WITH LINDA JOY
Heartfelt Gratitude to the SACRED SPONSORS I am honored to introduce you to an extraordinary gr sharing their gifts and empowering others to thrive in
Find Your Purpose & Give Birth to Your Big Dreams!
CLICK FOR YOUR FREE GIFTS!
www.staceycurnow.com
Maintain Courage in Those Pesky Moments of Self-Doubt!
O1 VIDE ctive rspe t pe se? Wha u choo o y o d
Laura Clark, CSC, CCR, CPIA, CIA, CDC
Click here to access my Free Gift to You! Tools for Today's Clarity & Success* Access your FREE coaching series and enter to win a Kindle!
*7 Simple, powerful & effective tools to implement to help you achieve greater Joy & Abundance at work and in life.
soul-wiseliving.com
OF SEASON 4 3 OF INSPIRED LIVING SECRETS oup of heart-centered women who are shining their lighs, roup every area of their lives. staybasic
Deepen Your Connection with Your Inner Priestess for Life & Biz Success
plansimple meals for your family!
tm
*streamline
your time menu planning * enjoy plant-rich, gluten-free meals * connect with your kids ...and more!
Sacred Journey Gift Package
* conquer
CLAIM THEIR FREE GIFTS
Frrr Your
rrrrrrrrrrrrr 40-Prgr Your Creative Soul Wrrkbrrk & Arrrn Gurdr 2 srngs prrfrrmrd by Srndrr Jrsrph
Your Kit Includes:
• 10 Sacred Audios • eWorkbook • Angelic EFT Instructional Video • Angelic EFT Tapping Points Diagram
*
get started. it’s free!
www.angelicjourneys.com
Maryellen De Vine
Insprrrrrn frrm ruthrr rrrrlrnr Myss
&
Brrrdwry strr Srndrr Jrsrph
rlrrm Yrur FREE Grfts
Claim your FREE Purpose & Passion Guidebook and a SPECIAL AUDIO BONUS
In this content-rich eGuide, you’ll learn: ★ How to overcome the 4 most common obstacles to finding your mission in life. ★ The #1 secret to success. (This is not for the faint-hearted!) ★ The 6 super-clear steps to finding and LIVING your purpose. ★ How to make your BIG dreams a reality! Stacey Curnow Purpose & Success Coach
CLICK FOR YOUR FREE GIFTS!
www.staceycurnow.com
6
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
7
CONTENTS
OCTOBER | NOVEMBER 2014 FEARLESS LIVING
On the Cover
Wisdom & Self-Growth
Louise Hay Internationally renowned author, speaker and inspirational teacher and founder of Hay House.
20 LOVING AND NOURISHING YOURSELF TO GREAT HEALTH by Louise Hay At 88 years of age, I can say that health and happiness are the most important tenets of my life. Many of you who have read my books know that I didn’t have an easy childhood, nor any of the advantages of money or education for much of my life. Then I discovered the one thing that changed the course of my health and my life: the belief that every thought we think is creating our future. This one little idea shifted the direction of my life. I found that if I could create peace, health, and harmony in my mind, I could create the same in my body and in my life.
8
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
24 LIVE ON PURPOSE: ARE YOU LIVING ON PURPOSE OR HIDING IN FEAR? by Stacey Curnow You know you don’t belong in your job any longer. Sure, it puts food on the table and keeps a roof over your head, and with the economy the way it is, you should probably feel grateful for having a job at all, but you wonder… Could you make it on your own? Could you take the leap and be your own boss? Believe in yourself, because regardless of what anyone says, you can create and live the life of your dreams.
CONTENTS 28 LIVING THE GODDESS LIFESTYLE: THE GIFT OF FEAR – A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THAT B*TCH NAMED FEAR! by Lisa Marie Rosati One of the most empowering choices you can make is to stop living in a state of fear. Fear robs you of the present moment, which is all you really have anyway. There are so many ways that fear rears its ugly head in our lives. There’s the fear of failure, the fear of not being enough, the fear of being judged, and so on. If allowed to run amuck, fear will paralyze you and your ability to live full out. Fear originates with your thoughts. Buying into the thought and allowing it to stop you, is up to you… it’s your choice. YOU get to choose!
“Do you think courage means being fearless? Or daring? Courage, real courage, is taking three steps when it terrifies you.” CATHERINE ANDERSON
31 THE ONLY MAP YOU’LL EVER NEED (FOR EVERY DREAM YOU HAVE…) by Boni Lonnsburry What if I told you I had a map that would turn thoughts into gold, sadness into joy, failure into success and loneliness into love? Would you follow it? Of course you would! Who wouldn’t? Manifesting reality is a result of what you think and feel. How important is it that you reach your dreams? If not so important, stay where you are, but don’t be surprised if you don’t get anywhere. However, if you are serious about creating your dreams, the map to a delicious life can get you there. One step at a time.
35 THE UNIVERSE IS CALLING YOU… ARE YOU LISTENING? by Sara Wiseman All day long, in every single moment, the Universe is communicating with us. When we’re busy, not paying attention or caught up in the various dramas of human life, we don’t always hear this quiet whisper. That’s because the Universe doesn’t speak to us in the language of the world. Instead, it communicates in the language of the soul. When we allow the Universe to lead us in this way we can receive the message clearly.
9
CONTENTS
20 ARE YOU LISTENING TO YOUR DIVINE GUIDANCE SYSTEM? by Mal Duane How many times have you gotten a “funny” feeling that something wasn’t right? You can’t put your finger on it, but there is this gnawing sensation that keeps distracting you. You dismiss it at first but it keeps coming back. Say hello to your intuition. Many of us don’t understand the power of our intuition. Intuition is like our own built-in radar system, an innate sense of knowing without any reasonable explanation that something doesn’t feel right. Open your connection to your divine intuition and receive the messages you really need to know.
10
OCTOBER | NOVEMBER 2014 FEARLESS LIVING
20 BECOMING FEARLESS: LEARN HOW TO WALK IN YOUR POWER by Mary E. Pritchard, Ph.D. 2013 was the year of being hit across the forehead with a Cosmic 2x4. The hits kept coming so fast and furiously, that I finally told the Universe, “Bring it on!” And, of course, it did. Be careful what you wish for…The real revelation came when a woman I had only met once Facebook messaged me out of the blue. Her message was simple and to the point: “Why aren’t you walking in your power?” I invite you to walk in your power and offer several tips and journaling prompts to help you begin your journey to empowerment.
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
24 CIRCLE UP: WHEN WOMEN COME TOGETHER WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD by Shann Vander Leek Women have been coming together in community for centuries. While the origins of women’s circles are ancient, their lessons are as modern as the women who participate in them today. Saying yes to a transformational woman’s circle rocked my world and positively impacted me and my family on many levels. Learn what you can expect when you say yes to circling. up
CONTENTS 28 YOUR SOMEDAY OVER THE RAINBOW IS NOW by Laura P. Clark
This magical life is not somewhere over the rainbow. It’s right in front of you. Rainbows can teach us so very much. Their colors, their shapes and their symbolism hold vast wisdom and messages for all of us. We only have to be curious and take the time to hear these messages, understand them and have the courage to act upon them. Dorothy finally understood this and then she took bold action ~ she clicked her heels together not knowing what was to come but knowing she had to take this fearless action to get back home.
“Do you think courage means being fearless? Or daring? Courage, real courage, is taking three steps when it terrifies you.” CATHERINE ANDERSON
31 LISTENING TO THE GUIDANCE OF OUR HEARTS by Debra Reble, Ph.D. Groundbreaking research shows that our hearts have their own unique intelligence that reflects our true essence or higher self. Mystics, great leaders, and healers have long known that the heart center is the gateway to wisdom and wellbeing. When we listen to our heart, we live with passion and purpose. We feel a sense of alignment with our higher selves. We begin to realize that full selfexpression is not equivalent to the job we do, the roles we play, or how successful we are in the world…It’s so much more.
35 HOW TO MAKE FEAR YOUR ALLY by Lynn Robinson Fear is a constant companion when we’re going through challenging times. It can seem virtually impossible to stop the “what ifs” in our head once they begin to terrorize us. While it’s normal to be afraid on occasion, taken to an extreme, fear will leave you paralyzed and unable to change your situation. I invite you to learn how to embrace your fear and change your life.
11
CONTENTS
“Let’s don’t wait forever for our lives to start. Let’s begin them ourselves. Let’s be fearless for once and say, we can do this.” CAMMIE MCGOVERN
Health & Wellness
20 THE FOUR LEVELS OF INTUITION by Simone Wright Learning to develop and trust our intuitive intelligence is more important now than ever before. The only guidance system we need to assist us in living our best life is the wisdom held within our natural intuitive intelligence. As you become familiar with The Four Levels of Intuition, your rapport with this natural form of intelligence will grow, evolve and expand no matter what the rest of the world is telling you to do. With the direct guidance of your own wisdom you can navigate any situation with a sense of joy, ease and great satisfaction.
12
40 THE BODY-MIND CONNECTION: DIGESTIVE HEALTH AND YOUR BRAIN by Heather Dane Have you ever had a gut feeling? Or felt butterflies in your stomach? If so, then you have experienced the gut-brain connection. Research is showing that if you want to improve your moods, memory, and brain function, look to the health of your gut. In other words, what you eat matters. Your gut is responsible for how you feel, how you act, what you focus on, whether you sleep or not, your overall health, and your overall enjoyment of life. When you take care of your gut, you take care of your body, mind and spirit.
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
44 THE WISE WOMAN WAY: FEARLESS LIVING by Susun Weed Is it possible to live fearlessly? My mentor Elisabeth KublerRoss was very fierce with her when it came to feelings. In fact, she only allowed for five: love, joy, grief, anger, and fear. But only fear of heights, fast motions, and loud noises. She taught me that our true selves are fearless, bold and passionate. Come with me to explore several ways you can begin to live fearlessly.
CONTENTS Relationships
48 TRANSFORMING YOUR RELATIONSHIP: FEARLESSNESS: THE IRONIC KEY TO HAPPINESS! by Stacey Martino If you are not currently happy with any area of your life it’s because you are NOT living fearlessly in that area of your life. Pain is just the universe telling you that you need to GROW here. Personal growth and a magnificent life REQUIRES you to live fearlessly. You need to continually break through your current comfort zone into your next one to experience true happiness. Practice being fearless. You’ve got this!
“Think about what made you happy as a child and rediscover it. It’s who you were meant t0 be.” CAROLYN FRITH
51 THE FIVE BEST GIFTS TO GIVE YOUR FAMILY by Margaret Paul, Ph.D. When we think of giving gifts, we usually think of things to buy for people. Yet, if you think back on gifts you’ve been given, it might not be the material gifts you received that are foremost in your mind – it might be the kind of gifts that deeply touched your heart and soul. It might be various ways people expressed their love to you. Learn about the five gifts of love we can give to our families that can make a huge difference in their lives.
Career | Business 56 THE ENERGY OF HAPPINESS by Christy Whitman Throughout our entire lives we all construct notions of what happiness means to us, refined through shared experiences with lovers, children and friends. Meanwhile, at the same time we are forming our own ideas often influenced by ready-made definitions of happiness that we receive from the media and popular culture which at some level we feel compelled to accept. With so many conflicting viewpoints about what happiness is, is it any wonder that so many find it difficult to attain? So, is it possible to “choose” happiness? You bet.
13
CONTENTS 61 FEARLESS WRITING: WHAT I LEARNED FROM MY 5 YEAR OLD SON by Lisa Tener Fearlessness: Boldness, Courage, Pluck. We often mean these words when we talk about fearlessness. We don’t necessarily mean “without fear” but more something like, “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” We may know that acting boldly has its rewards, but so much of the time, we choose to live in the safe zone, don’t we? And this can be true of our writing, or any creative aspects of our lives, as well. My young son helped me realize the importance of wandering into uncharted territory with my writing. Thanks to his creative expression, I’ve come to understand that fearless writing is the only way to write.
“Find a bit of fun and laughter in every situation. it inspires the best in each of us.” JANET NESTOR
LINDA JOY
||
Publisher & Editor-In-Chief | Linda@aspiremag.net
Creative & Brand Direction || RACHEL DUNHAM | www.HummingbirdCreativeConcepts.com Editorial Layout || MANDY GATES | www.GruveDesign.com Graphic Designer || MANDY GATES | www.GruveDesign.com COO || KIM TURCOTTE | www.SoulPurposeBusinessSolutions.com MAILING ADDRESS || P.O. BOX 1149 | LAKEVILLE, MA 02347 | 508.265.7929 ADVERTISING || Email Linda@aspiremag.net MISSION TO INSPIRE INFO <CLICK HERE>
14
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
Maintain Courage in Those Pesky Moments of Self-Doubt!
Laura Clark, CSC, CCR, CPIA, CIA, CDC
Click here for your Free Courage Creation Kit Gain �on��en�e� ��e� �or�ar� an� Gain More Joy in Your Life.
soul-wiseliving.com
Sacred Journey Gift Package Deepen Your Connection with Your Inner Priestess for Life & Biz Success
Your Kit Includes: • 10 Sacred Audios • eWorkbook
• Angelic EFT Instructional Video • Angelic EFT Tapping Points Diagram
Free Gift
Claim Your
www.AngelicJourneys.com
Maryellen De Vine
15
17
ATTN: Service-Based Business Women
Without Struggle or Frustration!
Today, many women who own passion-driven, servicebased businesses are feeling frustrated. They are struggling to attract a consistent flow of perfect, paying clients.
They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have clarity! Do You? CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT
Just How Much Business Clarity You Have
EXPERT COLUMNISTS STACEY MARTINO
LISA MARIE ROSATI
Stacey Martino helps people who feel stuck, frustrated and helpless with the challenges of intimate relationship. Through strategic private coaching, programs and events for her Relationship Transformation System™, individuals learn to use her proven strategies and tools to create an unshakable love and unleashed passion that lasts a lifetime. Stacey firmly believes that it does NOT take two to tango, that one person can significantly shift the dynamics of the relationship. Trained and certified by Tony Robbins and Cloe Madanes, Stacey is a certified marriage educator and divorce preventionist. www.LoveandPassionCoach.com
Passionista Lisa Marie Rosati is an Inner Goddess Catalyst for women and the Creatrix of The Goddess Lifestyle Plan. Lisa mentors women on how become a Modern Day Goddess by consciously designing a luscious Goddess life, cultivating radiant health and creating a lucrative business using and directing their feminine fire. www.GoddessLifestylePlan.com www.sugarfreegoddess.com
STACEY CURNOW
LISA TENER
Stacey Curnow helps women find and live their purpose. She left behind a 20-year career as a nurse-midwife, helping women give birth to babies, to help you give birth to your BIG dreams. You can sample her work by reading The Purpose and Passion Guidebook: 6 Steps to Doing Good, Feeling Good and Achieving Your Dreams which you can claim on her website. It will inspire you to tap into your deepest desires, claim your true value and identify your soul’s work in order to live your best life. www.StaceyCurnow.com
An award-winning authority on writing and publishing books, Lisa Tener guides you to joyfully express yourself in writing. She blogs for the Huffington Post, serves on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s publishing course, and teaches her own Award Winning Book Writing Courses in person and by interactive teleseminar. www.LisaTener.com
Transforming Your Relationship
Live Your Purpose
Living the Goddess LifeStyleTM
Inspired to Write?
