Relationships, Self-Care, Self-Fulfillment, Uncategorized
Tis’ the season for social get-togethers, spoiling your loved ones — and yourself – while appreciating all the blessings in your life.
As you mark your calendar for special celebrations and plan your holiday errands, you might want to consider how you can share your blessings with your community.
Giving back to your community is a meaningful way to celebrate the holidays. When you share your blessings, not only do you help others, you feel good about yourself and encourage elevated morale in your community.
The holidays are a time when well-established traditions are honored and new traditions are formed. So, why not encourage a tradition of altruism within your community? When one person does good, it has a ripple effect that inspires others to do the same.
Helping others and encouraging your community to share their own blessings is a tradition you’ll want to continue. What better way is there to find such an incredible sense of fulfillment year after year?
3 Simple ways to give back to your community
Connect
Connecting could be as simple as a smile or friendly greeting to someone you pass by each day. It’s easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of your day-to-day life and not show your appreciation for others. Many people lack connection in their life, so it could mean the world to someone if you mindfully take a moment this holiday season to have a friendly exchange.
Volunteer
There is an abundance of organizations that rely on volunteer assistance. If this idea appeals to you, check with a charity that resonates with you and lend a helping hand. No matter how much time you choose to give, you’ll be making a difference.
Perform acts of kindness
No act of kindness is too small, and each one can inspire someone to “pay it forward”. This means that your act of kindness can encourage the recipient to perform a kind action for someone else. One act of kindness not only can bring joy to the receiver, it can also encourage the community.
What to consider before giving
Prioritize yourself
Before stepping out into your community to give back and spread holiday cheer, acknowledge your own needs. It’s common to feel exhaustion and burnout at the end of the year. Devote time for self-care and rest so that providing for others isn’t a burden. When you feel like your best self, sharing your energy with others comes with greater ease.
Choose something you enjoy
Do you love animals? You might choose to volunteer at a shelter or walk your busy neighbor’s pet. Do you have a love for humanity? You might want to make care packages for the homeless or donate to a food bank. Do you love nature? Consider hosting a clean-up or joining a movement that is dedicated to improving the environment. When you choose something that holds value for you, you’ll enjoy it even more.
Fill a void
Take into consideration the unique makeup of your community. Is there an area that could use some attention and care? Doing something that directly supports your city can have a greater impact on your community as a whole. Seeing and experiencing these changes first hand can also bring you a wonderful sense of fulfillment.
This year, adopt a new holiday tradition and share your blessings with your community. You’ll find that giving back evokes kindness and encourages others to do the same.
Happy Holidays!
Relationships, Self-Care, Self-Fulfillment, Self-Love, Uncategorized
What feelings arise when someone is inconsiderate of you?
Anger, frustration, resentment, hurt, unworthiness… It’s valid to feel these emotions, yet how do they impact your well-being?
Unhealthy emotions sap your energy, affecting your focus and drive. As a busy high-achieving woman, you can’t afford to let disagreements get the better of you. Yet you’re also human, so it may be difficult to ignore the pain that can accompany a seemingly unjustified action. You may repeatedly replay the situation in your mind, stirring up even more disturbing thoughts, which can result in emotional exhaustion.
So, how can you relinquish these energy-draining thoughts and emotions?
When someone’s actions hurt you, you only debilitate yourself further by holding on to pain and anger. Practicing forgiveness can help relieve recurring negative thoughts and unhealthy emotions. Forgiveness is a choice, a conscious and deliberate decision to release feelings of anger and resentment. To forgive doesn’t necessarily mean to forget, it means to accept and surrender the emotional charge experienced from the situation.
When you choose forgiveness, rather than holding on to the past, your mind stays open to the positive possibilities of what could happen in the future. By forgiving, you reclaim your power and effectiveness.
If you’re struggling to let go of unhealthy emotions triggered by another person’s actions, here are some ways to help you forgive others and reclaim your power.
3 Strategies for reclaiming your power when you feel hurt
Shift your perspective
When a person’s actions feel designed to deliberately offend you or just don’t make sense, it can help to put yourself in their shoes. Although their act presented itself as harmful to you, it may have been a difficult, but necessary, decision for them. When you are able to shift your perspective, it can make it easier to understand where the other person is coming from.
Look for the positive lesson
When you reflect on your feelings about another’s action, you may learn something about yourself that can be applied to future relationships. One of the best ways to learn in life is through experience. The learning may be around how you reacted or it may be an awareness of boundaries that you wish to set for yourself and your relationships. Whatever the case, by consciously looking for a positive lesson, you support your future self.
