about and volunteering. It might be through finding a new hobby, new friends, exploring your passions and creative side, getting out in the community and taking in some events. Filling the void with laughter, connection and fun. Laughter is always great medicine. 

Exercise wellness...Lean on your personal tools and practices to sustain you through the transition is also key. Prayer, meditation, exercise, healthy eating, gratitude practice, etc. are all helpful to supporting us through life's transitions. 

Be present...Take things one step at a time. Don't obsess about and worry over what the future will look like, don't excessively ruminate over the past and what once was, just focus on the present, this moment, here and now. Exercise self-compassion to move through this moment. 

​Life is a beautiful journey full of many transitions. Embracing the change and flowing with it instead of resisting against it, seeing the beauty within it, will allow for a smoother transition. Sending love, light and blessings to all those moving through a life transition right now. 
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Practicing Generosity

8/26/2019

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What do you think of when you think of acts of generosity? Things that cross my mind include the generosity of sharing time, money, love, attention, presence, resources, knowledge, gifts, and possessions. 
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Dr. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and founder and chair of the Center for Healthy Minds, shares that research demonstrates that well-being (which he partly defines as happiness) is a skill that can be learned. He details four constituents of well-being that have been extensively investigated neuroscientifically. One of these is generosity. Acts of generosity activates circuits in the brain that promote well-being.

Dr. Davidson believes that having a meditation/mindfulness practice is an act of generosity. Why is this? What is the connection between generosity and meditation/mindfulness? 

People often perceive that meditation/mindfulness is something that you do just for yourself. While it is definitely something that benefits the individual, mindfulness also benefits the community and the whole world. Research has shown that meditation/mindfulness has a spillover effect. By meditating I am able to not only having a positive effect on my own physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being, but also on the overall well-being of my community. In this way, my meditation/mindfulness practice is an act of generosity to my community. 

Meditation/mindfulness helps me to be less reactive, to stay centered, to be calmer, act wiser with intention and this doesn’t just help me, but it helps everyone I come into contact with. When we work on creating inner peace through meditation, we are giving a gift out to the world...change your mind, change the world. It sends out high vibrational energy into the community and world. This is an act of generosity.

Meditation/mindfulness helps me to practice being present, living in the present moment, giving my attention and focus to this moment. Being able to give your presence to another person is one of the greatest, most generous, gifts you can give. Especially in a day and age where our attention is being pulled in many different directions by the constant pull of electronic devices. 
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​The act of giving creates a spacious world. A world where your belief is that there is enough. A person who has more than enough to share. An abundance of time, money, love and attention to share with others versus the fear of scarcity. These are also things that I work on in my meditation practice.

Meditation helps to cultivate loving kindness, compassion and detachment from negative thoughts, beliefs, feelings. 

We can be more generous with others when we are generous with ourselves first. Begin by being generous with yourself, so your cup overflows, that way you are better able to practice generosity with others.


Acts of generosity open our heart and bring joy to our mind. The feelings that arise while planning a generous act, persist during the act, and perpetuate long after the act itself, especially when we practice savoring it. Practicing generosity cultivates a positive mindset and an open, loving heart leading to more well-being and more happiness.

The practice of generosity is an intentional practice and a spiritual practice. Having a meditation/mindfulness practice cultivates generosity and is an act of generosity. It does my heart good to know that something that feels selfish is actually generous and selfless...selfishly selfless is awesome!
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Tips For Shifting If You're Negative Or Complain A Lot

8/19/2019

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At times we can all find ourselves feeling negative, complaining about life, things or people that are frustrating us. Some of us are just naturally more pessimistic, more negative and resort to complaining on a regular basis.

It can be easy to get sucked into negative thoughts and stories, complaining to ourselves or to anyone who'll listen. At these moments, it's useful to have some go to shifters, some practices that will help retrain your brain toward being more optimistic and recognizing the good things, the positive things happening in your life. Here are some tips for
retraining your brain:​

Be grateful: Each day identify 3 things you are grateful for and the include as much detail as you can as to why you are grateful. I love to do this before I fall asleep each night. Every time we practice gratitude, our brain is being re-wired to notice more things to be grateful for. When we practice gratitude, our body releases chemicals into our body that cause us to feel good. 

