Respect of Individuality

Some people may spend a lot of time asking you to be like them, or to be like those around them. You may have expereinced this in life. When this has happened to me, I find it is because they don’t respect my individuality.

But then, do I? Do I respect my own individuality? Not completely. Comparison to others and coming up short on the stick is a concept that is engrained in me from early years. It has been difficult to change from that default, as I have experienced over the years. And, I continue to try…

Do you respect your own individuality? Do you help your individuality to flourish by standing up for who you are? Or are you constantly trying to be like someone else?

If you are standing up for yourself and your individuality, then you must be standing up for your dream. You are celebrating that part of you which wants to be expressed, and are taking action to further this part of you, this dream. That’s awesome. Good for you!

But what if you are not celebrating your dream, not respecting the individuality of it? How can you get to the point of celebration for your dream, so you are in sync with your soul’s desire?

Consider that you were gifted by the Universe with certain skills and natural talents. There is something in your life that comes easily for you, that you are good at. Think about that for a minute and really let it sink in; believe it to be true. Really think about the natural skill you have identified.

Then, consider that you have been gifted this thing for which you have passion and in which you enjoy engaging for the purpose of sharing it with the world. Consider that this is your mission in life. Consider that your people are waiting for you and that your gift is what they’re waiting for.

It is natural to feel a sort of reverence when thought of in this manner, so feel that fully. Then make the decision to step into that role, to take responsibility for your individuality by showing up for your life in service to others.

Practice respect for your individuality today. The more you do this, the more peace you will feel and remember, that is our objective, to feel more peace in our lives, more peace inside. Are you in?

Acknowledgment of Others

One of the things you need to do in the pursuit of your dream is to acknowledge yourself for that dream. When you acknowledge your dream, you are saying yes to the Universe. 

The urgings of your heart are there for a reason…. Your soul wants you to pay attention to the messages it is sending in the form of a dream.

I know this image’s title is Acknowledgment of Others, yet in the verse that accompanies it in the book, it talks about acknowledging yourself also. So, consider that the title is Acknowledgment of Others and Yourself.

It is okay to acknowledge yourself, to give some consideration to your thoughts, your desires, and your dream. Again, once you acknowledge these things, the Universe steps up to match your acknowledgment.

We get our strength from others, as well as from within. That is what the little “beings” are doing in the photo… they are looking at each other to represent turning to others, and they have their “backs” to each other to represent the turning inward that is necessary for us each to regroup.

Acknowledge your dream not only to yourself, but to others as well. Speak of it to them so that it becomes firm in your mind and heart. Ferret out the details of the dream, until you are very familiar with it, until the details are second nature to you.

Today, recognize that you need to acknowledge your dream before the Universe can step in and help you out. Happily tell the world about your dream and your plans to follow it. That is all part of what it means to acknowledge it.

When you put your intention out there, all sorts of things start to happen to further your dream. As you follow it, you will start to know peace.  

Patina of Patience

One of the most useful tools to use while fulfilling your dream is patience. And I don’t mean standing around, tapping your toe, waiting for something to happen.

No, I mean patience after you have taken action in some way. Here’s how it goes… You have identified your dream, that which resonates with your heart.

You have made the decision to attain this dream and have listed out the steps it will take to get there. You have taken the first action and you are waiting to see what results from it.

While you are waiting, notice anything that shows up in your path for which action is needed, and do that. Otherwise, do the next indicated thing to do.

In other words, do the next thing on your list. While you are waiting for the results of that action, notice anything new that comes up on your path and attend to that. Otherwise, do the next indicated thing on your list. And so forth…

Soon, you will have gotten a long way toward your goals and you will have received feedback from the Universe, letting you know to proceed in your current direction or to alter your course.

How will you know what the Universe is saying to you? Doors will open or close, and because you are following up on those opportunities that are presented to you, it will become obvious the direction in which to head.

