Inner Light

I apologize for not posting in awhile. With the U.S. holiday last week, things were a little chaotic. I had a wonderful time with my son who was home for 6 days last week. Thanksgiving with the whole family was terrific. The week really reminded me of all I have to be grateful for.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s time to rest up a little before rushing off to prepare for Christmas!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. Many blessings to all.

With Thanksgiving coming up this week in the U.S., it’s hard not to think about all of the things I’m grateful for. I know that sometimes, it can be difficult to find things to be grateful for in your life. However, it’s that attitude of gratitude that smooths out the energy flow as we work to manifest our dreams and goals. When you’re having a hard time being grateful, you might have to get creative to find the beauty in the chaos, so to speak.

Be grateful for that job you don’t enjoy. It’s keeping a roof over your head and food on your table. Besides, it’s only a stepping stone on the way to your dream job.

Be grateful for your ex-wife/husband. Without them, you wouldn’t have your amazing children.

AND/OR

Be grateful for your ex-wife/husband. They came into your life to teach you ________ (insert lesson you learned from that relationship here).

Be grateful for the rainy weather. Your car is getting washed and your lawn is getting watered for free.

Be grateful for the chain letters filling your email inbox. It means you have a lot of friends who are thinking about you.

Be grateful for the people who annoy you and challenge you. They are helping you to grow into a better human being.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, my U.S. friends. And many blessings to everyone.

All too often, people put the care and well-being of everyone else ahead of their own. When you spend all of your time on others and none on yourself, you become energetically depleted, stressed out, even physically ill or dis-eased. These are messages from your body telling you to take time out to care for yourself. In order to be able to give all that you do to your friends, family, and employer, it is necessary for you to take time every day to do something for you. Here are five things you can do that will keep you in good energetic and physical health.

1. Meditate
It has been proven that meditation relieves stress and replenishes energy. Just 15-30 minutes of meditation every day is enough to produce noticeable results. There are many CDs on the market to help you start a daily meditation routine.

2. Spend time in nature
Getting outside and soaking up some sun is a great way to rejuvenate yourself. You can garden, play a sport, take a walk, or simply sit on the deck and relax doing nothing. Absorbing natural light is an instant pick me up.

3. Take a nice hot bath
Do you remember the old commercial for Calgon? There was a woman relaxing in a big tub and her line was, “Calgon, take me away!” There’s a reason why she looked so content! Light some candles and incense and feel the stress melt away into the water.

4. Eat healthy
A healthy diet loaded with fresh fruits and vegetables will keep your body running efficiently. The healthier you are, the more energy you’ll have to keep up with everyone and everything in your life. You can’t keep up if you’re always sick and tired because of a poor diet.

5. Take up a hobby
Engaging in a hobby is a great way to be good to you. You are doing something you enjoy that isn’t (or shouldn’t be) stressful, and will allow you the opportunity to take pleasure in doing something by yourself. Find something that will completely take your mind off of all your obligations for awhile.

If you make time every day to do something that is just for yourself, you will be much healthier physically, mentally, and emotionally. You can’t operate at your best if you are under constant stress with nothing to relieve it. If you aren’t good to yourself first, you can’t be any good to others. Most of all, keep in mind that self-care is not selfish! There is no need to feel guilty or upset if you take time to be alone and rejuvenate. It is just as important for you to care for yourself as it is for you to care for others.

By now, I’m sure most people reading this blog have heard about what happened in Sedona, AZ last month at one of James Ray’s spiritual retreats. He had 60 people fast for 36 hours, then put them in a small sweat lodge made of plastic tarps. 3 people ended up dying and about 20 others got sick.

Now, I admit that I have been a big fan of James Arthur Ray for a few years. I never got the chance to attend any of his live events, but I enjoyed him in The Secret as well as his book, Harmonic Wealth. I’m sad to say that my respect for him has faded a great deal as more details have come out about what happened in Sedona.

James Ray has always preached about personal responsibility. He tells people that they are responsible for their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Yet, he did not cooperate with Sedona police the day of the incident. In fact, he left Arizona altogether and flew back to California. He never called the families of those who died. He never offered to pay medical bills for everyone who got sick. He never even issued refunds for all of those people who paid nearly $10,000 each to be at that retreat.

I am saddened by what happened to those people. All of this was completely preventable. I’m also saddened by what amounts to nothing more than charlatanism on the part of a man I had respected. If you’re going to preach personal responsibility, then for goodness sake, walk your talk.

I’ve noticed a prevailing theme during all the years I’ve been talking to Lightworkers and holistic professionals. Most of you are wonderful at giving, but struggle with receiving. You give of your time, your energy, your gifts and other resources, but when these things are offered to you in kind, you have trouble accepting them. Nature doesn’t like a vacuum, so when you give away your energy, the Universe works to replenish it. If you block that by turning down gifts of love, energy, and support from others, you are keeping the Universe from restocking your own energy level. When you do not allow yourself to receive, you block the flow of energy and eventually, you will feel depleted and burnt out.

