Quote of the Week

“Our life is what our thoughts make it.” Marcus Aurelius Antonius

The best information or guidance is often the simplest. Our thoughts are based on our beliefs,
which are reinforced by our experiences. The way we react to, interpret and internalize each
experience can make BIG changes in our lives, or allow things to remain exactly the same. We
make the choice and have the privilege of experiencing the results.

Current Score: Universe Four Hundred Fifty Skillion (Yes That Much), Michelle…

…Well that doesn’t really matter does it?

So, regardless of how the universe has been kicking my patootie I am still determined to get this stuff down. I will be the embodiment of my beliefs all (well most) of the time and I work pretty hard at practicing what I “preach.” Living by example is, to me, the best way to learn and teach. And with that being said, here’s a new little (or maybe not so little) tidbit of how the universe has worked its magic in my environment... AGAIN!

Typically (probably more like always) when we are struggling with a specific something (or specific somethings) and we’ve notified the universe (by way of intentional or unintentional means) the universe helps. By helping, I mean it bombards you with opportunities of expansion, as often as moment to moment until you acknowledge the issue and decide to actively take the steps provided to let it go.

SO this week (Week of 7/23 to be exact), I’d been receiving a lot of messages regarding worrying. *scratches chin* I mean why would I need to work on worrying? I certainly don’t have an issue with worry. *in my haughty know it all voice* Hehe, well, regardless of what I thought, I received many messages from avenues that provide profound guidance to me on a regular basis. Well after reading these messages (yes they were literal messages that I receive from regular sources) I started to feel that I should be looking deeper as to why there seemed to be so many coming at once regarding the same topic.

Well it turned out that I HAD been worrying. See when it comes to me, I hardly ever worry. I know I can handle anything (because I’ve shown myself many times over that I can), however my children are a different story entirely. I tend to immediately go down the path of worry when they’re involved. So as discussed in one of my last posts, I had to get my oldest son registered for Kindergarten (who told him he was allowed to become a school aged child, I still need to get to the bottom of that). Well, finally having completed registration (spiders and all), he still needed before and after school care. There is no way, with our work hours, either my husband or I could be there when the bus arrived to get him or drop him back off. Dropping him off and picking him up directly during school hours was also out of our reach, at least from our current perspectives.

This being our first time having this experience, we had no clue how to go about finding this type of care, and the school’s website left not an inkling of info regarding how it could be obtained (so helpful, really /sarcasm). Let me also add that I had about a week to come up with a solution. (no pressure /more sarcasm) Yes, I was definitely getting worried. BUT, I also knew that worry would not get the results we all wanted. So, I toned down the worry, and did some Google searching instead, which resulting in obtaining a starting point.

 Of course the idea of the place I THOUGHT I liked the best had a wait list. (YAY! /had enough sarcasm yet?) Regardless, we came up with possible alternatives that could suffice until that particular location would be able to accommodate the care of my son. Well (I really do say well a lot), The Man called the number provided on the website and the location we called was specifically for a certain school, as they were located onsite. Turns out, the company has multiple programs for the majority of public schools in the area (onsite). Why I was not informed of this from the get go… really doesn’t matter at this point.

What does matter, is that I didn’t give up and go back to worrying, after this “set back.” Again I had some tools at my disposal and chose to use them. I decided to go back and perform another Google search this time with the name of the school and “before/after school care.” Would you know it, this is exactly how I found just what I needed. I called the number listed, got the info needed and made arrangements to complete the registration for the program… THAT DAY!  Can you believe that LESS than 24hrs after I’d decided to stop worrying, and instead start using the tools I already had in my possession, everything I needed was given to me? There’s something to be said about trusting the process. I’m just saying. ;)

Love,

Quote of the Week

“A mind too active is no mind at all.” Theodore Roethke

I can relate to this quote on so many levels as I used to consistently have so much on my mind, at one time, I’d get massive headaches. Not so good. I was taught some very good meditations to help alleviate this situation. The most effective one I was taught had everything to do with allowing/letting go and nothing to do with control.