One thing I must mention is what I realized when I became a few years sober. I realized how much I forced things to go my way. I would take action toward a goal, and then not be patient and wait for a result. Instead, I would keep pushing the issue. I didn’t know how to practice patience.

This was a source of much unnecessary misery which you can avoid by practicing patience as you work toward your dream. And, it will bring you closer to your ultimate goal of peace.

Rolls of Perseverance

It take lots of perseverance on your part to fulfill your dream. The bottom line is, it’s your job to follow through and take action to move things along to fulfillment. 

And the thing about perseverance is this: sometimes when you take action, you will get nowhere. It will seem like doors are slamming in your face.

When this happens, know that the Universe may be sending you a signal that you are going in the wrong direction. When you are going in the right direction, everything will fall into place easily.

However, there are times when even though you’re going in the right direction, you aren’t making progress. In that case, try to be the impartial observer as you review the steps you have taken to move things along. Make adjustments as you identify ways to improve what actions you’ve taken and what you are planning to do.

If after that assessment you think you are going in the right direction, then try to change your tactic a bit and see if that gets better results. The secret is to practice perseverance.

It is tempting at times to give up on the dream, especially if discouraged because you are getting nowhere, or making very little progress.

Today, I invite you to get clear in your heart what you are trying to accomplish, who you are trying to serve and why. With that reminder, gain the strength to continue to try. The reward is astounding peace.

Ray of Hope

It is 5:30 am Sunday morning and I have been up since midnight. I just popped awake, and decided to get up. Finally, I have made some sense and order of my inbox.

I sit on the enclosed porch and watch the sky to the east. It has turned a shade of dark gray. The traffic noise from nearby Highway 101 is still… I hear two birds singing. It is a reverent time of the day for me, a time in which I connect to Source.

After accepting yourself fully, hope comes to you. “A ray of light across the bars of my being lights the way… instills hope in my heart.”

You have accepted your dream as a part of who you are, part of your soul, and you have committed to follow that dream. This fuels your hope that your life can be fulfilling.

***********

It is now Monday morning at 5 am; I have been up since three. And I am wondering how the day slipped away yesterday, such that I never finished the blog post! I am having hope that I can get back on a daily schedule and not forget to blog… lol

Being in a state of hopelessness is a devastating place to be. When I was there at that point, I prayed to God to let me die. I saw no point to life as I was experiencing it.

Then something happened that gave me hope. I discovered my purpose, that my life had a purpose. For me, it is to share with you the message of self-love and love of others, to share about how to forgive so you can make peace with your life.

Today, look for hope through your purpose in life. What are your talents and skills? Who can you serve? When you figure out who you can serve, you will most likely have discovered your dream. And when you do, you’re well on your way to peace.

Acceptance of Self

When you fulfill your dream, the urgings of your heart, you are practicing self-acceptance. Why is that, you may ask?

Your dream is a part of who you are, a part of your make-up. When you say yes to it, when you follow those urgings of your heart, you are expressing that part of you that is God-given, the part of you that is your purpose in life.

You see, your purpose in life is relayed to you in the dream you hold in your heart. To embrace it is to practice self-acceptance.

You have looked at yourself through the self-appraisal you completed. In that appraisal, you will have identified your strong points, and one of them was most likely about your dream.

If not, re-work that part of your self-appraisal to include all the things about yourself to which you aspire, and then identify the strengths you possess that will aid in you reaching those aspirations.

Practicing self-acceptance is a very spiritual place to be. It is a place of deep knowingness that you are okay, that you are perfect just where you are in life and the way you are in life.

You are open to seeing areas where you would like to improve yourself, and you work on those. You will use all the keys we have discussed thus-far, such as willingness, surrender, trust, and courage. 

With your practice, you are moving forward in the path to a deep peace about yourself and your life. When you make the commitment to follow your dream and take action, you will be softly and gently veiled with grace and wonder about all that falls into place for you.

I have recently had that experience. It has been happening for the last 3 months. I had decided to expand my speaking, and suddenly, I was introduced to several workshops about just that – how to become a dynamic speaker.

