Celebrate!

When was the last time you celebrated YOU? Birthday’s don’t count . . . they are ingrained in our society as Hallmark moments filled with butter cream frosted cakes with neon colored candy flowers for decoration! Blechhhh. I am talking about celebrating a rite of passage, an achievement, a release, or a life’s passage. It could be completing a project at work, entering menopause, sticking to an exercise program, becoming a grandmother, or completing a gardening project.

Have you ever thought about honoring yourself with an appropriate celebration that matches the event? What would that celebration look like? Think about what a celebration is for. It is to mark a special occasion. Every time we take the time to honor ourselves we send a message of love, acceptance, respect and appreciation of our authentic self.

Pick something you would like to celebrate. How do you wish to honor yourself. Find the right size celebration. Is it a hot bath, a new CD, a hike on a beautiful day, a cone of ice cream, a manicure, a dinner at your favorite restaurant, a new book, an afternoon of movie watching, or a membership to a new yoga class? Treat yourself and celebrate your Self!

Wait! What? What was that? Was that a voice I heard mumbling about there is no time? Or did it mention something about not being worth the bother? Or did I hear a sarcastic laugh! PLEASE! I am serious here! Where does this voice of discontent and disapproval come from? Does it have a place or time that it was born. Think back to when you learned this lie of you not being worth it. Who told or taught you that? Aren’t you ready to be done with that old storyline!

The best way to blast it out of your life, to rid it from your present and future, is to take it on. Have a grand celebration! With every negative, disempowering thought that enters your mind, stare it down, shout at it, laugh at it, ignore it . . . whatever works for you. Just DO IT! Celebrate you and your special-ness. Honor the significance it brings to your life.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

A Full Life, A Slower Day

Life has gotten fuller these days, busier and in some ways more complicated. Yet I do not feel overwhelmed or in a state of chaotic energy. I cannot help but think about times in the past when I was busy, but overwhelmed. Life was full and chaotic and I just needed things to sllllllloooooow down. SO what is different this time around. Surely, part of the difference is within me. I know over the past year I have changed greatly in how I am viewing things around me. I stand back and keep a purposeful difference energetically between me and the situation so that I can better assess it and find my truth. It is important to have a place of pause before we step forward into action. It gives us time to pull our wisdom and previous experience out of our back pocket and find what feels right, true and most meaningful for the moment.

So what else has changed? Applying this moment of pause means my decisions are better balanced. It means I have less wasted energy spent throughout my day. It means I have meaningful and enriching relationships with people around me and those are the relationships I nurture, not the unhealthy ones that bleed me dry!

Another thing that has changed is because I am living this way, it is being modeled to those around me and not surprisingly, being mirrored back. We are all each others teacher, so it only makes sense that when someone sees a positive shift in your life, they are going to take a look at what you are doing differently, and perhaps even try it on for size themselves.

So I move through my days a bit more gracefully now, I pause when I need to, I give myself permission to say, “I will have to get back to you on that” when I need to. It has had a very positive impact and I plan to keep going in this direction. There are still places on my daily path that have some stumbling stones I catch myself on from time to time. Now I have the space to work on those.

Life is good when you give yourself the time to notice!

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

It Is A Good Morning

It is 4 am and I am wide awake. My day is about to begin and I am thinking of what the new beginnings will look like for me today. It is a Friday, what some hold as the end of their week, the beginning of their weekend. For me it is a day perfect for a fresh start. I can leave behind any baggage from yesterday, any unresolved expectations. I can bring fresh new energy into the day and take on any unfinished business with a clean slate, a beautiful new beginning and breathe new life into it. Being conscious means we are in a constant flow of change. Every moment affords us that choice. We can choose how we relate to a person in our life, a situation at our workplace or even our feelings over a task at hand. When I live like this it gives me the chance to let go, to release and to replace and renew. This is important to me. It means I don’t let drama fill my moments. It means I don’t have to be stuck. It means I have choices in life even in things beyond my control.

If I believe that I am a constantly evolving person, which I do, then it is important that I live this way. How can I evolve if I keep holding on to feelings, beliefs or reactions to yesterday’s news? I have to start fresh and leave room for the change of who I am and who I am becoming. My soul needs the room to grow. I need the space within my heart to expand and contract as needed.

I began today with a ritual I often do. I stood before my altar, a sacred place I have created for my personal connection to Spirit, and I visualize myself putting any unresolved or unnecessary parts of the past that I may be holding onto into a bowl of water I have on the altar. Whatever is not going to serve me here in this moment goes in the bowl. I trust that Spirit will point out to me things I need to keep close, that are still works in progress, things I need to address to move forward, but the rest go in the bowl. In the water they are cleansed, they are safe for the time being, for when I am instructed to go back and take another look, but I don’t have the burden of carrying them around with me. I can use my energies elsewhere!

This morning in a journey one of my spirit guides showed me a tiny seed from a flower, it had a bit of fluff attached that helped it to be carried in the breeze. The flower had released it, let it go, without worry. This seed may land somewhere and take root, it may be eaten up by a bird, or it may be lost in the wind and never reach the rich soil it needs. The flower does not hold onto this worry. It does not spend any energy towards that part of the process. It has sat in the sun and bloomed, soaked up the rain and grew, and when the time was right, released the seed…which no longer served it and trusted that part of the process. Life will take it from there.

SO whether it be a seed or a burden, I begin each day letting go, making room, with a clean slate and a fresh start. New beginnings flourish here. Newness is added to my world this way. Sometimes it takes courage, sometimes it takes effort to let go, other times it is with great relief. But always, it creates possibilities for the greatest potential. What a magnificent way to start a day!

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

You Can Stop Caring

You can stop caring. Really it is o.k. The world will not come to an end. I promise. Stop caring about what, you ask? Well, for starters, let me share with you a few things that I have decided I will no longer care about. Let’s see if you agree. I have stopped caring about what everyone thinks of me. Other’s opinions do not matter so much to me anymore. I enjoy my friendships, my family’s love and relationships I have with others, but if you choose to say something about me and if you share your thoughts about me...it just is not that important to me. What has become important to me is what I think about myself. I have learned my thoughts can create my reality. So I pay close attention to what I am thinking about myself, how I am judging myself and if I am honoring myself.

I have also stopped caring about being perfect. It is an imaginary state anyway. Being perfect is impossible. Perfectionists also have a very difficult time getting anything done. It is hard to start new projects and even more challenging to finish them. Why? Because nothing is ever perfect or good enough. I have also discovered that I have some of my best life lessons when I mess up. Through my mistakes and shortcomings, I find my strengths or vulnerabilities. I learn who I am.

I have also stopped caring about things that are beyond my control. This is a fact of life I have finally come to terms with. It is the best thing I can do to prevent myself from wasting my energies or my talents. I have released the frustration and inertia that comes from being in this state! When I am faced with something that is beyond my control and I feel myself beginning to stress, I put my energies into shifting my perspective. Now, that I can take part of and care about. It leads me to a place of forward movement and helps me to decide what I will do next.

I have learned to live in the moment. To do that, I had to stop doing certain things before I could have new beginnings. These are just a few, but they were biggies for me. How about you? What can you stop caring about? How will your life be different if you do?

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade