Last week with Paul and Jesse gone on the mission trip with our church, I had the house to myself. It was nice. I was able to get a project underway that has been on my mind, I cleaned the house and it stayed clean for more than one day, I was able to make progress on an online class I am taking. But even with all of this time to myself, I missed them.
The Saturday they left I was depressed and did not do anything. Then on Sunday I created my list. I broke the task into small units to be accomplished daily. It was difficult to get started, but once I was able to check one thing off, I was on a roll.
What was this little life lesson? Doing something constructive is a good remedy when you are feeling down. So if you are feeling down in the dumps or mildly depressed – do something. But also allow yourself to take it easy if you need to.
Last Thursday I came down with a headache. Luckily it did not get so bad that I had to lay in a dark room with the ice pack. But it was bad enough that I did not feel like doing anything. So I allowed myself to take the day off. Friday I was ready to beat myself up about not doing anything the previous day as it threw me off my schedule, but I reminded myself that I needed the time off and I had been working hard all week.
What did I learn from this little life lesson? Allow time for yourself, take care of what you need and don’t feel bad about pampering. Everyone deserves a break once in a while.
How are you doing?
No, really how are you doing? Are you happy? Are you sad? Maybe you feel worried, or discouraged or joyful or mad. Maybe you are in physical pain. Stop and take inventory.
Now, where do you want to be? Maybe where you are and where you want to be is not too different. But for many people I bet there is a wide gulf.
Maybe you are settling for less than you should in your life. Are you afraid to wish for too much? You can be happier and healthier than you are now! You don’t have to settle for mediocre.
Do you know how to get to where you want to be?
EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) or Meridian Tapping Technique is a great discovery that can reduce or eliminate your negative emotions and even physical pain.
Go to www.naturallyresilient.com and check into what EFT can do for you. Sign up for the free monthly tapping routine to help reduce the fear, worry and negativity in your life.
One day my husband and I went to a crafts fair on the square in Georgetown Texas where we lived. The local animal shelter was there and we fell for a sweet Siamese that they had named Lily. We decided to take her home and soon renamed her L.C. which stands for Loud Cat or Lousy Cat or Lazy Cat or whatever for the mood we were in.
Being a Siamese she was a talker, almost constantly vocalizing. I was on the phone once with a vet friend and L.C. was talking away in the background. My friend asked what was wrong with the cat as she could hear her constant yowling. I told her that was L.C. our Siamese and she being a vet understood. Siamese can be very talkative.
We had another cat, Barney, whom L.C. fell in love with right away. L.C. was a light weight, probable the smallest cat I have ever raised. She weighed in at about 7 pounds where Barney was the biggest cat I ever had and came in at 18 pounds and that was all bone and muscle not fat. This was a Mutt and Jeff relationship.
Barney was a big brother to L.C. Barney would be asleep in a corner and L.C. would come in and curl up on top of him and fall asleep! Barney would wake up and look at me like “what do I do now?” L.C. loved following Barney and our other cat Daneel around, yowling the whole time. I could just imagine her saying; “what are you doing? Where are you going? Can I help?” I am surprised that the other two never tried running her off when they went hunting and she came along. I know that her constant chatter alerted any prey to their whereabouts.
L.C. knew how to work Barney. I never quit understood the dynamics going on between Barney and Daneel until L.C. entered the picture. Daneel loved to be petted. He would get ecstatic and besides himself when being petted and Barney would come over and whack him. It was like Barney was saying “Get a grip on yourself”. Well L.C. loved to be petted too and would get all excited and ecstatic also but she did something Daneel didn’t, every once in a while she would jump up and run over to Barney and lick him on the head a few times then run back for more petting. Barney never came and whacked her like he did to Daneel. That was when I decided it was a jealousy thing with Barney; he did not like being ignored!
Cats and other pets are funny creatures that can give a lot of insight to our own human nature.
Paul and Jesse got back from a mission trip Saturday. The Youth and 5 adults from our church went to Durant Oklahoma to help put roofs on houses and paint and do general maintenance for the elderly and disabled in the area.
I am glad I was not there because Paul almost fell out of a tree. He had been cutting branches away from the roof and the branch came down and hit his ladder, knocking him off and sending him head first down the tree. Luckily he was able to grab a branch on the way down and was hanging on upside down. I guess survival mode kicks in and makes you reach out and grab at things. Paul told me that his co-leader at the job site was screaming when she saw him headed toward the ground. He did come back with some colorful bruises, lumps and scrapes.