When I think about why I am speaking, I get a calm sense of knowingness that it is my intended purpose in life. What I am speaking about is the 3 Secrets to Making Peace with Your Life. I feel there are people out there who are experiencing bitterness and misery. Heck, I speak to enough of them! That’s what I experienced for 53 years of my life.

But it changed, and it can change for you, too. Life can become full of great joy and peace. That’s why I blog about the topics in the book – because they go through the process I discovered that led the way to peace. I want to share that with the world.

Today, consider your dream, the tuggings of your heart. Think about how you would feel if that came true. Keep that vision in your heart, and accept that dream, that vision, as a part of who you are. Practice self-acceptance. 

Tiers of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a powerful tool to use to get you closer to living your dream. Once you learn to forgive, you will find that you have more energy to devote to it.

How do you know that you need to forgive? If you hold grudges or are bitter toward another, you are a candidate for learning forgiveness.

Grudges and bitterness rob you of a great deal of energy. Rather than expending it on your resentments, you will be freed up to devote that same energy to your dream.

Furthermore, because the energy you now have will be positive, you will move more quickly through the process to fulfill your dream and reach peace.

You see, the main reason you are learning to live your dream is so that your soul will be in synch with your purpose, and you will know peace as a result. 

I explain in greater detail the process of forgiveness in my article which you get when you opt-in to my website, or in other words, when you leave your email. I will be setting this up next week, so feel free to return and leave your email.

The article talks about the effect that lack of forgiveness produces, as well as how I achieved it from a life of bitterness and misery. I then give the specific actions to follow that will lead you, too, to forgiveness.

Basically, it involves six stages:

• Identify the person against whom you are bitter and holding a grudge.
• Feel in your heart how they have wronged you. Feel the hurt beneath these feelings, maybe confusion over betrayal…
• Offer yourself compassion, a wounded person in need of comfort.
• Consider that this person is and was a wounded person, whose wounds led them to the action they took against you.
• See that person with compassion, just as you would any wounded person.
• Allow the resentment to melt away a little at a time until you can forgive.

You may find yourself  re-visitng old issues, and this is okay. They are being brought up for you to look at so you can heal. Try to sit with them without self-medicating or escaping them. Once you apply compassion, they will begin to resolve.

Today, ferret out the grudges and resentments you hold against others, as well as yourself. Follow the process I have outlined above and see if you can get a bit of the resentment to melt away. Keep doing that process until you have achieved forgiveness.

What is it like for you to forgive? What does it feel like?

Curls of Kindness

Practicing kindness, being kind to others and ourselves, furthers our journey to living our dream. By showing kindness, we ignite the giving and receiving dance that occurs between two beings when they feel they are in a safe and loving space. That, in turn, fuels the courage to pursue our dream.

The curls of the gate on your right are difficult to see in this small photo, yet they are there and are why the terms curls and kindness are paired together.

You see, as each curl extends itself outward, touching another, it then curls back upon itself. Kindness is like that. When you extend it, it is returned to you in like fashion. 

As each curl joins another, it represents the power you receive from that other, allowing you the courage to pursue your dream. You thrive with the support and kindness from that person.

If you take on the practice of random acts of kindness, then you have arrived at a glorious state. It feels so good to offer kindness to another and to see their face light up with a smile in response to your words or actions. That is the reward you gain, the gift you receive – knowing you helped another fellow human being.

The thing about kindness is that most people are not expecting it, and so when they receive it, they are caught off-guard, displaying in their reaction more of their inner self. That is always so beautiful to witness.

Don’t forget to give yourself kindness. Convert your negative self-talk into kind words uttered for all of your actions taken and words spoken. Make it a habit to show yourself random acts of kindness, for you, too, can use that bolstering. We all can. It feeds our soul.

Today, fill your soul with happiness and courage to pursue your dream. Practice giving and receiving kindness in your life.

Pillar of Strength

When you stand in your own morals, truth, and integrity, you will have the strength of a pillar. This is in opposition to taking on everyone else’s morals, truth, and integrity.

