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Latest Daily Words
Don’t be Afraid to Look at What is
“It is what it is, it is what you make it.” — James Durbin
Never be afraid to look at what is happening. Pretending it’s not happening doesn’t make it disappear, that’s simply called denial. For example, not balancing your check book so you don’t have to see whether you have the money you want, doesn’t change the facts about how much money is in your checking account. IT simply keeps you from being able to respond to your money in appropriate ways and may cause you to spend money you don’t even have. Now your denial has created an even bigger problem.
What you must do is to learn to do, become willing to do, is to look at whatever is going on clearly and without reactionary emotions. That means to look, simply look without judgment or criticism, without feeling like a victim or seeking blame. Simply seeing that what is, that is what is. By simply looking at things as they are, you have a much better chance of doing something about it.
You can start creating the life you choose because you will not have given your power away to the situation, and you won’t have created additional issues.. Now you have the power within yourself to choose how you would like it to be instead, and to start moving in that direction.
Reflection: What am I afraid to look at in my life. What am I unwilling to see. What would happen if I did look at it, clear eyed and without reaction?
Affirmation: I see clearly what is, knowing that it doesn’t describe what will be. I take what it as my starting point, and build what I want from there.
Silence Nourishes the Soul
“In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.” — Mahatma Gandhi
Silence is necessary for our soul’s nourishment. Silence is the place in which our souls can grow and expand. It is room for our spirit to breathe, our minds to rest and our emotions to become still.
There is a difference between being quiet and being in the silence. Cultivating silence in your inner life is helped by bringing silence to your outer world. Silence confronts is with all the ways we keep ourselves from being present. We use noise to cover our mental chatter, keep ourselves from being lonely, and to pretend that we are connected.
Turn off everything making noise – the radio, TV, car stereo, computer, and phone no matter how important they may seem. Turn off your mediation music, affirmations, and the bells in the background no matter how spiritual they seem. Spend time in the silence. Discover your own company. Simply enjoy being with yourself.
Reflection: what noise do I use to drown out the silence? Am I comfortable in the silence, being with myself?
Affirmation: I rest in the silence, enjoying my own company. In the Silence I nourish my soul, rest my mind, and find myself.
Discovering Joy
“To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy…is to set our own conditions to the events of each day. To do this is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. — Thich Nhat Hanh
Joy is your natural and native state! Your being is always trying to return to Joy. Resolve to be Joyful. You do this by getting out of bed with a smile. Finding moments throughout the day that make you smile.
You do it by contemplating the Joy you take in your home, family, loved ones, and nature. Invite Joy into your heart by imagine yourself filled with Joy! Let your life become a smile.
Reflection: When are you most joyful in your ordinary day? How can you invite joy into your heart and your life?
Affirmation: I am a joy-filled, playful, open, laughing, loving being!
Dream Big!
“Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.” — Karen Ryan
When JFK declared that the US would land a man on the moon within the next decade, he had no idea how that was going to happen. What he knew is that unless we are willing to dream big, we will never become the greatness we are meant to be.
Along the way to achieving that dream so many amazing things were created and invented that are lives are completely altered because of that dream. You have big dreams, too. These dreams are Sprit’s impulsion to live and love, to grow and give, as YOU, through a full, rich, life which contributes in a meaningful and powerful way to all life.
So go ahead, dream big–you cannot out-dream Life! Live fully–it’s never too much for Spirit. Explore new things; it’s how Life is evolving. Love extravagantly–it’s really the only game worth playing! Every time you embrace something more, great, deeper, richer, or higher in your life, you are expanding how much of life you can express and experience.
Reflection: What is your big dream? Where are you living life to the fullest and love the most extravagantly? And where are you holding back?
Affirmation: I dream big, live large, love fully, reach deeper, and soar higher on the wings of Spirit.