In my opinion, gratitude is the most powerful tool to shift and to retrain the brain toward positivity. 

Savor a good experience: Take a moment to pause and bring to mind a good experience that you've had. Replay all of the details surrounding the experience...what happened, who was there, what was said, how did you respond, what were you wearing, etc. Our brain doesn't really know if an event is really happening or if we are envisioning it happening. We get a download of feel good chemicals released into our body and our brain is being trained to see more goodness. 


Catch yourself: Don’t wait for your friends or family to tell you you’re complaining, pay attention to your thoughts and words.
If you’re complaining, work to shift your energy toward finding solutions and/or lessons to be learned. It can be easy to get trapped into the cycle of complaining, especially in a group setting focused on a common "enemy" or "problem". Work to gear your thoughts and words to productive solutions versus unproductive complaining, blaming, judging, gossip, or negative stories that quickly spiral out of control.  

Shift your mood: If you feel overwhelmed or challenged in some way, remove yourself from whatever you’re doing and work to shift your mood. This can be as easy as practicing gratitude or savoring a good experience. You can also practice a other mindfulness techniques like the S.T.O.P. technique. S...Stop, T...Take 3 deep breaths, O...Observe what you are thinking, what you are feeling and what's going on around you, P...Practice gratitude. Another one of my go to techniques is to put my hand over my heart and inhale to the count of 5 and exhale to the count of 5 for a series of at least 3 more more breaths. 

Shifting a mood, a state of mind, and retraining our brain takes intentional practice. Having awareness is a key step. Being aware of your thoughts, beliefs, feelings, moods, stories, etc. and then intentionally and consciously engaging in practices to assist in moving to a different path. This takes effort and discipline, but the rewards are huge. 
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Stop Yourself Before The "But"

8/13/2019

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Do you have dreams and passions that you are ignoring? Maybe you're convincing yourself that you can't possibly do it. Does that little voice in your head give you all kinds of "buts", all kinds of reasons for why you can't possibly do what you are dreaming of doing? Things like:

-but, I'm too old.
-but, I'm too young.
-but, I don't know enough.
-but, I'm not smart enough.
-but, It's already been done.
-but, I don't know the right people.
-but, there are people who do it better than me.
-but, I'm not talented enough.
​-but, no one will listen to me.

In an interview by Marie Forleo with Amanda Lacount, a professional hip hop dancer, choreographer, model and body positive activist,
Amanda suggests in striving for your dreams that you, "Never let yourself get to the 'but'...". Amanda was told at the age of 10 that she didn't have the right body type to be a dancer. She didn't listen to her critics. Instead she kept dancing and pursuing her dream until now, at the age of 18, she has scored several prestigious dance gigs. 

Most times, it doesn't even take an outside critic to dissuade us from accomplishing our dreams, usually we take care of it ourselves with the critic inside our head. Our own fears, self-doubt and negative self-talk keep us paralyzed from living out our dreams. Flipping the switch and stopping ourselves from engaging in unproductive self-talk is important. Flip the switch to an affirmation like, "I am enough", "I am courageous", "I am brave", "I am strong", "I am confident", etc. will help to curb your fears. 

Our belief system is also super important to whether or not we choose to go after our dreams, it either helps us to believe that our dream is possible, or it help us to believe that it's impossible. Our belief system is mostly derived from what we have experienced to be true based on the examples in our own life. If you've seen, heard, or read examples of people who have done something the same, or similar to what you are hoping to accomplish, then you will typically believe that it's possible for you to accomplish it as well. This is a huge hurdle in overcoming our fears and self-doubt. 

So what can we do to help ourselves believe it to be possible? One key step is to surround yourself with as many examples as possible of others who have accomplished something similar. Read books, watch videos, talk to people, interview people, find out as much as you can about how they did what they did. 

Next, write down your dream, or your goal, and then the next small step to making it happen. Don't get overwhelmed, just write down what the next small step would be in the direction of achieving the goal. There is so much power in writing it down and breaking it down into manageable steps. Small baby steps that will move you in the direction of achieving the dream. We more easily convince ourselves to take small baby steps. Once you obtain some movement, you get off square one, it'll be a little easier to keep taking the next small step and the next small step. 