I had also asked for angelic protection for the crew and specifically Paul and Jesse while they were gone. I believe in asking for spiritual help for anything and everything.
We had a discussion in Sunday school about what to ask God for help with. Most were of the opinion that only ‘big’ or ‘important’ things should be asked for. I was in the minority (of one) that any and everything was reasonable to request help with.
God is not too busy to help with even the smallest most insignificant task. God is universal power and is not limited by time or place constraints like we are. You are not bothering God when you tell Him/Her (God doesn’t really have a gender you know, human kind has provided that and it has changed over time) your concerns. We are denying our power when we don’t access God’s power. If we deny our power, we are not performing our task to the best possible effort we can and therefore we are cheating ourselves and cheating the world.
Release the Fear to Manifest the Life You Want
Posted by: Ann
June 21st, 2010 >> Energy, Life, Manifesting, Vibration
I ran across a quote the other day that I really liked. “Attitudes are more important that Facts” by Dr. Karl Menninger – psychiatrist.
Last year I did an experiment where I noted my attitude then noted how life was going. I discovered that the facts of my life, if life was being difficult or easy, followed my attitude changes. Not the other way around! I may have been feeling good about life and what was going on and then I would let my fears for the future creep in. It was after I started to feel fearful that life started spiraling downward, money started getting tight, unexpected bills started arriving. I would then pull myself together and force a more optimistic outlook and then my money situation would start to shift.
This year I am making a major effort to stay focused on optimism. I have rediscovered faith; Faith in the future, Faith in ultimate good, Faith that God has my best interest at heart, and Faith that the Universe will provide. So far that has worked well. I went through some shaky fights with fear until I decided to release it. That was about two months ago now and I have been relatively fear free since. This is amazing to me as I have had fear all my life!
From talking with others and reading personal stories I have discovered that releasing the fear is the first step to manifesting the life you want. Fear stands in the way of life’s energy. It is the flow of energy that brings things to you. Since releasing the fear, so much information has come to me about positive attitude and manifesting what you want it almost feels surreal at times. I have had moments where I have felt overwhelmingly optimistic, that nothing was impossible. This feeling causes me to feel very light of body, almost a tingly sensation. I wonder if this is a feeling of higher vibration? I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Ask and It Is Given
Posted by: Ann
June 20th, 2010 >> Books, Energy, Life, Manifesting, Physical/Material
One of the original speakers on “The Secret” was Esther Hicks. We were so impressed by what she said that we bought several of her books one of which is Ask & It Is Given.
This book provides a way of increasing your vibrational frequency by improving your emotional outlook. There is a nifty scale about half way in the book that starts at the lowest emotion of “Fear/Grief/Depression/Dispair/Powerlessness” and moves up the scale through Anger and Worry through Frustration and Pessimism then into what we judge as the more positive emotions such as Contentment, Optimism, Enthusiasm and at the top is “Joy/Knowledge/Empowerment/Freedom/Love/Appreciation”. What makes this book such a keeper are the useful suggested exercises to help you move up the scale to a higher vibration.
Most of us lump all negative emotions into one group as being bad. But there are degrees. For example, the year I was depressed, I lost the depression when I became angry. Anger is higher up the scale from depression (which is at the very bottom) so anger was an improvement. Our society tends to view anger as one of the worst emotions, but it is not at the bottom. Anger can lead to much needed social change. Anger can cause a person to find a better way. But anger is still one of the lower vibrations and it is best to work your way up the scale from that.
Paul was so impressed with the suggested processes that he wrote them down on index cards and carried them around for a long time.
The purpose of the book is to get you to a place where you feel the Life Force in you and around you. It is the Joy you feel in life. A quote I like from the book is “Success is about a happy life, and a happy life is just a string of happy moments. But most people do not allow the happy moments because they are so busy trying to get a happy life.” So true. Our emotions are there as a barometer to tell you how far away from your true self you are. When you are feeling bad you are not in your true power. As the book says “Life is supposed to be fun–It is Supposed to feel good!”
Change Your Writing and Change Your Life
Posted by: Ann
June 19th, 2010 >> Change, Life, Manifesting
Yesterday I wrote about how saying certain words out loud with enthusiasm can make you feel better. Then I wrote about how your facial expression can lead your feeling, in-other-words, your feelings don’t have to lead your facial expression.
Today I want to throw in another possibility. If you can change your attitude by changing your facial expression does that also work with other characteristics that are expressions of who you are? The one that comes to mind is graphology, or handwriting analysis. The way you write can tell a lot about you. It can say if you are honest, if you are hiding something, if you can keep a secret, it can even tell someone if you have a bent toward wealth. If you can change your handwriting, can you change your characteristics? I believe you can.