Trusting Intuition
“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” — Alan Alda
Everyone has intuition because everyone is connected to Spirit. Intuition is knowing, without knowing how you know. Intuition is the ability to know, sense, or feel something without figuring it out or having a logical, rational explanation for it. Intuition knows from the whole to the parts, rather than the other way around.
Another way of saying this is that intuition is like Spirit because Spirit is the wholeness, the Oneness, and it always knows how to create from the oneness all the many amazing and wonderful things we have, like babies, and quasars, hummingbirds and galaxies. So intuition is about knowing the whole of anything, including knowing the “whole” of you.
You have intuition, you know, because Spirit knows. You know your own “wholeness”, your own being and reality, because you are Spirit, and Spirit always knows from the whole. So when you have confusion or uncertainty, your intuition speaks from that place of knowing, or already seeing the whole, and knowing which part you should focus on right now. Learn to hear and trust your intuition–it’s an amazing way to listen to what Spirit is trying to be – as you.
Reflection: How does my intuition communicate with me? What do I sense from my intuition about the “whole” of me?
Affirmation: I trust that I know myself, wholly. I know what’s good for me. I know what’s best for me to do. I listen to and trust my intuition.
Resistance is a Sign – Go Forward!
“Resistance to change is proportional to how much the future might be altered by any given act.” — Stephen King
When you decide to make a change in your life you are inviting yourself to step out of your comfort zone. By definition, being out of your comfort zone, means you are uncomfortable. The discomfort usually takes the forms of resistance, excuses, or denial. We resist what is needed to bring about the change. We make excuses for not doing it or following through on what we need to do or stop doing. Sometimes we simply outright deny the need for a change because it makes us so uncomfortable. How many times have you allowed this discomfort to keep you from moving forward?
Resistance, excuses, or denial are important sign-posts that you are close to something very important in your life that has been keeping your stuck in the rut of your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid. Look at your resistance. Notice your excuses. Acknowledge your denials. Examine your rut. This is the first step Now that you know these are simply ways you experience pushing outside your comfort zone you can move in spite of them, or you can dissolve them, with your intention to live your change.
Reflection: Where am I in resistance, making excuses or in denial about something I have really decided I want to have changed in my life? How is this about me being outside my comfort zone?
Affirmation: I bold step beyond the edge into the new in my life. I move confidently and easily toward my transformation. I am strong enough to face the changes.
Inner Guidance
“One part of the mind is already in heaven, for there is a place in you and in me that is above confusion and fear, no matter how disturbed our thoughts may be. If we get quiet long enough and listen deeply enough, we shall hear. “ — Ernest Holmes
I have lain awake at night, wishing I could sleep, while my brain goes on, and on, and on about something I can’t figure out or don’t know what to do about, haven’t you? This monkey mind chatter is seldom able to come up with anything new or even likely to help us move through whatever we are facing. All it does is stir up more fear, confusion and uncertainly, which causes us to want to control, figure it out, or just plain give up.
But there is a part of us that does know. The Inner Presence, Spirit within, it knows. That knowing is available to us when we get quiet and LISTEN to the still small voice within. Everyone hears that still small voice differently. It comes as an urge, a nudge, a knowing. It comes as a snatch of a song, a fleeting thought, or a word from a friend.
You can intend to get an answer and open a book, magazine or newspaper. You can even notice the street signs along your way. Pay attention. Don’t wait for the neon sign or the flashing arrow, you may now get one! But your intuition is always trying to break through. You just need to get quiet and LISTEN.
Reflection: What has my intuition been trying to tell me?
Affirmation: I pay attention to my intuition. I notice the signs. Even if I think I don’t know, something within me does know. I get quiet and listen.
It’s My Life
“What you think of me is none of my business.” — Terry Cole-Whittaker
How many times have you been in a room full of people and wondered if they were starting at you; Or were watching and judging you? How often have you spoken up in a group only to be consumed with the concern about whether you said or did something stupid; Or if what you said even made sense?