Don't wait until you've achieved what you think is the perfect amount of knowledge, or skill, or experience to begin going after your dream, if you do chances are that you'll never feel good enough or "perfect "enough. Experts did not start out being experts, they started out as beginners, as apprentices and they became experts. What if we just get started and learn more as we go, become experts along the way? What if we just started where we are and go from there? At a certain point, let good enough be your rule. 

Steve Harvey said in an interview, "Surround yourself with dreamers. Surround yourself with like-minded people. Stop telling your dreams to small-minded people." Keep around you people who love and support you and your dreams. People who challenge you to be all that you can be and more. People who will encourage you even when you may fail. People who are also dreamers and who are aspiring to lead an extraordinary life. Live BIG, live interesting, live extraordinary, create magic. Why not? The world needs ordinary people leading extraordinary lives.
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Soul Searching

8/4/2019

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Amidst the mass shootings of this past week, I encourage each of us to do some deep soul searching. Stop and ask yourself, why is this happening? Let's challenge ourselves to go deep and consider all of the many issues that might be causing this situation, not just scratching the surface, but working our way down deeper to the root cause.

We need to dig deeper than just gun reform and mental health. These are definitely key issues that we need to address immediately in my opinion, but I believe the root cause is deeper. Until we get to the root cause we are just putting a bandaid on the wound.

I believe that the deeper cause, the root cause, is that we have let fear control us. We have bought into the perception that we need to fear instead of love and this is the deeper rooted issue. We've been conditioned to believe in scarcity and the survival of the fittest. These conditioned beliefs are based in fear and create a whole host of responses centered in fear, in protection, in separation, in us against them, etc. 


Fear-based thinking is how our mind works when we’re in a state of fear. Fear-based thinking creates a state in our brain that narrows our focus, restricts learning, blocks compassion and creativity. This ultimately causes us to be more self-centered and judgmental. Fear-based thinking makes us vulnerable to manipulation and interferes with problem solving, leading us to form rigid, emotionally based opinions that neglect input and logic. 

Fear-based thinking stops us from asking questions and questions are the key to understanding. When we are in a fear-based mode we don't listen or attempt to understand, to be curious by asking ourselves and others hard questions.

Psychologist and social worker, Bob Van Oosterhout, explains that, "Fear-Based Thinking develops and deepens when we receive repeated messages that stimulate fear. Since fear gets and keeps our attention, it’s a useful tool for the media and entertainment industries. Fear is also a highly effective political tactic. It is easy to manipulate voters when fear keeps us from taking time to understand issues, question assumptions, or look beyond talking points and spin. When we’re in the grip of Fear-Based Thinking we tend to look for a strong leader to keep us safe without questioning whether he or she has our best interests at heart. Fear-Based Thinking leads us to process information in Dead End Categories of either/or, right/wrong, and good/evil. We reject all immigrants, all liberals, all republicans, all people who are different or disagree with us.  This creates dependable voting patterns but leads to a break-down of communication and cooperation."

Fear-based thinking leads to separation, to hate and ultimately to violence. It disconnects us from others and leads to isolation and exclusion. Fear is the opposite of love. Where there is lovelessness there will inevitably be chaos and suffering. Fear causes us to lead with our head versus with our heart. Our heart contains the wisdom. Our heart contains the empathy, compassion, kindness, love...and solutions. 

I encourage each of us to challenge our thinking, to dig deep, to consider the question...Is what we are currently doing working?  Let's open our minds to consider a different path. 


Let's use this as a wake up call, a challenge to wake up and be more conscious. A call to stop skimming through life. A call to live with more awareness and intention. A call to set aside fear and lead with love. 

Let's recognize our commonality, our connectedness and our interdependence. Let's recognize that when one suffers, we all suffer, and honor that we are all one. Let's choose to ramp up our muscles of empathy, compassion, love, kindness, generosity, service, forgiveness, gratitude and grace.

Don't allow yourself to get desensitized to the occurrence of these events, or to get overwhelmed to the point where we throw our hands up and say the problem is too big for me to impact, or let someone else do it. We each can do our part, no matter how small and inconsequential it may seem to help heal this wound. 
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No One Is Perfect

7/30/2019

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I'm not perfect, you're not perfect, no one is perfect and it's okay. We are perfectly imperfect and we are a work in progress.

