2013 Fun Challenge: A Year of 52 Firsts and Claiming 2013 as a Year of Joy and Fun, New Adventures

Whew, it’s been so long since I've blogged that I thought I'd forgotten my password! It’s been a big, busy year for me filled with new things like doing my first trial by myself, starting my own law firm, doing the Warrior Dash, Lollapalooza, volunteering at Agape’s Youth Revelations Conference for the whole weekend, etc. I apologize for being missing, but you all know I like to flow with what I feel is right at the moment and in 2012 developing my lawyer skills was on the forefront, and therefore, my focus.

Anyhow, in prep for the New Year, I’ve decided to get ready for 2013 by committing a fun challenge that I saw a friend do in 2011. She challenged herself to try something new every week of the year and it looked awesome and like her year was overflowing with mini adventures. I already try to do new things often and stay open, but I’d like to formalize it and commit to a new "First time I" per week for 2013. By next New Year’s I should have at least 52 new experiences. I try so many new things all the time that I felt like this might be an interesting challenge because I’ve already covered a lot(i.e. I'd like to try Capoeira, but would it still count if I only tried it once and it was freshman year of college? Nope. Unless it’s with an added element). From waltz to aerial burlesque, I've tried it. I started wishing I had waited until the New Year to try the new cleanse that I just finished yesterday… But after sitting down to brainstorm for a couple of minutes I realized finding new things I’d like to try wouldn’t be difficult in this very abundant universe.

I wanted to post about this BEFORE the New Years in case anyone else would also like to partake in this fun challenge or follow it. It should be lots of fun and committing to something new a week provides a great set up for living your life to the fullest. It IS a spiritual exercise because it will help keep us from getting stuck in routine or a rut, it will keep the energy flowing, we'll be showing the Universe that we’re open and willing to try new things, we'll become more open to new things, we’ll put ourselves out of comfort zones at times, explore this beautiful life, find new things that bring us joy to add to our lists and toolboxes, ensure we allot time to ourselves at least once a week, get to know ourselves better, explore random dreams, increase creativity, attract more fun new adventures since we're putting out that energy, and build new neural pathways as our brains meet something new and strengthen themselves.

I'm going to start a new sister blog just for this challenge so that I can blog about the new things I experience each week ( http://52Firstsfor2013.blogspot.com/ ). I consider this 52 week fun challenge to be a spiritual exercise and some of the new experiences will certainly have to do with a spiritual activity/process/practice, but since I know people search this blog for spiritual exercises, I didn't want to fill it up with my 52 New Experiences. I'll transfer any spiritual experiences/exercies to this blog and I wanted to blog about the actual exercise since it is a spiritual practice. If this challenge resonates with you, feel free to join me! For the first few weeks, I think I’ll finally use my Crossfit Groupon and check out what the hype is about.. And I’ve been wanting to try Salt Therapy too…. During the last month I've been focused on strengthening my physical body so that theme may continue into January. I’m excited about this challenge and to see my recap of the year at the end of 2013! I'm claiming 2013 as a year of joy, abundance, and fun, new adventures. Feel free to join! I affirm that our new experiences this year will be fun and joyful. And so it is!

Healing Exercise for Self, for Healthier Relationships, AND for Healing Neediness

I want to share one of my current fave self-healing techniques, called "Re-Parenting." It’s awesome. Super healing for self AND for relationships, particularly useful for attracting healthier relationships. I have been using it for a couple of months now and really love it (and so do the clients who have tried it). Really you could JUST focus on Re-Parenting for months and do a lot of healing in so many areas and make a huge, deep difference in your life.... I got this exercise from Katherine Woodward Thomas, who rocks.

So Re-Parenting is a technique where you take full responsibility and control of the things you didn't feel you received during childhood (cause hey, everyone is human and growing, including your parents). Even the best parents in the world may have been lacking in certain areas, sometimes for reasons beyond their control. Alternatively/additionally, you can also choose to take full responsibility and control for things you feel like other people/past lovers don’t/didn’t give you. And you commit to providing these things for yourself now. This is really awesome because I run into so many people who can list off all the ways they’re traumatized from childhood and why, and while they can now pinpoint why they have this or that issue, they haven’t been able to heal it yet, and this exercise shifts you from blaming others, to actually taking full responsibility. And full responsibility means you have your POWER back. And on top of that you’re nurturing yourself. As is popularly known, the way you treat yourself sets the pattern/standard for how others treat you. So when you give yourself what you want/need, you are now establishing the energy you wish to receive from others (I’ll have a p.s. on this point at the end for people who aren’t as familiar with this concept). I’ll go over the exercise step by step, give my example and then add the P.S.

