I focused on what was working and did more of it

Posted by admin in Blog (Weekly), Blogs

Jan
9

I immediately started to journal and the word CELEBRATE came to mind. I was led to ask myself some questions. Why is it easier sometimes to see and celebrate others’ success? Do I celebrate myself and what I have accomplished in my life? Do I celebrate my gifts and talents? Have I made a difference in the world and in the lives of others? Am I happy with the way I “show up” in the world or do I compare myself and not feel good enough or that I haven’t done enough? For many years, my pattern was to compare myself and therefore, never felt like I was good enough. Because I didn’t know how to celebrate my accomplishments, I just kept pushing myself to do and be MORE.

Today I am celebrating myself because I have learned to be my own best friend and my own cheerleader. I celebrate myself when I spend quiet time with myself and give myself whatever it is that I need. I am celebrating who I have become and am becoming. I know that I am responsible for my own happiness and well- being and I don’t expect others to make me happy. That is an inside job. I celebrate myself by treating myself the way that I would treat my child, spouse, partner or best friend. I know that I deserve the best that life has to offer and that I have so much to contribute to the world.

I felt grateful as I reflected on this past year and what I have accomplished and what I was proud of. Those old behaviors and patterns of comparing me to others, feeling inadequate and not good enough had decreased. I felt happy for the ways I “showed up” to follow my heart and go within. I’ve had opportunities to forgive and not judge, as well as to let go of my controlling behaviors and accept “what is”.

As we begin a new year, many of us make resolutions (and rarely keep them) and we FOCUS on what needs to be changed in us, where we need to grow and what we need to do differently to manifest what we want. Of course, there will always be things we want to do differently and strive to be better at. I want to drink more water and exercise more and that is good.

Instead of FOCUSING on what I wanted to change and fix in my life, I decided to FOCUS on what IS WORKING in my life and what brings me joy and peace. I then made a conscious decision to do more of that. There are so many things that are working for me, but learning to love, appreciate and accept myself is the best decision I have ever made in my life. As I love and appreciate myself more deeply, I am then capable of loving others the way I want to. Every night before I fall asleep I have an “appreciation practice” where I mentally review the day and all the things that I appreciate about myself for that day.

Another way I love myself is to ACCEPT everything that comes into my life, especially when it looks like a problem or a challenge. I try not to see it as a problem, but rather as an opportunity to grow and that there is a gift if I am willing to see it. I trust that if it “shows up”, I have attracted it into my life for my highest good. I love myself when I allow myself to feel all of my feelings and not judge them to be bad or wrong because I know to “feel is to heal.” I love myself when I am honest and authentic with what I say and do.

As the New Year begins, I invite and encourage you to FOCUS on what is working in your life and to do more of that. I encourage you to CELEBRATE your accomplishments and successes. Celebrating increases your capacity for joy. When we take time to celebrate ourselves, we teach our brains to be on the lookout for where we have done things right. It keeps us focused on the positive parts of our lives and what we focus on expands, it starts to enhance our sense of happiness and rightness with the world.

“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” — Oprah Winfrey

Larry

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I am confident that the New Year will offer plenty of opportunities and surprises for all of us. As I was walking this morning I became conscious of all the incredible beauty surrounding me. The air was filled with the chatter and song of a thousand birds. The incredibly beautiful flowers in every color of the rainbow and the majestic trees swaying in the breeze seemed to reach out to me longing for recognition. How could I not recognize them because their beauty filled my heart with joy? WOW! What a way to start the day, filled with gratitude and joy. I believe this is the energy and light of love, showing me that we are all connected: flowers, trees, birds, sky and ocean. When I take the time to be conscious of everything around me, I am overwhelmed with gratitude and joy.

How patient LOVE is as we go about our lives and aren’t aware of the beautiful gifts around us that are continuously offered to us every day. LOVE persists, not taking the gifts away but saying “I will wait until you are ready to accept them, no worries. It’s my pleasure to wait for you to open the eyes of your heart to receive my creations.”

As we begin our new year and continue on our journey of faith I wish you Love, Joy, Persistence, Patience, Consciousness and Light Filled Energy.

LOVE – My wish for you is to be more open to love, which I think is the most powerful energy known to humankind. Love is offered unconditionally so we don’t have to earn it or deserve it. Love is a gift freely given and is continuously seeking us. The only requirement is that we accept and open our hearts to RECEIVE the incredible gift that is offered.

JOY – I wish for everyone the experience of ecstatic joy through practicing and living in gratitude. When we are able to recognize the many gifts we receive each day, we will experience joy. When we are grateful regardless of what is happening in our lives, we will feel joy. It is because we know and trust that love will see us through when we open our hearts to love’s presence.

PERSISTENCE – I wish for you grace. In Gary Zukov’s book, “Seat of the Soul” he describes grace as “Uncontaminated Conscious Light.” We need to persist in difficult times when we feel weak and helpless. We need to have faith and to know that whatever is happening is for our highest good and that grace will see us through.

PATIENCE – My wish for you is that you are patient with God and yourself (who and where you are in life) concentrating on the positives rather than the negatives and what’s missing. God doesn’t have a clock or calendar and God’s timing is sometimes different than ours. Patience gives us an opportunity to grow and become better vessels of love.

CONSCIOUSNESS – My wish is that we all ask Spirit to help us become more conscious of who we are, who God is and who we (God and us) are together. We cannot allow fear to control our lives and we need to always remember that we have a choice to choose fear or LOVE.

LIGHT FILLED ENERGY – I wish that wherever our journey takes us this year that we travel with our hearts filled with the light and energy of LOVE.