Emanate the Energy You Want to Live!

I recently read an article by Jill Lebeau, SF Spiritual Inspiration Examiner that included this quote:

I get that the energy we emanate becomes the life we live.  I also know that it’s up to me to decide what I want to focus on.  I am, on a daily basis, on the lookout for whatever fills me with enthusiasm. (Read full article at examiner.com)

I am already full steam ahead with the idea that we create our own lives by choosing where to focus our attention.  I absolutely LOVE the idea that if I am feeling unhappy, all I have to do is stop thinking about what makes me unhappy and focus on anything else, or simply change the way I am looking at the situation.  If business gets slow, I can choose to focus on slow business and fret about what may or may not happen.  Or I can enjoy a day off and relax!  Or I can start a new creative project.  Nothing gets well-being flowing into your life like fun, play and creativity!

But that first part of Jill's quote stopped me cold:

(...) the energy we emanate becomes the life we live.

That's new & exciting!  OK, it's probably ancient knowledge, but it's new to me at this time in my current incarnation!  Makes perfect sense, really since we know that you get out of anything what you put in to it.

What kind of energy do I want to live?

If I want a fun and exciting life, I must exude fun and excitement!  We all know someone who maintains a grouchy attitude, is usually negative, or worries all the time.  Now think about the general energy that makes up that person's life.  It's a pretty direct correlation.

It makes me picture my energy emanating from me in ripples, growing ever larger all the way around the circumference of the globe until it washes over me from behind.

If I am going to create a tidal wave that inundates me when it returns, I am going to be mindful that what I put out there is joyful, nurturing, uplifting and fun!

Jill always stimulates my mind and my enthusiasm.  I love her inspirational blogs.  I highly recommend her book Feng Shui Your Mind ~ Four Easy Steps to Rapidly Transform Your Life.  I have gifted it twenty times and everyone I know who has read it has told me how helpful and inspirational it is.

Jill offers an online class with Rebecca Grado MFT that teaches how to increase our prosperity by transforming our relationships.  I took the class last fall and it changed the way I look at all of my relationships.  Jill and Rebecca exude positive energy in a brilliant example of what they teach.

Jill also has a speaking event coming up here in California with her co-author Maureen Raytis L.Ac. Book Passage in Corte Madera is hosting a workshop on April 15, where Jill and Maureen will teach participants to use the least amount of energy to gain maximum success!

So get yourself excited and motivated and start emanating the energy you really want to live!

~ Cyndi 

Practicing Happiness Daily

You deserve to feel amazing and healthy and relaxed and happy and vibrant every day of your life.

What is Your Self-Talk Saying?

What thoughts are you thinking?

I spent a lot of years listening to my cluttered mind tell me things like: You aren't good enough.  You aren't smart enough.  Your opinion does not matter.  Why did you do THAT?  That was a stupid move.  If people know the real you, they won't like you.  You should-have and could-have done that differently!  On and on ad nauseum.

My negative thought patterns were ruining my life, so I started learning how to change them little by little.  Now I am pretty good at catching negative self-talk like the above examples and shutting it down before it can attract more negative thoughts.  The more and more positive thoughts I practice, the more positive thoughts flow into my life!

Now, however, I am beginning to notice different types of negative self-talk.  If we take a broader interpretation of self-talk to mean "inner dialogue" and not just "talk about self," many other forms of negativity come to mind.

Traffic is a wonderful opportunity to identify negative self-talk.   Think of all the negative thoughts you vibrate in traffic!  I trash-talk while driving like you cannot believe.  I think (and shout aloud in the privacy of my own car) the meanest things about other people and their mothers!

What are you feeling when you are in traffic?  Stress?  Anxiety?  Anger?  Fear of being late?  Resentment at being stuck in traffic?  If you commute 2-3 hours a day, that is a LOT of time to hold a negative vibration.

My trash-talk isn't helping me get anywhere faster and it's certainly not clearing the traffic up, but it is leaving me feeling stressed and tired after driving.  All those little bursts of negative energy leave me feeling emotionally drained.

High on Life!

I recently went through a spell where I was completely resistant to doing my cardio.  Lots of you probably feel the same way about your workout - occasionally if not chronically, right?

I do 3-4 hours of upper-body isometrics (I am a deep-tissue massage therapist) interspersed with occasional hour-long leg-toning sessions (I also do ashiatsu barefoot massage where I rub people with my feet!) at work five days a week.  Believe me, I don't have to try too hard to justify not adding a daily workout to my schedule.

Problem is, I LOVE doing cardio!  In the 90s I taught dance aerobics.  There was a three-year period where I had a raging tennis addiction.  So why the resistance?  Who knows!  My cluttered mind tells me I have worked hard enough, so I should just relax in my time off.  Sounds perfectly reasonable, but practice that thought habitually and it becomes a belief.  Then you believe that your workout is undeserved punishment of some kind that you should avoid at all costs.