Exercise:

Sit down with a pad of paper and pen, and write down everything you feel was missing in your childhood (or in past relationships).

Some examples to get you started include:

-Nurturing (soothing you when you were disappointed, regular touch, kindness)

-Consistency and Dependability (kept their word, you knew you could count on them, were able to earn a living),

-Basic Life Skills (managing a check book, keeping up with the bills and home),

-Encouragement of Your Talents (recognizing them and supporting them to grow),

-Attention (spending time with you, noticing and responding to your moods, listening to you),

-Protection (from hostile behaviors of others, other kids bullying you, from danger, etc.),

-Respect of Boundaries (honoring your privacy and your right to say no, right to stand up for yourself),

-Basic Hygienic Care (washing of body, doing laundry, caring for your teeth, clean home),

-Unconditional Love (loving you without needing you to “perform” in return, etc.).


So you make your list of the things you feel were missing and then you go through your list and you write and say out loud for EACH of the things you listed:

"I, _________ release and forgive ___________ for failing to __________. I give up failing to _________ myself. I promise to do my absolute best to begin _______ myself from this day forward, and I claim ________ as mine fully and completely."


To fill in the blanks for example, let’s take consistency, stability, and dependability, it would read like this:

“I, Jaycee release and forgive my parents for failing to provide me with consistency, dependability, and stability. I give up failing to give myself consistency, dependability, and stability. I promise to do my absolute best to provide myself with consistency, dependability, and stability and to be dependable to myself from this day forward, and I claim consistency, dependability, and stability as mine fully and completely.”

I would write that down and say it out loud for each thing on my list. In doing so you're basically taking complete power over these things. They're now yours to give yourself and you release others from it. So you’re not only claiming these things for yourself and taking back your power, but you’re fully forgiving others and releasing blame. This is SUPER powerful and very healing.

In my case, I'm currently focused on the example I used above. My parents were absolutely awesome and did the best they could. But they were teenagers when they had me, didn’t speak English, and we lived in very poor conditions. Because my father was always trying to find work, we were constantly moving to wherever work was and I went to 13 different schools before age 12. So I think it’s fair to say that despite my parent’s best efforts I didn’t have a lot of stability or consistency when I was a child, and they weren't always dependable. Twenty-year-olds don't always realize the importance of keeping their word and don't always make the best decisions. Even when they wanted to keep their promises, sometimes they couldn’t. So I did the exercise above and claimed these things as my own and am focused on providing them for myself. I’m focused on keeping my word to myself and on being consistent. For example, if I say I’m going to work out every day for an hour, I do it (and am consistent about it!). I’ve been showing myself just how dependable and reliable I am for me. I don’t have to worry about suddenly getting lazy, not working out, and gaining weight because I know I can count on myself to be dependable. I sign up for a few dance classes a week and volunteer work, and I make sure I keep these promises to myself and that I’m consistent. I do the things on my to do list. I make commitments and keep them. I do what I tell myself I'm going to do. And that’s just one of the examples. I’m doing multiple ones, but that’s my been my focus.


Safety was also a big one for me. Having grown up in dangerous neighborhoods at the height of the nightstalker/Richard Ramirez thing (he was caught like a block away from my house- my mom/grandma lived in a state of fear during that time), and coming from a loud/dramatic Cuban family, there were always huge screaming scenes about how I was going to get killed or kidnapped anytime I forgot to padlock the door or set foot outside my yard. And you can imagine the type of screaming scenes that would take place when my "big kid" parents were exploring their new environment and would do things like light a Roman Candle INSIDE the house, not knowing what it would do and then the couch would catch on fire. So I grew up feeling pretty unsafe and like my parents/adults couldn't protect me because they were scared themselves. Now I’m giving myself affirmations about how safe and protected I am and how everything is OKAY, and come up with creative ways to make myself feel safe.

Those are just a couple examples. Funny thing is that I've always been such a free spirit and love being spontaneous, so I hadn't even realized these were things I needed. I only started there because it was the thing that was definitely missing back then. And after starting, now I realize how great and peaceful these things make me feel.

Re-parenting yourself and nurturing yourself feels GOOD. You can have all those things you felt you were deprived of in some way, or that you’ve always wanted. It’s now ALL in your hands.

Katherine gives this exercise in order to heal people’s hearts, and their neediness, before they enter into an adult, romantic relationship. She says, “’Neediness’ is a state of inner deprivation based upon unmet dependency needs in early childhood. When we are needy, we are trying to get from others what was denied us in the past. Unfortunately, though, many of these childhood needs cannot adequately be met in present-time, and particularly not with people we barely know...... It’s not that our needs are wrong. It’s that we’ve been going about trying to get them met in the wrong way.... Even when someone else wishes that he or she could provide what was missing for us in our childhood, unless the original wounding has been sufficiently dealt with, it’s like water through a sieve. Until we are healed, it doesn’t matter how much someone loves us.” And concludes, “You cannot get what was missing in your childhood from another person, until you are actively engaged in doing all that you can to give it to yourself.” And then she introduces the re-parenting exercise. She states, “We aren’t going into romantic relationships as adults, but rather as children posing in adult bodies. It’s like giving a 4-year-old the keys to the car: You can pretty much count on a wreck.”

So this exercise is also very beneficial for healing your romantic relationships and breaking old, negative relationship patterns. Super useful. :-)

Now the promised P.S.:

It’s often stated that your relationship with yourself defines your relationships with others, and the relationships you attract in your life. A typical line of questioning when someone complains about others not appreciating them is, “Well, in what ways don’t you appreciate yourself or what ways could you appreciate yourself more?” And then you have them make those changes. This shifts their relationships. Or "He doesn't listen to me!" "Well, in what ways don't you listen to yourself?" I’ll now just cut and paste my own channeling on this subject from about a year and half ago (sorry for the spelling, I had to copy from my Twitter because I couldn't find the file! So it was in 140 character blocks):

"Wondering how many people have the kind of relationship with themselves where they give themselves pleasure but not respect.....? i.e. you eat something that is horrible for u because it brings you pleasure but u are disrespecting your body and health at the same time. Or you buy something expensive cause it brings you pleasure. But you're disrespecting yourself by putting yourself in debt to someone else.

And in turn how many people who give themselves pleasure but not respect, attract romantic partners who give them pleasure, but not respect? i.e. they'll sleep with you, but wont give you the relationship you want. Or they'll sleep with you, but are cheating on you, lying to you, etc.

You teach other people how to treat you. And it ALL starts with how you treat yourself. Make sure you give yourself what you want others to give you. Your relationship with yourself sets the pattern for the rest of your relationships.

If you don't keep your commitments to yourself , how can you expect someone else to commit to you? (New Year’s resolutions anyone?)

Think about how others treat you and be honest with yourself about how you do the same thing to you. Then start changing it.”

Article on My Healings Plus Checking In

Wow, this has been the longest I have ever gone without blogging in the last 5 years or so! 2011 so far has been all about expressing myself through dance and so my writing overall has significantly decreased (I've become a pretty good dancer though!). Plus I've been doing a ton of integration and growth myself. However, the traffic on my blog over the last few days reminded me to check in over here and post an exercise I've been meaning to post. The traffic has gone up due to an article on healings that a client wrote. I thought I would share the article on here for my readers who still aren't sure what energy healing is or how it works. Jenee, the author, did a pretty good job of breaking it down. So I'm going to post the article in this entry, and then I'm going to write a different post outlining one of my current favorite self-healing exercises.

Here is the article on energy healing: http://www.xojane.com/new-agey/it-happened-me-i-have-energy-healer

Energy Healing and Crystal Raffle Update

Quick Update: If you've made a donation to my water well project, please send me an e-mail. Getting ready to do the first raffle tomorrow and having a slight issue with obtaining necessary donor information. The organization is currently trying to figure out how to handle privacy concerns while providing information for the raffles, and until they do, I have no way of knowing you made an anononymous donation so I can include you in the raffle. So please send me a quick e-mail at HealingForWater@yahoo.com, and I will make sure to include you! And if you'd like to make a donation before tomorrow's raffle, here is the link:
http://mycharitywater.org/healingforwater

Thank you so much to those of you who have helped out with donations and through info-spreading. I genuinely appreciate it! May it come back to you 100-fold! :-)

Best Beauty, Hair, and Health Investment!

I’ve heard all of the above said about my latest purchase. And no, I'm not getting commission (though maybe I should).

I thought I was late in the game on shower filters, but apparently not because when I needed advice on which one to choose, everyone looked at me blankly.

So, why a shower filter? I think the health stuff is more important, and it’s what drew me in, BUT we’ll start with the beauty perks, then the health, and then the explanation. I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty perks as I did my research on which filter to buy. I had read an article about fluoride in water and how you absorb more tap water chemicals into your body during a 10 minute shower than you do from drinking 8 glasses of tap water, and immediately started researching shower filters. In the process, here are the beauty perks that came up:

BEAUTY-

-One of the biggest issues with tap water showers is chlorine, and shower filters get rid of chlorine. Chlorine strips the natural protective oils from your skin and hair causing excess drying. Dry skin= aging. Dry hair= damage. And if you have dyed hair makes your color fade.

-The good shower filters guarantee you softer skin and hair in one week. And have a 90 day money back guarantee.

-Voted "Product of the Year" by Cosmetology Today Magazine. (the Aquasana filter).

- "The AQ-4100 Aquasana Shower Filter a truly amazing product, offers dramatic health & cosmetic benefits."

-L.A. Times honest review: “My hair is lustrous, full bodied, glossy. My skin is smoother and my eyes clearer… An absolutely smashing product.” http://www.latimes.com/features/la-hm-majordomo28-2009mar28,0,3783853.story


-Dr. Oz on Oprah: Best thing you can do for your hair- get a shower filter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWRau8LAfD8


-And there are tons of reviews stating the above over and over. Fitness and beauty sites and blogs, etc. Here’s the last one I clicked on as a sample of how much people appear to love these filters:
http://www.beautystat.com/site/hair/review-jonathan-product-beauty-water-shower-purification-system/


-Another example which I thought was interesting because it wasn't directly about filters. People were reviewing a beauty book on Amazon mentioning how effective the shower filter beauty tip given in the book (first 2 reviews are the ones I read): http://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Beauty-Transform-Inside/dp/1582701008


So I got pretty excited about my filter. This was all on top of the health stuff.


HEALTH:

-Dr. Oz short clip on some of the stuff below w/some tips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjgHqkP4_sk


- You can easily absorb as many toxins in one shower as you would by drinking tap water all week long. (all this below is cut and pasted from mercola.com articles. It’s in a lot of other places, but it was just easier to go there).

-American Journal of Public Health- up to 2/3 of harmful chlorine exposure can be due to skin absorption and inhalation while showering.

-Studies show that after a 10-minute shower in chlorinated water, your blood levels of THMs (common disinfection byproduct – DBP) can potentially increase by as much as a staggering 700%.


Wait, why is chlorine dangerous?

- A study published in the Journal of Environmental Sciences last year found that swimming in a chlorinated pool presented an unacceptable cancer risk.

- Some of the most common disinfection byproducts that form from the reaction of chlorine and organic matter are trihalomethanes (THMs). THMs are classified as Cancer Group B carcinogens… meaning they’ve been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals.

-American Journal of Public Health – Linked chlorine absorption and inhalation exposure to increased cancer, asthma, and skin irritation risks.

-U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – When chlorine vaporizes in steam in your shower, it converts to chloroform gas. Chloroform can be a strong respiratory irritant and cause fatigue.


But why doesn’t the chlorinated water just bounce off your body and go down the drain?

The problem is… a hot steamy shower…
-Triggers your skin pores to open, which in turn…
-Spikes a high absorption rate of chlorine and other chemicals directly into your system and…
-Helps create a ‘free pass’ of foreign chemicals into your body fluids and bloodstream – unlike drinking tap water where your digestive processes at least get a chance to filter out some of the harmful contaminants.

The other issue most people don't think about in that hot, steamy shower they enjoy so much… is inhalation.

-Dangerous chemical vapors quickly form in the hot, steamy environment – 70% to 90% of the chemicals in your shower water vaporize before the water ever hits the shower floor.


*Just found some more stuff: “The American Journal Of Public Health, in 1992, published the results of a ten-year study that showed how chlorine in our water caused significant increases in certain types of cancer. The study proved that up to 2/3 of our harmful exposure comes from inhalation of steam while showering. The U.S. EPA recently released a report saying, “Virtually every home in America has a detectable level of chloroform gas in the air due to chlorine and showering.” The National Breast Cancer Fund has published many recent reports on the “Chlorine Connection”, and has documented that the one common factor among women with breast cancer is that they all have 50 to 60% higher levels of chlorine byproducts in their breast tissue than women without breast cancer."