SUSUN WEED
The Wise Woman Way
Susun Weed is an internationally renowned herbalist, author, and director of the Wise Woman Center in New York. She is a revered voice of the Wise Woman Tradition, where women’s bodies and women’s emotions are valued. Susun is a founding grandmother of the herbal renaissance and the originator of the concept of complementary medicine. www.SusunWeed.com
19
FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS
BONI LONNSBURRY
SARA WISEMAN
LYNN ROBINSON
MARGARET PAUL, PH.D.
CHRISTY WHITMAN
DEBRA REBLE
LAURA CLARK
MAL DUANE
MARY E. PRITCHARD, PH.D., HHC
SHANN VANDER LEEK
HEATHER DANE
SIMONE WRIGHT
Share
YOUR WISDOM! WITH OUR READERS
20
CONTACT US TODAY TO LEARN ABOUT OUR AWESOME CONTRIBUTOR OPPORTUNITIES!
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
LETTER EDITOR
FROM THE
”Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” MAYA ANGELOU
Welcome to the October/November 2014 Fearless Living Issue Creating a fearless and magical life is about choosing to experience each day with curiosity, courage and boldness. Fearless living holds a different meaning for each of us. For some it’s about feeling adventurous and unencumbered. For others it may be a sense of creating, relating and living without attachment to a particular outcome. The simple truth is that LOVE trumps fear, every time. Throughout this issue you’ll find the wisdom, tips and resources to help you kick fear to the curb and claim your dreams. Aspire Magazine is honored to welcome Stacey Curnow, founder of Midwife for Your Life to the Aspire Magazine family of Expert Columnists with her new column Live Your Purpose. Stacey is dedicated to supporting and empowering women to find and live their purpose.
Connect with me! om/ http://www.Facebook.c lindajoyinspires
This is a very special issue for me personally. Louise Hay has played a pivotal role in my life and journey over the last twenty-four years and I know I’m not alone. Louise is a virtual mentor to hundreds of thousands of women around the world through her work and transformational message. It’s an honor to have Louise grace the cover once again. Grab a cup of tea or a glass of wine and enjoy the powerful articles, empowering wisdom and supportive resources offered by our expert columnists and featured guest contributors.
om/
http://www.facebook.c PublisherLindaJoy
ajoy
https://twitter.com/lind http://pinterest.com/ lindajoyinspire/
LINDA JOY Publisher & Editor-In-Chief | Linda@aspiremag.net
Here’s What I’m Reading Right Now...
FROM MY BOOKSHELF
Loving Yourself to Great Health: Thoughts & Food – The Ultimate Diet By Louise Hay, Ahlea Khadro and Heather Dane Another powerful book by Louise Hay, co-written with two of her personal healers, and filled with empowering insights, resources and tools to help you embrace a life of radiant health. I’ve been enjoying a sneak peek of the manuscript but don’t worry Loving Yourself to Great Health will be released on October 7th so be sure to grab your copy today.
FREE
Bring Your Book to Life www.LisaTener.com
with National Book Writing Coach Lisa Tener
22
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
“If you choose to be fearless, then be fearlessly authentic not an imitation of someone you envy.” Shannon L. Alder
Read Online!
Embracing Transitions as
ation m r o f s n a r T f o s d Perio BY DEBRA REBLE, PH.D.
Transitions—intense periods of discovery, selfhealing, and personal transformation—can catalyze the release of patterns, the resolution of grievances, and open space for new possibilities and spiritual growth. From a spiritual point of view, a person’s life is a constant series of transitions: changing jobs or careers, suffering from and healing an illness, beginning or ending relationships, having a baby or facing a death in the family, and initiating or completing creative projects. Moving through life from one transition to another without resistance, avoidance, or energy blocks allows us to open to these new possibilities and develop spiritually. Read the full article online
CHECK OUT MORE ONLINE!
AspireMag.net
l Live & Virtua
UPCOMING EVENTS
SEASON 4: INSPIRED LIVING SECRETS: HEART-CENTERED FEMININE WISDOM FOR THRIVING IN LIFE & BIZ || DETAILS! 24 Visionary Women – Thousands in Transformational Gifts
Loving and Nourishing Yourself to
Great Health A
BY LOUISE HAY
t 88 years of age, I can say that health and happiness are the most important tenets of my life. Many of you who have read my books know that I didn’t have an easy childhood, nor any of the advantages of money or education for much of my life. Then I discovered the one thing that changed the course of my health and my life: the belief that every thought we think is creating our future. This one little idea shifted the direction of my life. I found that if I could create peace, health, and harmony in my mind, I could create the same in my body and in my life. My recently released book, Loving Yourself to Great Health: Thoughts & Food—the Ultimate Diet, co-authored with Heather Dane and Ahlea Khadro is not about the latest trend or fad. It’s about how to craft a life that will nourish and support you. It’s about all the ways you can love yourself more. It’s about ancient healing wisdom that will work for your busy life. And it’s about learning that you matter. Somewhere in all the stress, noise, and to-do lists, there is still space for you. You’ll learn how to find that
24
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
space so you can feel good now and long into your future.
What I Believe ife is really very simple. What we • Lgive out, we get back. Every thought we think is creating our future.
a thought, and a thought • Itcanis beonlychanged. I believe this is true for your health, too.
every so-called illness in • Woure create body, and we have the power to change our thoughts and begin to dissolve it.
eleasing resentment and negative • Rthoughts will help dissolve even the most “incurable” health conditions.
you don’t know what else to • Wdo,henfocus on love. Loving yourself
makes you feel good, and good health is really about feeling good.
hen we really love ourselves, every• Wthing in our life works, including our health.
Loving Yourself to Great Health is a love story. It’s about loving yourself as a way to create health, happiness, and longevity. Yes, you will learn tips, menus, recipes, affirmations, and exercises that have worked to keep me healthy, vibrant, and strong throughout my life. But more than that, your heart will be
There are moments in your life when one decision forever changes the trajectory of your future. My pivotal moment is an Autumn day about twenty-four years ago, when as a single welfare mom, I picked up a copy of Louise’s “You Can Heal Your Life”. Little did I know that Louise’s words, wisdom and powerful sharing would serve as the catalyst that would set me on a path of healing and selfdiscovery—a path that continues to this day. Since then, I’ve read every one of Louise’s books along with over four hundred more personal and spiritual development and success books. As my healing journey continued to unfold, I was divinely led to birth Aspire Magazine in the winter of 2005. My soul inspired intention was to create a publication and publishing company dedicated to providing content that would inspire women to live deeper, more authentic and inspired lives. Today, Aspire and her sister brands serve over 42,000 women plus 16,000 social media fans... All because of Louise’s empowering book. Louise first graced the cover of Aspire in August of 2011 and it’s an honor to once again share her inspirational message. My life came full circle in 2011 when I was invited to attend a private, intimate book signing in New York City for one of Louise’s new books. During our time together, I was blessed to thank my mentor for the impact she, and her extraordinary body of work, has made on my life. As our conversation came to a close, she embraced me and whispered... “Now take what you’ve learned and do the same for others.” And so I do!
25
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
Over the years, there have been some key points to my philosophy on life, happiness, and health that have remained timeless. I am going to share them with you right now because they will help set the stage for this book you’re about to read.
Life Comes Full Circle
I have always loved learning new things, and I believe that every hand that touches me is a healing hand. In this way, I have found many wonderful people doing extremely good work, and I often like to share what I’ve learned from them with the rest of the world. As I look back and think about why I feel so good at age 88, I truly believe it’s because of the way I live my life. My thoughts from morning until I go to sleep at night are mostly a stream of positive affirmations. I firmly believe that Life loves me and everything I need comes to me at the right time. I also believe that I am a big, strong, healthy girl! Then I leave it to Life to bring my thoughts into manifestation so that this comes true for me. opened to new ways to love and support yourself on this incredible journey. Over the years, I have taught ways to eliminate the negative thoughts in your mind and to replace them with positive affirmations. To practice forgiveness and to dissolve resentment. To learn to really love who you are. To do mirror work. Those of you who have followed these lessons have seen your lives turn around for the better.
Now it is time for the next step. I have had so many of you say to me, “You look so young and vibrant.” Or, “I want to be healthy like you when I get older.” In this book, I will be sharing exactly what I do. For me, this is the next step in changing your thoughts. It’s changing your way of life to one that focuses on nourishing and treating your body with love.
26
When you expand your thinking and beliefs, your love flows freely. When you contract, you shut yourself off. Can you remember the last time when you were in love? Your heart went ahh! It was such a wonderful feeling. It is the same with loving yourself, except that you will never leave once you have that love. It’s with you for the rest of your life, so you want to make it the best relationship that you can have. Read Online!
Louise Hay - Louise, the author of the international bestseller You Can Heal Your Life, is a metaphysical lecturer and teacher with more than 40 million books sold worldwide. For more than 30 years, Louise has helped people throughout the world discover and implement the full potential of their own creative powers for personal growth and self-healing. Louise is the founder and chairman of Hay House, Inc., which disseminates books, CDs, DVDs, and other products that contribute to the healing of the planet. Visit www.LouiseHay.com
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
Affirmations for Loving Yourself to Great Health Health
Loving & Accepting Yourself and Others Look in the mirror and ask yourself: “How can I love and accept you more?” Be open and listen for an answer, a feeling or whatever comes to you. Trust that if nothing comes in this moment, it will come to you at another time. And affirm:
I accept myself and create peace in my mind and heart. I am good enough just as I am. I love and approve of myself. As I forgive myself, I leave behind all feelings of not being good enough, and I am free to love myself. [Your name], I love you. I really love you. I love myself. I am special and wonderful. I love my life. I love this day. It is wonderful to feel the love in my heart. My heart is open, and I allow my love to flow freely. I love myself, I love others, and others love me. I forgive myself for not being the way I want me to be. I forgive myself, and set myself free to be just the way I am. I love and accept myself as I am.
r of Your health and happiness is a mirro m: Affir self. your with your relationship
My sweet and loving thoughts begin my healing journey. I allow the love from my heart to wash through me, cleansing and healing every part of my body. I know I am worth healing. My body is always working toward optimal health. My body wants to be whole and healthy. I cooperate and become healthy, whole, and complete. I now express health, happiness, prosperity, and peace of mind.
Tr ustin g
Life
You can situation ask Life to help . y you, if o Life loves you a ou in any n n and ask ly you’ll ask. Lo d is there for ok Lif the answ e, “What do I n in the mirror eed?” L er, a fee iste lin up. If no thing co g, or whatever n for mes up c be open in that m omes to an an oment, swer co m in time. A nd affir g at a later m:
Life loves me. I trust I observe w things to be wond erfu ith joy as L ife abunda l. n tly support a n d care I know th s at only goo s for me. d awaits m All is well. e at ever Ever highest goo ything is working o y turn. ut d. Out of this situati for my on only good will come. I am safe.
27
LIVE Your
Purpose
Purpose OR HIDING IN Fear? ARE YOU LIVING ON
BY STACEY CURNOW
I
t’s agonizing isn’t it?
You know you don’t belong in your job. Sure, it puts food on the table and keeps a roof over your head, and with the economy the way it is, you should probably feel grateful for having a job at all, but you wonder… Could you make it on your own? Could you take the leap and be your own boss? Could you get up every morning and actually be paid well to do what you absolutely love? A part of you thinks you could. A part of you thinks you would be great at it. A part of you believes doing anything less would be a waste of your God-given talent.
28
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
But that’s the problem: it’s only a part.
“Be rational,” it says. “Who are you to want so much? Just be happy with what you’ve got.” And so you end up in knots, tossing and turning at four in the morning as the two sides war within you. Which one is telling the truth? Which one is lying? You just can’t tell, and the uncertainty of it is driving you crazy…
I KNOW, BECAUSE I’VE BEEN THERE. I’ve always been the financial provider in my family, supporting my husband as he pursues his dream of writing the great American novel, and grateful I could fulfill that role. But one day, about 5 years ago, I knew I wanted more. I had noticed that what I loved most about my work as a midwife was talking with my patients about their hopes for their lives and their families. I realized that I wasn’t just helping them give birth to their babies: I was helping them give birth to their dreams. And then, I had the epiphany, “These women need a midwife for their LIFE!” My personal coaching business was born. I built it while I continued to work the same hours at the hospital. It’s required me to work a lot of late nights and weekends, but when my clients tell me that I’ve helped them accomplish dreams they had all but
ASPIRE MAGAZINE WELCOMES STACEY CURNOW AS AN EXPERT COLUMNIST
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
The rest of you thinks about quitting your job and wants to throw up. It worries about being homeless, looking like a loser, and ruining your child’s life.
Stacey Curnow is a purpose and success coach who recently left behind a 20-year career in nurse-midwifery – helping women give birth to babies – to help women give birth to their BIG dreams. She is the founder of Midwife for Your Life a website, blog and series of coaching programs especially designed to help women find and live their purpose. Download Stacey’s complimentary Purpose and Passion Guidebook: 6 Steps to Doing Good, Feeling Good and Achieving Your Dreams guidebook. It will inspire you to tap into your deepest desires, claim your true value and identify your soul’s work in order to live your best life. You can get it FREE from her website at www.staceycurnow.com.
29
...NEVER STOP BELIEVING IN YOURSELF, BECAUSE REGARDLESS OF WHAT ANYONE SAYS, YOU CAN LIVE THE LIFE OF YOUR DREAMS. given up on, and that they even thank God every day for me, it makes it all worth it. In fact, it’s all I want to do. I love my business, and it’s grown a lot over the last five years, but was it enough to leave behind a career that has defined me for the last 20 years? Could I really expect it to support me and my family? I knew there was only one way I was ever going to find out, so in April I resigned from my staff position at the hospital. With no guarantees, I should’ve stayed at my hospital job, right?
I COULDN’T DO IT. Quite frankly, it’s painful to feel like your dreams are drifting away while you’ve got a family to support, and if you’re like me, you’ll try to convince yourself that your dreams really aren’t worth the risks. But this is my life, and I believe I will regret a risk I don’t take more than any loss I could suffer.
Which begs another question: why does it have to be so hard?
YOUR EGO WANTS TO KEEP YOU SAFE (AND MEDIOCRE). Whether you call it your Ego or your “voice of reason” or—my favorite—your inner critic, there is a part of your psyche that wants to protect you. And if that means sacrificing your dreams, so be it. To your Ego, your survival is the only thing that counts, and your dreams are nothing more than a dangerous distraction. But that doesn’t mean you have to believe it. The truth is, your Ego is just another voice inside your head. You can view it as a trusted advisor who wants you to think about the risks involved before you do anything unconventional. It’s prudent to listen to that voice, but you’re by no means obligated to obey it. In fact, challenging it on a regular basis is probably one of the best things you can do. And how do you do that?
ASK POWERFUL QUESTIONS. The key to coming to terms with the Ego is to ask it powerful questions. Asking, “I’ve always struggled financially, so I guess I’m
30
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
“Who would care what I have to say anyway?” is not a powerful question. But asking, “When I believe there is great work inside me, what am I doing?” is—because it leads you in the direction of your dreams. Small questions are powerful too. “What is the first small step I can take on the road to my dreams?” is an excellent question, and “What’s the next small step?” is a great follow-up. Engage your Ego in a dialogue around powerful questions, and I promise you’ll receive good answers. In fact, you know you’re asking a good question by the quality of your answer. If you don’t like the answer, change the question! The point is to free up the voice of your passion and determination, and tone down the voice of your Ego and fears. But wait, there’s more.
PLAN FOR THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO. Your Ego has another tool in its toolbox and it’s called The Worst-Case Scenario. Make no mistake, the worst-case scenario is daunting, but it’s never a good reason to abandon your dreams. How do you deal with it? Think about possible crises before you start any passion-driven work, and decide beforehand what you would be willing to do in the face of them.
Are you willing to consider the worst thing that could happen to you (and your family) if you were to pursue your dreams? Can you acknowledge that there is always something you could do to make it better? Answer “yes,” and you can get on with the business of doing your great work, because the world is waiting.
THE WORLD NEEDS YOU. You may continue to feel fear, but if you can remind your Ego of your agreements, you’ll stop feeling scared out of your mind. The good news is that you’re on this path for a reason. The world doesn’t need more people waiting to punch out at the end of the day to numb themselves with alcohol or TV or shopping. We need you to fulfill your purpose and become truly alive. So challenge those voices of “reason” inside your head. Plan for the worst-case scenario. And no matter what, never stop believing in yourself, because regardless of what anyone says, you can live Read Online! the life of your dreams.
Stacey Curnow - Stacey helps women find and live their purpose. She left behind a 20-year career as a nurse-midwife, helping women give birth to babies, to help you give birth to your BIG dreams. You can sample her work by reading The Purpose and Passion Guidebook: 6 Steps to Doing Good, Feeling Good and Achieving Your Dreams. It will inspire you to tap into your deepest desires, claim your true value and identify your soul’s work in order to live your best life. You can get it FREE from her website at www.staceycurnow.com.
31
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
just not supposed to be an artist, right?” is not a powerful question. But asking, “Of the successful artists I admire, who would be willing to mentor me?” is.
LIVING the
Goddess Lifestyle
THE GIFT OF FEAR– A New Persepective on that
B*tch Named
FEAR! BY LISA MARIE ROSATI
L
iving fearlessly is a topic I absolutely ADORE talking and writing about. I imagine it’s because I was a total chicken shit and afraid of just about EVERYTHING my entire life up until about 8 years ago… Now I’m not talking in particular about monsters under the bed and that kind of stuff (although I did suffer with fear of monsters lurking in dark places like under my bed and in the closet, the dark in general, and other common phobias when I was a child – who didn’t right?), I’m talking about the fear of moving my life forward. I was the “Queen of What If”… what if this happens, what if that happens… what if… what if… what if….
32
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
There are so many ways that fear rears its ugly head in your life. There’s the fear of failure, the fear of not being enough, the fear of being ridiculed or judged, the fear of outshining someone you love, and so on. If allowed to run amuck, fear will literally paralyze you and your ability to fully live! Once I began my deep spiritual journey and healing, I began to realize that all of the potential horrible outcomes that would whoosh around in my head were completely fabricated by my ego in order to keep me playing a small game in life. This life changing realization helped my logical mind recognize the fear, however my subconscious was still running the show, so I would stay stuck. The only difference was that now I was conscious of my stuck-ness.
What to do about it? I found myself in a quandary I must admit. My work in the world is empowering spiritual women to magically create an abundant life they love - I affectionately call it Life Magick™. I must admit that I don’t usually follow the ass in front of me… never have and I tend to be maverick in my thinking, too. So please allow me a moment or two to lay some personal thoughts on you regarding fear. I believe you chose to incarnate to this life for a divine purpose, and that some
form of fear is probably keeping you from accomplishing it.
The scientific and logical description for your limiting behavior (fear) is, “Fear, doubt and worry originate from a place of lack driven by the ego. The primary goal for the ego is to keep you exactly where you are.” But I say, who needs more logic and science – right? Let’s get into the emotional part of it. Playing small and living an invisible life feels safe. But the truth is … feeling safe is just a feeling … an illusion. Listen dear one, you weren’t born to play small … you were born to play a much bigger game and overcome some scary stuff. It’s part of the spiritual lessons you chose to take on before you incarnated. Ultimately, fear and being stuck is a choice, they are learned behaviors. Fear originates in your thoughts but you buying into the thought and allowing it to stop you, is up to you… it’s your choice.
YOU get to choose! 33
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
“Fear, doubt and worry originate from a place of lack driven by the ego. The primary goal for the ego is to keep you exactly where you are.”
It’s not easy to up-level your mindset, raise your vibration and believe thoughts of massive abundance, success and prosperity… indeed there’s certainly less resistance to staying put in the paralyzing grips of fear, but breaking free can be done! The momentum begins with this one, simple mantra:
Be scared and do it anyway. Now, simple need not imply easy. Habits are hard to break, so if your pattern is to self-sabotage, stop dead in your tracks and retreat just as things start to go your desired way … you will need to refer to and LIVE my effective, bad-ass mantra.
Be scared and do it anyway. What I know for sure is that everything you need to create wealth, well-being and happiness is already within you. The secret
is to first decide, and then be willing to follow through with your decision no matter how scary or uncomfortable it may feel. Humans are wired to move away from discomfort. Breaking through fear requires you to stay put and endure discomfort for the greater good of your life. The more you walk through the inferno of your fears and realize you’re still alive and kicking at the other end, the more walking through fear will become something you naturally do. Believe it or not, I actually crave fire-walking now because I know that I grow and become more powerful each time I walk through the illusionary veil of fear. If you haven’t already guessed, I am totally addicted to growing and expanding and becoming the next more powerful and healthy version of myself. One of the most liberating and empowering things you can do is to stop living your days in a state of fear. It robs you of the present moment, which is all you really have anyway. I came across this reframe for fear and I absolutely LOVE it!
Fear is: False Evidence Appearing As Reality
The truth is …fear is an illusion. Fear depletes your energy, clouds your self value and further keeps you from living the life you truly desire. Besides, Law of Attraction states that being afraid only attracts more of what you’re afraid of…
34
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
Why? Because you are here to learn that particular lesson, it’s part of your sacred contract. The Universe will try and get you to learn the spiritual lesson you signed up for before incarnating, and if you don’t … it will simply send you another opportunity. Each time you miss the lesson, the Universe sends a bigger message… ignore the Universe long enough and it will whack you upside the head with a cosmic 2X4. Not a pleasant experience I can assure you.
5 Empowering Thoughts For Overcoming Fear 1. Fear is not real. Fear is an illusion based on information from your past or potential future – the what-if’s (What if ______ happens?). 2. Be scared and do it anyway. Acknowledge your fear and continue to take action forward no matter what. 3. What you resist persists and grows. The lesson will be put in your path again, perhaps different circumstances, different cast members but same core lesson. Remember the cosmic 2X4… 4. Take action towards what scares you most. What you most desire is on the other side of fear and is waiting for you to come claim it!
5. Everything is figure-out-able. You can course correct mid-air. I’ve done it a zillion times. Dear one, fear is a gift if you utilize it as a life tool to grow and evolve, accomplish and succeed in life. As with everything, perspective is key. Put on your magical lens and see that fear is your friend and not your nemesis. My deepest heartfelt wish is that the next time fear pops up in your life, and it will; you remember my words, “Be scared and do it anyway”. I can promise you that wherever I am, I will be there with you in Spirit, rooting for you and waving my pom-poms wildly.
I believe in you! Read Online!
Passionista Lisa Marie Rosati – Passionista and Visionary Lisa Marie Rosati is a renowned Inner Goddess Catalyst for women, Creatrix of The Goddess Lifestyle Plan + Sugar Free Goddess, co-author of the international best selling book – “Embracing Your Authentic Self.” Lisa mentors women around the world on how to become a Modern Day Goddess by consciously designing how to get their health back, balance their feminine and masculine energies, ignite the fire within their souls and live a luscious goddess life filled with sacred practice, passion, radiant health, entrepreneurial success and prosperity.
35
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
The fear of not having enough money creates more bills and lack, the fear of failure creates more failure and self-sabotage, and so on. When you are afraid of something… you inadvertently order a few more situations from the Universe that will put you in the same core situation.
THE ONLY MAP
You’ll Ever Need (For every dream you have...) BY BONI LONNSBURRY
W
hat if I told you I had a map that would turn thoughts into gold, sadness into joy, failure into success and loneliness into love? Would you follow it? Of course you would. Who wouldn’t? I did. And man oh man, does my life look different now. I went from bankruptcy and foreclosure to abundance beyond my wildest dreams. Yes, the creditors were knocking down my door after the worst year of my life. My dad died that year. I was divorced from my husband of 16 years, the father of my two teenage sons. The boys were acting out a lot then, and I reluctantly allowed them to move in with their dad—and he shockingly moved them across the country within a few weeks—I was notified by his lawyer.
36
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
I had no real job, no money and no family. I seriously thought about what it would be like to live in my car. “But what if my car is repossessed?” I thought. I quickly pushed that thought away. Yeah, I was at my all time low. And that’s when I turned the corner. I stopped struggling and began to methodically take one day at a time, with an important caveat—I followed The Map.
“Hey,” I thought, “this map worked for money and career, why not love?” And so, I followed it.
THE MAP CREATES LOVE I met Richard through a mutual friend. Yeah, a blind date. “I know you don’t do blind dates,” my friend persuaded, “but this just feels different…” And different he was. We were married on a tiny island in Fiji four years after we met. Oh, it wasn’t all sappy happily-ever-after. We had struggles. Big ones. We separated not once but three times. We didn’t talk for a year and during that time each of us became engaged to other people.
THE MAP CREATES ABUNDANCE Within days I had a part time job. It didn’t pay much, but just a few weeks later I was offered a full time job. And within two years I was given part ownership of a company. In another year I was full owner of my own company (that investment cost me a whopping $50). And five years after that, that company was producing sales of $5 million a year, without investing another dime. Yeah, The Map worked. And what fun I was having! I loved my work—I couldn’t wait for Mondays. The money was an added bonus. But my love life was struggling. I longed for a deeply committed relationship. I wanted to grow (and grow old) with someone who truly loved me and vise versa.
But each time it wasn’t working, I went back to The Map to figure out where I had taken a wrong turn. The Map works—every time—for every area of life. Lots of people have heard about the law of attraction—yet most have some major misconceptions about it. Contrary to popular belief it isn’t something you have to “apply”.
37
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
If that weren’t enough, I was failing miserably at the multilevel marketing job I clung to as my only hope. My home slipped into foreclosure as the bills piled up faster than I could open them, much less pay them.
Manifesting reality is a result of what you think and feel. Period. It just is—like gravity. It is working all the time. And The Map is the key to making it work for you. Thousands have seen immediate changes in their own lives—and the more they follow it, the more changes they see. But before I explain The Map (I know, I know…it seems like it’s taking me forever to get there) you really do need to understand…
HOW REALITY IS CREATED It’s not just about thinking positive. And it’s not only about visualizing what you want. It’s also much more than affirmations. Manifesting reality is a result of what you think and feel. Period. However, you must remember that beliefs are what you are thinking and feeling all of the time. In other words, beliefs are the energy of your thoughts and feelings on steroids. Now…to The Map…
THE MAP TO A DELICIOUS LIFE STEP ONE – Know who you (really) are
How do you think you got this amazing reality where you can literally create your dreams out of thin air? Not by being a worthless piece of… No. You scored this world because you
38
are quite literally a piece of the divine. You, my friend, are a piece of God—a piece of Goddess. And in that divine being-ness, lies the ability to create your world.
STEP TWO – Know what you want
Ah, don’t worry…you don’t have to know the specifics of your dream. In fact, it’s better that you don’t. But you do need to know how you want to feel in your ideal life. For instance, with regard to your finances you probably want to feel wealthy, free, secure, safe and excited. In your love life you more than likely want to feel joyful, loved, loving, committed, respected, honored and to have fun. In your work you perhaps want to feel excited, prosperous, creative, etc.
STEP THREE – Flow some juicy energy towards that dream
Most people have dreams they let die. But if you flow energy into your dreams they will not only live but also materialize. You flow energy to them by thinking about them and feeling positive at the same time. Oh—and making sure your beliefs are in alignment with your dream. If you desire a beautiful relationship, for instance, but don’t believe you are loveable, you won’t create that dream no matter how hard you try.
STEP FOUR – Get out in the world and take action towards it
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
For example, if your intention was to create a new job, an action step might be to call someone in the industry you are interested in, for advice, lunch or simply to inquire about job openings.
STEP FIVE – Watch your reality respond to your new self
When you change what you think and feel (and believe) your world will change. It has to. That’s the way this universe works. But it won’t happen instantly—your reality takes time to materialize. You can, however, see little baby changes right away (within days or hours even). The problem for most people is they don’t recognize these “signs”. What might they look like? Well say you wanted to manifest a thousand dollars for a new couch you fell in love with. You wrote out your intentions and you did a quick technique such as the One Minute Manifestor. The next day the signs might be: • Your dentist office calls and says you overpaid your account and will be mailed a refund. • You receive an email from the store where you saw the couch and everything in the store is 10% off. • Your best friend calls and tells you their brother just bought a pickup truck (delivery will no longer cost you $75) • You watch a show on TV about unexpected miracles • You go to dinner and the waiter comps your dessert
Of course none of these signs are the whole dream, but they indicate the dream is coming. And that they happened right after the shift in your energy means if you keep up the same thoughts and feelings, your dream will manifest.
STEP SIX – Get happy. Stay present. Feel as if you have the dream.
It’s easy to stay excited about a dream for a little while. But how you live your life the rest of the day/week/month is still creating your reality. If you go back to your old thoughts and feelings of doubt, fear, lack and hopelessness, nothing (beyond a few signs) will really change.
STEP SEVEN – Ask for help
You don’t have to do it alone. This is a free will universe, so your unseen friends won’t do it for you, but if you ask, they will help. So make it easier on yourself—ask. The Map works. But, like any map, only if you follow it. So you decide. How important is it that you reach your dreams? If not so important, stay where you are, but don’t be surprised if you don’t get anywhere. However, if you are serious about creating those dreams, The Map can get you there. One step at a time.
Read Online!
Boni Lonnsburry – Boni is the CEO of Inner Art Inc., an expert on conscious creation and the author of the best-selling book, “The Map: To Our Responsive Universe, Where Dreams Really Do Come True.” The Map is the winner of five book awards including the prestigious Nautilus award. Learn more: www.livealifeyoulove.com.
39
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
Taking action solidifies the dream in your subconscious and in the universe. It also lets you “try it on a bit” which sometimes uncovers beliefs you never knew you had.
The Universe is
Calling You... are You
A
Listening? BY SARA WISEMAN
ll day long, in every single moment, the Universe is communicating with us.
When we’re busy, when we’re not paying attention, when we’re caught up in the various dramas of human life, we don’t always hear this quiet whisper, this soft refrain. That’s because the Universe doesn’t speak to us in the language of the world. Instead, it communicates in the language of the soul. It’s a language that can be taught and learned, just like anything else we might want to study. Yet so often, we’re distracted— too concerned with our plans and project and thoughts—to take time to really listen
40
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
Cosmic Communication There’s no time that cosmic communication isn’t happening, offering the kind of soul guidance that leads us to lives brimming with connection and joy. You can access this Universal guidance right now if you wish… Or, maybe you’d rather access it ten minutes for now? Or perhaps later today? It doesn’t matter when, because Universal guidance is always available. 24/7. Once you know how to access it, you’ll find it’s always on, and there’s an unlimited supply. You can connect with this phenomenal resource as often as you want, forever. And yet the question for so many of us remains the same…. why don’t we connect?
A True Stream
of Consciousness So many of us forget to listen to this infinite communication, this true stream of consciousness that speaks to us beyond all word or sound. That’s because listening requires consciousness. Consciousness requires paying attention. And paying attention requires letting of go distractions. As humans, we’re pretty attached to our distractions!
It’s only when we start to drop out of all this mind chatter and must do and instead simply be…. It’s only when we start to create a sort of sacred expansiveness in our lives that we can make room for the Universe to show up. The soul whisper takes time, and patience and surrender. We have to walk in the Mystery, to hear it.
Speaking in Tongues The Universe speaks to us in many tongues, so that we have more chances to hear. Again, understanding this cosmic communication requires a deep willingness to slow down and pay attention to every little thing. The Universe speaks at the most subtle level, in noticings and knowings that are easy to miss when we are in a hurry, or have our mind full of thoughts. Some of the ways the Universe may be trying to communicate with you right now include:
The language of synchronicity and convergence. Whenever you
notice these “coincidences,’ in all they ways they show up, you will know that the Universe is trying to get your attention, nudging you in the direction of that synchronicity.
41
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
is 24/7
Distractions take lots of forms: we can be busy with tasks or “to dos” or future thinking or memories or emotions... it’s all the same to the Universe.
The language of the heart, which
The language of intuition,
is where is all of our soul growth in this lifetime takes place, as we open past pain and into love.
which includes clairvoyance, clairaudience and so forth… these are innate psychic skills that belong to us; they are also skills that can be taught and learned.
Our Purpose is
The language of the guides and angelic realm, in which you can learn to connect deeply with these very real beings. Once you know how to access this “direct connection,” you’ll wonder how you lived without it.
The language of the departed; the ways in which our ancestors and those who have passed on communicate with us beyond time.
The language of dreams and lucid dreaming and day dreaming,
Soul Growth
Every time the Universe communicates with us, it is nudging us gently along on our path of soul growth. Sometimes we resist this path! For example, you may think your highest possibility is to be a successful business
which are not mere pastimes of the subconscious, or “loafing about” but mystic messages that inform us of what we must pay attention to.
T he language of nature and the animal world: a connection that
mirrors and reflects back our own way of being in the world.
T he language of inanimate objects: the material items that hold
energy, emotion and memory in the same way as all living things.
The language of the body and of the emotional field: the deep knowing which can never lie.
The language of the higher vibrations; the bliss which heals us
and holds us.
42
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
amson
Marianne Willi
person; but the Universe may feel what is most important for your soul growth is to heal the rift with your mother. You may think that you want to attract a particular type of partner; but the Universe may bring you a soul mate who nothing like what you had in mind, but who answers the true call of your heart and teaches you many lessons. You may believe that your plans are urgent and paramount; but the Universe may insist instead that you spend hours sitting on your deck, listening to the wind move in the trees, simply being. When we allow the Universe to lead us in this way—when we let go of our human need to plan and direct and control, and instead allow ourselves to exist and experience … that’s when the Universe is able to communicate with us most clearly.
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
.to endure “It takes courage.. selfthe sharp pains of an choose discover y rather th in of to take the dull pa at would unconsciousness th r lives.” last the rest of ou
It’s interesting, what happens when we come to live this way: We experience bliss. e experience a profound W sense of gratitude. e find ourselves living in W present moment. e become able to listen to W the Universe at all times, no longer a faint and fleeting whisper… but as a clear language of consciousness.
Read Online!
Sara Wiseman - Sara is a spiritual teacher, intuitive and author of six insightful books on intuitive living, including her award-winning Living a Life of Gratitude. Sara is the founder of Intuition University, and teaches spiritual intuition to thousands of students worldwide through her small group trainings and homestudy courses. She hosts the popular radio show Ask Sara/ Sanctuary and is a top contributor to DailyOM. Access her FREE Be Your Own Oracle mini-course and other great resources at www.sarawiseman.com
43
Are you Listening to Your
Divine GUIDANCE SYSTEM?
H
BY MAL DUANE
ow many times have you gotten a “funny” feeling that something wasn’t right? You can’t put your finger on it but there is this gnawing sensation that keeps distracting you. You dismiss it at first but it keeps coming back. It’s not painful but becomes almost a pit or a knot in your stomach. Say hello to your intuition. Many of us don’t understand the power of intuition. It’s like your own built-in radar system, an innate sense of knowing in your head without any reasonable explanation that something doesn’t feel right. We spend so much time concerned about our stomachs for one reason or another. Bikini ready abs the ads shout at us. Buy this firming cream yells another one. It’s too big or maybe too flabby says our inner mean girl. One company marketed our intuition to us in the form of a razor. I definitely do not need to use my intuition to know when to shave my legs! All of this conversation is a distraction from a very, very powerful piece of equipment
44
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
Author and security consultant Gavin de Becker wrote in his book The Gift of Fear, about PINs or Pre-Incident Indicators. These are tactics that predators use to gain control over victims and usually victims will go along with them against their intuition because women are conditioned to be nice. Here are a few of the ploys they use. Charm is one. Feigning to need help is another. Refusing to accept no as a complete sentence. (I think Oprah explained it brilliantly this way.) And saying things like, “I promise I won’t hurt you” actually indicates that someone is about to hurt you. Women sometimes do not want to ruffle feathers so we will continue an unwanted conversation for the sake of appearing polite. All of us need to be aware that these are traps and that even if your intuition says run and you hesitate and think, well, that’s crazy, he just said he wouldn’t hurt me, you are putting yourself in danger. Do not let your nice girl syndrome or prior abuse stop you from acknowledging your gut instinct about people, places and things that just don’t feel right. Picture yourself as an airport security person and think, how would they view this situation? Airport security in Israel rely on the human factor and looks for signs in conversation of anxiousness, intention and mood. Think of it like the fan that comes on when your laptop gets hot or the airbag that deploys
in your car. It’s a totally sophisticated safety feature of the human body. You might sweat, you might get the nervous stomach or think of a plan like, I could just avoid eye contact with the pushy person on the street and say loudly, I’m late. The trick is when your mind tells you what to do, don’t override your safety feature! The cool part of all of this is that we can develop our intuition to be one of our most powerful tools to guide us through life, not just alert us to harm. I love what Gabrielle Bernstein says about fear. “Fear is a great teacher. The world is a classroom and people are our assignments.” So we need fear, but we don’t have to be ruled by it. Our intuition just needs to be acknowledged, nurtured and trained like a Spartan warrior.
Before making a huge decision if you tapped into your intuition instead of your ego, do you think the answer might be slightly different? Oh yeah! Intuition is linked to your soul, the authentic voice within you. When you get that gut feeling it is your innermost truth alerting you to something, which may be good or bad for
45
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
that is sending us warning signals. Ever get around someone and just felt sick to your stomach with anxiety? Not about the task at hand or a deadline but just an authority figure or person who was so unpleasant and your stomach would be upset? We need to pay strong attention when we get these messages from our bodies. They are trying to communicate with us!
you. Our ego is connected to that feeling of separateness that says we are better than or less than what we truly are. When you learn to shut down that little screeching voice, the soft whisper of the divine being within can emerge. This is when miracles occur. We can see things differently. Possibilities unfold. Often I have to pray or meditate to get my ego out of the way and ask for help. I ask to let me see my part in the situation, to be shown the solution and the patience to wait. This is when you’ll get positive signs from the universe. An email comes in with an opportunity. A chance to make an amends appears. God can work when we step out of our own way and be willing to receive direction. Having your stomach in knots or being ill at ease about something for an extended period of time is not peace. It means something needs to shift. I must admit I have developed great respect for my intuition because it is usually right. It is on to something long before I am. I have developed a pretty strong sensation within my body that is correct about 90% of the time. The small knot in my stomach builds in tension, which ultimately influences my thinking, and then I take the right action. Sometimes it will have nothing to do with me but with someone else I know. I am inspired to call a person and check in on them. Recently a dear friend who is is living in Florida that had lost her husband came to be on my mind. The day he died, I got the most powerful feeling that I needed to call her. I sat with it a couple of days and then made the call. Indeed, her husband had passed from cancer. A very wise friend of mine has said to me, if you ever think you should call someone or send someone a card or give someone some money, you probably should. The universe is energy and we are constantly sending out positive and
46
negative signals, back and forth. Thoughts are energy. Guidance is energy. We are sending and receiving information. My intuition has been on overload lately. My brain and body are constantly devoting energy to try to resolve this question for me, processing hundreds of memories, incidents, thoughts and behaviors. Everyday I get these gut feelings about whether I should trust a certain person or not. Even though there is no clear evidence that something is being done wrong, my gut continues to warn me that things aren’t quite right. Are they actively doing something to hurt me or is it that they have the capability to do something to hurt me? Either way, I am being quietly guided to pay attention, looking for warning signs so I don’t get ambushed. Let’s remember to lower the noise on lowlevel useless information clogging up the connection to the divine so that we have bandwidth to tune in to the stuff we really need to know. In a world of too much data, our intuition needs to be a clear channel.
Read Online!
Mal Duane - Using her own life experiences as a catalyst, Life Recovery & Sobriety Coach and bestselling Author Mal Duane is passionately committed to empowering women in releasing the shackles of shame, pain and self-condemnation to live a life of passion and purpose. Mal is an esteemed “Architect for Change” and blogger on MariaShriver.com, host of the highly successful teleseries events Positive Mental Shift and Reclaim Your Life as well as the bestselling author of of Alpha Chick: Five Steps for Moving from Pain to Power. Visit www.MalDuaneCoach.com to claim your free Life Recovery Guide Kit.
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
“I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN DRAWN TO THE Personal, Intimate Stories OF WOMEN WHO HAVE NOT ONLY Lived Through UNIQUE AND SOMETIMES Painful Life Experiences, BUT WHO CAME OUT THE OTHER SIDE ARMED WITH THE Wisdom, Love, Insights And Heart Of A Warrior Woman. MAY THEIR STORIES Inspire You To Believe THAT YOU TOO ARE AN Extraordinary Woman” -Host Linda Joy
47
Becoming Fearless:
Learning to Walk
Power
in Your
BY MARY E. PRITCHARD, PH.D.
2
013: the Year of the Cosmic 2x4 – at least it was for me. For most of the year, I
felt like Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump. The hits kept coming so fast and furiously, I finally told the Universe, “Bring it on!” And, of course, it did. Be careful what you wish for… The real revelation came when a woman I had only met once Facebook messaged me out of the blue at 6:00am one morning in early November. Her message was simple and to the point: “Why aren’t you walking in your power?” After the initial shock that a woman I barely knew was calling me on this, I realized she was right. I hadn’t been walking in my power, but it sounded like something I should be doing.
48
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. The first thing I had to figure out was what “walking in your power” actually meant. To me, it means this: We are all here for a purpose, our life’s mission if you will. But many of us get sidetracked along the way. Caught up in the day-to-day chaos of our lives, we forget what we came here to do. We attend to things that we think are more pressing (like catching up on our 100+ unread emails at 3:00am or spending way too time on Facebook), and we lose track of what really matters. The thing that brought us here: our life’s purpose. Maybe you don’t know what you came here to do – although given you read Aspire, I’m guessing that’s not the case. But if you truly don’t (and aren’t just hiding by feigning ignorance), then I encourage you to reflect on that question. Some of my friends call this, “The Big Why.” As in, “Why are you here? Why are you doing what you’re doing?” It’s a question that deserves an answer, and you owe it to yourself to find out if you don’t already know. But for most of us, that’s not the issue. The real problem is this: I think most of us
– including me – really do know our life’s purpose, but are afraid to act on it. It’s like my favorite Marianne Williamson quote:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Easier said than done. Our playing small may not serve the world, but it certainly helps get rid of the fear! After all, if we dim our light, we don’t have to worry about shining too brightly or about what other people think. In short, my answer to the question, “Why aren’t you walking in your power?” was that I was scared to death of it – still am, if you must know. I was afraid to let go of the safety and security of the life I’ve created for myself to pursue my true purpose, afraid to let my light shine.
49
Before we start, let’s lay the groundwork with a few journal prompts. The answers to these questions should help you figure out what to do on each of those 30 days.
1
Of course my refusal to shine my light led to its own set of problems: namely, being stuck. I couldn’t move forward and I couldn’t return to blissful ignorance pretending I didn’t know my life’s true purpose. I sat between a rock and a hard place. Blindly clinging to my old path wasn’t working, but stepping on a new path took courage that I wasn’t sure I had. Then something started shifting in me. The Universe kept sending people my way who wanted me to speak in teleseminars about being successful and overcoming my fears. As much as I felt like a fraud for doing so, I realized that those offers were the Universe’s way of nudging me more squarely onto my path. Baby steps to help me get unstuck.
W hat’s my life’s purpose? What am I here to do? – For example, my life’s purpose is to heal myself and own my truth so that I can empower, inspire and support other women to do the same.
2
Am I done? No. Do I walk in my power every day? Yes – but usually not all day. I’m still a work in progress. But I do feel I’ve made significant advances along my path over the past year. So here’s my challenge to you: ladies, it’s time to walk in your power. To finally figure out what you came here to do and do something about it. For the next 30 days, I want you to do something that truly gets you walking in your power. Something that scares you a little – or a lot – but needs to be done for you to own your truth and live the life you were meant to live.
50
3
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
What does my ideal day look like? How would I spend my time? What would I be doing? – my ideal day would be spent getting my message out to as many women as possible and helping them on their path. This would be through a combination of blogging, speaking, writing books and ecourses, etc. At this point, I spend one to two days a week doing this. The rest of my time is still devoted to my ‘real job’ that pays the bills and allows me to move closer to my goal. What would it take for
my ideal day to become a reality? - Think of this as an A to Z process. Write down everything
Organize these steps into chronological order – and do yourself a favor, do this in a Word document or on your smart phone so you can reorganize the steps – I promise you, you’ll have to at some point and likely many times!
5
Make
a
timeline
– how long will it realistically take for you to get from A to Z? Start putting dates by your steps. You may need to add substeps to the bigger goals to make them more do-able.
6
7
this
30-day
calendar out and put it where you will see it often.
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
4
you need to do to make that happen. It doesn’t matter how big or small these steps might be.
8
Start your 30 day challenge today! – If you put it off until tomorrow, you’ll likely keep putting it off. Take it from someone who knows!
As I shared previously, I’m a work in progress. So I will be doing this challenge right along with you. I’d love it if you’d reach out to me and let me know your daily successes and struggles and I’ll do the same. We can hold each other accountable and keep each other honest. And maybe, just maybe, truly embrace walking in our power along the way.
Read Online!
Pick out your 30 days and assign one task to each day – don’t make these tasks too small or too big. They shouldn’t be too easy or too challenging. The goal here is to stretch you a little bit, not scare you into giving up!
Mary E. Pritchard, Ph.D., HHC - Mary is a Professor of Psychology and Holistic Health Counselor. Mary’s extensive educational background combined with her personal passion and commitment to empowering women in healing their hormonal health naturally and reclaiming their Feminine Power empowers her clients to experience profound shifts in their health and life. Claim a complimentary copy of 10 Signs Your Inner Goddess is Calling You in-depth workbook at www.AwakeningtheGoddessWithin.net
51
When Women Come Together in
Community,
World
We Can Change the
BY SHANN VANDER LEEK
“Women hold up half the sky.”— Chinese Proverb
S
aying yes to being part of a transformational woman’s circle rocked my world and positively impacted my life. Women have been coming together in circle for centuries. In days gone by, it was often a tribe of women who ruled the community. While the origins of women’s circles are ancient, their lessons are as modern as the women who participate in them today. In my opinion, wise women’s circles represent the sacred circle of life.
52
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
By creating space to tell our stories, express our roles, talents, concerns, and visions; we move more fully into connection with one another. Sharing sacred space with women who wish to encourage, challenge and support each other is a blessing. A circle of women who learn to share in a safe container learn to trust each other. Trust is the alchemy that produces a sanctuary of transformation. The energy that flows through circle is divinely guided and facilitates so much clarity and profound healing. Together we face our shadows. We hold space for each other. We witness the joy and sadness of this earth walk for one another. We remember that we are not alone. We agree to do what ever it takes to live authentically in mind, body, heart, and spirit.
When women come together in community, we change the world. • We learn to remove our masks. • We have permission to relax into who we are in the moment.
Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
I have deep respect for the women in my circle. We’ve laughed, cried, freaked out and felt like we were going crazy at times. We lost our way and found ourselves again. We worked in partnership preparing delicious food and sharing meal together. We drummed, sang and cackled like mad women. We received heartfelt healing in the sweat lodge that we built together on sacred land. We felled trees, dug the holes, tied the supports and blessed our sacred lodge.
round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were. The life of a woman is a circle from childhood to childhood. And so it is in everything where power moves. Black Elk, OGLALA SIOUX (1863-1950)
•W e can be vulnerable or strong. • We can participate or pass. • We learn that we are not responsible for what other people think. •W e don’t have to accept or respond to others’ projections. • We can simply show up.
53
In circle every woman has a voice, or will find her voice, by the time she completes her journey. Warrior women become soft and learn to stand down. Quiet women find their voice and learn stand their ground.
rage “Do you think cou ess? Or means being fearl real daring? Courage, three courage, is taking fies you.” steps when it ter ri
There were many personal teachings that came along with my circle experience. Three significant examples come to mind... 1. M y shoulders aren’t broad enough to support everyone else at all times. When the well is dry, I replenish my energy before I step up to bu in service to someone else. 2. Naming and taming my inner tyrant allowed me to release the suffering and delusion that comes with harsh selfjudgement. 3. T he ecstasy of allowing myself to be the larger than life, force of nature I was born to be. I will no longer make myself small so others are more comfortable in my presence. I was born to shine, fly and expand like Jupiter.
erson
Catherine And
ask for help, lighten up and trust the process of my unfolding. ‘Trust and Surrender’ has become a personal mantra during this sacred journey (highly recommended for control freaks, recovering perfectionists and Type A personalities). I am so thankful to come away with a rich tapestry of friendship, storytelling, healing, prayer, creativity, ruthless compassion and so much more. If you’ve been considering joining a wise women’s circle, I highly recommend that you do some research to find a group and supportive facilitator whom resonates with you.
The changing woman sisterhood help me walk through the gateway of adulthood and the clarity of knowing what I’m responsible for and what I can release. I’ve learned to
54
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
• You’ll experience women you connect with immediately. • You’ll meet women who push your buttons in a big way. • You’ll see yourself in the mirror of your sister’s stories. • You will dance with your shadow and learn to accept her just as she is. • You will experience intense emotions and deep healing. • You will receive the gift of being part of a safe community anchored in love.
We can learn fill the void of what we choose to surrender with grace, compassion and self-love. We can make it a daily practice to remember that we are worthy to walk in beauty with the strength, courage and pleasure of claiming our feminine sovereignty. Every courageous transformation goddess who says yes to dancing around the wheel of circle is in for one hell of a ride. Read Online!
Shann Vander Leek - Shann is the creator of The Sacred Heart Teachings digital program, author of Life on Your Terms and coauthor of three best selling books for women. She hosts the Divine Feminine Spotlight series, and is co-creator of the popular Anxiety Slayer podcast. A professional voice talent, former TV advertising executive and transformation enthusiast, Shann mentors visionary women who want to walk in beauty with the strength, courage and pleasure of reclaiming their feminine sovereignty. Shann blogs at Transformation Goddess.com where women go for a soulful, sensual and sacred exploration.
“Courage sta showing up rts with and letting ourselves b e seen.” Brene B rown
55
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
Here is what you can expect if you say yes to stepping into a women’s circle:
Yo
Rainbow is
NOW
t
he
u
d a e y O m o v e S r r BY LAURA CLARK
I
n the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is wishing she could go home, wishes she could be anywhere but where she is right now. And, all along, home was right where she found it. All along, she had the power to be there when she chose it. She simply needed to look deep into her heart. But, the truth is, she had to look somewhere over the rainbow to discover this truth. Rainbows can teach us so very much. Their colors, their shapes and their symbolism hold vast wisdom and messages for all of us. We only have to be curious and take the time to hear these messages, understand them and have the courage to
56
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
Rainbows hold much symbolism. Various cultures and religions have an understanding of this. And, common among all of these is the basic belief that a rainbow is a perfect combination of factors that must exist in the elements for its formation. These create a raw and beautiful phenomenon. In this rainbows, represent a super natural beauty, promise and joy. Symbolism further points to a time of healing, hope, expansion and harmony.
Rainbows signify a time of enlightenment for us. They show us the deeper understanding of the spirit that lies within each of us. We are spiritual beings living in this earthly world. A rainbow is a representation of this. It shows us that there is path one can take
to bridge the gap between our human form and our spiritual being. We only have to look at the shape, along with the natural beauty of a rainbow to see this. Of course, the shape is that of an arc. Arcs, when you follow their
Rainbows signify a time of enlightenment for us. They show us the deeper understanding of the spirit that lies within each of us. shape as a path from one side to another, allow for a crossing. Too, they allow for a stepping through underneath its form. As a crossing, as a path to follow, one can see how an arc allows for a transformation. Partially, when it’s not a full arc, it extends from earth to the skies. This is symbolic of our transformation into a
magical life by choosing to get closer aligned with spirit in our own lives. Following a symbolic rainbow in our lives, using spirit to help guide us and to listen to our innate wisdom, allows us to lead a bold life that is on purpose. Full rainbow arcs, the kind that stretch from one side of the horizon to the other, also create an opening to step through. With one step through this portal, one can transcend human thought and emotion and embrace their own spirit, to act based on the innate wisdom of their soul’s desire, to choose to experience each day with joy and love. Dorothy’s experience in Oz shows a journey she took with curiosity. Remember her first step on the yellow brick road? She took it with courage and boldness. One encouraged by spirit. For some of us, embracing our spirit comes in the form of a journey, a path. For others, it comes at one particular moment. Some of us will walk the rainbow allowing a journey toward spirit, for
57
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
act upon them. Dorothy finally understood this and then she took bold action ~ she clicked her heels together not knowing what was to come but understanding she had to take this fearless action.
colors of the chakras, if you will, are glorious, radiant and bountiful. When our chakras are not aligned, when we are stuck at a certain level of consciousness, the colors will not vibrate as beautifully. Some rainbows will be seen like this. They will be duller and more subtle. When one sees such a rainbow, their chakras may be in need of rebalancing. Other rainbows will be glorious and vibrant. These rainbows when seen will show us that we indeed are choosing to align with spirit and are ready to lead a fearless life.
others, a choice is made by walking under the arc to embrace it instantaneously. Neither path is right, neither is wrong. It is truly our own desire on how to engage spirit. The colors of the rainbow also hold great meaning for us. They inspire us. They draw us into it’s natural beauty. Indeed, the colors in the rainbow correspond to the colors of the chakras- our centers of vibrational being. The chakras represent each of the centers of spiritual powers and levels of consciousness. They represent stages in our development and spiritual maturity. Each color represents a different chakra. Every rainbow holds the colors representing the chakras. When chakras are aligned they allow us to vibrate as spiritual beings. The
58
Rainbows colors and rainbow arcs are symbolic of leaving your ego self behind. They are symbolic of leaving that self behind that is full of the selfdoubt, the self-judgment, the self- ridicule that so many have. They show us that we can, indeed, lead a life full of radiant color! Rainbows allow us to help heal that ego part of us and step into the fullness of our spiritual essence. The beauty of our own soul’s inner wisdom is reflected in the natural beauty of a rainbow. Spirit is showing us that we can access this inner wisdom. Rainbows truly do allow us to reflect upon our own raw, spiritual beauty. They allow us to take a moment to see our individual uniqueness and our gifts. No one else can see a rainbow in the same way as another. It’s true. The colors of the rainbows exist only in our own mind’s eye. Rainbows appear when light shines through moisture in the earth’s atmosphere. The spectrum appears in the sky
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
Rainbows are a sign of transformation. They give one an opportunity to slow down and reconnect with their own innate wisdom and step forward being guided by spirit. It’s in this space of beauty that we can take a moment to ask how this innate wisdom can support a magical life. The wisdom of our souls always knows the truth and when we quite down our earthly thoughts and soothe our emotions, we can hear it. When we take a moment to see the
“If you ha ve a dream , don’t just sit ther e. Gather c ourage to believe tha t you can s ucc leave no st one unturn eed and ed t it a reality.” o make
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
but the colors ~ they appear because of one’s own vision. This happens because of the optical focus in the eye (color blinded people will see fewer colors because of this) So, rainbows are to be looked upon with wonder, with curiosity, of their own hidden, color coded message for the individual!
Unknow
n
us on a journey of living a magical life ~ right now, in this moment. This magical life is not somewhere over the rainbow. It’s right in front of you. Your somewhere over the rainbow is now! By taking that first step on the yellow brick spiritual journey and clicking your heels together, you can choose to experience the colors, the rainbows, in your daily life and discover that the courage to act upon their messages is right inside you. It’s been there all along. Read Online!
signs in our lives and be curious enough to look for the rainbows that will help us understand this knowledge, soul-utions open up for us. Taking bold and courageous action based on this understanding, leads
Laura Clark - Laura is known as the Soul Wise Living Mentor. She uses a unique blend of spiritual awakening tools to help her clients hear their inner wisdom more consistently, understand it with greater clarity, and act upon it more courageously for an inspired life filled with Joy & Abundance. Visit www.SoulWiseLiving.com and claim your complimentary audio, The Four Simple & Powerful Directions to Fully Living in Joy!
59
Listening to the
Guidance Hearts of our
BY DEBRA REBLE, PH.D.
A
ll people are born with the ability to be an open channel of love. It is our divine nature. Although each person tunes in to this energy flow differently, we all tap into the same source. It is how open we are and how much we trust ourselves that determines the extent to which this energy can be used. Groundbreaking research shows that our hearts have their own kind of intelligence that reflects our true essence or higher self. Mystics, great leaders, and healers have long known that the heart center is the gateway to wisdom and well-being. According to researchers at the Institute of HeartMath, heart coherence is a scientif-ically verified state in which our brains and hearts resonate and exchange information. The heart center has its own wave signatureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;heart rhythms measurable by scientists. On a spiritual level, tapping into the heartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vibration allows us to tap into an expanded energy field that interconnects us with all living beings. Through such awareness we can open ourselves to the spiritual information flowing through us.
60
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
The heart is the GPS of the soul. Similar to the way a GPS gives us driving directions, the heart directs us on our soul’s path using coordinates based on spirit’s connection to source. It is because the heart’s energy transmissions bypass the brain that we
to let your guard down,” “If you take that risk, you’ll get hurt,” or “Don’t confide in anyone, because they’ll let you down.” All such negative messages produce a lack of trust in ourselves and our own experiences. By contrast, our hearts give us information from an expanded perspective that can guide us without judgment, negativity, or criticism and give added clarity to assist us in making more discerning choices. To channel this invaluable spiritual information, it is important to allow our minds to recede and focus on our hearts. In shifting perspective from the mind to the heart, we create an inner harmonic balance. For example, when we swim, our brain focuses on our strokes, pace, or the distance we have traveled. Once we let go of keeping track of this activity, our focus shifts to our hearts, allowing us to swim with less self-
When we listen to our hearts, we live with passion and purpose and feel a sense of alignment with our higher selves. receive spiritual information to guide us. We all have the ability to sense such information whether it’s a gut feeling, an “aha” moment, or an inner knowing. Unlike our hearts, our analytical brains are similar to computers that scan, store, and retrieve data from the past but cannot tap into spiritual information. Such data collected by the brain takes the form of negative mindsets, beliefs, and patterns stored on the brain’s “hard drive,” such as “Be careful not
consciousness in a meditative, rhythmic manner. To reap the benefits of this reservoir of spiritual information, we must develop and strengthen our ability to listen to our hearts. One way to develop this capacity is to sit in a quiet place and enter a trancelike state through breathing, prayer, or meditation; open the heart by touching it, breathing through it, or saying, “Open my heart;” then listen to the voice of spirit speaking to us.
61
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
We can use spiritual information as guidance even while exercising the freedom to choose our life’s path. In the fifth century BC, Socrates and Plato supported the premise that there is an individual spirit and a collective soul, and that when the spirit leaves the body it continues on to the environment of the soul. Consequently, the soul is an energetic environment like the air we breathe, a pure consciousness that everyone can access. Through the energetic connection of spirit to soul, spirit can guide us while allowing us the freedom to choose our life’s path, and soul can provide us with a blank screen on which to imprint our choices in every moment.
At first, it may be difficult to decipher the voice of spirit because it often sounds like our own thoughts. With practice we can discern the whisper of our spirit through a sensation in our body such as a tingling feeling, an intuition, an image that pops up in our mind’s eye, words we hear, a message arising from out of the blue, or an emotion we feel. This flow of information is sometimes activated during activities when our brains are turned off and nothing else seems to matter, such as when we listen to music, write, exercise, or make love. What matters most is that we trust ourselves in receiving this spiritual information to guide our lives. When we listen to our hearts, we live with passion and purpose and feel a sense of alignment with our higher selves. We begin to realize that full self-expression is not equivalent to the job we do, the roles we play, or how successful we are in the world. Steve Jobs, the creative visionary and founder of Apple, Inc., spoke about being purposeful when he challenged students to ask themselves: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today.”2 When our answer to this question is yes, we know we are listening to the guidance of our hearts and making choices that align with it. If we answer no, we must examine our choices to discover where they come from. Listening to the guidance of our hearts and aligning with spiritual information to live purposefully takes trust in ourselves and a desire to be in sync with spirit. In Japan, they call it ikigai, which translates into “the reason we get up in the morning.” Although we have many mindsets dictating what we should do, discovering our reason to get up in the morning involves detecting the information coming through our hearts because finding
62
such a reason for living is critical to a long, authentic, and healthy life. We cannot afford to give our minds control over our hearts as this impedes our ability to act from our authentic selves. We fall prey to the guidance of our mind’s critical voice that judges us instead of the heart’s compassionate voice that encourages and supports us. Listening to the guidance of our hearts to access information from our spiritual source allows us to have an intimate, and integrated relationship with ourselves; to receive assistance with daily problems; waste less time and energy being anxious about life’s difficulties; and respond rather than react to situations. Most importantly, it leads to a more spiritual way of life, giving us greater peace of mind. NOTES 1. Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection, 11. 2. Steve Jobs, “If Today Were the Last Day of My Life,” Commencement Speech at Stanford University, June 12, 2005. http://chuckbalsamo.com/2011/10/ steve-jobs-if-today-were-the-last-day-of-my-life/. 3. Pema Chödrön, The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2001). Excerpted and adapted from the forthcoming book Being Love by Debra L Reble, Ph.D. Read Online!
Debra Reble – Debra L Reble, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist who conducts a private practice and facilitates workshops and seminars that focus on enhancing personal transformation and wellbeing, is the founder of HeartPaths, a company dedicated to providing materials that inspire full selfexpression. For more information, visit http://www.debrareble.com.
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
How to Make
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
FEAR Your Ally BY LYNN ROBINSON
F
ear is a constant companion for most of us when we’re going through a challenging time. It seems virtually impossible to stop the “what ifs” in our head once they start their drumbeat. “What if I lose my job?” “What if I can’t care for my child?” “What if I can’t make my rent or mortgage?” It may be normal to be scared, but taken to an extreme it will leave you paralyzed and unable to act to change your situation. It’s difficult to make positive choices to steer yourself in a new direction if fear is gripping the wheel. I love the guidance about fear that author Sophy Burnham received from her intuition. She shares it in her book, The Path of Prayer. “Don’t fret,” said the voice. “You have nothing to worry about! Just relax and let things come along in their proper time. Let Quiet, Peace, and Harmony rule and avoid stressful situations. Let them be born, live and straighten out pleasantly, not with fretting or urgency but by simply accepting the fact — it will work out if you
63
let yourself be led instead of trying to force matters. All is well and remains well.” Isn’t that incredibly comforting?
ACCEPT FEAR What do you want to do when something becomes overwhelming and you’re afraid? You want to run away! If only you had a magic wand to make the situation disappear. You wish you could click your heels like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and voila, you’re back in Kansas (or wherever safety resides.) What else can you do when fear has you in its icy grip? You can relax and embrace it. Fear, or any other emotion, rarely stays static. It changes, moves, goes up and down, in and out. If you can simply accept fear and embrace it, it will begin to lose its power over you. I’ve found that if I can look deeply into the thing I’m scared about, rather than running away, I can shift its hold on me. Try this: Ask yourself, “What am I really scared of?” and write down the answer. Ask yourself, “If that thing I’m scared of actually happens, what will I do?” Keep repeating this exercise until you’ve exhausted your possibilities of fearful outcomes. What I usually find when I do this exercise is that I end up feeling mildly amused by all the unlikely scenarios my mind can come up with. Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself. ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’” Fear is not something you fight. It’s something you make room for in your life. Embrace it and make it your ally, not your enemy.
64
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself. ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’” ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
TAKE ACTION Fear can permeate our mind if we allow its negativity in there for too long. It takes on a life of its own, convincing us of our own worthlessness and ineffectiveness. Popular speaker and minister, Joyce Meyer, writes “God doesn’t want us to be scared. But even when we do feel fear, we can choose to trust God and take action.” I’ve found that the best antidote to fear is action. If you have become immobilized by fear, start asking yourself, “What one thing could I do today that would make me feel better?” It can be something simple and easy or something major and audacious. Your intuition, when asked a question like this, will begin to offer suggestions. It might be to have coffee with a friend, writing a note to someone you need to forgive, being brave enough to make an appointment with
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
a financial planner, seeing a therapist or other healing professional.
On the other side of every fear is freedom. You’ll find the freedom, in part, by taking action. It begins to get you unstuck from your old thinking, your old way of being and behaving that partially contributed to your current life circumstance. Instead of fighting with the fear, have it join you on your walk as you take an action journey.
THE SMALL STEP ACTION PLAN Robert Maurer is the author of One Small Step Can Change Your Life. I think it should be required reading for anyone who is experiencing a crisis or simply feeling stuck. His technique is undeniably simple. It also taps into your own inner wisdom to provide the answers you seek and helps you overcome fear and inertia. His philosophy is that small steps are things that all of us can do. They add up to big changes because they’re doable and manageable. Obviously, his book provides much more detail, but here’s a brief overview:
1
Ask small questions. “If health
were my first priority, what could I be doing differently today?”
3 4
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “Always do what you’re afraid to do.” Trust that whatever sparks your interest or curiosity is the right answer. It may not make sense, but do it anyway! That’s the way intuition works. You know something or feel nudged to do something, but you often have no idea why!
2
Think small thoughts. Think of a task or situation that makes you uncomfortable or fearful. Spend a few seconds (not minutes) each day on visualizing a successful outcome. ake small actions. Examples: If T your goal is to stop overspending, a small action might be to remove one item from your shopping cart before heading to the register. If your goal is to manage your stress better, a small action could be to take one deep breath. olve small problems. You’ll often S receive intuitive messages about an impending crisis well before the crisis arrives. Don’t ignore early warning signs. Listen. Pay attention and act on the information you’re receiving.
Finally, whenever you find yourself experiencing fearful thoughts about your situation, bring yourself back to the present moment. Keep your mind focused on the many things you do have that you can feel grateful about. Everything else you need will follow. Gratitude Read Online! activates your connection to God and all solutions arise from there. Lynn A. Robinson, M.Ed. – Lynn A. Robinson, M.Ed., is a leading expert on the topic of intuition. Through her work as an intuitive advisor she’s helped thousands of people discover their life passion and achieve their goals. Voted “Best Psychic” by Boston Magazine, she’s also a bestselling author whose latest book is Divine Intuition: Your Inner Guide to Purpose, Peace and Prosperity. She’s also the author of, LISTEN: Trusting Your Inner Voice in Times of Crisis and Trust Your Gut. To learn more about her books and intuitive readings, visit http://LynnRobinson.com
65
The Four Levels of
INTUITION BY SIMONE WRIGHT
L
earning to develop and trust our intuitive intelligence is more important now than it ever has been before. According to a recent UCLA study, we are exposed to a tsunami of information that amounts to over 174 newspapers full of data per day. That is more than 5 times the amount of information we were exposed to just 20 years ago. Included in this deluge of data are countless opinions, endless streams of expert advice and a myriad of gurus and guides telling us
66
what we should be doing in order to live our best lives. The reality is that the only guidance system we need to assist us in living our best life is the wisdom held within our natural intuitive intelligence. When properly developed it can and will lead us to the choices, ideas and innovations that will guide us towards what is truly in our best interest and help us create the highest good in our lives.
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
Intuition operates in our body and nervous system on levels that range from basic, binary, survival-based communications to complete conversations that are elegant, sophisticated, and evolved.
Level 1: Gut Instinct ATTRIBUTES: safety, security, and survival.
We have all heard of this level of intuition, and most of us can recall a time when we have recognized it or felt its presence in our lives. Gut instinct may be the best known and most mainstream interpretation of intuition, but it is only a small part of the entire intelligence system. We should not depend on it alone to guide us to our highest potential or outcome. Gut instinct is simple, basic, and binary, which means it communicates through the feeling of opposites and uses impressions such as yes or no, stop or go, safe or unsafe, to convey its message. When your gut instinct is operating, it will answer such questions as: “Is this choice/person/relationship in my best interests? Can I thrive in this environment? Will this situation meet my deepest needs?”
Level 2: Heart-Based Intelligence
WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH
Intuition is a subtle language so understanding the various ways it communicates makes having a deep and meaningful relationship with it rewarding, reliable and much more fun.
ATTRIBUTES: courage, compassion, and communication.
The intelligence in the heart encour-ages us to adopt the practice of cour-age, compassion, and care and use them to communicate and connect with all other life forms in our environment. It guides us to what is appropriate to say or do in moments of need and allows us to connect and communicate in often unspoken ways and to bond with people, animals, and places in ways that cannot be described by words or rational thought. This center of wisdom prompts us to ask the questions, such as: “Is my life filled with beauty? Do I love what I do? How can I discover my joy? What would I do if I were not afraid? Am I bringing the best of myself to my life and the world?”
Level 3: Visionary Power
ATTRIBUTES: imagination, visionary certainty, and creative possibility. The third level of intuitive intelligence is found in the mystical and often
67
misunderstood power of extrasensory perception (ESP), expanded spiritual vision, lucid dreaming and other elevated psychic events.
the realm of all things and to become consciously aware of our connection to and ability to create with the intelligence that is the source our reality.
This is the level of intuition where extraordinary solutions, alternate ways of doing things, and groundbreaking new ideas are commonplace.
When we are aligned with this level of intelligence, we recognize that all things in life are valuable and appropriate and that we have the power within us to change and heal our lives if we so choose.
When this center of wisdom is active it guides us to ask questions such as: “What do I see as a solution or possibility? Is there something I am overlooking? What dreams do I have for my future that I haven’t given myself permission to make into reality?”
Level Four: The Connection to Universal Wisdom
ATTRIBUTES: Universal awareness and unity consciousness The fourth level of intuitive intelligence is the most nonphysical of the group. This intelligence is often activated during deep meditation or advanced awareness practices, and it is sometimes reported after near-death experiences or times of great stress or trauma. The highest level of intuition that humans can reach while in physical form is the one that allows us to access
68
Here there are no questions. There is only consciousness.
As you become familiar with these levels of communication, your rapport with this natural form of intelligence will grow, evolve and expand and it will not matter what the rest of the world is telling you to do. With the direct guidance of your own wisdom you will be able to navigate any situation with a sense of joy, ease and great satisfaction. Adapted from the book First Intelligence ©2014 by Simone Wright. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com
Read Online!
Simone Wright – Simone, “the Evolutionary Mind Coach for Elite Performers and Visionary Leaders,” is the author of First Intelligence: Using the Science and Spirit of Intuition. She has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show and uses her intuitive skills to assist in police investigations, missing children cases, and corporate business strategies. Visit her online at http://www.simonewright.com.
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
HEALTH & WELLNESS
“Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit. When one is free from ph ysical disabilities and mental distractio ns, the gates of the soul open.” B.K.S. Iyengar
Read Online!
Madly Chasing Peace: Transformation in
ay 9-Minutes a D
BY DINA PROCTOR
What you get in meditation is access to power that is far beyond the limits of your thinking mind. Some people call it God, or Source Energy, or their Inner Being, or simply higher consciousness. I hardly ever spend more than three-minutes, three times a day in meditation which I call the 3x3 Meditation Process. The way that I’ve spent these short bursts of time has gradually changed my attitude toward just about everyone and everything in my life, bringing me little by little to centeredness and freedom. Read the full article for three different ways I structure my 3x3 practice. Read the full article online.
CHECK OUT MORE ONLINE!
AspireMag.net
l Live & Virtua
UPCOMING EVENTS
SEASON 4: INSPIRED LIVING SECRETS: HEART-CENTERED FEMININE WISDOM FOR THRIVING IN LIFE & BIZ || DETAILS! 24 Visionary Women – Thousands in Transformational Gifts
The Body-Mind Connection:
Digestive Health & Your Brain BY HEATHER DANE
H
ave you ever had a gut feeling? Or felt butterflies in your stomach? If so, then you have experienced the gut-brain connection. Some experts once believed that issues in the brain should be handled separately from the gut, but more research is showing that if you want to improve your moods, memory, and brain function, look to the health of your gut. There’s a good reason why. Let’s start as early as conception, when a baby is in the embryo stage. During this stage, a clump of embryonic tissue separates, and one becomes the brain (the central nervous system, which is the brain and spinal cord) and the other becomes the gut (your digestive system and its enteric nervous system).55 Connecting your brain and gut is the vagus nerve—like a telephone line, it carries messages from the brain to the gut and vice versa. It’s also how the bacteria in your gut speak to your brain.
70
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
Michael Gershon, professor and chair of pathology and cell biology at Columbia University, has done groundbreaking work on how the gut’s brain, or enteric nervous system (ENS), works. Here are a few key facts56, 57: The enteric nervous system is embedded in your entire digestive tract from mouth to anus. It relies on, and in many cases creates, more than 30 neurotransmitters that are identical to those in the brain. (Serotonin is one of these.) Approximately 70 to 80 percent of your immune system is located in your gut. This makes sense because your digestive system has a big job. It takes in food, water, and bacteria from the outside world and transforms it into nutrients to grow, repair, and maintain the human body. This is the true definition of the old adage, “You are what you eat.” Approximately 90 percent of the body’s serotonin is located in your gut. Serotonin helps regulate mood, sleep, and learning and can influence your happiness and selfesteem. Serotonin also plays a critical role in digestion by helping to secrete enzymes that help you digest food. Your gut sends signals to your brain that directly affect feelings of sadness or stress,
even influencing learning, memory, and your ability to make decisions. In turn, your brain’s emotions affect your digestive tract. Anger, anxiety, sadness, joy, and other emotions can trigger symptoms in your gut. Today, more studies are showing that food affects mood and that gut health has a big impact on disease, including osteoporosis, autism, depression, and autoimmune conditions.
Here are three studies that further highlight the gutbrain connection:
1.
hat you put in your stomach W can change your mood. A study
by Belgian scientists found that eating fat has the power to lift our emotional state and make us feel happier.58 This is why people go for comfort food when they’re upset.
2
. Chronic stress can create gutto-brain cravings. Studies on mice showed that under chronic social stress (like trauma from abuse or bullying), mice would go for high-fat, highcalorie foods and gain more weight than their less stressed counterparts.59 Additionally, researchers found that it was the gut telling the brain what to eat and not the other way around. Under stress, the brain produces gherlin, a
71
HEALTH & WELLNESS
When you take care of your gut, you take care of your whole body-mind.
hormone that stimulates hunger in the brain. Gherlin makes food more exciting to the brain, especially when it is high in fat and calories.
3.
our diet influences your gut Y bacteria, and your gut bacteria influence your brain. According
to neuroscientists, the good bacteria in the gut, which they call “the gut microbiome,” acts as auxiliary DNA. Essentially, what you eat controls the makeup of your gut bacteria, and these bacteria can change how your genes function. In other words, if you are eating a diet that promotes healthy gut bacteria, they in turn can influence a healthy body, regardless of your genetic predispositions.60
responsible for how you feel, how you act, what you focus on, whether you sleep or not, your overall health, and your overall enjoyment of life. When you take care of your gut, you take care of your whole bodymind. The above is an excerpt from Loving Yourself to Great Health: Thoughts & Food – the Ultimate Diet by Louise Hay, Ahlea Khadro, Heather Dane, published by Hay House (October 7, 2014) available in bookstores or online at www.HayHouse.com. Read Online!
Heather Dane - Heather is a writer, researcher, and certified professional coach specializing in resolving chronic health conditions, addictions, eating disorders, methylation challenges, and out-of-balance lifestyles. She believes that there is no such thing as an incurable illness—there is only an invitation to come back to loving yourself. Visit www.HeatherDane.com.
Another important takeaway from the studies in neuroscience is that your gut bacteria are constantly speaking to your brain. The gut microbiome influences how the brain is wired from infancy to adulthood, along with moods, the ability to learn, memory, and how to deal with stress. When the gut microbiome is healthy, it sends happy signals to the brain; when it’s unhealthy, it can send signals of anxiety. Because of this signaling, neuroscientists are starting to investigate how to manage gut bacteria to treat mood and stress-related disorders, such as depression, IBS, and IBD.61 In other words, what you eat matters. What you digest or absorb matters. Your gut is
72
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
“Courage sta showing up rts with and letting ourselves b e seen.” Brene B rown
THE
Wise Woman Way
BY SUSUN WEED
Is it possible to live fearlessly? My mentor Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was very fierce with us when it came to feelings. In fact, she only allowed five: love, joy, grief, anger, and fear. But only fear of heights, fast motions, and loud noises. She taught us that our true selves are fearless, bold and passionate.
How can I find my fearless self? We can find our fearless selves by being true to our dreams and visions. Fear of failure is not a true fear, but it stops many women from being true to their dreams and from manifesting their visions. Fear of doing something, especially something new or risky, is really fear of failing. It hurts to fail and we want to avoid that pain. But that pain is not real;
73
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Living
FEARLESS
it is imagined, that is, it has not yet happened, and we don’t know for sure that it will happen. We are afraid that it might happen, that we might get hurt, that we might look silly or stupid, or loose face.
Give your fearless self room. Fear of being seen as stupid is not a true fear, but it stops many, many women from turning their dreams into reality. Concern about how others will view us is no more real than our fear of possible future pain. We have very little control, in fact, over other’s views of us. It is our own reflection upon ourself that holds the greatest judgment, the greatest blame. When we change our self-talk, when we support the parts of ourself that are willing to take risks and willing to look silly, our fearless self comes to the forefront. When selftalk is relentless and nasty, I suggest getting a book in which you write down those self-abasing and selfdemeaning statements. You may read the book whenever you like. But you may never again think anything you have written in your book. The fearless self gladly occupies the space that those ideas had been
74
taking in your mind, and you begin to have fearless thoughts, which inevitably lead to fearless actions.
Separate reality from fantasy, fearlessly. The fearless self partakes of “beginner’s mind,” which opens us to possibilities
When we change our self-talk, when we support the parts of ourself that are willing to take risks and willing to look silly, our fearless self comes to the forefront. and sets us free from conventional restraints. But we need a kite string to keep us connected to earth. A dream needs hands and feet as well as wings. There are many things I enjoy fantasizing about that I would never actually want to do. The fearless self is not afraid of hard work, but it doesn’t want to die or be maimed. What actual physical tasks will be involved in manifesting your vision? Can you endure
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
them? There are many repetitious and distasteful chores in life, no matter how we choose to live. The fearless self may play the fool, but it is not truly foolish. The fearless self stands ready to abandon all and anything when drugs and alcohol, violence and aggression are daily events. Escaping alive from some situations is precious. But most of us cower more from our own imagined fear than from actual threats to our existence.
Imagine the consequences, fearlessly. What is really at stake? Few dreams overturn one’s life. Most visions come out of our ordinary existence. Even if yours will change your life, even if your dream is to colonize Mars or to change your gender identity, what do you have to lose? Envisioning the possible consequences helps to ground our dreams and put legs on our visions. When we are living our vision, there are few outcomes that seriously challenge our fearless self. Take a moment to ask yourself: “What is the worst that could happen?” And reflect upon whether that
Embody fearlessness. Get physical. Stand tall. Learn tai chi, chi kung, aikido, karate, a martial art. Have an Alexander session. Go for a massage. Get into your body. Embody fearlessness. Stand on firm ground. Look at life with keen sight. Sniff the air. Take your time. Turn off the television. You are a brilliant being who strides forth into life with fearless passion and bold magic. So mote it be. Read Online!
Susun Weed – An internationally renowned herbalist, author, and director of the Wise Woman Center in New York. She is a revered voice of the Wise Woman Tradition,
where
women’s bodies and women’s
emotions
are valued. Susun is a founding grandmother of the herbal renaissance and the originator of the concept of complementary medicine. www.SusunWeed.com
“You are a w You are a w oman of wisdom. oman of m any facets. Let yourse lf gleam; le t yourself shine. Trus t your inne r wisdom, and its ma ny voices.” Susun W eed
75
HEALTH & WELLNESS
worst is so terrible that avoiding it is worth living in fear. “Where is fear limiting my life? Where is fear limiting my joy?” Bring your fearless self forward and let her challenge you to live more fully.
RELATIONSHIPS
“It takes far less courage to cling to the past than it does to face the future.” Sandra Brown
ad Re ne! li On
Parents: Managing Your Fears with tions Three Powerful Ques
BY JILL HOPE
Believe me when I say I am the queen of fear and worry. I’ve been wearing that crown all my life. And becoming a parent only gives you that much more to worry about. But one thing I’ve learned is that nothing good is served by holding a “fear” state within. We don’t serve our kids by feeling worried about them. We are energetically connected to our children, and our energy impacts them to a large degree. When we hold fear in connection with them, they absorb it. When you hold a particular fear state related to your child, she too can begin to hold the same fear about herself, often without even realizing it. Here are a series of 3 questions I ask myself that help me get off the worry track and on to a more positive track with my thoughts:
Read the article online.
CHECK OUT MORE ONLINE!
AspireMag.net
l Live & Virtua
UPCOMING EVENTS
m I What a by gaining this having fear?
How likely is it that what I fear will come to pass? What th oughts am I a voiding by holdin g this fear?
SEASON 4: INSPIRED LIVING SECRETS: HEART-CENTERED FEMININE WISDOM FOR THRIVING IN LIFE & BIZ || DETAILS! 24 Visionary Women – Thousands in Transformational Gifts
TRANSFORMING
Relationship
Your
FEARLESSNESS: The Ironic Key to
Happiness! I
BY STACEY MARTINO
f you are not currently happy with any area of your life it’s because you are NOT living fearlessly in that area of your life. Pain is just the universe telling you that you need to GROW here. Growth, by definition, requires you to live fearlessly. One of my mentors, Keith Cunningham, once told me something that I never forgot and use daily. He said “the solution to every problem you currently have is sitting just outside your current comfort zone, or by definition, it would not be a problem right now.” Keith is 100% correct. And as he always asked next “the question is….are you gonna go get it?” (Keith is from Texas….that always sounds better with his Texan accent!) And my answer is always, “Hell Yes!”
78
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
Now today, I have cultivated my emotional fitness, peak psychology and decision making process to the point that I move through comfort zones quickly and constantly…I look forward to breaking through comfort zones today. Even in the depths of fear and pain, I feel with 100% of my being that I am about to blow through another comfort zone and I’m in the DIScomfort part of the process.
I didn’t start here. I started as a control freak who lived small, tried to control every outcome and showed up to “get” my result in nearly every situation…avoiding pain and discomfort at all costs. And the quality of my life directly matched my mindset…it was small, fearful, self-involved and scarcity based. I was not happy. And I had no idea that my lack of happiness had anything to do with my FEAR driving me.
Like most people, back then I BLAMED everyone and everything else for my unhappiness. I felt I was too fat, so I blamed my body and my “genes.” I didn’t like my job so I blamed the people I worked for. I wasn’t happy in my relationship, so I blamed my boyfriend (at the time). I didn’t have enough cash, so I blamed my job, taxes, government and the price of gas!
fear! I sure do! Actually, if you are NOT feeling fear on a regular basis (small or big) then you are living too small….you are NOT going for it!
You know what all that BLAME got me? A whole lotta nothing!
You take steps, baby steps. My personal journey has taken me 19 years so far and I’m still growing and cultivating my fearlessness! The greatest gift I could give you is ONE strategy for living fearlessly that will shortcut this process for
When I had a life changing experience and turned my focus on MYSELF… everything started to
And living fearlessly, like every change in life, happens on a spectrum. You do not go from living from fear to blowing through comfort zones on a weekly basis…all overnight.
...to keep growing you need to continually break through your current comfort zone into your next one! change for the better. That’s when I began to harness my courage and live fearlessly. By the way, COURAGE is not being FEARLESS! It’s really NOT! Courage is feeling the fear but taking the action anyway! Don’t think for a second that I don’t feel
you, give you the biggest results with the least amount of time, effort and discomfort. This is a strategy that my husband and I teach our students in our Relationship Breakthrough Programs & Events as part of our Decision Making Process™.
79
RELATIONSHIPS
That’s why living a magnificent and abundant life REQUIRES you to live fearlessly. Because to keep growing you need to continually break through your current comfort zone into your next one!
In any area of your life where you have pain or discomfort and you want MORE, the key strategy is seek out someone who is already successfully living the result you want, lean on their comfort zone and take massive action to follow their proven process. This is the ultimate DIS-comfort short cut to your next comfort zone! This is the secret that truly successful people know!
Here are a few KEYS to making this really work for you! • Seek out someone who is successfully enjoying the results that you want. Said differently, they are living in your “after” story and you are currently in the “before”. • Pick someone who is also successfully and repeatedly teaching others to achieve those same results consistently. • Follow their step-by-steps, take their programs, read their books….learn and implement their proven process. • If they offer coaching or implementation assistance, take it. Said differently, when they reach their hand out and offer to pull you right through to your next comfort zone, say YES!
You still must live fearlessly, because you must say YES and you must take ACTION! But you are reducing the risk, fear and discomfort by using a proven process, working with a proven expert and surrounding yourself with support and love while you blow through to your next comfort zone! The great thing about YOU is that you are in exactly the right place for this right this very second! Are you looking around wondering… ”what do you mean, Stacey, can you SEE me?” He he! Relax darling, no I cannot. You are reading Aspire Magazine right now sweetie! That means that by definition, you have at your fingertips some of the world’s greatest experts in all areas of your life. I’m serious. I’ve been in personal development for two decades. I am blessed to work with some of the greatest coaches, experts and leaders in the world. I’ve traveled all over to do that, and I’ve invested multiple six figures to do so! One of the greatest joys in my life is my family here at Aspire Magazine, led by our fearless publisher and one of my dearest personal
80
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
friends, Linda Joy. Linda and I get on planes to be together…and I’m thrilled to do so. But you don’t have to. Because everything you need is right here.
Where in your life do you feel unhappy, stuck, frustrated or downright miserable? My hunch is that someone in the pages of this issue of Aspire Magazine is living in the “after” story that you want!
Question #2:
Who is it? Read her article, click on her free gift, listen or watch her stuff, go to her website, check out her programs, reach out to her for her step-by-step help! Whatever it is….say YES and take massive action! If you feel the “fear”, harness your courage and do it anyway! Remind yourself that this woman has already done it and has taught MANY other woman to create the same results for themselves… that’s what’s going to make it easier, quicker and more effective for YOU! Living fearlessly isn’t an abstract concept or something big and crazy that happens to “those people” but not to you. Living fearlessly is deciding to feel the fear and take action anyway!
Stacey
P.S. If the area of your life that you are unhappy with is your intimate relationship, then take my hand and let me walk you straight into your next comfort zone! I empower thousands of people each year to transform their intimate relationship, create their unshakable love and unleashed passion…all in a way that your partner does not need to participate in order for this to work for you! Download our free audio program How to Transform Read Your Relationship in Eight Online! Steps! Stacey Martino - Stacey Martino helps people who feel stuck, frustrated and helpless with the challenges of intimate relationship. Through strategic private coaching, programs and events for her Relationship Transformation System™, individuals learn to use her proven strategies and tools to create an unshakable love and unleashed passion that lasts a lifetime. Stacey firmly believes that it does NOT take two to tango, that one person can significantly shift the dynamics of the relationship. Trained and certified by Tony Robbins and Cloe Madanes, Stacey is a certified marriage educator and divorce preventionist. Stacey is a sought-after relationship expert appearing on numerous media outlets and telesummits. Download our free audio program “How to Transform Your Relationship in Eight Steps” and begin creating your magnificent relationship today!