It happens to the best of us.  Even those of us who have experienced euphoria pushing our bodies to their physical limits.

Resistance.  What does that feel like?  It comes in so many forms!  I work resistance out of people's muscles every day.  Most of you probably know exactly what it feels like to be resistant to going to work some mornings.  Resistance can feel like sadness, depression, anger, stress, grief, worry, or "I just don't wanna!"  Negative emotions are the sign that we are resisting something.

Create a Positive Experience!

Our minds are powerful tools.  The thoughts we think create the lives we live.

Some people have understood this ancient truth since birth and others will die before they remember it.  It actually still feels pretty fresh to me, so I have been enjoying pondering the concept.

"We are what we think.  All that we are arises with our thoughts.  With our thoughts, we make the world." ~ Buddha

So what exactly does that mean?  What we think creates our life experience.  So if we want to choose our life experience, we must choose our thoughts wisely.  If we only think about what we see, we create by default.  We create more of what already surrounds us.  If we want something we have never seen before, we must dream it before we live it.

Beach Day ~ Therapy for the Soul

I am drawn to the rhythm of shorelines like a bee to clover.  The Pacific Ocean is the main reason I will never move back to Iowa.  I need to be within driving distance when She calls.

When I'm out of sorts and need to lift my spirits, a drive to the coast will do the trick.  I was in a wonderful mood when I woke this morning, so the ocean allowed my spirits to soar.

It was absolutely beautiful in Bolinas.  The kind of day that raises my vibration for weeks to come.  Thought I'd share the happiness.  Please enjoy our photographs:

Bolinas Lagoon

Bolinas Beach

Some of the graffiti here is gorgeous!

Affirmations to the Rescue!

Ever been side-swiped by a semi truck?  Not like in your car, but you personally in the flesh knocked upside the head by an eighteen wheeler?  Ok, how bout this one:  Has your bookkeeper ever told you that the amount you pay in quarterly taxes (an amount that already felt like a really large payment to you) will have to triple starting next month?

Getting hit with a truck probably feels pretty much the same.  Anger.  Rage.  Powerlessness.  Fury.  The cluttered mind runs rampant.  The cluttered mind tells me:  That's an impossible amount!  You can't pay the taxes and still pay the bills!  Just forget the business - get a W-2 job!  Go be a greeter at WalMart instead of working till your hands cramp - no one appreciates you anyway!

That was when the little bell went off.  Suddenly all those cluttered thoughts just didn't ring true and I heard a little voice say, "Everything is working out for your highest good."

That soothed my raw nerves a bit until my cluttered mind demanded to know "how?! How will it work out?"  Thus ensued a roller coaster plummeting to fearsome depths of cluttered thoughts alternating with higher vibrations where I managed to declutter to small points of clarity.

When I really let my cluttered mind have a turn at bat, it told me that I would have to give up receiving massage, my vacations, my groceries, my walks in the park, a career that I love, everything good in life!  My little voice kept trying to tell me to replace the fear with faith, but when the fear is flush ice-cold terror it can shake solid faith into the dust of doubt.

A life of faith takes daily practice.  Luckily I have been practicing a lot lately and I was able to not lose my grounding completely.  In the past, this same situation would have driven me to bed for days or weeks in a black funk that refused to be thrown off.

I am so appreciative that I have learned that I can change the way I feel by changing what I am thinking!  I could hear Jill Lebeau's voice saying, "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

I opened the digital copy of my book (the one that will be available for sale soon!) and read through my affirmations, letting them wash over me, reminding me of a vibration more truly my own.

Supercharge Your Gratitude List!

The gratitude list (or appreciation list) is completely portable.  Make one in your head, write one on a cocktail napkin, post one in your Facebook status.  It's a fun, quick tool to boost positive energy flow and a highly effective remedy for self-doubt and other forms of negative energy.  You cannot stand in an attitude of appreciation and feel self-doubt at the same time because Law of Attraction forbids it.

If you are not already using this wonderful tool to help manifest the emotions you desire: What are you waiting for?

Appreciation is the key to joy!

The more people, places, things and situations you find to appreciate, more of those things that you already appreciate will flow into your life.  Appreciate everything - even things that at first feel like setbacks - and your vibration will be one of abundance.  Accomplish the vibration of abundance and abundance must come to you.  It is law.

Already use the gratitude list to enhance your well-being and want to take this great little pick-me-up to the next level?  Supercharge your gratitude list (and your vibration of abundance) by expanding each item on the list and enhancing your appreciation for it.  Why do you appreciate the things you appreciate?

*I appreciate my dog