A safe harbor where beliefs are respected and kindness prevails.

How to Enjoy Your Personal Fuel Injectors

by

In Los Angeles, rush hour can more appropriately be called crush hour.  I have long since learned patience in the often gridlocked traffic; sometimes I feel like I can turn on the interior car light and get some work done, but I don’t.  Instead, I might blast the tunes and dance in my seat, often singing along, and sometimes at the top of my lungs.

I had to chuckle last Thanksgiving eve, though, as I slowly made my way home from work.  People were honking and cutting each other off, being in a mad rush to get wherever they were headed, perhaps the grocery store or home.  “How interesting,” I thought.  “Here we all are, getting ready to really dig in to the energy of gratitude, yet on the day before, we’re pummeling each other!”

It’s like if I complain about my life while waiting for a yoga class to start, or someone whispering about what another woman is wearing in the pew in front of her on Sunday morning, or being in a fist fight in the mall parking lot around holiday time.  By virtue of where we choose to spend our time, we can be even more mindful about how we will use that opportunity.  Many of us aren’t focused on self-improvement, but for those of us who are really intent on unlocking the door to living our greatest life, let’s be willing to deeper, starting right now!

What would it mean for you to invite gratitude into your life today?  Or compassion, or love?  Rather, to ask it differently, with things being exactly as-is, if you were to inject some gratitude, compassion or love, how would that enrich your life?  Might it help you shift your perspective, thus cutting yourself some slack?  If so, why wait for a holiday or someone else’s lead to do it?  The more you inject gratitude, compassion and love to yourself, the more energy and fuel you will have to set your heart and your life on fire!

The occasion to create each day more fabulously than the last is ever available.  How amazing would it be to incorporate compassion on a daily basis as if it were as automatic as brushing our teeth?  Or extending a helping hand to another without giving it a second thought?  Or even just letting someone merge into traffic without your blood pressure rising?  Do any of these resonate with you or does something else strike your fancy to incorporate more often?

So for today, tomorrow and each day thereafter, I wish you a deeper understanding and experience of clarity and abundance, as well as healing and love.  And if our paths cross on the roads of Los Angeles, I promise to be kind!

Everyday Thanksgiving: Create Habits of daily gratitude

by

Everyday Thanksgiving

“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.” Anthony Robbins

It’s that time of year again when we all start thinking of what we are grateful for. Since I was very young I have practiced waking up and falling asleep at night with a ‘thank you’ to LIFE (Spirit, Source, God, Divine). Most of the time my list of gratitude’s is significantly long. However, there are times that I can only mutter, “Thank you for another day – YES! I’m breathing!” These simple acts help me to realize my connection to everything, they help me stay tuned in to more than what is happening around me.

When you are lost, how can you begin living in gratitude?

That’s a big question. Many of us allow our circumstances to block us from seeing the good in our lives. We become so absorbed in the “situation” that we can’t see the light. Sometimes we might have to look a little harder than others because we tend to focus on what we don’t have instead of what we do have.

Create a habit of choosing to see things from a new perspective.

Developing daily habits of gratitude soon becomes our natural state of mind and raises our vibration, which opens our life up to more possibilities. Grateful people are happier people.

Action step 1: For one week, when you wake up in the morning, before you even put your feet on the ground, thank the Universe/God/Spirit/Source (whatever it is for you) and Mother Earth for the breath you take and another day to be here. Close your eyes and send joyful BLISSINGS to yourself, everyone and everything on the planet.

Action step 2: Practice living in gratitude by seeing what’s good, by paying attention to what’s working in your life. With regular practice, gratitude will begin to flow easily and effortlessly through you. Get yourself a notebook, something just for you and create a gratitude journal.  At the top of each page, write the date.  Every night for a week, before going to bed, Count YOUR BLISSINGS by writing down at least 3 actions.

What action are you thankful for?

Example: I’m thankful my son was home to feed the dogs since my meeting ran late.

What thing are you thankful to have.

Example: I’m thankful for the coffee pot and coffee that helps me wake up in the morning!

Who are you thankful for?

Example: My mom, for not stopping at 5 children!

At the end of a week you’ll have over 21 examples of gratitude’s in your own life. Recognize the small things at first: the breath, even if it’s labored (ok, that’s not so small), a sunny day even when it’s cold, a warm coat even if it has holes, or food on the table even if it’s only rice.

Action step 3: Choose a different letter of the alphabet and record everything you are grateful for that begins with that letter. Begin with the letter A.

OR write each letter on a piece of paper, fold it up and place it in a special bowl or sacred cup. Each day, reach in and grab a letter; again, write down everything you are grateful for that begins with that letter.

Focusing on gratitude takes your attention off of the lack or negativity in your life and puts the focus on what’s working, what’s positive and joyful.

 Remember, what we focus on multiplies, thus gratitude raises our vibration to our own place of joy.

Thanksgiving Anew

by

Fotolia_51963380_Subscription_Monthly_MIn the last year, my husband lost his last immediate family member. Most years, our Thanksgiving was spent with his parents or sister, and now they are all gone. For a moment, for this first year, that left an empty feeling in us about this holiday…usually so full of family sharing and catching up…and laughter…and good food.

We don’t have children so there is no connection there…and for many who do have children, they start to go off with their spouses families as time goes by…so that isn’t always an available connection that can be counted on.

At first I was sad as I have big emotional expectations for that particular day. It my childhood, it was always a very happy day with no punishment or arguing. It was good to process that not having immediate family to share it with was a real loss, a genuine grief. I started wracking my brain to think of ANYONE we could invite to spend Thanksgiving with us so I could fill my house with the smell of a roasting turkey. But there are some events that must be genuine and can’t be “recreated” with a new cast of characters. So, what to do.

My brother has been going to an in-law’s house for the last several years with a HUGE group of people we didn’t really know. That didn’t feel like something we wanted to do. Technically we are distant family, but that is not the same as being with people who you know, that you have spent years with.

Then it occurred to me that we could go to the local soup kitchen and serve food to the homeless. THAT felt awesome…genuine good feeling…not recreated feelings. I asked my husband and to my surprise he thought that was a good idea! So the energy shifted. The sadness had to be processed to make way for a new light, a new joy. fotolia_23798303_Subscription_L

I think at this holiday time of year it is important to be honest with ourselves so we can move on to a new experience. If it makes you sad, then be honest with yourself about it, then let it go, and think of something NEW to do for this holiday that would make YOU feel good. The idea of serving people who needed a meal felt very, very good.

As it turns out, my brother is going to have Thanksgiving at his house this year, so we have a place to go after all. But even if we hadn’t had that offer, we were ready for a NEW Thanksgiving. Also I happened to see a cooking show about roasting just a turkey breast with gobs of herbed butter under the skin, so I plan to do that the day after Thanksgiving so we can have left over turkey…the BEST turkey!

The important thing about this special day is to be thankful for what ever we have in our lives. It may even be less that what we used to have, or more. But being in a state of gratitude, no matter where you have your meal, or with whom you have it, is really what this day is about…and it feels awesome. Enjoy!

Feedback