We spend so much of our lives in a state of anticipation, often anticipation of what we don’t want to have happen.  It leads us to living a life in our heads rather than in our bodies and hearts.  You can’t anticipate the present moment because it’s already here.  You know what it is, what it holds, what it looks like.

There are very few moment’s in the present that include fear itself, although there are definitely some.  However, living in anticipation of these potential moments, we end up living through exponentially more in our heads, conjured up by our thoughts, than ever actually materialize!

So the next time you find yourself experiencing fear, ask yourself, what am I afraid of?  Then ask, what part of this fear is actually true right now in this moment?

Try to be present in what is.  Live where you are now.  This is how you can be connected with your body and heart, and live an integrated life based more in your reality than merely in your mind.  You can direct your mind according to what your body tells you and your heart feels.  Instead of allowing your mind to direct your body and heart away from RIGHT NOW by focusing on what is is afraid of in the future.

It’s always so easy to see what’s going on for someone else.  We tend to know just what’s happening for them, why, how, when and where.  We can offer up advice quickly and feel confident in what we’re saying.

Yet it can be so hard to see our own situations with anything close to the clarity we can have for others.  This is because of our perspective.  When you’re sitting in the picture so to speak, it’s very hard to see it with any vision of the picture itself.  What you’re seeing is an outward look from within your situation rather than an outward look of your situation.

So the next time you’re struggling with a situation, ask a trusted friend for some perspective, and try it on and see what feels accurate to you.  You can also consciously try to observe your situation from a few steps back to better understand the big picture.

Most of all, I invite you to be kind to yourself and understand that this is all part of your journey.  Rather than have unrealistic expectations of yourself, embrace your role in the picture of your life, and try to live it with love, integrity and intuition.  Aspire to be the most beautiful presentation of yourself possible in the picture of your life, moment by moment, frame by frame.  Trust when you live with this intention, you are!

Our eyes give us the gift of sight.  We can see the physical world around us, flowers blooming, ocean waves rolling, dinner before us, our children growing.  Yet sometimes when we take things at face value based on what we see with our eyes, we can be deceived.  Things are often other than they “appear”.

However when we see with our heart, we experience more than meets the eyes in your head.

Many people wear glasses to improve their vision.

How can you improve the vision of your heart?  By trusting your inner feelings, and your intuitive hits.  One way to hone these skills is through meditation and spiritual practices that strengthen your inner connection.

Seeing with your heart allows you to look beyond what is immediately before you.  This sight can often show you a greater picture with meaning that simply cannot be seen with the naked eye..with or without glasses!

How often do you find yourself focused on the things that you’re not happy with, and discount all the things you have that make you happy?

How often in relationship with another do you find things going well until one negative thing triggers you and all the good leading up to that moment disappears?

So often we see what other people have and are convinced their world is so much better than ours?  We believe they have what we want.

Yet if we can learn to value the good we have, whether it be the people who love us and who we love, our health, a sunny day, whatever brings us joy, then we can stop search for our treasure.

Each of us already has treasures unique to ourselves.  Rather than seek them beyond ourselves, the challenge is to recognize them within and around ourselves.

We have what we think we’re missing, it just may not look like what we imagine.  Or we may focus on the parts in our life’s picture that we don’t like.  This makes us believe what we desire is somewhere other than where we are.

This doesn’t mean, you must never look to change your situation if you’re not satisfied or happy.

However, we all can rise to the challenge of seeing our own diamond necklaces that we already have.  Look in the mirror.  Reflect on your life.  Open your eyes.  See with your heart.  This is how you can see the treasures you already have in your possession.

It’s easy to take health and feeling good in our bodies for granted, until we get a paper cut, or a hang nail, or something much worse.  Then we tend to get angry that we hurt.  Yet were we ever grateful when we weren’t hurting?

How often do you express gratitude when you open your pantry and find the snack you want?  Or when you pour that needed cup of coffee in the morning?

When do you give thanks for the roof over your head, the sun when it shines, the rain when it falls, the smell of flowers when you walk by?

It’s so easy to take things for granted as you get use to having them.  This also goes for love and the people in your life.  So often we tend to treat the people we love the most, the worst!  It’s easy to be in a bad mood and let it all hang out with a family member.  It’s even easier to rip ourselves up with a barrage of negative self-talk anytime we don’t meet our own expectations.  This self-talk diminishes and demeans our very essence.  Yet if you choose to be grateful for your strengths and your goodness, you are improving your mood, and lifting yourself to being able to be your best.

When do you show gratitude for the family members, close friends, and even yourself, for putting up with your moods and temper?  Rather than expect them to always be there for you, why not be grateful for the fact that they are?  You can also be grateful to yourself for all you are, rather than being angry or disappointed about things you are not.

When you focus on the love you share with others and yourself, it can inspire you to give and be your very best.