I mess up a lot. I work to be kind, but I'm not always. I work to be loving, but I'm not always. I work to be patient, but I'm not always. I work to not lose my cool, to not raise my voice, but I don't always. I work to be forgiving, but I'm not always...and on and on and on.  I strive to not just talk the talk, but also walk the walk and it's hard and I mess it up...a lot.

​In our effort to improve ourselves, it can be easy to get caught in the trap of the pursuit of perfection. We can easily get down on ourselves for not being perfect and not having it all figured out. 

This thing called change, or personal improvement, or spiritual growth, or whatever you call it, is messy, it's tricky, it's challenging, it requires diligence and it's never-ending. Once upon a time I thought I would get to a point where I would have it all figured out, where I would be to the other side, where I would be done. Well, that notion it turns out, was a silly one. I seem to manage to keep needing to learn and relearn and practice and grow and stretch and practice. It can be easy to give up or get down on yourself for not being perfect, but that's not how it works. We are students in this thing called life. 

Our job, as I see it, is to keep plugging away. To keep moving forward, continuing to learn, practice and grow and loving ourselves through it all, as you are in this moment perfectly imperfect striving to do your best and learning from your mistakes. 

I just keep working to do better, working to do my best, whatever that is in this moment, today. Learning from my mistakes and working hard to not make the same ones again. 


In The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, he states in the fourth agreement, "Always do your best. Under any circumstance, always do your best, no more and no less. But keep in mind that your best is never going to be the same from one moment to the next. Everything is alive and changing all the time, so your best will sometimes be high quality, and other times it will not be as good."

​If you keep putting one foot in front of the other, take small steps in the right direction, love yourself in the process, always do your best, no more and no less, and know that you are a beautiful work in progress, perfectly imperfect, then that's all you need to do.
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Pain Is A Traveling Professor

7/23/2019

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Are you struggling with something painful in your life? Most of us at any given moment, day or week, face painful experiences and challenges. Physical pain, emotional pain, financial pain, relationship pain, however you cut it, pain and suffering is plentiful and it's easy to get stuck in its vicious cycle.

If you're like me and a lot of other people, you avoid the pain, you numb it, deny it. Most of us are afraid of pain, we think that it's our job to avoid it. Often we'll engage in numbing activities to avoid the pain. We'll attempt to sweep it under the rug and deny it. We'll engage in endless conversation, either in our head or with others, trying to figure out the why...Why is it here? Why me? Why is this happening? Why is he or she doing this? Spinning the endless, age old question why, why why?


Some people deflect the pain and discomfort with unkindness. As author and activist Glennon Doyle explains, "All unkindness is pain deflection. Folks who think pain is a hot potato toss it to the next person so they don’t get burned. That’s all. People who are unkind just believe they can’t handle the pain that comes their way. "

I propose that attempting to avoid, numb, deny or deflect the pain only causes us to get more stuck in it. And here's the thing about pain...it can be our greatest teacher. Pain is a lesson disguised as suffering.

As Glennon Doyle writes,
 "Pain is not a sign that you’ve taken a wrong turn or that you’re doing life wrong. It’s not a signal that you need a different life or partner or body or home or personality. Pain is not a hot potato to pass on to the next person or generation. Pain is not a mistake to fix. Pain is just a sign that a lesson is coming. Discomfort is purposeful: it is there to teach you what you need to know so you can become who you were meant to be. Pain is just a traveling professor. When pain knocks on the door—wise ones breathe deep and say: 'Come in. Sit down with me. And don’t leave until you’ve taught me what I need to know.'"

What if everyone that we meet are also our teachers? Everyone...the good, the challenging, the uncomfortable, the toxic, what if they are all teachers for us? Would it be possible to more readily see the difficulties we might encounter as trainings for our heart? Maybe instead of someone being an enemy they're actually a good friend that taught us many lessons. 

Pain, if you let it, typically comes, stays for a while and then it leaves. When it leaves it tends to leave us better, stronger, wiser, softer, kinder, more empathetic and compassionate. It's not something to attempt to avoid, it's something to sit with, embrace even, and allow to pass through.  

