“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”  Benjamin Franklin

I was feeling a bit stuck recently when I remembered that everything is energy.  When I am sitting in the same place, doing the same things, I realized there is very little movement of energy.  New ideas are not flowing to me, old thoughts are not escaping. I am sitting in one place, allowing the energy to become stagnant.  No wonder I felt stuck.

I have written before about Shakin’ Things Up.  If we do the same things day in and day out,  if we sit in one place (literally or figuratively) our energy moves very little.  Doing one little thing a bit differently creates a bigger flow of energy.  We take more in.  We observe new things.  We release old thoughts and patterns.  This greater energy flow does wonders for us.  We get ‘unstuck’.

I made a conscious effort to move my energy in a different way.  I wasn’t making radical changes, just simply mixing up the rhythm of my life a bit.  I was a little more conscious about what I was choosing.  I did simple things like exercise in the morning as opposed to the afternoon.  I made lunch earlier in the day so it was ready in advance and I parked in a different place and walked a different route while doing my errands.  These are not radical changes by any means, but they did get the energy flowing a little differently and later I found I was not only more energized, but I also felt more productive and  inspired.

I encourage you to do something a little different today.  Change your schedule, the route you normally take, push yourself to do something a little out of the ordinary and see what kind of energy change you notice.

“I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation.  It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from and Old Manse

This quote will have more meaning when you read my guest blog post this week at Infinite Learners.

It’s a great reminder to follow through and make our dreams happen.

Enjoy!

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” – Marianne Williamson

This is my all-time favorite quote.  I have decided to use it today because it is Summer Solstice; the longest day of the year.  And if there was ever a day to decide to really let our light shine, a day to really make a choice to manifest the glory within us…the longest day of the year seems most appropriate.

We all have unique and beautiful gifts to offer the world.  We all have our own different ideas, skills and talents that offer something important to ourselves, our families, our communities and our world.  Are you embracing yours?

Some of us have forgotten our unique gifts or tried hard to push them out of our minds.  Others of us have been told we aren’t good enough, we won’t make it, we are just dreaming if we think we could actually have all we want.  And some just feel scared to take the risk and embrace what our hearts are calling us to do. 

But I’m here to cheer you on.  I’m here to say, “Go for it!’  Whatever it is your heart is calling you to do.  You can do it.  You are good enough.  You are worth it!   

This past year has been filled with growth for me.  I”ve been pushing myself beyond my comfort zone.  I’ve been stretching myself and realizing another new adventure is unfolding in my life.  Sometimes it feels scary.  Some days I would like to retreat back to the comfort that I have lived in for the past few years;  not because it is really all that comfortable anymore, but it’s what I know and something in that ‘knowing’ feels safe.  But every time I feel that way, I realize, it is not longer comfortable either.  I was ready to move forward, I was ready to learn more and grow and that’s why I embarked on a new path.  And when I do feel that fear I push myself through it and inevitably reach another moment where I absolutely know I am on the right path and cannot imagine my life any other way.

It is the longest day of the year.  Use this day of light to rekindle your own light.  Use the most daylight hours possible to place yourself on the path you most want to be on.  Dream a little dream.  Take a little action.  Move a little closer to the dream your heart is calling you to live.

You can do it!  Go for it!  Let your light shine!!!

“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.”   Henry Ward Beecher

Gratitude is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves and each other.  Gratitude helps lighten our load, re-focuses our attention and reminds us of all the good in our lives and on this planet.

Today I am feeling the deepest gratitude for so many things…but most of all for the people in my life who have been supporting and voting for me in “The Next Top Spiritual Author” contest.  I am grateful for every person who took the time to watch my video, register and vote for me and my book.  Today I learned, I am one of the 250 authors moving on to Round 2 and I am ecstatic for the opportunity.

I wrote a list of blessings yesterday, focusing on all the things I’ve gained in this competition thus far.  I had an incredibly powerful moment a few weeks ago.  I was driving down the highway and began thinking about all the people who had been telling me they voted for me, passed the link along to others and offered positive feedback.  I suddenly realized how many people were taking time out of their day to support me and I was overwhelmed with gratitude.  I am deeply moved by the love and support I have been receiving and appreciate everyone making the effort to support my dream.

I acknowledge that feeling gratitude is easier when things are working well in our lives.  I know in times of darkness, I don’t often think to count my blessings, but every time I do, it helps lessen the burdens I feel I am carrying and restores my hope and faith.

I encourage you to spend some time every day this week, writing or thinking about everything you have to be grateful for in your life.  I know you’ll find the results to be very rewarding.

Thank you to everyone who has been supporting me.  I cannot tell you how deeply I appreciate your support and encouragement.

“When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.”  William Arthur Ward

Talk about win-win! 

I know this to be true and have done it many times myself.  I cannot even count the times my life has changed and I’ve felt so much better just by focusing on the good I see in others…and conversely, how I can see more good in others when I’ve been focusing on being the best I can be. 

One of my favorite things to do is help bring out the best in people.  I make an effort to really connect with people as often as I can, point out their strengths or share with them what I like or admire most about them.  It makes sense that focusing on the good in someone else would also come back and benefit me.

