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Shining Your Light

holding_sun_1I conduct classes with the title, Shining Your Light, because I believe so strongly in this message:  You are a light being and have a light that is unique to you. When you stay buried under all the details of life, your light dims, and eventually, is not even distinguishable in the existence you’ve carved out.  Truth is, at times it feels more like “existence” than living. It is understandable that, because your life is teeming with duties and tasks, you don’t realize that you have forgotten to tend to the oil lamp and really live the life you want.

However, this lamp is what both lights your way and guides others. Truthfully, living a life you love requires less effort. Guiding others comes more when you live in the beautiful vibration that is you. It is the energy that attracts what and who you want directly to you. Living in that vibration is vital to embracing what you want and doing so means you are in the flow.

When you step into the flow, you begin to develop the skills it takes to lead your life, instead of react to life. You work on those skills and deliberately proceed as an active participant in your journey. You influence people by the way your energy shows up to others.

You have an energy field around you that acts like a magnet: you pull in those who are attracted to your vibration because they tend to vibrate in a similar way. You also repel those who are not attracted to your vibration, because it is not like theirs. The same happens with opportunities in your life – you attract or repel opportunities because of your energy field, which is part of what I am referring to when I talk about your light.

Part of the issue is that we all have default tendencies. The best way to describe them is in relation to computer science. A default is “a preset setting or value.” When you behave by default it is because it’s where you are programmed to respond, without thinking about it.

Some default tendencies are helpful, like driving a car, remembering to brush your teeth or even saying, “be careful” when your kids go out at night. They’re “reflexive.” Others are not.

Default tendencies are also related to what I talked about earlier – inherited values. The good news is that this default can be consciously reprogrammed.

Your default tendencies are created by messages that were dumped into your subconscious mind in a way that now has become fairly insidious. Small comments like “what’s wrong with you” or “why can’t you be more like your sister” or “sit down and stop asking questions” sent the message that you are not good enough.  They also tell you that your value is linked to your behavior.

So, you may keep trying to prove your value in ways you are unaware of. Perhaps you can’t accept a compliment; you get angry when someone slights you; you take things very personally because you can’t put them in perspective. Maybe you default to always apologizing – if anything goes wrong. Even if it is not your fault, you say, “I’m sorry.” Your default is your subconscious talking–your inherited values and belief systems that keep you stuck. Your false belief system. The “story” you inherited. It worked for you when you were younger, and you’ve adopted it subconsciously as an adult.

Values are also part of the story you inherited, and were impressed upon you at an early age. Often, you act by default based on those values, without consciously thinking about it. When was the last time you sat down and asked yourself what your own values are? We all are basically good people, and tend to value integrity, honesty, kindness etc. But what is important to you? Is it passion? Creativity? Drive? Financial independence? Growth? Maybe you don’t care about timeliness but really value spontaneity? You don’t know until you explore for yourself.

Your default tendencies also show up in behaviors. A simple example is if you grow up in a household full of arguing, your default tendency may be, when you want to prove your point, to argue. (Also, you may feel the need to prove your point!)  It might not occur to you that perhaps this isn’t the best way to a) get what you want and b) solve the problem. In fact, argument usually completely denies a solution or compromise!

So, your light is dimmed when you are not living your authentic life, according to your values, your belief system, your inner knowing that is yearning to come out. Default tendencies are there to make life easier, but, it takes conscious effort to choose which ones to keep, and which ones to let go of. When you don’t let go of the defaults that are not serving you, you stay buried. All of the inauthentic pieces create a blanket that covers your light.

So what are some of your defaults? Where in your life are you reactive instead of thoughtfully proactive?  Where do you get buried in the details of your life? Start the process by just observing your own behaviors, asking yourself questions about what you value and believe in order to start removing what blankets your light. It’s a process, but one so very worth doing.

AFFIRMATION OF THE WEEK:
Today I choose to live my life proactively. I observe what I am reacting based on old stories and when I am choosing to embody a higher vibration. More and more, I realize that guilt and fear have no place in my life of high vibration.

Show me the magic!

“Have faith in your dreams, and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true”. – Cinderella

Show me the magicWhat is the key to creating magic in your life? Well, I can promise you it’s not by abdicating personal responsibility.  It’s not by being passive like Sleeping Beauty or hoping the white knight is going to save you.  It’s by taking responsibility for aligning your intentions with the Universe…and calling on your own resourcefulness to make your dreams come true.

In the last few weeks we’ve been talking about how buying into the commonly perceived messages of fairytales like Cinderella can wreak havoc on your money mindset. I’d like to take a look at Cinderella from a different viewpoint, courtesy of Maryanne Williamson in her fabulous book, The Law of Divine Compensation. She puts a new twist on Cinderella by referring to how the Universe “took care of” whatever Cinderella wanted.  She says, “her purity of heart called forth the Fairy Godmother – that is the spirit within – and the Fairy Godmother called forth everything she needed.” She is not referring to purity in the Victorian sense, but in the sense of clear, clean connection to love and spirit.

How much more empowering is that interpretation of good ol’ Cindy? So what is Maryanne Williamson talking about? The way I see it, there’s a formula for getting what you want:

  1. Decide what you want from the Universe (and think big!).
  2. State what you want emphatically and from a place of love within your heart (not need, desperation or fear!).
  3. Get in touch with your inner power (the spirit within).
  4. Be resourceful! (Look for opportunities to act and take control of your thoughts.)
  5. Trust (believe) that your “dream will come true.”

I’m not going to tackle each of these points individually (but watch for some future programs that will!). I’d like to just talk about the overall concept of the magic of inner power.  When you:

M anage your thoughts
A lign your heart with the Universe
G et in touch with your inner power (the spirit within)
I ncrease your own resourcefulness (and look for opportunities to act)
C ommit to trust (believe that your dreams will come true)

you can create the magic of transformation in your life.

Let’s talk about my favorite topic: thoughts!

What do you do when you’re worried about something? You know what you do…you obsessively think about it, generating more anxiety and fear than the day or moment before.  Instead, try this experiment:

Remember a happy time when you were a child. Remember what it felt like to just run. (If you can’t remember, watch a child – you’ll get the idea. If you don’t want to imagine this as a child, remember a very happy moment in your life.) Stay with and in that thought.  Feel the lovely freedom of running – the breeze moving your hair, feeling the air on the skin on your arms, giggling with excitement. Now take that picture and blow it up really big in your mind. Make it brighter and brighter and bigger and closer.   What are you thinking, feeling, seeing? What sounds do you hear? How colorful can you make it? (Thank you Anthony Robbins for the brilliant exercise from which this was adapted.)

How do you feel now that you’ve blown that image up so big and bright? Do your feelings of happiness or goodness increase? That is the power your mind has over what you think. You chose to bring about a response in your mind, and probably your body, with the simple power of thought. You can do this with any thoughts. You can choose to interpret what you are experiencing any way you want. No matter how terrible a situation is, you are still the one in control of what you tell yourself about the situation.

Try it when you’re feeling overwhelmed or gloomy.  Choose to move yourself out of your current, negative state by going back to a happier image like the one you chose in the above exercise. Choose  to replace your gloomy thoughts with those of the positive image. Spend a few moments staying with that image. It will change the way you feel.

How you feel is not the result of what is happening in your life – it is your interpretation of what is happening. Successful people’s lives have shown us over and over again that the quality of our lives is determined not by what happens to us, but with what we do with what happens to us.” Anthony Robbins

I don’t pretend that you won’t hit bumps in the road, have some miserable experiences and moments of sadness. But you do have control over the way you think. Recognizing and feeling your emotions is important. But you can change your perspective. When you change your thoughts – as you know, you change the way you feel, and therefore you see the opportunities, trust your instincts, and act on opportunities. Simply put, when you change your thoughts,  it’s easier to align with the Universe and trust.

Nobody said learning magic was necessarily easy, but it’s so fun. Why don’t you try it?

Affirmation of the week:

Each day, I am experiencing more of the magic in my life. I trust that when I change my interpretation of what is happening, I can change my life.

 

The Entitlement Trap

First, let’s get the definitions out of the way:

  • Entitlement: the fact of having a right to something or, belief that one is deserving or entitled to certain privileges.
  • Deservedness: something rightfully earned because of something done or qualities show; merited.

I have a Facebook page for Healthybeing which has nearly 5,000 “fans” on it. I work hard to provide service and to the people who visit my page. I consider this part of my giving back. There is a lot of interaction on my page and in my inbox. I once had an “inbox” message from someone who was ranting that “spiritual women shouldn’t charge people who don’t have enough money. They should help them for free.”

At first, it pushed a button in me that said, “Yes, I have a gift that I can use to help people who are struggling.” But quickly, I realized that was the old me talking – that was my false belief system saying, “You don’t deserve to receive money for your gifts.”

“I do a lot of pro bono work,” I justified to myself.  Then I realized that I was justifying.

This is the perfect example of deservedness vs entitlement: I struggled with feeling deserving to charge my value and she felt entitled to have the world give her for free what someone took away from her somewhere along the line.  The world must pay for her suffering.

Now, are there people who are starving, poor and deserving? Of course! No one “deserves” to be hungry, homeless or abused, in any way. The distinction I am making is between those people deserving of their basic human rights and those we all know, and many of us have been at times in our lives, who “feel entitled” for no apparent reason.

And as women entrepreneurs, we are compelled to give back. In fact, that is the reason many of us went into business to begin with. Our “why” is to help the world in some impactful way. That is why the Dalai Lama said, “the world will be saved by the western woman.” Because we have the capacity to make money AND make an impact. And we care, deeply. For most of us, it’s not about the money, but what the money can do. While you can make many changes in the world without money, the reality is that money can be used to make a big impact.

spiritual growth

And besides, remember, money is just an energy exchange. (See last week’s blog post.)

The deserving piece: The money wounds so many women have essentially stem from the question of feeling worthy and deserving. We self-sabotage, feel guilt, fear what others will think and even worry how making money will interfere with our relationships with our partners. We feel that if we possess “gifts” that spirit granted us then we don’t deserve to charge for them.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “But it’s so easy for me. How can I charge for this?” or, “Anyone can do this. No one will pay for this.”

Cover your ears, but, that’s bullshit, my friends.

There is a balance every person has to find in his or her life between giving back and knowing they have value worthy of payment.  You don’t go to your doctor and say, “You should give this surgery to me for free.” You don’t walk into a restaurant and say, “You should give me a discount because I don’t have any money.” No, you figure out a way to get the help you need, and then lift yourself up.

This is going to push a lot of buttons, I know. But the truth is that until we start to feel worthy, we run the risk of feeling entitled. And that is disempowering and has an adverse effect on the world, in general!

The entitlement piece: Usually this stems from people’s sense that they have been victimized in their lives. They can’t seem to find a way out of the struggle (often financially) and so blame others for their plight.  It becomes more and more of a self-fulfilling philosophy and rather than go deeply inside to address the pain, they blame others and don’t take responsibility for participating in the creation of their own reality.

Take divorce. I see it time and time again when a marriage falls apart. Rather than deal with the abandonment issues, the pain of being left or the anger at the other person who wasn’t meeting needs, there is a lot of complaining going on about how the other person ruined the marriage. (That’s what I did in the beginning!) It takes two to break up a relationship…after all, there are two people in it. Not taking responsibility is a form of entitlement.

I remember my ex showing me photographs of a trip he took to India. He visited a leper colony. There was a beautiful photo of a couple who were losing limbs and sitting in front of their makeshift home, a fire burning. They were making tea. They looked so happy. He said he was touched by how cheerful, loving and good spirited they were, how much love they shared, and how happy they were to be together, even in this situation.

So I ask you, no matter where you are in life: are you enjoying this gift of life, feeling worthy of love, money and happiness? Or, are you angry and entitled, feeling the world owes you a favor?

It’s a sensitive subject, but I think one worthy of debate. I have a feeling I may have ticked people off in this newsletter, but that’s okay. Because I know where my heart is, where my value is, and what I am deserving of.

How do I know this? Because I used to be that entitled one.

Affirmation of the Week

I realize and own more and more of my value every day. I believe in what’s possible.  I live by the motto of doing well by doing good.

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Embrace Your Optimal Health


FREE DOWNLOAD:
“5 THINGS YOUR DOCTOR MAY NOT
KNOW ABOUT YOUR HEALTH”



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