The basic premise of this meditation (l like to call it Void) was to become still, and instead of trying to “control” my thoughts (which is pretty much impossible anyway), I would let them flow in and then out of my mind, never latching on long term to any specific thought. This way, nothing ever got the chance to get stuck. I couldn’t take the opportunity to ponder, linger or dwell upon any certain thoughts. What this allowed me to do, was stay in the moment, which is where most of us trying to be anyway.

What this caused was a fantastic allowing and releasing of energy that I had been clinging to. When I was able to allow that energy to flow, instead of just clogging me up, it made it easier for me to be openly receptive to my good, especially when it came to creative inspiration. Because I wasn’t busy worrying about how things would come, they just came. Just some food for thought.

Spiders... Ugh!

I’ve been working on my issues with time. The Man and I realized that we spend so much time worrying, about time, that we never actually fully enjoy our… time. The account below happened to me on Monday just shortly (a few days) after we decided that we were going to work on caring more about doing things we enjoy, FULLY, than how much time we felt it would take to fit them all in to the day. So on Monday I had planned to do my hair (wash, blow dry and flat iron all takes about 2hrs), take our rental car back, get the kids to daycare (before the cutoff time) and then head to work. (Boy the word time is certainly a prominent one in our lives/society isn’t it?)

Monday 7/9/12 Email to The Man:

I decided that I would still get through all my plans this morning (including doing my hair, I really wanted to get that trim and I can’t get a cut if it’s not straight). So knowing I had so much to get done, I messaged my supervisors to let them know I’d be a few hours late. Well then just after you left, I decided to go shower so I could do my hair.

Well… (d@mn universe) I went to turn on the water and then get some things together. When I came back to the shower there was a small spider on the shower curtain (which of course made me freak out having arachnophobia and all, which I am still working on), then I brushed it away and lost where it went (not good). Then as I was about to get in, there was another one blowing in the wind current, from the water, right by my loofah (very not good). Well I lost track of that one too (all bad). Then as I was agitatedly trying to get my mind together (and possibly looking for the first spider from the curtain) there was one on the wall not far from the showerhead (Are you f#*$&%* kidding me?!). (Yeah, I was all riled up and said bad words so sue me)

Well by this time it’d been 30 minutes after you’d left and I was just ready to lose it! So I decided that I would shower in the guest bathroom, because there was no way I was going to get any peace in ours. So I took all the crap I needed, washed my @ss and my hair and got out. Steadily, I tried not to focus on the fact that 30 mins of my “precious” time had been “wasted.” So I finished with my shower and went about getting more things together for work, letting my hair air dry, oiling myself, all my usual stuff. Regardless of how time seemed to be working against me, I was determined to get my hair done, The Kid registered for school, keys returned, both boys to daycare before 9 AM as that’s their cutoff so they can do a headcount for safety and then finally get to work… you know before the day ended. Everything seemed to be so time sensitive.

Well, I was not to be deterred. I went about blow-drying my hair, got the kids out of bed and fed them cereal since I knew they’d miss breakfast at daycare. I laid out their clothes, then straightened my hair. As I went along, I tried to stay positive about getting him registered, trying not to be concerned about them running out of spots or taking too long once I got there. Trying not to be concerned about how long it would take to turn in the keys, trying not to be concerned about getting the kids to daycare on time. Those things all crossed my mind, but I still proceeded as if I would complete every single task on my list, within perfect timing.

So I made it out the door and got to the school by 8:15 (you know they open at 7:30, or they are supposed to). Well because of the spiders I got there at 8:15, and do you know, I walked in RIGHT behind the secretary! Had I gotten there at 7:30 I would have just been sitting there waiting… probably getting aggravated about how much time I was wasting waiting lol. I followed her in, she helped me right away, I was out in five minutes. Then I hightailed it over to Enterprise. I was helped as soon as I got there, signed what I needed to sign and went on to daycare, where I arrived with about 6 minutes to spare. After that I made it to work by 9:10 AM and you already know the rest. 

Isn’t life just crazy? I know what I’ve gleaned from this experience. I’m wondering what other people may be thinking…

Thanks for coming by.