We all struggle with our own insecurities and fears.  Sometimes, it’s harder for me to focus on myself and my own strengths as a way to feel better about who I am.  But, when I focus on the strengths of those around me or find a way to really be there for them, it’s easy.  What a great way to help me increase my feelings of confidence and happiness…and hopefully, positively impact someone else too!

I love doing this in my relationship.  I know when I start to focus on all the things I love about my partner, I start to feel better about who I am too.  And when I look for my children’s gifts and strengths, I can’t help but feel more confident. The more I spend time seeing the best in those closest to me, the better things appear to be. 

I make a regular habit of writing the things I love most about the people in my life and often share those thoughts with them and others. Every person has good in them, every person has something of value and something worthy of acknowledgement.  The more we look for good things in people, the more good things we find. 

I encourage you to take some time to look for all the good things in those around you.  It’s true that we can only see in others what we can see in ourselves…so after you make your list, take time to look at it and realize it’s as much about you as it is about them.

“The human need to play is a powerful one.  When we ignore it, we feel there is something missing in our lives.”  Leo Buscaglia

When we make time to replenish and recharge ourselves, we find we have far more to give, yet in our culture, we believe that time is money and if we aren’t working or doing productive things we are wasting time. 

It is important to our well-being to make a little time to play, relax, treat ourselves or enjoy something simply for the pleasure of enjoyment.   People often respond that they don’t have time, but the truth is, you don’t have time NOT to play.

Doing something just for the pure fun of it sets us free.  It lightens our spirits, allows us time to just be and for the moment allows our burdens to just fade away.  We know that laughter is good for the soul and when we are laughing and having fun, we are adding value to our life.  When I make time to play and have fun, I am far more creative, productive and energized.  I am happier in my relationships, more willing to help out and have more energy and surprisingly, more time to commit to things.

When I am scheduling fun and play in my life, I feel like I’m really living.  I find I’m not only more present in the moments of fun, but I carry that forward when I go back to my other responsibilities too.  And when I’m not making time for play, it often becomes the precursor to me feeling tired, unproductive or sick.

It is important to make time for play in our lives.  It nurtures us in a deeply profound way.  But, even in times when it just doesn’t seem possible, we can choose to ‘play’ even in the midst of our most intense tasks.  We can find some little way to delight our heart, smile to ourselves or do something that feels a little playful in any task we have to do.  Anything that makes things feel a little easier, a little more joyful, a little more fun will be of benefit to you.

I strongly encourage you to look for ways to incorporate play into your day today…whether you can schedule something fun just for the fun of it, or find  a way to make a task a little more playful.  Enjoy & have fun!

“A snowflake is one of God’s most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together!”  ~Author Unknown

I’ve written before about the importance of being connected, in my post about community.  I’ve recently been reminded about the power that comes from people working with each other instead of against one another.

I feel honoured to be part of another incredible community.  I wrote in this blog that I’m in a contest called, “The Next Top Spiritual Author.”  And what has transpired over the past few weeks has been a very powerful experience.

I have found my way to other like-minded individuals in the competition who are working together to the benefit of everyone.  We are all in a competition and want to win, however, there is a bigger, more powerful sense that if we work together, many books will get published, many of us will have larger audiences to market to and many of us will ‘win’ from this experience.  Authors are voting for other authors, authors are helping promote each other and providing experiences like online-radio interviews to everyone’s benefit.  I will be interviewed on fellow author, Tambra Harck’s Online Radio Program on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 and 10:00 MST.

I’ve been thinking about competition vs. cooperation and realized that it really comes down to scarcity vs. abundance.  When we’re working cooperatively, we have a sense of trust and faith that everyone is going to benefit.  In this group, there is a shared knowing that our ideas will all find a way out into the world, regardless of our placing in the contest.  And there is an overwhelming belief that there is more than enough success for everyone.  We are feeling great ABUNDANCE!!!

When we go into something in the spirit of scarcity, we feel we must overtake others to get the prize.  But, when we enter something in abundance, we KNOW we will all succeed in our own way.

I love too, how everyone sees beyond the assigned prize.  My fellow authors and I often talk about the tremendous benefits we’ve already received and many of us can see there are more opportunities here for us than just the first place finish.  It is exciting to collaborate with one another and work to help everyone.

I have felt grateful everyday since this contest began realizing all I’ve learned.  I’m enjoying the new people I’m connecting with, the opportunity to re-connect with people I haven’t talked to in a while.  And I am overwhelmed by the tremendous love and support I’ve gotten from people I love and some who have never met me.

I encourage you to look at things in your own life and see if there are ways you can let go of the scarcity of competition and increase your abundance through cooperation.  There is great wisdom in the idea that two are more powerful than one.

“However good or bad you feel about your relationship, the person you are with at this moment is the “right” person, because he or she is the mirror of who you are inside.”   — Deepak Chopra

Reflection or mirroring is one of the greatest gifts we can ever receive in our relationships.

When we are loving and loved, when things feel good, we feel good.  We think this is what makes a great relationship.  It is definitely part of a great relationship and it works really well when things are working well, but when they aren’t it quickly falls apart.  When our partner says or does something that hurts us, we are quick to look to them and blame them.   We choose to feel hurt by them and what they’ve done and we want them to change so it feels better.