Next time pain comes knocking at your door, invite it in like an old friend. Sit with it, be still, look it in the eye, know that you are strong enough to handle it,  and find the lessons. 
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Magic And Illusion

7/16/2019

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This past week was my extended family's annual vacation gathering. Each year we get together in July to connect, enjoy each other's company, have fun, relax and create memories. This year we hired a magician to entertain the group during one of our evening gatherings. The magician started out by addressing the question..."Are magic and illusion the same the thing?" This question reminded me of my post from a few weeks ago on "The story I'm telling myself is...", so I decided to explore it a little more.

An illusion is an image that deceives the mind by producing a false impression of reality. Magic is defined as the art of producing illusions as entertainment by the use of devices. Magic and illusion are often considered to be the same thing.

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Illusion is something that looks or seems different from what it is, something that is false but seems to be real. Illusion creates a false image in the mind of something that does not exist in reality. It is a false impression caused by the trick of sight and sound. Mirage is a perfect example of an illusion. It is the mind of a person that is tricked into believing something that is not real. Optical illusions and magic tricks shown by a magician are few examples of illusion. We know that the trick the magician is doing is not possible but he or she creates an illusion and that looks real.

I propose that life is an illusion of sorts. Sometimes we think we see or hear something based on our perception of the situation and we convince ourselves over and over again that the way we see it, our perception, is reality. Our mind is easily tricked into believing something that may not be real. We then create further stories in our mind to justify this reality and our brain looks for additional examples to help support the story.

Social media complicates our view of reality. Perceptions are created based on carefully crafted messages and images that cause us with limited amounts of information to form realities, most of which are truly just illusions. 

Text messages can also be easily misconstrued without the benefit of hearing tone and seeing body language, causing us to create an illusion as to what we are seeing and hearing in our head. Something that is false, but appears real based on the made up stories in our head. 

In the post a few weeks ago, I shared with you the idea of asking yourself the question…“The story I am telling myself is...", this week I invite you to also consider adding the question…“The illusion I am creating is…”. Being aware and challenging the stories and illusions that we are moment by moment creating, believing, and causing to be our reality can be difficult and yet liberating. It can help us get out from underneath the binds that fear and our perceptions create.
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Faith

7/2/2019

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Do you have faith? If asked about faith, I think most people would say it has to do with religion and your faith in God. It can also mean faith, belief and trust in yourself, others, the universe, etc. If we don't have faith, what do we have? It seems like it would be a pretty desolate life, and state of being, if we were absent of faith. 

In the bible, in Matthew 17:20, it states..."Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Here is another way to look at faith from Hebrews !!:1, "
Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. If you have faith then you have hope.

I believe that everything is more powerful when it starts with faith. The door is opened for the best things to occur when you let go of your fears and hesitations and just move forward with faith. This can be challenging to do. Faith takes practice, it's like a muscle that you can strengthen through practice.

Our faith can be tested when we experience hardships, illness, disappointment and loss. It's at these difficult times that we can either rely on our faith or turn from it. By holding onto our faith, its possible to see hard times as part of the journey and not as a punishment. Belief that everything happens for a reason. It's a belief that there's more to life than what's in this physical world. This concept can lead us into all kinds of related discussions about lessons, and karma, and the law of attraction, and about purpose and evolving. 

Faith is about trusting the journey. Believing that there's a greater plan. Within this plan there are lessons and choices. Faith is about being in a place of yes. Trusting your instincts, your intuition, and sense of knowing that what you believe will unfold. Faith is about letting go, surrendering control and fear and living in a place of trust.

Do you practice exercising your faith? I need to daily remind myself to have faith, to not live in a state of ego and to not relinquish to fear. Tools that help to keep strengthening my faith muscle include on-going learning and reminders through reading about and listening to others who are also practicing their faith, my meditation practice, sharing and teaching faith and other spiritual practices to others, and  by having the power of faith demonstrated to me on a regular basis. 

Since I've been more actively exercising my faith muscle, life just makes more sense. The challenges of life make more sense too. I'm better equipped to accept them, even if I don't like them, and know that it will all be okay. I'm better able to look at the challenge from all sides and determine why it's being presented to me and what lesson is in it for me. 

How do you exercise your faith muscle? What is your faith practice? How has faith enhanced your life? Have you experienced the power of faith? I would love to hear from you and learn about your faith journey. 

"Your belief determines your action and your action determines your results, but first you have to believe." Mark Victor Hansen
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