It’s my birthday today!!! I loveeeeee birthdays. I tell everyone it’s my birthday. Typical fire sign right? Yep!
 
So, in honor of my birthday, I am celebrating you, my amazing readers to express my absolute gratitude towards you and your support and feedback. 
 
I love each of you and value your presence in my life, even if we’ve never talked or met. 
 
Every morning I surround you all in positive energies, so know that I think of you and appreciate you.
 
Enjoy your Thanksgiving tomorrow and spend a moment thinking about the people and things in your life that you appreciate. To take it a step further, let the people know. A little appreciation and gratitude goes a long way. And the more you give it, the more it’s returned to you.
 
Have a fabulous day!! I know I will!!!

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I heard a fascinating lecture from Dr. Sue Morter (can you tell I love her with all my references lately?!). She pointed out that when you say you need to love yourself, simply in that statement it shows that you are identified as your mind, as if you are two people. “The mind is a tool we have versus what we’re supposed to be identified as. We’re supposed to use it, versus letting it run the show.”[1]
 
What you’re really saying with that self-love statement is, “I want to be more deeply my soul self instead of my ego mind self.  I want to lead from my love, not from my mind.” The soul doesn’t have to learn to love itself, because it is love. We want to connect with and identify as our soulful self.
 
From the mind, we cannot love, yet we think we can. The mind is where all the distortions around love come in. Distortions are saying you love someone, yet really you’re manipulating the other, or trying to control them to do what you want and what you think is right. Distortions are also jealousies, possessiveness, and feeling like the love will be lost unless you hold on tightly and don’t allow the other their freedom of expression or preferences. It’s also guilting or shaming another to get your way. None of these are actual love, which is why we become distrustful of love, because all we know are the distortions. Those distortions were done to us and so we in turn, do them to others.
 
True love is very different. True love, what everyone really wants, is absolutely available yet it requires that you quiet your monkey mind and surrender to your soulful self. It’s a soul vibration that knows peace and safety, trust and faith. It’s in each of our cores, it’s not something you need to seek outside of you or go find. It’s in you, waiting to be uncovered and acknowledged. 
 
In order to bring it out, observe how you move about your day: do you allow your ego mind to rule you or do you come from love? Are you trying to get something from another or are you holding the space for love and healing, while allowing them their truths? Do you forgive or do you punish and blame? 
 
The same goes for how you treat yourself. Ego mind wants to abuse and berate you for your “failures,” soul self knows there are no failures, everything is a learning opportunity, and you at your core, are a being of love. You’re here to learn and grow but also to have fun and love with abandon.
 
Self-love is allowing that loving part of you to be in charge. Self-care and nurturing are ways we start to connect with our soul self to experience that love.
 
When you connect in with soul, you aren’t reactive, you are calm. You have compassion. Being soulful doesn’t mean you’re all love with zero boundaries, quite the opposite. You have strong boundaries because you honor your space.
 
It’s within you, yet you can’t access it without quiet time, without meditation and mindfulness: mindfulness of your actions and reactions. 
 
This life is a temporary blip, love is eternal. And only in the physical can we really experience it. So allow yourself to go there. Yes you’ve had pain and grief etc., but will you let that define you or will you seek the help you need to overcome that and come back to soul self - the truer you? Take the leap, amazing love awaits.
 
 
 
[1]  Dr. Sue Morter Lecture on “Creating Sacred Relationships.”

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Rest gets a bad name in our society of over-achieving and comparing what we’re doing to what everyone else is doing, but it is absolutely necessary for balance in your life. Sometimes you need to step back and rest, for only then can you become inspired and energized enough to move forward. 
 
Yesterday’s full moon was crazy energy and I’ve heard 2020 is going to be an immense time of growth for humanity. So a year ago when I said the energies were intense, that’s the new norm. Change is constant, you can’t fight it. The bigger picture is a bump in consciousness for everyone, and that can be uncomfortable at times as you’re being forced out of old ways of being that no longer serve you or the collective of the world. You’re up against your deepest, darkest issues at times so that they can brought to the light to be transformed into something beautiful. You’re doing more growth and inner work than you may even realize. That’s why rest is vital. 
 
When you intentionally and deliberately create time for rest, then your body won’t do it for you in the form of illness. Plus you give your physical body time to catch up to all your energetic growth.  
 
So this week, if you feel tired or overwhelmed, just stop and rest. Let your mind wander, daydream, relax. Let your body be still. Calm that monkey mind and give yourself permission to take the time and space to unwind and let go. It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity. 

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Absolutely everything is a choice.
 
I tell you that all the time and yet, I recently fell into “poor me,” meltdown rage, and feeling like rebelling against authority. 
 
I’m doing a major physical detox for healing and having to limit foods has caused me crazy rebellion at times. But who am I really rebelling against? It’s my choice to follow this protocol. It was my desire for healing and asking for help from my unseen team that brought me to this person I’m now working with. So while I could bitch and moan, I needed a reality check of - “No one is forcing me to do this. I am choosing based on the future I desire to create: one of incredibly radiant health and physical wellness.” 
 
I did need to have a talk with my inner child and more significantly, my inner adolescent- the one who rebels against everything and thinks many things are stupid. I needed to take my power back from her and move her to her safe place (I can teach you how to do this), which needed to be updated. There was a noticeable difference when I did that, I was immediately more accepting and could act like an adult, making adult decisions. 
 
You are never powerless. At any given moment you have a choice as to how to respond. You can choose to rise above and respond as the adult, or be reactive and act out from your child or adolescent.
 
You make choices constantly by how you respond to the things and people around you. There is no one to blame. No one is doing anything to you. Take responsibility and make the choice you want and then do not bitch and moan when you do. Or if it the pity/rage/blame etc. is really loud for you, then do as I did and dive into it fully, hearing it out so that you can release it. Then call your power back to you the adult in present time, and find out what you need to move forward in confidence and healing.
 
Look at your thoughts, look at your feelings, you choose continually all day. If you don’t like the outcomes, choose differently; choose more empowering and motivating thoughts/words/feelings because remember, what you focus on expands. 
 
In the midst of a mini meltdown one particularly intense day of detox when old issues were surfacing, I did just that. I’d had enough of my self-pity and these words came flowing out of me. Wow did they change my perspective fast and bring me back to a place of empowerment:
 
 
“I am free! Do not put myself in a prison of my own making. 
 
I choose the energies of what I want to feel today.
 
I choose how to respond to and experience my day.
 
Me- no one else.
 
No one is doing anything to me.
 
I have conscious choice which is the most powerful choice - and I choose to have fun and feel free, without restriction or limitation.
 
I am only as limited as I allow myself to believe I am.
 
I am not my body. I am unlimited. I am limitless light and love. 
 
Remember who I really am.
 
I am powerful!!!!”
 
 
May these words help you as well to overcome any obstacles you butt up against. We are in a time of extraordinary growth and ever increasing consciousness and sometimes that can get uncomfortable. If you remember your power and make strong choices, you can overcome anything.