Priority #1 - LOVE YOURSELF

The saying goes, “we are our own worst critic,” and it is so true!  What I notice most about myself and the clients with whom I work is… we can be really mean and hateful to ourselves. We beat ourselves up for things we felt we should have done better and we often give little credit when appreciation is due.

I did not realize how negative my thoughts were about myself until one day I was at a spa taking a mineral bath.  I decided to go through each of my body parts and send loving thoughts to all of my body, piece by piece.  As I did this and moved around from my eyes, to my nose, to cheeks, chest, stomach and so on, I remembered all the nasty thoughts I had in my past about nearly EVERY single body part.

I had been completely unloving to myself and my physical body. I have had negative thoughts about my nose, my eyes, arms, stomach, thighs, hips, legs, head, feet, hands and on and on. The only body part that I never was cruel to was my ears and elbows!!  Pretty much everything else had been attacked in one way or another.

This is just one example of how my thoughts have been directed towards my body. I could spend another few pages talking about how mean I am about other aspects of my life, but let’s not go there today. You get the point.

I believe many of us experience these discouraging thoughts about ourselves. My goal here today is to let you know you are not alone in this experience. Nearly EVERYONE has these thoughts!

So, what can we do? I have a few tips that can help you shift the energy around how you feel about yourself. These have been effective for me as I am moving towards more self-love and acceptance. These suggestions also help to increase awareness about how you really are treating yourself.

SUGGESTIONS TO LEARN TO LOVE YOURSELF A LITTLE MORE!

1. Look at yourself, or rather into your eyes every day in front of the mirror and tell yourself how much your love yourself. Let you know how amazing and wonderful you are.  (Sometimes, I can’t quite feel that emotion, so if I’m not “feeling” it that day, I ask that I love myself as much as source/god/creator/the universe loves me).
2. Find ways to appreciate yourself. Give yourself compliments and encouragement even if you just did something small.  Maybe you went for a walk instead of watching TV.  Give yourself a pat on the back.
3. Notice when you’re being “mean” or experiencing negative self-talk. Chose a mantra or a phrase that helps to shift from that experience.  My favorite is, “I love and accept myself just the way I am with unconditional love”! Repeat this as needed and even more powerful to do in meditation.
4. Journal or meditate about your feelings. Some of these lower vibration thoughts and feelings need a place to go and need to be acknowledged.  Release them by writing them out, by meditating on them or allowing the emotion to be expressed.  Sometimes we just need a good cry to let these go.
5. Practice vigilant self-care every day and every week. Do something every day that supports your well-being.  It could be taking a 10 minute walk or a 10 minute breathing meditation.  It could be to read an inspiring message from a book or article.  Then do something once a week that really makes you happy for at least an hour!
6. Be patient with yourself. You are here to experience these challenges to overcome them and ultimately come from a place of unconditional love for self and all.  I may be an idealist, but I believe that is our true nature to be in a state of LOVE and we can ALL get there!!

Coming from the perspective that loving yourself is your number one priority allows you to get in touch with who you really are.  It helps you to shift more quickly from less than desired feelings to feelings of joy, happiness, love and peace.  Isn’t that what most of us are striving for?  Enjoying life, helping others and feeling good? If you get in with and follow your heart, you will find your way back to LOVE!

SPIRITUAL WISDOM: Much More Than Knowledge

I have been on a spiritual journey of sorts since I was 19, after taking my first Reiki class and reading a few key books that opened up my mind and soul to the possibilities of understanding spiritual wisdom that has yet to be scientifically explained.  This metaphysical world fascinated me, and I dove in to learn as much as a could about topics such as energy healing, law of attraction, reprogramming the subconscious mind and accessing intuition. After 20 years of exploring and growing on this path, I’ve come across many ah-ha’s and many understandings that often would dispel previously held beliefs.  I want to share a couple of experiences that you or others may be having that may support you.

Spiritual wisdom is much more than knowledge! I’ve read a ton of books, listened to well-respected/well-known spiritual teachers, taken umpteen classes and then would wonder why after all these teachings and knowledge, nothing was really changing.  All of the understandings and experiences I had were wonderful, but I really only had intellectual understandings, because I did not fully incorporate or practice what I learned, but instead would be stuck in my mental mind.  I did not impact much change on an energetic level.  For example, I understood the concepts of “The Law of Attraction” inside and out and even would apply it “sometimes”, but until I really began to immerse myself into the law of attraction as a daily, even hourly practice, it would just remain an understanding. It was helpful to have information about these concepts, but wasn’t making the improvements I was hoping for until I actually deepened my experience and began to apply the information daily and energetically.

There is no end to uncover what needs healing if you keep digging.  In healing, you may have heard the term, “peeling away layers of the onion,” meaning layer by layer we address healing around all the negative or traumatic events we’ve endured.  Well, let me shed some light on this topic.  There are an infinite number of layers that we can continue to peel and heal!  Think about the eons of past lives you have had and all the trauma and drama you’ve experienced.  After many years of peeling my onion, it felt like there was no end in sight.  I was disheartened, as there was issue after issue which I recognized created my limiting beliefs, negative emotions and energetic blocks.

Once I stopped looking into what needed “fixing” in my past and started to invest my energy and my time on what I wanted to create in the present and the future, it was a game changer for me.  I began to manifest and attract what I wanted in life.  I began to see my choices from an empowered perspective versus being a victim of my circumstances from the past.  I now get to choose from a place of creating as I no longer seek to “heal” the past. I know that I am perfect just the way I am and so are you!  I powerfully know that I create my life with the choices I make, and in doing so, the past crap just dissolves away because it can no longer live in the light that I have chosen to live in.

There are many ah-ha moments along the path and these are a couple that have been highlighted for me over the past year or so.  Just remember to trust yourself along the way, as all the truth and wisdom resides within you, not without.

3 EASY STEPS TO LISTEN TO YOUR INTUITION

Shifting Perspectives

Some days you just wake up and the world can seem a dismal place and you can feel like life is moving against you or like you're walking through water making little progress.  It's times like this where I pull out all the stops and take action to get myself back on track and shift my perspective to that which is alignment with myself and divine creator.  I make a conscious effort to raise my vibration and find that happy place again. 1. Step one - stop feeling sorry for myself and realize this is my ego surfacing trying to get my attention and surround me with fear.

2. Listen to a positive guided meditation to center myself to get back in touch with my true self.  Maybe take a hot sea salt bath to draw out toxic emotions.

3. Initiate shifting of perspective.  Acknowledge that these thoughts that have caused me distress and not real, but only a product of my ego (fear based thoughts).  If I choose to shift my perspective to that of higher consciousness and align with source, I can reach the place of peace and contentment that I know is the only "real" stuff anyway.

4. Get outside and commune with nature (I'll be heading to White Rock Lake later today).

5. Find some like-minded people to help lift me up or get some energy work done to rebalance my system.

My point is that you can take action and initiate a game plan to shift these feelings and elevate your emotions to higher perspectives.  As I'm writing this, I have now created my to do list for today!

Namaste,

Jennifer