I invite you to examine where you take things for granted and where you feel gratitude.  I believe if you open your eyes you will see that nothing and no one in this amazing experience we call life deserves to be taken for granted.

It’s easy to get caught up in the details of our lives.  If I hadn’t done this, this wouldn’t have happened.  If I had done this, this would have happened.  If you had or hadn’t done this or that, this would or would not be happening!  We usually start thinking this way when things are not the way we want.  We fixate on the details.  Why this?  Why that?  Why me?

We perseverate over what we or someone else could have done differently.  We believe we have control over what happens by our actions.  Indeed there are times we absolutely do!  We certainly participate in what happens to us.  Yet some things are beyond our control.

Ultimately the details don’t really matter.  Everyone’s details are different, however behind the details, in our patterns of thoughts and the emotions we feel, provide us all with similar experiences.  We feel rejected, become filled with self-doubt.  We feel angry and want to stand up for ourselves.  We become resentful when we don’t feel we’re being heard.  We often struggle to speak our truth.  Yet when we do find our voice and communicate our heart in a way that can be heard, we feel exhiliaration! 

If we get caught up in the details though of what is happening and trying to figure out why it’s happening, we often lose sight of what we have control over.  Our responses to the emotions we experience in reaction to the details of our lives is where we can effect change.  So look past the details, and uncover the opportunity to empower yourself in the ways you can!

Do you act like the artist of your life?

So often it seems people believe life happens to them.  They are the victim not the creator.  From this perspective, you tend to focus on what is beyond your control, seeing the negative and the undesirable aspects of your life.  However, if you see yourself as the artist, and recognize that so much of what is around you has the potential to be something other than what it seems, then you have the power to create a masterpiece of your life.  Your paint brush is your intention.  Your paint is your emotion.  Whether you are aware of this or not, these elements are constantly creating the picture of your life in every moment.

How often do you direct your paint brush of intention toward positive solution and magnificent expression?  How often are you painting with colors of anger, resentment, hatred and disappointment?  How often are you painting with love, gratitude, trust and joy?

Whatever you believe is your dream come true.

If you look at your life, what are the colors and emotions that dominate your current life’s work of art?  What design has your intention outlined?  If you are not happy with any part of your picture, set a new intention, and paint with love.  Sometimes you are presented with images in your masterpiece that may challenge you to find a way to incorporate positively, or paint in an uplifting manner.  Our life’s picture is like a rolling movie, always changing.  Even in tougher times, you have the power to shift the hues, focus on the parts of the picture that bring you the most joy, and hold a paint brush intending to create more of what you desire in the next frame of your life.

This quote was sent to me this morning.  I’m not sure who wrote it but it is a very powerful statement.

We are all seeking true love, yet what does this mean?  I believe we all want to be appreciated and accepted for who we are.  Yet so often, we’re willing to comprise who we are in order to not lose the love we believe we have.  We’re afraid to show our true selves, to stand up for ourselves, and remain strong in what we want from another.  These things are all very hard to do.  They are also risky.  In following through in these ways, we may lose the one thing we want most, love of another person.  Yet if we’re not being genuine in these ways, do we really have true love from another?

How authentic is the love you are experiencing in the different relationships of your life?  How well are you standing in your truth?

     Circumstances are our teacher.  When we choose to learn the lessons offered in our circumstances we become empowered rather than victim to them.  It is up to us what we are willing to see about ourselves as a result of what circumstances are showing us.  Then it becomes our choice to make changes based upon what we see if we feel that will help us to grow and improve.  Opportunities for such personal growth are constantly being provided by life. 
     Learning means growing, stretching and changing.  None of these things feel comfortable while you’re going through them.  Often it can downright hurt.  We don’t usually learn much from what is easy for us.  It is in the things that push our pain buttons and challenge us beyond our comfort zones that offer our greatest opportunities to learn and grow.  This is why learning is not always fun.  However, it is always rewarding.
     How open are you to receiving the lessons life is offering you today?  What is it that you are being taught?

    Everything we experience in life starts with an interpretation.  Our interpretations come from how we categorize and judge the world around us.  Many times these judgments stem from direct experiences we’ve had in the past.  Almost always they include assumptions, assumptions that what happened before will happen again and assumptions that we make to fill in wherever holes may exist in the picture before us.  We fill these holes according to what we think and believe they are.  Yet they may not be this way at all.
     This is why we can hear the same thing again and again and again, from many different people, and we keep hearing what we think we’re being told.  Then at some point, we may be told the same thing again, yet this time we hear something new in what is said.  What’s changed?  The message has remained the same, yet our interpretation is different.  As we change, our world around us changes.  Yet has the world around us really changed?
     How much do you think you are influencing how you see the world around you from preconceived notions and assumptions?  How accurate do your interpretations tend to be?