We have forgotten there is a natural balance of things in life.   There will be times of great love just like there will be times of struggle.  The struggle part doesn’t feel good, so we want to change it as quickly as we can.  Most often the fastest and easiest way to do that is to look to our partner as the cause and get them to change what they’re doing, but it’s only temporary.  But, as I’ve written before, our partner is neither the cause nor the cure…both of those come from within.

This is why our partner’s gift of reflection is so powerful.  When we come together with others, they inevitably show us what we’re feeling inside.  When we feeling happy and loving, we find people around us who are happy and loving and we don’t even remember anyone who wasn’t.  When we are struggling with our insecurities, we find challenges in our interactions throughout our day.  Our partner is often our greatest reflector because they are the person who knows us best and is closest to us.  They are the ones who are able to show us the deepest reflection of what we are feeling about ourselves and life.

This is a gift because when we are aware this is happening, we can find the truth and heal the hurt.  Many of us aren’t tuned in enough to ourselves to recognize when we start to feel bad about ourselves.  When we miss these internal cues, we find ourselves in situations and interactions with others, creating a bigger cue for us to get.  If we aren’t aware it is a reflection, we blame the other person and try to change them or get away from them to feel better.  But if we are aware it’s a reflection, we can recognize it as a gift…the gift of being able to know that it’s about us and look within to fix it.

When our partner says or does something that doesn’t feel good, instead of getting upset (or perhaps after we’ve gotten upset) we can take a moment and realize they are really giving us a gift.  We would not be upset about what they have said or done if there wasn’t something for us to see or learn.   They have only been a mirror, providing an opportunity for us to see what we really feel inside.  That is an incredibly loving and powerful gift.

I’m encouraging you to consider this in your relationships.  When someone does something that hurts you or bothers you, I’m asking you to take a step back and ask yourself what that person is mirroring to you and what you can heal in yourself.  When I am able to do this, I often feel like thanking the person because it truly is a gift.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you’ve imagined.”  – Henry David Thoreau

It was funny to see that my last blog post was about shakin’ things up a bit because a few days later, some big changes started occurring in my life!!! 

I’ve been writing about relationships for some time now and I was reviewing my writing wondering how I could focus my work and gain more clarity.

Within about a week of me thinking this, I received an email about an exciting competition, The Next Top Spiritual Author.  It’s been created by Robert Evans and James Twyman, who have obviously worked very hard to put this together and to their credit, have created something really extraordinary.

The contest is designed to go through the steps of getting a book published, with the grand prize being a published book, so this was a perfectly timed and exciting way for me to gain that focus and clarity.

The contest has now officially begun.  The first stage is creating a pitch for the book and inspiring others to vote for us.  My pitch can be found HERE.  And if you feel inspired, I’m asking you to please take the time to vote for me.

There are a lot of really wonderful authors in this competition.  We have been forming a community amongst ourselves, offering support and friendship to one another.  I’m feeling very blessed to be part of another exceptional community.

This experience has helped remind me of the importance of moving toward our dreams.  The size of our steps is of no consequence, all that matters is that we move.  There were times when the steps I was taking seemed so small and inconsequential, but now I see how each one led me to the place I am today.

I’m encouraging you to look at your life and celebrate yourself if you’re living the life you dream.  And, if it’s not quite what you want, find one small (or even tiny) thing you can do today to move in the direction of your dreams.

“A great thought begins by seeing something differently, with a shift of the mind’s eye.”  - Albert Einstein

It is easy for us to slip into auto-pilot mode when it comes to life because so much of our lives are tied to schedules and routines and it becomes easy to allow the flow of that to carry us from one day into the next.

But, every now and then, we feel that inner stirring to shake things up a bit.  That feeling seems to be in the air for me right now.  This week, I found myself changing my daily routine just a little, my friend wrote this post on her blog about putting on shoes to start her day, and my nearest and dearest decided to step outside the box yesterday and did things a little differently than usual.  What each of us found was that in the act of making a small change, we ended up feeling a big impact.

What I love is that it feels exciting, creative and fun.  I’m feeling more energized and inspired.  In shaking things up a bit, I’m seeing things differently, my curiosity is piqued and the result is a whole new creative flow to coming into my life.  Things look different to me and as a result, things are changing.

Sometimes we hold back from making changes because we believe we have to make a big change. There are times when that may be required, but often, we can just tweak things a little and find the ripples to be far reaching.  We think that if we’re unhappy we have to do something big like quit or job or move, but just looking at things differently and making a minor adjustment can create the momentum we need to get us where we want to be.  The act of looking at it differently or doing something a little different, can easily set us forth on a whole new course.

Shaking things up can be simple as simple as taking a different route to work, making time for a coffee in a busy day, waking up ten minutes earlier, sitting in a different chair.  It can be stopping ourselves from an argument with a loved one, taking a moment to appreciate someone, treating someone as a surprise.  It can be anything because making small changes allows us to see things differently and experience new things.

I encourage you to experiment with this a little.  Find some small way to shake things up a bit in your routine and see what happens.