81
RELATIONSHIPS
Question #1:
I hope our secret strategy to model others and work with an expert will help you to take massive action, get out of your current comfort zone and charge forth into your next one… that’s where the solution to every problem you currently have is waiting for you darling! So go live fearlessly…and surround yourself with love and support on your journey! Sending love,
THE FIVE BEST TO GIVE YOUR
Gifts
Family BY MARGARET PAUL, PH.D.
W
hen we think of giving gifts, we usually think of things to buy for people. Yet if you think back on gifts youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been given, it might not be the material gifts you received that are foremost in your mind â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it might be the kind of gifts that deeply touched your heart and soul. It might be various ways, other than material things, that people expressed their love to you. There are five gifts of love that we can give to our families that can make a huge difference in their lives.
82
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
THE GIFT OF CARING AND COMPASSION
THE GIFT OF SERVICE We all yearn to feel cared for, yet many of us withhold caring and compassion for others. A profound gift we can give to our loved ones is to listen with our heart, to understand and accept rather than to judge, and to stay open to learning rather than to protect against being hurt. Think about the last time someone actually listened to you and gave you understanding and acceptance. The feeling of being understood and accepted with caring and compassion is one of the best feelings in the world. Instead of focusing on getting this from others, why not focus on giving it to others? You might be surprised at how wonderful you feel in giving this gift to your family.
THE GIFT OF COURAGE One of the best gifts we can give our loved ones is our own courage. This means having the courage to stand in our truth, to be honest about what we want and don’t want, what we
We are on this planet to learn to love ourselves and each other, and to help each other. One of the best gifts we can give our family is to role model this by doing service. Helping others fills the heart and soul in ways that nothing else can. If children do not see their parents doing service and helping others, they may never learn the great joy and fulfillment that comes from giving. One of the best gifts we can give to our family is to provide ways of doing service.
THE GIFT OF CREATIVITY All of us are born with various ways of expressing our creativity. Expressing creativity is a profound way of connecting with Spirit, since expressed creativity is a direct expression of Spirit. Providing your family with many ways of expressing their creativity is a great gift. Creativity can be expressed in so many ways – cooking, crafts, building things, music, art, movement, telling stories,
83
RELATIONSHIPS
will do and won’t do, what is and what is not acceptable to us. It means having the courage to take good care of ourselves, even if others don’t like it. It means not succumbing to our controlling behaviors that come from fear: anger, withdrawal, compliance, resistance, but instead being honest and above-board about ourselves. It means being willing to face conflict rather than give ourselves up to avoid it. When we have the courage to face conflict and tell the truth, we not only provide our family with a role model for courage, but we provide opportunities for our loved ones to step up to the plate in the face of our truth and learn to be courageous too.
When we have the courage to face conflict and tell the truth, we not only provide our family with a role model for courage, but we provide opportunities for our loved ones to step up to the plate in the face of our truth and learn to be courageous too. writing, humor, photography and video – the possibilities are endless! Creative family projects are especially wonderful in creating family closeness.
THE GIFT OF LIGHTNESS OF BEING Lightness of being – fun, joy, laughter, playfulness – is a great gift to give to others. Lightness of being is infectious – our laughter and playfulness can help others take life less seriously and “lighten up.” Lightness of being is one the results of all the other gifts – of caring, courage, service and creativity. When we give these gifts, we feel a wonderful lightness within, the lightness that is the result of fully giving from the heart. Our own lightness of being
can bring lightness into our whole family. Children love it when their parents are playful, funloving and joyful. Laughing together as a family is one of the most precious experiences in life. We need to focus of giving these gifts each day, not just during a holiday season or special occasions. These gifts are far more important than any material thing we can buy for someone. In fact, we might not be so focused on material gifts if we frequently give the gift of love – of caring, compassion, courage, service, creativity, and lightness of being.
Read Online!
Margaret Paul, Ph.D. - Margaret is a best-selling author of 8 books, relationship expert, and co-creator of the powerful Inner Bonding® process - featured on Oprah, and recommended by actress Lindsay Wagner and singer Alanis Morissette. Are you are ready to heal your pain and discover your joy? CLICK HERE for a FREE Inner Bonding Course and visit our website at www.InnerBonding.com for more articles and help.
84
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
CAREER/ BUSINESS
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Anais Nin ad Re ne! li On
me Mindset: The Inner Profit Ga for Business Success
BY JEANNA GABELLINI
When it comes to profits, mindset always trumps strategy. When you practice cultivating an abundant mindset your profits will grow while your heart glows from the connection you feel to your team, clients and tribe. Abundance must be your internal vibration in order to produce it in your outer world. Do you tend to focus on your weaknesses in business? Draw that line in the sand. Start creating abundance from where you are right now. Amplify the abundance you already have in your business. Begin to look for evidence that has already revealed itself in ways you may have overlooked. Here are a few mindset tips to get you started.
Begin to look for evidence that has already revea led itself in ways you m ay have overlooked
Make a list of inspired actions that you could easily take to manifest your revenue goals in the next two weeks.
Read the article online.
l Live & Virtua
UPCOMING EVENTS
For the next thirty days, commit to writing down at least five pieces of evidence that indi cate that you’re going to increase your inco me.
CHECK OUT MORE ONLINE!
AspireMag.net
SEASON 4: INSPIRED LIVING SECRETS: HEART-CENTERED FEMININE WISDOM FOR THRIVING IN LIFE & BIZ || DETAILS! 24 Visionary Women – Thousands in Transformational Gifts
THE ENERGY OF
Happiness BY CHRISTY WHITMAN
A
h… happiness. It’s one of life’s ironies that an experience so sought after by virtually every human being means something entirely different to each one of us. For some, the word is synonymous with safety, security, and peace of mind. For others, it’s measured by the presence of passion and adventure. Throughout our entire lives we all cobble together notions of what happiness means to us, refined through shared experiences with lovers, children and friends. Meanwhile, at the same time we are forming our own ideas, the media and popular culture offer us readymade definitions of happiness that at some level we feel compelled to accept. With so many conflicting viewpoints about what happiness is, is it any wonder that so many find it difficult to attain?
86
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
WHAT WE LABEL AS HAPPINESS IS NOTHING MORE THAN FEELING THE SENSATION OF OUR OWN ENERGY BODY BEING UNBOUNDED AND FREE.
What I’d like to suggest is that there is a deeper reason that happiness can feel so elusive and fleeting, and this is because we’ve been trained to define it as a single emotion – as a feeling of accomplishment, of passion, of desire, of relaxation… or as any one of a thousand other sensations. The fact is that no one emotion can capture the experience we call happiness, for the simple reason that “happiness” is not an emotion at all. The state we call happiness is created when the energy that sources our body, mind and emotions is unobstructed by resistance and therefore free to move at a frequency that is high and fast. What we label as happiness is nothing more than feeling the sensation of our own energy body being unbounded and free. Thanks to both quantum physics and modern science, it’s now a well-accepted fact that energy – not matter – is the primary substance that comprises everything that exists in the universe. Even things that our
senses tell us are solid– rocks, mountains, trees, and flesh-and-bone human beings – are made up entirely of energy. Anytime the energy of our thoughts, feelings and actions is expressed without resistance, we register this experience as one of being “happy.” This explains why happiness can be defined in so many ways – sometimes as passion; other times as peace – all are aspects of our inner being, and when they are given free reign, joy is the natural result.
So, how can we deliberately foster within ourselves a state of being in which happiness flows as a natural result? By activating the Law of Allowing. Allowing is our natural state. It’s the way we’re all born when we enter the world – pliable, receptive, deserving, and open to every possible expression of well-being, abundance, happiness and joy. In its free and unobstructed state, our bodymind system is in direct connection and communion with the unlimited energy and inspiration of the universe; it flows through us like water rushes through an open pipe. When we are allowing the full expression of who we are to be expressed in any given moment of time, every aspect of us is enhanced. Physically, we feel alive and vibrant; our senses are keen and we are open to connection and pleasurable
87
CAREER/BUSINESS
With the women I coach, I am noticing that an overwhelming majority are coming to understand how attaching our happiness to an external condition – having the right car, the right house, the right man, for example – is a sure recipe for disappointment. After all, one dent in the prized new car; one turn in the market that brings down the equity of the house; one forgotten birthday or anniversary, and we are confronted with the fact that the joy we derive from these things is sourced from outside of ourselves, and is therefore unsustainable.
experiences. Mentally, our creativity and problem-solving abilities are heightened. Emotionally, we feel free, unencumbered, exhilarated. Seen within this broader context, choosing happiness has literally nothing to do with seeking out experiences that provide a temporary feel-good or striving to achieve a certain status. It is instead a purely energetic shift that we affect within the matrix of our own mind-body system. It’s the act of deliberately raising our vibration so that our energy field moves at a rate that is higher, faster, and unobstructed. So, is it possible to “choose” happiness? You bet – anywhere, anytime, and in the midst of any circumstance! All you need to do is gradually raise the frequency of your own energy system. Start with whatever feels easy. Read something that inspires you. Think a thought that motivates you. Recall an experience that floods you with love. Reach out to someone to express gratitude or appreciation. Watch a movie that makes you laugh. In the words of the non-physical teachers Abraham-Hicks,
“reach for whatever feels good.” Rather than focusing on experiencing happiness as a particular emotion, focus on simply opening up the energy field of your mind and body. When you do, happiness – in whatever form you most desire it – will find you. Read Online!
Christy Whitman - Christy is a New York Times Bestselling Author of Taming Your Alpha Bitch: How To Be Fierce and Feminine (and Get Everything You Want!), CEO and founder of the Quantum Success Coaching AcademyTM, a 12-month Law of Attraction coaching certification program, and creator of the Enlightened Kid Program. She has helped thousands of women and men around the world achieve their goals through her empowerment seminars, speeches, and coaching sessions and products. Christy’s life-changing message reaches over 100,000 people a month and she has been seen on The Today Show, The Morning Show and The Marilyn Dennis Show in Canada. As a certified Law of Attraction coach, her work has been promoted by and featured with best-selling authors like Marianne Williamson, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Marci Shimoff, Brian Tracy, Neale Donald Walsch, Abraham-Hicks and Louise Hay. Claim your 7 Free Law of Attraction Videos and Complimentary Coaching Session with a Quantum Success Coach today
“There is n o fear in lo ve. Live with the fo undation o f LOVE in your heart and you w ill become FEARLES S.” Molly F rieden
feld
88
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
INSPIRED TO
Write? CAREER/BUSINESS
FEARLESS WRITING:
What I Learned
FROM MY 5 YEAR-OLD SON BY LISA TENER
F
earlessness: Boldness, Courage, Pluck. We often mean these words when we talk about fearlessness. We don’t necessarily mean “without fear” but more something like, “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” We may know that acting boldly and with valor has its rewards, but so much of the time, we live in the safe zone, don’t we? And this can be true of our writing, or any creative aspects of our lives, as well. So much of the time we operate where we’re comfortable. And where does that get us? A few years ago, I’d been working on a short article about writing that I hoped to send into an anthology. I thought it would be easy to write something good, if not brilliant. After all, I’d written articles on writing with a certain ease for years
89
for Aspire. Only nothing remotely resembling “brilliant” or “easy” came. Starting. Stalling. Stuck. I got nowhere. If I can—at times— inspire others as a writing coach, why was it so hard to inspire myself? I could feel my fear in my belly—would I ever be able to write again? I booked a weekend retreat at Kripalu—a yoga and retreat center in the Berkshire Mountains—with the intent of completing this story and several other projects. Nada. I experienced an abundance of false starts. Everything I wrote felt inert. A writing conference. Surely that would do it. I took a three day workshop on Creative Nonfiction taught by an exquisitely meandering essayist who shared, among many quotations, Alexander Smith: “…an ability to discern the infinite suggestiveness of things…” I thought my then five-year-old
It seems he’s done with pictures what a writer does with life— we find these bits and pieces, slice them away from their original context, reassemble, and create something new and surprising. son. When he learned that I help people write and publish their books, he couldn’t quite grasp why anyone would need my help. “It’s so easy to make a book, Mom,” he told me and, to prove it, he scurried into the living room, took a few pages from my husband’s printer, ran back to my office for the stapler, and held up his blank book. Back to the living room, working in secrecy with watercolor paints, markers, and pencils, an hour later he emerged with his self-published tome—filled with letters he’d learned in school, though only one recognizable word—his name. Other books followed. For most, he drew pictures and asked me or my mother-in-law or husband to write the words he dictated for each page. In his wordy phase, he typed on my computer, asking me to read the combinations
90
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2014
In a more recent book, he painted and drew multi-media pictures, cut them into irregular shapes, and taped them into his book— sometimes one, sometimes two per page. When he accidentally added several pages worth upside down, we discovered that reading the book involved several partial rotations while reading. I find the books intriguing and artistic—such an organic, spontaneous process to them as he paints, draws, cuts, reorganizes, pastes. It seems he’s done with pictures what a writer does with life—we find these bits and pieces, slice them away from their original context, reassemble, and create something new and surprising. Surely he hadn’t known exactly what his book would look like. He’s fully present, absorbed, taken over by his creative process. He’s fearless. Bold. He “writes” his book in bits, in the moment, with spontaneity, joy, and a spirit of experimentation. He’s not worried about going beyond his comfort zone:
• What if I painted something? • What if I cut it up? • What if I put it together with this? • Placed them here…and here?
writing classes all the time. When we write only from what we know, it falls flat. Only when we meander, paint, cut out the pieces, rearrange, do we hit upon the delicious discoveries and bring our writing to life. It takes a sense of fearlessness to wander into uncharted territory when you’re writing, but it’s the only way to write. Read Online!
Lisa Tener – An award-winning authority on writing and publishing books, Lisa Tener guides you to joyfully express yourself in writing. She blogs for the Huffington Post, serves on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s publishing course, and teaches her own Award Winning Book Writing Courses in person and by interactive teleseminar. Download your free Author Tool Kit at www.LisaTener.com
“Courage is to tell th e sto who you a re with you ry of r whole heart.” Brene B rown
It’s always struck me that our best writing comes from the unpredictable moments of unearthing—the part we didn’t know when we began writing. In fact, I teach this in my
91
CAREER/BUSINESS
that read like the old Sesame Street alphabet song where Big Bird sounds out the alphabet into one consonant-rich 26-letterword. Luke’s books were something like five to eight pages of “LKSDOIENjdosjeingsooej seonkngsojdoj KJDSOJOJF.”