I did that in order to keep peace in my marriage… became my husband’s beliefs and actions. Meanwhile, my soul died a little at a time until I, as a person, was no longer visible.

Good morning. I am back and I regret not posting a note saying I’d be gone at a workshop for a few days, and would return the following (this) week.  The thing is, I took my computer, fully planning on blogging every morning. But I found myself too exhausted to do so.

Please pardon my silent voice for these past several days… Thank you to those of you who continued to visit in my absence…

I am back and talking today about how you can reach your dream and find peace by following your own heart, your own morals, truth, and integrity.

It is so important that you be you in life. You have a special light to offer the world in whatever is “your way,” and the way to that end is achieved by bringing who you are into the light.

This includes looking at your morals, the things you tell yourself about right and wrong and then your actions in carrying them out in your life.

Looking at your truth(s) takes some investigation and discovery. It is whatever resonates with your heart when you hear a statement made  about your core belief(s). I don’t know how else to describe the experience other than that bells and whistles go off in your head, and your heart swells with emotion.  Whatever it is that leads to that feeling is your truth.

Your integrity is the quality or state of being of sound moral principle. It is how you show up to others, maintaining your truth when you are around others or even just yourself.

When you stand in your morals, truth, and integrity, you are taking a stand for yourself. The forces of the Universe line up when this occurs and it sends you assistance with your endeavors. It sends you strength to move past your fear.

Try to let go of pleasing others. Look at where that desire comes from, what the old message is, and attempt to conquer that thought, feeling, and belief by offering yourself compassion for the wounded person that you were and still are.

It is frightening to step out and be yourself at first, and the good news is that it gets easier as you do it more. The rewards you will reap are tremendous, including an improved self-esteem, confidence, and love. When you can stand in your own morals, truth, and integrity, you are furthered on your journey to peace.

Fields of Compassion

You may be afraid to follow your dream. If so, offer yourself compassion for the fear, for that (likely) small child receiving that wound – terrified.

Then give yourself some compassion for the wounds that caused the fear. Let yourself feel the hurt and pain that wound produced, using doses of compassion when it gets difficult to feel your feelings.

Offer it to yourself because you are wounded. You have been struck with a sliver to the heart and it has festered all these years, creating a barrier for love to flow in and out , back and forth between you and the world.  

Compassion is your ability to feel sympathy or sorrow for another’s suffering, usually associated with a desire to help.

In this case, it is the sorrow your soul feels for the suffering you have had over the years. Have you been miserable emotionally, hiding that misery from others with things such as self-medicating, blaming others for it?

Know that you can admit to the feelings. In fact, it is better to acknowledge them, so you can feel and deal with them. Hopefully, you apologized to yourself for having the belief that you are alone in the world, for you are not. Know that there are people waiting to help and support you. 

Back to “getting over it.” When you are told  to just get over the pain and resentment, a disservice has just been done to you, and it is detrimental to your healing, in my humble opinion. Offer yourself compassion for that guilt you feel over the comment, for your thought that there is something wrong with you, that you “should” be able to get over “it,” whatever “it” is…

There is nothing wrong with you. You are experiencing your own timetable in your healing. This is assuming you are taking action to heal, as opposed to doing nothing and blaming.

It has been my experience that I needed to look at my emotions carefully. That was nearly impossible, as I couldn’t even identify them, let alone name them. It took longer for me than for other people.

At times, the people I would vent to were unavailable , either not present physically or emotionally. I cannot blame them. In fact, I send them my gratitude for their compassionate hearts and offer THEM compassion for the draining times they had listening to my woes.

Well, I have meandered with this concept of compassion and offering it to ourselves. I love free-form writing, stream-of-consciousness… One other thing to note is that compassion is an integral part of forgiveness, which, if we want to make peace with our lives, we need to extend to others and to ourselves. Compassion is a salve to use during this process.

How do you show compassion to yourself? Have you ever used it to get to peace?