Here are some key benefits of allowing yourself to receive:

1. Free flow of energy
Energy is always in motion, always vibrating. By receiving energy from others, you are keeping the cycle moving. You will never feel depleted or like you don’t have enough to give because the flow is always there.

2. ‘Tis better to give AND receive
You already know how wonderful it feels to give to others. Why deprive someone else of the same pleasure? When you receive a gift from another person, you are honoring them as well as the gift. They feel good because you accepted their gift, so in essence, by receiving, you are giving!

3. You will never be alone
When you are in a state of receiving, you attract all sorts of amazing people and circumstances into your life. You will be surrounded by people who want to help and support you so that you can save energy by not doing everything yourself.

So, how do you open yourself up to receiving? The answer is very simple to read, yet difficult for some to put into practice.

The easiest way to receive is simply to accept what is offered and say, “Thank you.”

Divine Timing is the idea that everything happens at its exact right time. I like to think of it as the time it takes from when I receive an epiphany or inspired thought of where I should go next in my life, to when this thought is manifested into reality. In this modern age of multi-tasking and speedy wireless internet and superhighways, people have gotten used to getting whatever they want whenever they want it.

Sometimes, Spirit(or whatever you call your Higher Power) has different ideas than we do on how long it should take to create what we want. We want things to happen immediately, but the time may simply not be right. There may be some pieces to the puzzle that need to be put into place first. Perhaps there are other people involved in the situation who need to play their parts before your desire can come to fruition. There could be any number of reasons why you cannot manifest what you want right away.

Luckily, there are some things you can do to ease the flow of Divine Timing. You may not necessarily make things happen faster, but you will certainly save yourself some frustration and disappointment.

First, let go of your fears and limiting beliefs. These are all of the “What ifs” and “Yeah buts” that can pervade your thinking as you wait oh so impatiently for your desires to manifest. These negative thoughts can cause you to give up on your dream altogether. Believe that everything is happening as it should.

Second, don’t drop the ball. You have your own part to play in creating your dreams too! Nurture that vision. Feed it with your desire and how you will feel when this happens for you. Take inspired action every day and watch your vision grow into reality.

Third, have faith and trust the process. Surrender all the “Hows” to Spirit and let yourself be guided through each step of the journey. Know in your heart that you will be shown what to do next when the time is right and that the perfect people will come into your life to make your dream happen.

Do these three things and let the Universe and Divine Timing do the rest! The more you resist this process, the longer it will take to make your dreams real, if they happen at all. By giving in and letting things flow, you will enjoy the journey much more.

Add these amazing people to your Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc. Connect with them and learn from them. I am so honored to share a journey with these people.

I’ve been thinking about life lessons lately as I’ve been meditating on my journey and what’s next for me. Before we enter this life, our soul or spirit sits down and decides what lessons it’s going to learn during this lifetime and what karma it’s going to resolve. Your soul not only decides what it’s going to learn, but what situations will be drawn to you so that you can learn those things.

This may sound like you really have no free will at all. On the contrary, even though certain situations have been planned for our lives, how we react to those situations is totally up in the air. We can choose to learn the lesson, or choose not to. If we choose not to, we have to repeat the lesson until we learn what we need to. A perfect example of this is a person who gets into the same kind of unhealthy or abusive relationships over and over. Once they learn the lesson and break the cycle, they never have to go through that again.

When you think about it, the bigger the crisis in your life, the bigger the lesson that you get to learn. Remember, you scripted this all before you entered this life, so if you don’t like the situation you’re in, you have no one to blame but yourself. The faster you learn the lesson, the faster you can move on.

Are Negative Thoughts Taking Over?

With the economy the way it is and the media inundating us every single day with war, health scares, and disasters, it’s easy for negative thoughts to creep into your thinking. That makes it harder to be your best self and operate at your highest level.

That’s why I’ve created a new ecourse called Get Positive Now and Change Your Life for Good! I must make a confession, though. I’ve actually been using this system for a few years now. In the introduction to the ecourse, I lay it all out there….how I went from being suicidal to being a healthy, positive person by using the process outlined in the course and a lot of perseverance.

I’m looking for 5-10 people to try the ecourse for a week, then give me feedback on it. If you’re interested in giving this a try, email me at shela@innerlight-coaching.com with “Get Positive Now ecourse” in the subject line, and I’ll send it off to you.

Thank you in advance for all of your help!

One of my favorite books of all time is The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to follow my passion and reconcile it with my more logical mind. Gibran, of course, puts it all into perspective. Consider this excerpt from his book:

“Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill at mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction. Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing; and let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may life through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows–then let your heart say in silence, “God rests in reason.”

And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky–then let your heart say in awe, “God moves in passion.”

And since you are a breath in God’s sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.”