Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Spread Love

In a world that often seems to be filled with fear, worry, division and differences, love is the answer. Love works. 

Love is the greatest gift that we can give each other. 

Love builds bridges, offers compassion, displays kindness, shows patience, is gracious, is generous, values others. 

When unsure just what to do or say, come from a place of love.

Today, this week: Spread love.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Follow Your Heart

The din can be loud. It can be deafening. 

Advice, suggestions, recommendations. Fears, worries, doubts. 

How does one take in so much information and still be able to make a decision that feels right?

Grow silent. 

Listen to that still, small voice inside of you. It will guide you, just as a street sign tells you where to turn. 

You hold the answers. Reach within and you'll find that the answers are waiting for you.

Today, this week: Follow your heart. It won’t let you down.


For more thoughts about following your heart, check out my book, Find Your Heart, Follow Your Heart: Get to the Heart of What Matters and Create Your Abundant, Authentic, Joyful Life, available in hardcover, softcover and e-book formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Balboa Press and other fine retailers. Perfect for Mother's Day and Graduation gift giving.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Reach for the Rainbows

There are days when it seems as if the old adage of “when it rains, it pours” is so true that there aren’t enough umbrellas and galoshes to protect you from the deluge.

Don’t allow yourself to get swallowed up by the storms in your life. Redirect your focus to rise above the rain. Reach for the rainbows.

When you dedicate energy to seeking the good in each difficult situation, the hold that those sorrows and fears have over you is lessened. It’s easier to flow through the experience until you can see the sunshine again.

Today, this week: Reach for the rainbows and they will be there for you.

How to Find Joy in Uncertain Times

The transition of U.S. Presidential power that will take place later this week has caused many to be concerned about the changing vision and policies of our country and where they will fit into the new President’s agenda. At times of uncertainty, how do we find joy?

First, turn off the TV, put down the newspaper, stash the electronic devices in a drawer and simply be. Be. Be a human being.

Now, more than ever, we need to reach deep into ourselves to find the good that still rests in each of us and to make every effort to truly see it in others.

When we seek to find the light in another human being, it can’t help but shine back on us.

When we focus on gratitude for the abundance in our lives, it multiplies.

When we reach out with compassion and engage in active listening, we find more similarities between us and fewer differences.

When we clearly identify what we can control, what we can change -- and what we cannot, our energies become more focused and we can take appropriate, positive action.

When we engage in an act of kindness, no matter how small, the world becomes a more loving place.

When we confront our fears, hand wringing and worry dissipate. Our fears become feathers and they float away when they are no longer empowered.

When we adopt a mindfulness practice to rest our minds and souls, our thoughts quiet and we become renewed.

When we spend time in the quiet of a church service, we connect to a higher power and our spirits are fed.

When we exercise and eat in a healthy fashion, we fuel the gift of our bodies.

When we spend time in nature, we discover our connection to something much larger than ourselves and we come away refreshed.

When we volunteer our time for causes that are important to us, we lift up others and ourselves at the same time.

As a three-time cancer survivor and someone who has suffered two benign tumors, one in my brain and another in my spine that caused temporary paralysis and many therapy sessions to learn how to walk again, I understand on a personal, visceral level what uncertainty is. But, I also know hope. I know faith. I know love. I know goodness. I know joy. I know blessing.

When the uncertainties of life feel overwhelming, hang onto hope, look for goodness, count your blessings and use your energies to take constructive action. We’re all in this together.

Uncertainty's Beauty

I have come to believe that there is beauty -- even a comfort -- in uncertainty. That probably sounds counter-intuitive, given that we humans tend to crave certainty and seek ways to reduce or avoid risk. I have found that when I'm in a state of uncertainty, I have the opportunity to release my expectations of how things should turn out or how I wish them to be. Uncertainty forces me to relinquish my false sense of control and to be one with what is. Never was that more real to me than a few years ago when a benign tumor pressing on my spinal cord rendered me paralyzed from just above the waist down. I was taken by ambulance to a larger city hospital after an MRI revealed the reason for my mysterious, spontaneous paralysis. The neurosurgeon cautioned my husband and me that surgery, though imminent, wasn't necessarily going to reverse the problem. He was only cautiously optimistic that I would walk again. I made the decision then to hang onto my faith and hope and to allow things to unfold as they were. The shifting sands under my paralyzed feet made for some challenging traversing mentally, physically and spiritually, but my decision to embrace uncertainty rid it of its power over me. Thankfully, I did heal and I did regain my ability to walk. No one would know when I walk my normal fast clip these days that at one time, I didn't know if I'd ever walk again. Now, when I begin to go down the dark, fear-filled path that uncertainty thrives on drawing me down, I try to stop, breathe deeply and seek peace with what is. A peaceful countenance stops the scrambling and lifts me up out of uncertainty's mire and onto smoother footing. A mindful, peace-filled, hope-filled state. Yes, there is comfort in that.

The Valley of Challenge

Composer and musician Alanis Morissette was interviewed in the July/August 2013 edition of Energy Times, eloquently telling about the ways she pursues health and happiness.  Alanis Morissette explained that she doesn't shy away from confusion, anger, fear, frustration and sadness, but accepts them for the value that they can have in her life.  She then said that she gets back to wellness "by walking through the valley of challenge."  The valley of challenge.  What an apt description. In all of our lives, we encounter those occasional valleys of challenge (and sometimes not so occasional).  So what do we do with them?  Perhaps they are important indicators of things that require change or temporary setbacks that lead us to new, right directions.   These days, there are countless books, articles, speakers, blogs and more on the art of happiness.  It's almost as if we've forgotten how to be happy or we want to march right out of that valley of challenge as fast as possible so we don't have to experience pain.  But those valleys can be unavoidable.  They provide valuable lessons and we must experience them in order to live a real and complete life.  What we learn from those experiences and how we use that knowledge to live our own better lives and help others is even more important, in my opinion.

Wanna Dance?

At my workplace, a new version of our Intranet is being rolled out this summer.  To help us get ready for the changes, we're learning about it through a series of clever and humorous, digitally animated videos.  On the first video, animated characters did the "dance of resistance" and the "dance of acceptance."  While chuckling at the humor behind the two characters and their respective dances, I couldn't help but think of those times when I might be standing completely still, yet I'm doing the "dance of resistance."  We always hear phrases such as "change is the only constant," but in this technologically advancing world, change is happening ever faster.  It's not always easy to have to adapt so quickly. Yet, to be able to adapt to change with some humor and a sense of adventure is indeed a dance -- a happy dance, if you will. When I go with the flow without worry or fear, I move with greater ease.  So, the next time I start to dig in my heels with resistance, I'll cue myself to think more broadly and with greater acceptance by asking myself, "Wanna dance?"!