This is being self-consciousness in a negative way, allowing your concern over whether someone is watching, listening, judging or critiquing you, rather than simply showing up as who you are to give the gift you have to give.
You are the only person who can live your life. Stop worrying about what other people think. If someone does think or talk about you, they will only spend 5 minutes on you and then they will go on to talk about someone else, and someone else, and then someone else again You, however, you have to live with yourself 24/7! So you will have let someone else’s 5 minutes dictate who you are and how you feel about yourself for the other 1435 minutes of that day.
Be who you are, no matter how different or self-conscious you may feel. No one else can be you, but you! And you are absolutely beautiful, precious, never-to-be-repeated unique!
Reflection: When have I allowed my fear of what someone else might think keep me from doing something or being myself?
Affirmation: I am a unique, precious, never-to-be-repeated expression of the Divine. I am absolutely capable of being myself! I am proud and confident of who I am.
Chaos or Calm
“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” — Robert H. Schuller
Getting lost while driving downtown is not a low energy kind of experience … it can raise the intensity in the car very rapidly. But getting lost in a foreign city with very narrow, highly congested one-way streets, on a hot, humid, smoggy day with all sorts of noises and not being able to speak the language has great potential for knocking you off your centeredness.
When attempting to listen to your inner guidance for direction, having the oppressive street honking at you from every direction can definitely numb the inner communication link. Yet no matter how loud the outer world gets with all its commotion, you still have the power to choose whether you are going to be impacted by the outside or stay tuned in to your inner calm.
If you can catch a glimpse of yourself making the choice, you can detach in the midst of the commotion. When you are the observer of yourself making choices, you become free to go with chaos or calm.
Reflection: Where in your life is there so much commotion that you’ve given up your calm?
Affirmation: I am going with the calm in the midst of chaos!
Listen to your GPS
“Listen to your intuition it will tell you all you need to know.” — Anthony J. D’Angelo
“By learning to trust your intuition, miracles seem to happen. Intuitive thoughts are gifts from the higher self.” — Susan Jeffers
How do birds know to fly south in the winter? How does the monarch know which specifics trees in Mexico and on the Monterrey Peninsula are right for the end of their great migration? In animals this inner knowing is called instinct. You too have an inner knowing, a cosmic GPS system. Somewhere within you, you “know” what to do; what is right; how to proceed. This inner knowing is called intuition, and it is your ability to know as GoLifed knows, see as Love sees, without the need to for rational thought or explanation.
This inner knowing may conflict with how you have figured it out, or with what is prudent and acceptable. Sometimes intuition takes you on a wild journey across the landscape of your life. Listen to yourself. Learn to act on your “knowing”. You will be surprised by the amazing way you reach your destination and how wonderfully Spirit supports you along the way!
Contemplate: What does your intuition sound like, feel like, seem like? How do you know when it is your intuition and not some fear or rationalization talking?
Affirmation: My intuition is the voice of Spirit in me. I listen to my intuition and trust it to be my guide.
Just Start!
“Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do.” — Liz Smith
“Do not wait for ideal circumstances, nor the best opportunities; they will never come.” — Janet E. Stuart
Remember doing puzzles as a kid? You dumped out the whole box, turned all the pieces over and then wondered where to start. First you created the border with all the flat edged pieces, which was easy. But what do you do next? Finding a place to start within the picture was always the most challenging thing. Sometimes life feels the same way. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have a lot of neat edge pieces to begin with, but simply a lot of possibilities with nothing but the picture in our minds for a clue.
Don’t wait to find all the edge pieces and have a nice neat border completed! Start today! There will never be a “perfect” time to begin because you will never be finished with your current to-do list. If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, nothing will change. Remember, Spirit is only available in the eternal Here and Now, not in some future time when you’re ready or things are different.
Contemplation: Imagine the patterns and pieces of your life where like the pieces of a puzzle spread out on the table. Look for something that catches your eye. That’s a good place to start.
Affirmation: I am no longer waiting for everything to be perfect. I begin today!