-And aside from just chlorine… Apparently a Ralph Nader study found 2100 toxic chemicals in tap water. ( http://www.aquasanastore.com/water-facts_b05.html ). Being a healer/serious meditator, I can be sensitive to toxic chemicals (I don't even drink coffee), so I was immediately all about getting a shower filter.


SO WHICH FILTER?

I was pretty confused at first. I mean with 2100 toxic chemicals… I spent some time doing research and in the end, for myself, I narrowed it down to Aquasana or Jonathan’s Beauty Water, and ultimately chose Aquasana. I spent a lot of time because I wanted one that filtered out fluoride too, since that’s what had originally triggered my shower filter search. But apparently the fluoride is dangerous thing being confirmed is pretty new so most shower filters don’t filter it out. And I read somewhere that fluoride isn’t as easily absorbed in the shower as chlorine. I only really found one shower filter that eliminated Fluoride and it looked a little questionable, so in the end I decided to nix my fluoride criteria.

Once I got rid of the fluoride criteria, I easily narrowed it down to Aquasana or Jonathans.

Here is a nice little comparison table you might want to look at if you’re thinking of purchasing a shower filter:
http://www.waterfiltercomparisons.com/shower_filter_comparison.php


So, Jonathan’s seems to perform the best since it gets rid of more lead and copper than Aquasana…. BUT Aquasana seemed to be certified by more boards and be more established.

They’ve both been rated Consumer Digest “Best Buys” for multiple years though and product reviews for both are really great across the board. Really my final decision was kind of arbitrary. I didn’t what the guy that makes my hair styling products to make my water filter. *shrugs* And Aquasana had all this as an established water filter company:

“The Aquasana filtration system meets all of the qualifications of a high quality filter: it is certified by the California Department of Health, it removes all of the above contaminants and impurities, and it leaves all of the natural trace elements so you are guaranteed pure, healthy drinking water.
Aquasana is consistently rated the #1 home water filtration system in America, and was rated a 2003-2008 Consumer Digest Best Buy. One of the most important elements is California Certification. The California Department of Health has the strictest criteria for certifying water filters, ensuring maximum performance and efficiency.”

Also, Aquasana is cheaper and you only have to replace the filter every 6 months whereas the Jonathan filter said 3-6 months. It’s also the one installed in most top spas (I can't find the link to where I read that now, but it was by someone on Team Jonathan, which made me feel like it was reliable).

So, I went with Aquasana. Definitely feel free to explore since there are quite a lot of shower filters out there. I just wanted to give a little starting point since I got confused by all the options when I first dived in.



I also want to include a longer clip of the Dr. Oz show where he gives tips more tips on water, for those who want more info or who can’t buy a filter at the moment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i6HQCNe-aA


I had already gone to my water company’s website to look at all the stuff in my water when I saw this (I got pretty enthralled while researching filters- I'M easily absorbed). So you don’t even need to write in to get the report. Many water companies post their reports online. And if you’re interested in that kind of stuff, you can also visit www.epa.gov to check out info on water and pollution in your area.

Hehe, and I even found a nice, little, easy “Green Tip” while playing on there: “Refuel cars and trucks after dusk,when emissions are less likely to produce ozone.” I can totally do that. :-D

An Essential Key to the Manifestation Puzzle & Using the Law of Attraction

I get many questions on the topic of manifesting, so I want to share one of the keys that seems to be frequently missing from people's practices, and is very important. People say manifesting is one of my talents and I'm grateful that the process works well for me, but in the past I’ve definitely thrown my fair share of tantrums. I’ve been meditating an average of at least an hour a day, every day, since 2008, and had been meditating on and off since high school, so I have a pretty close relationship with God and don't just theoretically grasp a lot of spiritual concepts, but actually experience them, so some of my tantrums have been fun.

The 6-year-old inside of me used to go off at times like, “I Am One with God! I Am made of God, in the likeness of God! I have God’s creative power! I Am One with God, I Am One with All and with EVERYTHING! And I say I have ______!! Now!! So, where is it??! Are spiritual laws out of order today?”

And God would just be like, “Cute. I’m a let u finish and all, but yes, you’re absolutely right. You do have ____. It’s right inside of you. Go find it within first and THEN we’ll talk.”