Love,

Quote of the Week

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” Eleanor Roosevelt

You have to admit, the lady makes an excellent point! This quote captures the essence of the process that so many of us struggle with, in one simple sentence. Life is to be lived and enjoyed to the fullest that we possibly can. In immersing ourselves in our present, we embrace life and appreciate the journey that our spirits/inner beings came forth to embody. When we let go of fear, doubt and worry there is nothing we can’t experience and/or achieve. Here’s to letting go and living in the now.

Frustration With the Process

Taking responsibility for our lives, our destinies, seems so much easier said than done. We get a lot of guidance from different sources (books, movies, spiritual gatherings, etc), but really they are all saying the same things. Our thoughts (based upon core beliefs) control our realities and it is up to us to live on purpose. So many of us are used to living by default. Life comes at us and then we react often without thinking. We live the same experiences over and over and wonder why, often not stopping to think that the one constant in our entire lives is US!

Even deeper, so many of us actually believe we are being deliberate in our thoughts and actions. The majority of people insist that they are positive thinkers… when they actually are not. I know, because I used to be one of them, and still tend to fall into the trap when I’m not careful. I insisted to the universe (and anyone else who’d listen) that even though I was doing everything “right” I still wasn’t being rewarded for all of my positive ideas and viewpoints. The saddest thing about this was that I was more often than naught, living life from a negative point of view.

I often would tell the unlimited universe what I wanted, but then put conditions on how it should appear, because, what… I knew better than the all-knowing  source of existence? When it came down to it, if I couldn’t see how something was going to come into existence, then I couldn’t believe it was attainable. Doesn’t sound so positive does it? Asking the universe for what I wanted, but then consistently dwelling or spending most of my attention on what made me feel bad about my current life situations, really wasn’t helping me. I would say, “Universe please send me more abundance.” Then I would spend a good portion of time focused on my belief that I didn’t have enough to comfortably sustain myself and even worse, trying (from my limited viewpoint) to figure out how I could get more, instead of trusting in the universe to bring me the means to get whatever I needed. I learned the hard way, that asking for something, then spending all my time pondering what I didn’t have was in no way, shape or form positive thinking.

The bottom line is, if we continue to reinforce the same negative limited beliefs, with the same negative limited thoughts, then we will continue to receive the same negative limited manifestations. This is true no matter how many different mates we leave or find, how many different jobs we leave or find, how many different friendships we leave or find, etc. The energy we put out into the universe is what we will receive, always, every, single time. So let’s do ourselves a favor and be honest about how we’re feeling and what we’re thinking and what we believe. It’s okay to admit that we are not perfect and that we have fears, concerns, issues, things about ourselves we don’t like, things about others we don’t like, etc. All of that is really OK, because we are where we are regardless of how we feel about it. But if we can acknowledge, openly and truthfully, where we are in relation to where we want to be, we can begin the process of acceptance and growth. No one said that just because we accept who and where we are, that we have to remain there if we don’t want to. Thinking positively isn’t something we just talk about or wish about. It takes time to become negative thinkers and it will take time to become positive thinkers and if we are patient and loving with ourselves growth is bound to happen. It takes just as much effort to be negative as it does to be positive, so why not choose the path that leads toward happiness?       

Love,

Quote of the Week

“Trust that still, small voice that says, ‘This might work and I’ll try it.’” Diane Mariechild

The operative word here is TRUST! So many of us know the principles, we spout the ideals as if they are a part of our lifeline. We understand, and it makes since to us, that our thoughts create our realities. And we even recognize the source from within that provides our divine guidance. Really and truly, how many of us actually TRUST in that voice, no matter how crazy the guidance may seem to our “logical” thinking patterns? How many of us are willing to put it all on the line and go for broke, when that genius, but seemingly insane idea comes to us, that inspiration that will take us in directions we never dreamed of? Let’s stop putting off for tomorrow, the things we KNOW we are capable of today. The source, from within will only, ever lead us down paths that are for our highest good. Our job is to believe in it and trust enough to actually ACT!