This world is very symbolic. That is why if you tend to see the negative in things, more will come to you that is negative. If you are feeling stuck in some area of you life, you toilet starts clogging or the garage door starts to bind and get stuck. Your hand writing is just another symbol of your life.
It is not easy to change your handwriting. I have tried. I have practiced making certain letters a certain way but I tend to fall back to my normal writing when actually using the letter. When I allow myself to feel the emotion associated with that letter formation, I do make the letter easier. I think there is some basis to this but just like in yesterday’s blog with the man learning the facial muscles and expressions; it takes a lot of concentration and work. I will keep working on it and see if that one change takes place in my writing and in my life.
I have been really into positive thinking lately. Recently I have realized how negative my thoughts had become. It was like I was swimming in a sea of negativity. I have been determined to change things.
By changing your thoughts you can change your life. Do something with me right now. Say the word ‘Awesome’. Now stand up and say it with feeling ‘AWESOME’. Did you feel a shift in energy? I know someone who did a lot of stage presentations and he said that he would stand in front of a mirror before going on and say ‘AWESOME’ with feeling three times. Another good word to say before you have a presentation or meeting is ‘YES’. Say that if front a mirror three times with hand movements and excitement and you will definitely have a shift. If you actually did that, don’t you feel better?
There are many ways to shift your attitude. I read about a person who started experimenting with facial expressions. You have heard that smiling can lift your spirits. Well he had heard that also and wanted to learn more. This person learned about all the different muscles in the face. He discovered which muscles created which expressions. But he did not stop there. He and a colleague developed facial exercises to learn to work each muscle individually! He found that when he moved the correct muscles to make a specific expression, he experienced the corresponding emotion in his body! Isn’t that wild? There is basis to ‘smile and you will feel better’.
This led me to think about other ways that can change our feelings or even our character. I will go into that tomorrow.
Are you being bombarded with fears and anxiety? The coming week’s blogs will have a heavy dose of improving your emotional outlook. I know this is so very important as I have been there and understand the consequences.
A very useful method to eliminate the fear and anxiety (I will talk of others over the next few days) is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) or Meridian Tapping. What I find interesting about this method is that it will only remove the negative and never the positive! I believe this is because we are born with the positive, the ‘fruits of the spirit’; this is who we truly are. But in living our lives, we start hauling the garbage with us, a little insult here, a bad experience there and soon they are weighing us down. That load is hard to carry.
Sometimes you can not locate what the load really is. What is great about EFT is that you don’t actually have to know, or even if you do know you don’t have to tell anyone. EFT isn’t talk therapy; it is get rid of the bad feelings therapy.
If you are interest in learning more go to www.naturallyresilient.com.
While there sign up for the free monthly tapping routine and you will be notified of discounts and special benefits as they become available through the year. Sometimes we need extra help in locating and eradicating a problem emotion, Ann can help with that through a private session by phone or in-person.
I heard that a friend’s dog got sprayed by a skunk this week. That brought up memories of LC.
When we lived in the mobile home we adopted a cat from the shelter. We named her LC which stands for ‘Loud Lat’ as she was part Siamese and vocalized a lot. My husband said that LC could also stand for ‘lazy cat’, ‘little cat’ ‘lousy cat’ or ‘lap cat’ depending on the situation.
This mobile home had skirting around the bottom with a gap in it. One spring, LC would disappear for a while and we would hear bumping under the house. We would joke that LC was playing with baby skunks under the house. We were suspicious that a skunk family was living under the house as we would catch a whiff every once-in-a-while when we were outside.
Well sure enough one day LC came in from bumping under the house and stank horribly. Her fur on her chest was green! I shoved her outside and call the vet. He said to pour tomato juice on her and let her lick it off. I had to drive to the store to get a big can of tomato juice. When I got home I easily sniffed out LC, who was pretty upset about not being able to get away from the smell herself. To add insult to injury, I poured the tomato juice all over her and she took off. I didn’t see her for three days! When she showed up again, she still smelled but not as bad and the tomato juice was all gone.
I gave her the hand test. I petted her chest and could smell the skunk on my hand. If the smell would come off on my hand it would come off on the furniture. So, much to LC’s chagrin, I made her stay out for another 2 to 3 weeks until my hand would come away with no smell. Her fur still smelled for several more weeks but at least it did not rub off on anything else. LC never did go back to play with the skunk kits under the house.