Do you know how powerful you really are?

Here's a reposting of an article I wrote in the Fall of 2007. It is so relevant to how you choose to participate in world events right now:

Yesterday's post quoting Caroline Myss explored how emotions are stored in the body, and today I'm going to talk about the power you have to change your body and your life using your mind.

Thoughts and emotions are information represented by chemical signals in the body and brain. What inspires, directs and shapes them? We don't know that scientifically, but there is a theory that consciousness (or spirit depending on your worldview) exists on an energetic level beyond the firing of neurons in the brain or signals traveling down nerves. From this perspective, the driving force behind all the activity in your body comes from the energetic (mind or spirit) level. Do you realize just how powerful you are in shaping your life, your health and your body?

Through your attention and intention, you have the power to organize events and circumstances in your life. What you pay attention to manifests in your body and around you. By choosing positive thoughts and emotions, and by focusing your attention on peace, vitality, wellness, calm, balance, health or other desireable states of being, you can cultivate them in your life. You can grow them like flowers in a garden.

Or conversely, if you focus on what you do not want, unfortunately, you may accidentally manifest exactly that because the subconscious mind is too primal to understand the concept of "not". Rather, it experiences the world through images, associations and symbols. What you pay attention to is what it seeks out to create and find. It is not enough to decide you no longer want to be this way or that way - to change your life you must decide how you want to be and focus on that instead. Therefore, the key to making mental and emotional changes is by using carefully constructed positive visualizations and images.

For example, if your desire is to no longer be anxious, you must focus on how you would like to be peaceful and calm with a visual of yourself looking content and collected. In addition to the visual, the intention becomes more powerful when you use verbal affirmations to replace the negative associations in your mind. In this case, repeating the affirmation "I am at peace and calm in all situations" along with your visualization has a deep impact. Images engage the subconscious, and words engage the conscious mind - so it's a powerful combination when used routinely.

So let me pull this all together here. You can live your life at the mercy of your emotions, letting past traumas, current concerns, and anxiety about the future suck the energy and joy from your life. Or you can use the power of your mind to create a positive, fulfilling life by focusing your attention and intention on how you would like to feel physically, emotionally and mentally.

Abundance is a choice.

I have a really smart life coach. She keeps reminding me a basic truth - there is plenty in the universe for all of us. Of course there are things wrong with the way certain things were handled by the last administration of this country, but that does not mean that you need to participate in the Fear Economy. You could spend your time anxious and worried about losing your job or losing your clients or losing whatever it is that's most dear to you, but that's not really very pleasant is it?

You have another option. You can choose to appreciate and embrace the abundance in your life right now. You can do this by being grateful for the wonderful people in your life, the amazing opportunities that keep coming your way, your health, the gifts you receive from the sunshine, fresh air, good food, doing something you love and enjoying great company. No matter how much you don't have or are afraid of losing, there is an equal or greater amount of wonderful things you do have if you take a moment to pause and count your blessings.

To give you an example from my own life - I lost some significant things in 2008 and was stuck at home for a number of months due to chronic excruciating pain. The Fear Economy started to eat away at me as I focused on what I didn't have and what other people didn't have, and it made me feel pretty awful. Then a few smart people rallied around me and reminded me to count my blessings. When I started to pay attention and account for the amazing people still in my life and the opportunities available to me and remember the things that I'm passionate about, everything shifted. Suddenly my life was overflowing with abundance. Despite the losses and the challenges, some pretty amazing things started to happen.

This may be a pretty bad time economy wise for the United States in a very long time, but this moment in time is one of the best, most productive, and profitable times in my life. How can that be? It's that way because I opened myself up to the abundance that's available in the universe and refused to continue to participate in the Fear Economy. You have a choice too, and I encourage you to opt for abundance and blessings.

Happiness is...

Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.

- Burton Hills

Year in Review

Last year when I took stock of how the year went, all I could think about were all the ways in which I didn't succeed or meet some of the lofty goals I had set for myself. It was a pretty dreary way of looking back at the year, and to tell you the truth, I am not sure why my usually optimistic self took the glass half empty approach. It left me feeling discouraged and depressed.

This past year for me was one of difficult changes, constant struggle with chronic pain, and significant losses in my personal life too. The way life happened outside of my control threw all my plans into disarray, and I really didn't have a chance to work on anything except for survival in 2008. Instead of focusing on all the hopes, dreams and accomplishments that weren't fulfilled - I am choosing to review my year in terms of gratitude, appreciation for myself, for those who stood by me and supported me when things were really rough, for all the abundance that exists in my life. Making this list acknowledging all the wonderful people in my life and all the really loving and kind ways that I took care of myself despite the challenges was really empowering.

Even if your year was not as challenging as mine, even if it was just ok or even if it was absolutely fantastic - I encourage you to step back from accomplishment thinking and review your year through a lens of gratitude and appreciation. It feels really good to do it, and it's a really nice way to reconnect with the spirit of this holiday season.

Baby steps towards relaxation

One dynamic that is particularly challenging in our culture is balancing our innate needs for rest and movement. When we are super busy all the time, always moving, or regularly tense or anxious, our bodies bring us back into balance by catching those dreaded colds or flus to force us to stay home to rest and rejuvenate and return to homeostasis. If you don't want to end up stuck in bed this month, there are some easy techniques you can incorporate into your life to keep balanced. I suggest you schedule downtime for yourself and practice doing leisure activities. Just like when you begin an exercise program, you're most successful at reducing stress and relaxing if you take baby steps. Start with just 5 or 10 minutes three times a week.


Start with a leisure activity that gives you something to do while practicing rest and relaxation - reading a book, petting an animal, knitting or painting. Eventually you might add 10 more minutes onto your sessions and a few additional days a week and flex your skills with some intermediate activities such as reflecting on your life, writing in a journal, or drinking a hot beverage in a cozy room. As you work up to a deeper state of peace and calm and become adept at being still, you might try more advanced resting techniques like sitting and looking out your window to observe the weather, or meditating and quieting the mind. It might seem silly to practice relaxation like this, but I'm certain you know someone who just does not know how to slow down. Yet it's a skill that can be developed with practice - I promise. And the benefits to your health, your sanity and your well-being are priceless.