And I'd sit there pouting, “Heeey! That’s not what I meant. C’mon…..” But I know better. No more negotiations until I do as told. Of course one can always pray for help and grace finding it inside, but pretty much no more negotiations on the outside thing until I start letting it flow from within. I know the drill by now. So I’ll share it.

You can understand that God is inside you and that you are God, and may even KNOW it and experience it through meditation, but you have to know how to apply it to your life.

You’re One with God, so what? Well if you’re One with God, that means everything is in you and you have access to everything.

So in practical terms, what you need to do for manifesting purposes, is you need to get to the ESSENCE of what you desire to manifest. Why do you want what you want? What will it bring you that you’re seeking?

Let’s say, for example, you want more money in order to get to do more things that make you happy. Well understand that happiness is already within you. No one GIVES you happiness. It wells up from inside. It’s ALWAYS there, you just have to know yourself in order to know how to get it to flow. But realize the happiness you’re trying to obtain is ALREADY within you. This means you DON’T have to trick yourself into believing you have what you seek in order to manifest it. It’s already there. You just have to go within, find it, and activate it. When you do, THEN the Law of Attraction works to bring to you what you were attempting to manifest to get to that state. You have to be able to know how to get yourself to that state first, so you know you have it and can appreciate it inside of you. And so you aren’t all needy and depending on outer things. Don't approach the Law of Attraction feeling lacking or incomplete. When you feel that way, that’s what you attract. If you’re happy, you attract more happiness.

People try to dumb it down for "the masses” a little. And that’s why they give all those visualization exercises. Really they’re just trying to get you to the place where you FEEL like you have that thing you want, so that the emotion within you is triggered and you have what you want so you can attract it. So they’re trying to get you to what I wrote above.

And you’re kind of being tricked into expanding your consciousness and waking up in the process. If you do the above for a period of time, pretty soon you will, on your own, realize that you have everything inside of you already. And if you continue on that course, it leads you to a place of trust and surrender. When you go to pray/manifest, you realize you don’t have anything to really ask for because you already have everything, so your intentions start turning into things like, “to express more joy,” “to share and give more love,” “to find more creative ideas within me.” Rather than specific things in the outside world. But in turn you do end up attracting people you’d like to share that love with and situations that cause more joy to express through you. You're just surrendering the details and the hows, which is great because often God will give you more than what you even had in mind and you're no longer limiting yourself.

So, if you feel something is missing in your life, figure out what you need to find within, and go find it. Get to know yourself so that you know how to trigger that feeling of joy within yourself, that feeling of peace, that feeling of freedom, that feeling of love. Quests for love in the outside world don’t tend to go so well until you realize all the love you have within yourself and know how to use it. Just like how you shouldn’t expect good sex if you don’t know how to work your own body. Get to know your heart, just like you learned to get to know your body and how to make pleasure and bliss well up inside yourself. Because yes, those things are within you too. The orgasm comes from within you, not from the outside world.

“What you perceive as lack is often a part of you you haven’t discovered yet.” So, go discover. Ask. Ask your soul to show you joy. Ask your joy to come forth from within you. To show itself to you. Allow it to seep through your whole entire being. There are universes inside of you. Explore them. Most people don’t use a huge percentage of their brain. What’s laying in those parts of your brain?

Some quotes from Danielle Gibbons (channeling the teachings of Mother Mary):

“If what is going on outside of you is not to your liking, it is simply because something inside hasn’t awakened yet. And what is without reflects what’s within.”

“It is not your past that imprisons you, it is not the events of the past that imprison you, or your present that imprisons you. It is only your inability to awaken to yourself."

“All that happens around you in your life is a natural extension of what’s going on inside. If you want to know why someone or something is or isn’t in your life, go within. Not to know that answer specifically, but just to know self.”

The great news is you have everything inside you that you need to move past what you perceive as your pain.

And here is one of my own meditative insights from earlier this week (which triggered me writing this blog):

"Joy is accompanied by the feeling of "my cup runneth over." Giving you that beautiful joyful glow as it pours over. So it's perfectly understandable why people try to accumulate & accumulate, more & more, in attempts to simulate the feeling of joy. Which eludes them because they completely gloss over the obvious- joy flows forth from within. "The cup runneth over" from within. Not the other way around. You can simulate all you want, but it's just that and it's so fleeting. You have to do it again and again. And all the work involved in the simulation, along with the continued empty feelings afterward, are exhausting."