Trust the Divine
Divine timing means that when you’re connected and in alignment with the universe, things will happen at the moment destined. You may have heard the saying, “Everything happens for a reason”. This adage empowers acceptance that what can seem negative now may eventually lead to a positive outcome. In my previous article, The Art of Receiving: Spiritual Connection, I talk about how to strengthen your connection with the universe. By practicing spirituality and accepting the concept of universal intelligence, you expand your perception of divine timing. Then moments of frustration can appear less bothersome and you’ll be able to forgive more easily.
Don’t let another’s actions impact your focus and drive. Release any resentment and unhealthy emotions and reclaim your power. Practice forgiveness today for a more joyful tomorrow.
Uncategorized
Do you beat yourself up over your actions?
Are you living in the past because of regrets?
If so, you can set yourself free with forgiveness. Believe it or not, forgiveness is essential to your growth. And although you may be aware that it is healthy to forgive others, you may not recognize how crucial it is to forgive yourself.
As a high-achieving woman, there are many decisions you make – from career to family to personal priority and more. At times, you may find yourself wishing you could turn back the clock and do something differently. And when a choice comes with regret, it can be difficult to move forward.
Forgiving yourself sets you free from debilitating regret and allows you to focus on the here and now. You can learn from your decisions, no matter the outcome. And when you forgive yourself, your personal awareness and self-acceptance grow.
Learn to forgive yourself for
Momentary chaos
Stress can often cause unpredictable behavior. When you’re under pressure, it’s natural to react out of character and say or do something that you might regret later. This “stress response” or “flight-or-fight” can be triggered in a moment of chaos. Yet, how you react at that moment doesn’t define you. So, the next time you are reactive under pressure, apologize to yourself for the lapse and focus on developing greater awareness of your reactions in the future.
Indulging without fulfillment
Perhaps you have a bad day or you’re feeling restless, so you look for comfort in a box of cookies, a bottle of wine, or by venting your frustrations to a friend. Whatever the indulgence, it can often leave you feeling unfulfilled afterward. Forgive yourself for your lack of discipline and remind yourself that this doesn’t have to create a pattern of bad habits. Consider the different choices you could make the next time.
Allowing yourself to be vulnerable
When you allow yourself to trust someone, their response may not always be what you had hoped for. This can leave you feeling regret for being vulnerable in the first place. So, remember that vulnerability is how you learn who you can trust. Instead of blaming yourself for speaking your truth, forgive yourself and move forward with resilience.
Low personal productivity
At times, you may find yourself moving slower. You wonder where your motivation and energy went. You might even play a self-deprecating dialogue in your head, “I’m lazy” or “I’m not doing enough”. Yet, your body is most likely slowing down for a reason, so criticizing yourself for decreased productivity will only make you feel worse. Instead, if you notice repeated bouts of low energy, acknowledge this pattern without judgment. Perhaps there are changes you can make in your daily routine to unlock greater energy. Forgive yourself for not consistently being one hundred percent, set aside time for self-care, and get back on track.
Procrastinating on the pursuit of your dreams
Perhaps you are frustrated by a vision that you can’t seem to make time for or a dream that isn’t moving forward as fast as you desire. By dwelling on your procrastination or lack of forward movement, you expend a lot of energy. It actually takes less energy to forgive yourself. And since dreams don’t usually manifest in a day, allow yourself grace. If your vision is truly soul-driven, you can recommit to making it happen and take sustainable action.
Forgiveness enables you to move forward. As you learn to accept whatever you may consider to be personal failures, you receive valuable lessons that can heighten your consciousness. You discover greater self-awareness and self-acceptance through the practice of forgiveness.
When you choose to let go by practicing forgiveness, you move forward with greater love, compassion, and ease.
Self-Care, Self-Fulfillment, Self-Love, Uncategorized
Feeling unfulfilled?
Are you questioning whether you are truly on the path of your soul’s purpose?
Maybe it’s time to discover answers as you activate your inner voice.
Let’s talk about the difference between your inner voice and intuition. They are both considered forms of insight, yet they come to you in different ways. The inner voice is your consciousness speaking, whereas intuition comes from your unconscious.
Your conscious mind defines your thoughts, actions, and conscious awareness. In comparison, your unconscious mind is the deep recesses of your past memories that acts like storage for your conscious mind. As needed, your unconscious then transfers relevant information to be used consciously.
Your inner voice tends to be more accessible since it speaks through your conscious mind, as compared to tapping into your intuition through your unconscious mind, which can require more practice.
As a high-achieving woman, you may feel that your success hasn’t brought you the fulfillment you had hoped for. Working long hours while sacrificing your well-being can elicit dissatisfaction with the quality of your life.