Embrace Change
“The courage to change is the measure of a real man/woman for only through change can one be enlightened and only through enlightenment can one enter the gates of heaven.” — Micheal Teal
The only thing permanent is change. Everything about life is constantly changing. You can see the rhythm of change through the season and cycles of all life. Notice how effortlessly the trees shed their leaves, the bird flied from the next, and the moon waxes and wanes. The problem is only that sometimes you want to cling to what you have and what you know, even when you want things to be different than they are.
Celebrate changes, as the new unfolds in your life. It may be just what you have been affirming, even if it doesn’t look exactly like you pictured. A wise person once said “Break down has to come before break through.” Let things change, invite the changes, so that the new can enter into your life. Trust the process and declare that good will come of it!
Contemplate: What needs to change in you and in your life, for things to really change?
Affirmation: I embrace change. I release what no longer serves, letting go of the familiar. I eagerly anticipate the new knowing this change is for the better
The Banquet Table of Life
“We must set up a receiving center. No matter how abundantly the horn of plenty may pour out its universal gifts, we must hold up our bowl of acceptance or the gift cannot be complete. Life is ready to give us all that we desire, but we must first cast from us everything that hinders Its complete expression through us; let go of all struggle and strife, and accept the Divine bounty.” — Ernest Holmes
Life is a banquet of love, joy, and abundance. This reminds me of the book “ Auntie Mame”, in which the feisty heroine exclaims “Life’s a banquet, but most poor suckers are starving to death.” The feast of life has been provided for each and every person. You are constantly offered limitless possibilities for self-expression, creativity, love and joy.
Open your arms and your heart wide! Embrace the bounty and the beauty! Partake of the life that Spirit means for you to live. Don’t settle for anything less!
Contemplate: Imagine the banquet table of life. Are your feasting or starving?
Affirmation: I stand at the banquet table of life and enjoy the rich and bountiful feast Spirit is continually serving. I take all that I need at this moment, knowing I can always go back and get more.
Look for the Good and Praise It
“Through affirmative thinking you are able to clear your mind of negative thoughts, fears and doubts. This you must come to do if you are to become aware of the Presence, Peace and Harmony of God that is within and around you. All the good that you desire awaits your acceptance of it. But you cannot experience it while you deny it. The key to right thinking and right living is the steady affirmative pattern of thought that only God’s Good enters your life.” — Ernest Holmes
Pay attention to the way you are thinking about things. Do you make negative assumptions, take things personally, or sometimes feel like life is against you? Are you thinking from fear, unforgiveness, worry, or anger? Unfortunately, this kind of thinking simply perpetuates these kinds of experiences in your life.
Turn around and think about things from a Spiritual perspective. Look for the Good and Praise it. Affirm that Spirit is Present. That Love is available. That prosperity and abundance are your divine birthright. That no matter what you may be currently experiencing, these spiritual truths are what you are going to dwell on instead. You will immediately see and feel about it differently!
Contemplate: Rate your overall thinking and self-talk – 1 being completely negative all the time and 10 being completely positive all the time. Notice if there are any times and places during the day your rating significantly changes.
Affirmation: I keep my thoughts positive and keep my attention fixed on Love’s Good.
A Lighter Footprint – Earth Day Tomorrow
“We must learn to live with Mother Nature and put it deep in our hearts that whatever she gives we must take as blessings.” — Nader Khalili
So many people want to make a difference on this planet but get overwhelmed by the number of environmental issues plaguing Mother Earth that they quit before ever starting. It’s simple to start … it begins in the head and heart. As you expand your awareness, the sparks become a blaze of passion of the soul, making you conscious of the effects of your choices and actions upon the whole.
When you make yourself aware, you’ll know what is yours to do, the least of which is to start in your home and your life. That lighter footprint will make a difference for all of humanity.
Reflection: How can I live differently in a way that would be less impactful and more loving to the planet?
Affirmation: My footprint upon the planet is kind!