The Power of Quotes

One day I decided I wanted to write a book.  Then, I decided it was too many words and all the most profound words had already been said, so I decided not to (and if you know me personally, you're laughing right now because you know how often I come up with these 'brilliant' ideas that are squashed a minute later). 

I am a short attention span kind of girl, so quotes are something that I am immediately able to connect to.  I 'digest' a handful of quotes a day and keep a quote journal.  Every time I go through it again, I am re-inspired by the words or humbled by the message….either way, it's good for my soul.  So many sayings I had been hearing and repeating throughout my life were profound in their simplicity and would have saved me a whole lot of time on this journey…if only I had taken some time to really take them more seriously.  

I thought that I would share 3 very short and simple quotes in this issue….if you spend some time really contemplating and connecting to them, then I'm happy. If you leave this article with a little more hope and a renewed desire to make the World a better place as a result, then I'm THRILLED. We are overwhelmed with words and words and words daily, so I'm keeping it short and sweet this time. Let's never underestimate the power and impact of a simple quote…as Leonardo da Vinci said "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

"Be the change you wish to see in the World." 

- Mahatma Ghandi

Are you an example of the person you wish your fellow man to be? Are you doing the things you want to see done in the World? Are you treating others the way you would want to be treated? 

"Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination." 

- Roy M. Goodman

When you allow yourself to fall into the trap of negativity, have you noticed that your day gets worse and worse? What happens when rise above the challenges and look to the positive? The power of looking at things with different eyes...

"My life is my message." 

- Ghandi

One day, it will be your last. When you look back on your life, do you smile? Did you live the life you wanted to live? Or did you live someone else's life? Did you follow your heart?

I know you've heard this all before, but think about it again…and again…and again….hoping you have a beauuuuutiful day!

Are You Paying Regular Visits to Yourself?

                                                 

                                                            

In my work as an Intuitive Consultant and Life Stylist, I often prescribe this to my clients…the importance of taking time to reconnect in silence with yourself. The answer I receive is often the same. "I know, I know. It's important for me to take time for myself! I will."  Unfortunately, many of them don't take this route as a first choice. Why?

It's ironic. We all claim to want peace and quiet, yet it seems that we find it easier and more comfortable to focus on "busy-ness" in our lives. When life has us feeling a bit overwhelmed, we go for the quick and easy fix…'outside things.' Shopping, snacking, watching reality tv…whatever. These things make us feel better instantly, but their therapeutic affect wears off as soon as we walk out of the store, finish that bag of chips, or turn the tv off. None of these fixes helped us; we simply distracted ourselves with a different "busy-ness." The end result? The same cluttered state of mind and the same to-do lists. 

Paying regular visits to yourself (i.e. "getting centered") is crucial to our authentic health, well-being and quality of life. In the past, when I would speak about my challenges in dealing with daily stress, many people suggested meditation. I'm amazed at how many people suggest this….but don't actually DO it themselves. Meditation is amazing and so powerful, but there are very few people living in my world for whom it is natural or easy! As I write about this, I am reminded of a scene in the movie "Eat Pray Love." Julia Roberts is sitting in the meditation chamber at an ashram in India, determined to clear her mind. Her mind wanders and she begins planning and visualizing how to decorate her own mediation room at home. "Stop that!" she says to herself "Clear your mind." Ok, she is back in peace and harmony. But just for a moment. A buzzing fly begins to irritate her. She peeks at the clock. She's only been sitting there for a minute. ARGH! 

My suggestion is this. Start with baby steps; an introduction into meditation…through simple meditative activities. It worked for me. I can't begin to express to you how powerfully centering it is for me to take an hour walk 3-4 times a week! Something so simple was my only link to sanity at times! Walking is vital to my peace of mind and, when I am unable to take regular walks, I see the impact it has on my ability to handle daily stress. It's not pretty! So here's my simple suggestion…and it's excruciatingly easy…you just have to make the time to do it. Do an activity, any activity, that is simple and natural for you….one that you can do almost without thinking and one that you enjoy doing. I love to walk…I can walk and walk and walk for hours! Some people like to garden, wash their cars or clean their bathrooms….do what is easy and enjoyable for you. This activity should take place in a relatively peaceful, quiet setting and, in the beginning, you should perform this activity for 1-2 hours every time you do it. Why so long? Because, in the beginning, it will take a more time for your mind to stop swirling with thoughts before it gets into the eventual "Zen-like" state we're shooting for. You'll know when you get it. I think all of us have had moments of Zen moments in our life. Remember what it feels like? You are doing something peaceful and easy, flowing with it, not thinking about any one thing and, all of a sudden, you are at peace…no worries….completely in the moment of what you are doing….totally calm and flowing easily. Ahhhhhh…now that's a Zen moment!

After you finish your activity, sit for a minute and take a moment to reflect before jumping immediately back into your life. Try to retain the same mindset you had when you were in your Zen moment. This is important because it allows you to transition back into your life; kind of like merging back onto a freeway smoothly. As you continue on in your day, you will probably notice that there is a different energy surrounding you. You are less easily caught up in the things swirling around in your life. Affectionately, I call this being the "Eye of the Storm" and THAT is the goal of paying regular visits to yourself; the ability to see all the things happening around you and handling each smoothly, peacefully and gracefully. It's a beautiful thing when we can flow with life and not attach to reactive feelings of drama, anxiety and angst! 

If the simple exercise I explained works for you, do it……and keep doing it. The more you do it, the better you get at it and the faster you get to that "Zen-like" centered feeling. This is just a start, but it may awaken a desire within you to take more steps in this direction…especially when you see what an amazing impact it has on your daily life! One step at a time…

Mirror Mirror - Are YOU Someone That You Would Like to Meet?

It was a few years ago. I was single and back in the dating game….and, oh, what a hot mess the dating game had become since I was last in it. It seemed like everyone was playing a role and it was nearly impossible to figure what was real and what was not. I certainly didn't want to make the same mistakes I had made in the past and I was looking for true love in my life this time. Why couldn't I meet the right person?!  What was wrong with me?! Something had to change. 

And then, I saw it. A little statement that kicked me in the gut: BE SOMEONE YOU WOULD WANT TO MEET.

Literally, in a moment, it changed everything for me. I stopped sulking and whining about why I wasn't drawing the right people and situations into my life. I was slapped in the face with the truth….change had to start with ME. What do we look for in a love partner? Someone that we have lots in common with and, often, lots of qualities we admire and aspire to. The person I was wishing to meet was the person that I wanted to be!  It was time for me to look at myself in the mirror and figure out if I loved the person that looked back at me. A lot had happened to me over the years (as happens to all of us) and I had adapted, changed, adjusted, evolved, mutated into a compilation of real me mixed with a lot of make-the-world-happy me. How could I expect to find a certain type of person if I wasn't that caliber of person myself? I wasn't looking for a free ride…I wanted a partnership and that involved having something of value to bring to the table….a 100% authentic ME.

I see people all the time….I'm sure you have seen it too. Trying to be something they are not. Trying to make themselves something they think will appeal to others. People playing the game. WHY?! Are we winners when we trick another person into thinking we're something we are not?! Seemed to me that we have two losers in a situation like that. 

So, I stopped looking for Mr. Right and started a new mission…to make myself right! I was on a mission to find in myself a person I would want to meet.  Anytime and anywhere, when faced with a challenging situation where I was tempted to act or speak in a certain way, I would ask myself first, "What would I think of myself if I stepped outside of my body and saw myself doing/saying that?" The answer always ended up being the "right" thing to do…it was respectful of others and myself. Now, let me be very clear. This process was not about me becoming someone else….it was about becoming the me I had always been, but had buried over the years for fear of being criticized, hurt or judged.  The statement "BE SOMEONE YOU WOULD WANT TO MEET" immediately connected me with what was right for me to do based on qualities I value. It wasn't always easy…but it always felt right. 

I realized that it was never primarily about finding someone else with certain desirable qualities…it was about re-discovering those qualities in myself. I did the hard work and I was now someone I was proud to look in the mirror at again. I still wanted to have a special love, but there was no rush to fill any void with something or someone outside of myself.

Guess what happened next? When I least expected it and was no longer dwelling on it…magic! While hiking up a mountain trail alone one March day, sweaty and with no makeup, I suddenly found myself trudging alongside a very dashing and handsome man, quietly and purposefully climbing just like me. There were no pickup lines and witty comments….just two people struggling to get up the hill at their own paces (which happened to be almost the same). At the top of the mountain, we took a moment to savor our accomplishment and started talking….it was the beginning of something very special for me. My dream….I met the man that is the love of my life. I did the work, he did the work, we are both people that we would like to meet and we got our own little beautiful fairytale. It really happens…. 

Adventuring Outside of Your Comfort Zone

It's hard to tell when my Spiritual Journey began. I tell others that my awareness of my Spiritual Journey began a few years ago.  A lot of things were the catalyst at that time but, mostly, I think it was the feeling that I had 'settled' in too many areas of my life…not to mention that I could no longer ignore the gaping hole in me that felt like something important was missing. An old friend told me that I said to her one day, very seriously, "I'm going on a Spiritual Journey."  Although words like that sounded nothing at all like me, she insisted. So, the drama queen in me has decided to mark that moment as the beginning of my search for purpose and meaning in my life…i.e. something to fill that gaping hole. I wanted to feel blissfully ALIVE again.

My adventure began gently by exploring anything that fascinated me and that I would have normally felt uncomfortable about. I spent a lot of time in centers for alternative thinking and "New Age" gathering places. In the beginning, it was overwhelming (and a little weird), to say the least.  There seemed to be such a huge gap between living 'of this world' with a normal job, friends and a little mainstream religion to top it off  vs. delving head first into the vast sea of Spirituality.  I was scared! Everyone in this alternative world seemed over the top and, dare I say, a bit out there.  Was I really ready to live off the grid? At first, I was cautious…fearful of getting sucked in and losing all that I was familiar with. However, I stubbornly refused to let my fears create judgments about things I had yet to experience myself and proceeded to set forth walking at the edge of the 'Spirituality shoreline', gingerly dipping my feet in and spending time learning about anything that struck my interest. Slowly and quietly, a hunger in me grew and I began to immerse myself more deeply in the exploration of more new perspectives. This may not be a big deal to many people, but I felt wild and free! I felt empowered and proud of this little bubble-gum, jimmy-rigged spiritual mission I had embarked on…all in the pursuit of discovering my life purpose and, ultimately, how to fill that empty space I had been carrying around within myself for the last 15 years. 

Let me tell you, I explored everything and anything! Cutting-edge, radical new perspectives and long-standing beliefs. All the while, my daily mantra was a quote from Buddha- 

"Believe NOTHING, 

no matter where you read it 

or who has said it, 

not even if I have said it, 

unless it agrees with 

your own reason and 

your own common sense." 

-Buddha

That being said, the entire World was now open to me - there was NOTHING taboo!  I explored Hare Krishna, Buddhism, yoga and yogis, tarot cards, meditation, Wicca, the Bible, energy healing, frequency of stones, the Tao, the law of manifestation, life after death, pendulum, aromatherapy, acupuncture, ionic, magnetic…..anything and everything that sparked an interest in me. It was beautiful and enlightening. So many outlooks wrapped in a variety of colorful words and interesting packages….who was I to say what was right or wrong?! In this buffet of information, I served myself a meal of everything that peaked my curiosity! It was the most satisfying 'meal' of my life.  I started to watch sunsets, sunrises, birds flying, clouds breaking, grass growing, people living……all with new eyes. Different books started to interest me…Louise L. Hay, Doreen Virtue, Don Miguel Ruiz, Paulo Coelho and even Chelsea Handler! When I ceased judgement of what was right and wrong, important and unimportant, I found a little lesson in everything and started to form MY TRUTH, based on things that resonated deeply with me.   

As someone who has taken my first leap to explore new frontiers of Spirituality, I have a few suggestions for those of you that have decided to embark on your own journey to reconnect with yourselves and find your Truth:

1. Take time alone in peaceful silence and reconnect with nature regularly.

2. Explore things that are oddly intriguing to you or that you know you have irrational fears about…gently expanding your boundaries.

3. Select three priorities in your life and 'feed' each of those things daily. For example, if your health is a priority, exercise 30 minutes a day. Maintaining priorities in your life helps you to maintain your balance.

4. Follow your heart. Our minds are important, but they will always keep you in your 'safe zone'. Nothing revolutionary is revealed in our comfort zones. Do what makes your heart sing! 

5. Seek a person that you can relate to who is already on this journey, a spiritual mentor of sorts. After all, this new adventure can seem overwhelming at first. Be sure that you feel comfortable and supported by this person, rather than directed to be on a specific course. You are not looking for someone to put you on their path, but to offer you assistance as you begin to blaze your own trail.

If you're feeling a 'void', chances are good it's not going to be filled with anything you're doing now. Consider the option of adventuring outside of your comfort zone, in little ways (or big)…it may reconnect you with all the amazing things you are capable of! In my personal adventure, going through experiences which challenged my boundaries made me see a strength, courage and passion I didn't think I had anymore….and this was my key to filling my void.  Dare to open yourself up to a magical World and find your key.