To spark guidance that brings greater clarity and a more purposeful path, take steps to activate your inner voice. Evoking the knowledge and wisdom of your conscious mind is more pragmatic for decision-making, and your decisions no longer tend to feed your ego with the kind of success that comes through sacrifice.
Instead, as you activate your inner voice, new ideas materialize and important decisions come with greater ease and fulfillment. Because, when you discover and embark on the path of your soul’s purpose, you also embrace a life with more meaning and joy.
How to activate your inner voice in 3 steps
Create space
Give yourself the gift of space by encouraging stillness in your mind and body. As you rest into a feeling of calm, old fears and worries subside and new insight from your inner voice begins to emerge. Put time aside to practice the art of creating space in your mind-body through mindfulness – meditation, journaling, or yoga. Designing a vision board can also give greater clarity.
Embrace insight
It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day. You may be making excuses for continuing to head down a path that holds you back from a life of greater purpose and fulfillment. Are you willing to choose a different action? If so, focus on listening to your inner voice. Your insight may come through as an image or a thought. Trust and embrace whatever message you receive. Explore it. Ask questions such as, “Why did this message come through?” or “Does this idea connect with my values?” When your insight is activated, it evokes greater awareness of your reality and connects you more deeply with your spiritual Self—your higher Self or higher consciousness. This enables you to access a life of greater purpose and fulfillment. When you include your new insights in your vision board or write them in your journal, it can provide even more awareness of your soul’s purpose.
Move with intention
Activating your inner voice can access ideas from a deeper level of awareness, yet it’s your actions that make these ideas a reality. Think about what motivates your actions. For example, when you act from a place of fear or pride, you disconnect from living your truth, which can create resistance in forward motion. However, when your intention aligns with your values, you access a smoother path to your soul’s purpose. As you activate your inner voice, your intentions become clearer, and you are able to move forward with greater ease and flow.
You activate your inner voice by creating space and clarity in your mind and body. As you embrace the insight that comes through, take intentional action toward it.
Your inner voice brings more fulfillment by guiding you toward your soul’s purpose, which can lay the foundation for your legacy.
Your soul’s purpose is waiting!
Receiving, Self-Care, Self-Fulfillment, Self-Love, Spirituality, Uncategorized
What does it mean to activate a success mindset?
It means to spark joy, purpose, and greater fulfillment in….
Your daily routine.
Your lifestyle.
Your legacy.
Activating a success mindset isn’t merely finding motivation for achievement. Although experiencing intense motivation to achieve can sometimes feel like a success mindset, that motivation may consume your energy and result in exhaustion or burnout.
Instead, a success mindset is about connecting with a deeper, more meaningful sense of aliveness as you embrace your journey through life. When you live mindfully, you spark greater fulfillment in your everyday life and discover long-term goals that can lay the foundation for your legacy.
Practicing daily habits that evoke mindful living can activate a success mindset where you reap more without sacrificing your wellbeing.
7 Habits To Activate Your Success Mindset
Learn
Grow your skills and knowledge by learning new things often. Opening your mind to new concepts and ideas creates greater awareness of your interests. This simulates you to continue evolving.
Write
Writing your thoughts on paper connects you with your consciousness. Whether creative writing to ignite your imagination or keeping a personal journal to organize your thoughts and emotions, writing expands your consciousness and activates a success mindset.
Rest
Practice self-care by allowing yourself time to rest. Recharging your battery helps maintain your energy so you are more mindful of your needs. Rest might come in the form of the following: a respite from electronics such as your phone; saying no to friends or family; or investing your time in a self-care routine.
Movement
When you move, you strengthen your mind-body connection. This helps you stay mindful of your body, which provides greater awareness of how you feel and what brings you joy. Movement also helps manage your energy levels and elevate your mood. All this inspires and activates a success mindset.
Share
Sharing can be shown through kindness, such as lending a helping hand or sharing a friendly smile. You can also share your knowledge with the world through teaching. Whether you’re sharing your kindness or knowledge, you’re training your mind by evoking meaningful compassion towards others.
Dedicate
Dedicating yourself to a vision or to living in alignment with certain values will guide you on a path filled with deeper meaning and greater purpose. Values are fundamental beliefs that prompt your actions. Having a vision based on your values can lead to the kind of life you imagine. Having strong values and a positive vision will activate a success mindset that inspires you.
Be grateful
Being grateful for what you already have provides the inspiration to continue moving forward. It brings the awareness of the good you have and keeps you mindful of what’s yet to come.
Training your mind daily with one or more of these habits can provide a success mindset that leaves you feeling fulfilled.
When you activate your success mindset, you experience more from life.