BTW, as you start activating all these beautiful things within you, you have no choice but to feel abundant because you discover how many gifts you have to bring to the world. So much love to share, so much joy to bring, so many creative ideas, so much beauty…. Your cup runneth over.

And because my life tends to be so synchronistic (I love it), Rev. Michael’s topic today was very on point with what I wrote in this blog (which I wrote Friday night, but didn’t have time to post). Awesome. The whole service is beautiful but you can fast forward to the 26 minute mark for his message:

http://www.indigoplatforms.tv/recorded/video/616



EXTRA: I actually just looked at my notes from last week's service and there were also some parts directly on point, so I'll paste those excerpts below (not word for word, but close):

-"In this particular chapter that you’re co-writing with the Presence of God, you’re starting with, 'I ALREADY have everything. What am I going to DO with it?' That’s the question you’re asking yourself. 'I’ve got it all! What am I going to do now? I have the love and the peace and the harmony. I used to be blind. I used to think that it was coming from out there. And I was begging people for it, and trying to get it, and manipulating. And now that I know I got it, what am I going to do now?' Then creativity gets born in your awareness ,and you find innovative ways to express the Divinity that is within you. That becomes life-giving, uplifting, inspiring, life-transforming, healing, EVERYWHERE that you go!... So if you find yourself bored, asking for life to give you stuff, you’re suppressing your creativity. Because you’ve already got it."

-"Your question when u wake up should be, 'What good that is within me am I going to let out today??? Shock me! Surprise me! With the goodness that is within me. Shock me until it shatters my ego! Shock me with so much love, that wants to come out of me that it shatters my belief in separation! Shock me with so much creativity and so much beauty that wants to come out of me, that it scares my surface mind! 'Oh did I do that??! Did I love that deeply? Did I share that deeply? Did I give that much? Oh my God!!' And then you'll be dying daily to mediocrity and being born anew to EXCELLENCE. You will not grow old bitter and complaining about how life has done you wrong. You will grow younger every day because you will have made a new discovery about the depth of your being."

Two Quick Manifesting Techniques for 2011

Happy New Year beautiful people!!!! :-D

And here's my little New Year's present: 2 quick, effective tips to help you manifest your dreams and desires in the new year.

1)Manifesting things you consider really big and important to you can become a bit challenging sometimes because the more important the thing is to you, the tougher it can be to detach. And detaching is an important step in the manifesting process. So to deal with this issue my friends and I like to trade manifestations.

Grab a friend and agree to spend just 5 minutes a day visualizing for each other. So 5 minutes during your day you visualize what she’s in the process of manifesting, as done. You see her/him having it and enjoying it. Your friend does the same for you. And your friend is able detach from the outcome a lot better than you are. The first time I did this, Lezlie and I exchanged manifestations on an index card. We wrote our manifestations as done on those cards and each put each other’s cards on our work desks, taking little breaks throughout the day to just say the affirmation for each other. I believe about a week later we both had what we intended to manifest.


2) Another little tip to help you stay on top of your visualizing (also a great tip if you’re intending to watch what you eat): tie your visualizations to your meals. You eat every day so you won’t go a day with visualization and you’ll be a lot more conscious of every time you put something in your mouth because you have to go into visualization mode. It’s fun. Basically during every meal/snack (any time you put food in your mouth), you pretend you already have what you’re intending to manifest. So if it’s being a millionaire, every time you eat, you visualize you are eating as a millionaire would. What bag is in the chair next to you? Who made your meal? What are you wearing? What do your surroundings look like? How do you feel? Or if you're intending to be in a happy, healthy relationship with your soul mate, during every meal visualize them next to you. What are you guys talking about? What does your soul mate like to eat? What are they into? What are they wearing? Visualize you’re making food for them too, etc. If you’re manifesting being thinner, what does a thin person eat? How does a thin person feel? What does a thin person value?


Get it? So basically every time food goes in your mouth, it’s your trigger to start pretending you already have what you are attracting to you at the very moment. It’s a very useful strategy and it also helps you get clear and specific.

**BONUS: Today is the perfect day to go all out on your gratitude practice. Sit down with a pen and paper and list EVERYTHING you're grateful for from 2010. Go month by month. This will help you kick off 2011 on a positive note, from a place of fulfillment and plentitude, and gratitude always puts you in receiving mode so you can receive what your heart's been asking for.


Enjoy! Happy 2011!!! May this year bring you more greatness than you can even imagine!