Time for Recovery & Completing Unfinished To Do's

I've taken this week to really slow down and catch up on sleep and cleaning in preparation for our move to our new home. I've been getting plenty of rest and taking vitamins to give my body a little boost. There's only a few more days until I start summer classes and only another week before our big move!

It really is amazing how much time you can spend on cleaning and organizing, especially if you've allowed things to pile up over months. I've been going through an incredible stack of magazines, tearing out images and articles that I like. After a while, though, even this gets pretty exhausting and I just want to take and dump the rest into the recycle bin. I honestly may do just that. I don't think I can spend yet another day pouring over magazines to collect inspiration. The right resources will come to me when I need it and I just need to let it all go.

As much as I feel like I'm not doing that much (compared to my normal schedule with classes), I realize how much has been accomplished in this short time. I think it's because when the pressure of deadlines is lifted, things get done with much more ease. I've managed to clean the home, including vacuuming, scrubbing the bathroom, wiping counters, doing laundry, and organizing my clothes. There's still more to go, but I've made some good progress.

I've also completed several initial health consultations with others for my health coaching program, and made progress on my own as well. I've started cooking some more and have resolved to really clean out all the remaining things in my life that are just weighing me down. Into the recycle bins they go!

The preparations for the move have been set, and we've even taken measurements of the new home to make sure our current furniture will fit. Some will have to be sold and left behind, but that was expected.

I even managed to run all my errands, finish knitting some baby mittens, write in my journal, organize all of my finances and pay bills, watch a movie, play with my dog, have dinner with my mother-in-law, and even meet up or catch up with friends over the phone (or skype).

It's really interesting what happens when you take some time and give yourself permission to do whatever you feel like doing. All of the things that have been pushed to the back burner all of a sudden start getting done. These things are important things too, but jut not as urgent as our usual pressing matters at work or school. What surprised me was that given a choice, instead of frolicking in the sun, I decided to clean and organize away. I guess the satisfaction from this cleaning process is much more liberating for me right now than going outside to play. I know I'll have plenty of time for that after the move.

We all need down time every now and then. Time to catch up on things that might be pushed off for another year if we don't give ourselves time to address them. I still have a long list of things to complete, but at least I know that I have a chance of completing them once and for all.

Do you have a list of unfinished items? Take some time to make a list and check them off as you go. You will feel so much better knowing that you took care of all the little things that have been nagging for your attention. And make sure to add in some fun with friends or family in there. It's easy to let life pass on by if we don't know how we want to spend our time.

Making Space for the New

In order for new things to come into our lives, we must make space. This is what I did today with my closet. After battling my closet for years, I decided to just let go of things I did not like and make space for things I love to come into my life.

I am simplifying in order to make my life more abundant. Less clutter means more time, more focus on the things I love, and an easier and more pleasant life. After years of experiencing clutter and having too much stuff, I know first hand that clutter and excess creates stress. Have you ever seen a spa or relaxing retreat area loaded to the brim with things? I didn't think so. And there's a reason for it.

You cannot find peace amidst chaos and clutter. Maybe you can if you are an ascended master or an enlightened guru, but why make it more difficult for ourselves? Just let go and trust that the universe will always bring what you need when you need it. You can only receive the blessings of earth when your arms are not already full. Hanging on to old things just means less mobility and a feeling of being weighted down.

Watch my video of me letting go of old clothes in my closet.

Changes in Life

I was listening to a video on youTube today on The Wisdom of the Heart's channel, and he was interviewing Nadia Kahlil Bradley, author of Origins of Truth. She said something during the interview that really rang true for me.

"Every change requires a million baby steps."

This really rang true for me because during the past few years, after I made the decision to live my dream life and have my dream career, I've gone through hundreds and thousands of steps that have helped me grow and get closer to my dream job. I had originally expected to identify EXACTLY what the job is (by the job title) and just go for it. This is the conventional way of thinking. But as I moved through this process of pursuing this new found career path, other passions of mine have come up and my original career path did not seem as appealing anymore. It's not just because the new found career path is not what I want. In fact, I found that it IS what I want. But I just don't want to work in the existing established industry in the way it currently is. I did not want to continue a crazy, hectic and stressful life only to be burnt out once again.

This time I am choosing a life of balance, of joy, and find a way to make money doing the things I love without being constrained with the ideas of how things need to be because this is how they were before. It is the advice of all those who do what they love and love what they do and are therefore really successful, happy, and never work a day in their life. I am going to live this advice, embody it, and see where it takes me. Even I can't dream up how great life will be. I'm sure it will be better than I could ever think up, as long as I stick with it and keep taking baby steps with the big goal in mind.

I believe the world is changing at a rapid pace, and if we follow our intuition, we will be guided to the best place for us. By following my inner guidance and my heart, I ended up going through many, many different steps, hoping to finally say, "I've arrived!" In reality, I discovered that there were many, many more steps to go and these steps could not be charted out in advance. They unfold as the previous step is completed by my actions and my commitment to move forward into the unknown.

This time, however, I know I am on the right path, and I am getting more comfortable with the idea that life will continue to unfold, step by step. If I want to speed up my process of living my dream career sooner, I must follow my heart with everything that I do. Absolutely everything. And it involves a "cleaning house" process, from my home (literally), to my finances, relationships, my closet, my electronic files, food in my kitchen, memories, attachments, and emotions. It is a big change to live a life that contains everything that I love.

I choose to no longer settle. Settling is a way for us to treat ourselves worse than we deserve. It is what we do when we are busy, lazy, overwhelmed, or too tired to really care about taking care of ourselves. If we start to live from our heart and embrace everything we love, we begin the process of changing our lives to one that we can fully embrace as being truly "us." It is through this process that we begin to uncover who we really are. Each of us is unique with our unique voice, our unique ambitions and passions, and with different things that bring us joy. Find that authentic part of yourself by letting go of everything that is no longer serving you and choosing to be selective about what you allow into your life.

I am deep into the process of cleaning up my life. In the next blog post, I will share a video I created about cleaning up my closet. It's amazing how many things I was holding on to that I did not like. How much simpler and happier life would be if we just brought in only the things that brought us joy. Can you imagine being surrounded by things, events, people, and a job in your life that were only the things you love? We can vibrate at the frequency of love, by choosing to love the things in our lives that already bring us joy. By choosing love with every decision we make, we will speed up the process of living fully in the life we deserve.

I hope that by sharing my journey I encourage you to keep on going. Things might take longer to change than you wanted, but just know that big progress is being made, even if you cannot see it immediately. It is a process that requires our commitment with every single step.

The Power of Love

For many years now, I have been searching for my life purpose, which led me to change the question that I asked from "what is my life purpose?" to "how can I serve?". Everyone's life purpose involves service of some kind. Our life purpose is about sharing our gifts and talents with the world. It can be service in the literal sense of helping others through volunteer work, philanthropy, helping out a family or friend, etc., but can also include things we get paid to do, such as our jobs, things we just love to do, such as hobbies or creative projects, or things we do because we feel compelled to do them, such as healing work or taking action on things  because you feel like you should do it at that moment.

The main thing is to give of yourself to the world by sharing your gifts and your love, and to shine the light within you outwards so that others may see it. When we hide our talents or let them go unused, the light inside us dims. It is the same when we withhold love from others. We are witholding that love from ourselves. Our nature is to shine brightly by doing what we love to do, and if we don't let ourselves go down this path, a deeper yearning will find you to nudge you and encourage you to go and do the things you love rather than doing a job just for money.

I have been going down this path and it has led me to unexpected things... from feng shui, pranic healing, meditation, angel therapy, personal development, social networking sites, youtube videos, spiritual journeys, fashion design, and integrative nutrition. As strange as this process has been for me, looking back, I realize how important each and every step of this process has been towards creating the life that I want, helping me discover my passion, and thus helping me move towards fulfilling my life's purpose. One thing I have realized is that my life purpose is not something where I can say one day, "I know what it is and I have arrived." Instead, it is a growth process and we are all here enrolled in this school called Earth to grow, expand, become more aware, and learn to share our love with the world.

In order to share our love with the world we must do what we love, as often as we can, until we can do it every moment of the day. Step by step we shed the things that no longer serve us, let go of the burdens we've been carrying, and then step out and walk into our dreams with the faith that everything will work out for the best, prepared to do whatever it takes to follow this path through until the end. This process is not always easy--there will be days where we find our joy and bliss, but other days where life will challenge us to make sure this is what we really want and to see if we are truly committed towards making our dreams a reality. We learn to become comfortable with the unknown and with who we really are.

If we are currently too attached to roles and titles, those will be removed from our lives so that we can see ourselves fully without those titles. If we are too attached to our belongings and things, we will start to experience situations that help us learn to detach from our things. What is within each of us is more important than attachment to material possessions. It is okay to have a lot of material possessions, as long as the attachment to them is not there.

Each aspect of our lives is there to teach us and to show us what we, as co-creators with the universe, are creating in our lives. We create what we predominantly focus on. By stepping back to observe ourselves and go within, we learn to identify the burdens, limiting beliefs, old wounds, and bottled up emotions we carry from our past. We learn to see them for what they are (limiting beliefs, self-pity, playing the role of victim, old traumas, or situations that we just don't want to carry around for the rest of our lives), we face them, and then we let them go. It is by going through this darkness that we can enter the light. It is by facing our fears that we can move into that space of love. And as we do what we love, we can live from a place of love, and the more love and gratitude we have in our lives every day, it becomes easier to love ourselves, our lives, and everyone else around us.

As we begin to love those around us, we begin by loving those that are nice to us, that treat us with love and kindness. Eventually, as our love and respect for ourselves and our lives grows, we learn to love all others (even those that are not always pleasant), and we learn to forgive and to let go, in order to heal ourselves, and then to heal others. This is the process I have moved through. I am now living from a place where I have learned to identify judgment (from myself or from others). I have learned to first recognize that it is there, face it, and then let go of those beliefs and thoughts and realize that those judgments are a reflection of how I feel about myself. When I let go of these thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, I heal myself. As I continue to heal myself, my life gets lighter and lighter as each of the burdens I carry are removed. As I let go, any blocked emotions in my body are released. My life gets easier and as I start to feel more free, I start to believe that life can be easy, that it is supposed to be fun, joyful, and effortless, much like how water runs down a stream. Life is supposed to flow.

Life does flow, as long as we allow it to flow. We let it flow by letting go and surrendering the things that no longer serve us and by moving towards the things that bring us joy. We bring our lives and our bodies back into balance as nature designed. During this process we realize that we were never alone, that we are never alone. We have had help all along through our trials and tribulations. Not only were we loved by friends, family, and the people we've met along the life's journey, but we we are also deeply loved by the earth, the universe, God (or god), guardian angels, our ancestors, and by all spiritual beings that reside in other realms. We are all one spirit, a collective consciousness, connected in this web of life by things beyond our comprehension.

It is from this space that we realize that our divine purpose is to spread our love, our light. We do this unconsciously when we do what we love, every moment, of every day. Our bodies vibrate at a different frequency that we broadcast out into the world and everyone around us when we are in a state of love. We can do this consciously by sending love from our hearts directly into the hearts of those that need love to heal, including Mother Earth. We also do this when we send our prayers out into the world. We are sending our love, compassion, and healing energy out to those that need us. In this way we are providing additional service to the world. As small as this gesture seems, it is making a BIG impact on the lives of others in ways that you cannot see or understand. Just like a little candle can light up an entire room, your light can give hope to others around you, just because you are being you... because you are living in your truth, because you are living an authentic life. You are living the life you were meant to live. This is your gift to the world.

Do what you love. Live in peace, love, and joy. Do what brings you happiness, moment by moment, every single day. Follow your intuition and quiet your mind. Your heart will guide you every single step of the way. You can create the life you want to live, but you must decide to go down that path. You must choose joy. It is your choice.

Choose joy and share your inner light with the world. Live a happy life filled with peace, love, and joy. By being peace, love, and joy, you spread peace, love, and joy... just by being it and living it. You are becoming a shining example of how life was meant to live. Just as Ghandi said, "Be the peace you wish to see in the world," you too can BE peace to change the world.

Love has the power to heal...to heal ourselves, to heal others, to heal our homes, our planet, and our lives. Choose joy. Choose love. And choose to live in the light. With every step it gets easier as you see the fruits of the seeds you have sown. It gets easier to believe that it is working, that the path we are walking is safe and supported, and to believe that we really do deserve to do what makes us truly happy, despite whatever financial situation you may be in. Your needs will ALWAYS be met. I have experienced this first hand. The world is conspiring to help you succeed as you choose to go in the direction of love. You meet the right people at the right time. The resources you need will come to you in unexpected ways. And any time you may feel stuck, just ask for help! Literally. Say "help!" either out loud or in your mind and help will come your way. The world hears you and is supporting you even when you don't notice its support.

And lastly, be grateful for every blessing that comes your way, no matter how small. Gratitude brings more blessings. The world is yours. You get to design your life, your experiences, and how you will use your talents to share them with the world. Life is fun. Do what excites you! Give yourself permission to live your dreams. Start today! Sending you much love, light, and blessings for a happy and joyful life.