Monday 21 December 2015

Measure - Understand - Control - Improve

I've realized that I am in the need of some serious self-reflection lately. When my energy is low and I'm overworked (especially during the holidays) I find it easier just to let the reflecting slide and just keep pushing myself. My quantity may go up but I notice my quality begins to suffer. Not enough sleep is going to cure that.

Then I got a little nudge from the Universe: a step in the right direction that was easy and attainable and would allow me to see where I currently am in life, and what I can work on to get to where I want to be. It took all the hard work out of the beginning by helping me "measure" myself on a scale and got me motivated to take the next step of "understanding" my current reality so I can finally take "control" of the path I am on and "improve" the areas I need.

I recently took an assessment by Michael Hyatt. It says, "Rate yourself on a scale of 1–12 in each of life’s ten domains. You read a series of statements that describe specific situations and pick the one that most closely aligns with where you perceive yourself to be." It only took a few minutes. And it was definitely worth it. 


The ten domains of life that it covers are:

Spiritual, Intellectual, Emotional
Physical, Marital, Parental, Social
Vocational, Avocational, Financial

I'm not endorsing this assessment nor the support and workshops he offers to assist you in creating the life you want. But it is free to sign up for the LifeScore and it is a great tool to help you see right where you are. If you are feeling lost and are ready to take your power back, you can download the assessment here:
http://michaelhyatt.com/lifescore/


I just want to put it out there that the above picture was made with 27 layers. I love making these pictures and getting creative. It's very fun, relaxing, and meditative.

Thursday 17 December 2015

What is a Moment to you?

Mindfulness is the key to everything. It opens the door to gratitude, forgiveness, acceptance, peace, and unconditional love.

Sometimes Falling Down in a Dark Place is a Blessing

"Sometimes, when you're in a dark place,
you think you've been buried but actually,
you've been planted." ~Christine Caine


Becoming Authentically You is on Facebook

Becoming Authentically You just passed 180 likes on Facebook. I am grateful to everyone who has joined me on this journey, both there and here on the blog.

I've been tapping into my creativity, doing a lot of art work, crafts, and some design. I've also been reading and learning and soaking up all the messages that continue to come to me through synchronicity. I believe with the holidays approaching, it is time for some deep reflection on all that has been happening so that I can begin to work on embracing my vulnerability and enhancing my self-expression. It's not an easy feat facing your inner self but I am ready for the challenge!


Don't Replace Negative Thoughts...Challenge Them

I’m learning that we can’t just shut off our negative talk. And why should we bother? It is too hard to do and we have to constantly be considering what would be the best positive thought to use instead. Then we have to try to convince our conscious mind to accept it as a realistic truth.

Rather than replacing our negative thoughts, we can allow them to have space in our minds without resisting their existence. We can then choose to challenge their truth and validity. We can take a step back to get a new healthier perspective. We can take control over the thoughts we believe, and we can choose the story we tell ourselves and others.

I read an interesting article about subpersonalities by Aletheia Luna where she listed the following questions to help you challenge your self-talk.
You can read the full article on Loner Wolf

7 questions to help you acknowledge how your self-limiting talk may be deceiving you:

1. Are you being objective?
2. Is this always true?
3. Was this true in the past?
4. Are you looking at the big picture – or simply focusing on the details?
5. What are the objective odds of this happening? Why? Why not?
6. What is the factual evidence for this?
7. Truthfully, what’s the worst that could happen? Why is this so bad? How would you deal with this?
Other questions that I would add are:
Is this important? Right now? Has it been for me before? Will it be later?
Is this helpful? To me or others? How?
In what ways will this assist me in reaching my goals or bring me joy, happiness, peace, contentment, confidence, or to become more authentic?

A True Friend is Someone You Can Be Authentic With

I am forever grateful for the friends I can be my authentic self with. They treasure me in all that I am. Even on all my days, whether they may be good ones or bad ones, they are there without judgment, only a heart full of love.

Happy Holidays!!!!

Saying "Happy Holidays" is about including everyone. However you choose to celebrate this season, I wish you many blessings filled with love and laughter surrounded by friends and family. May this holiday season bring miracles to you and your loved ones.

Have the Winter Blues Started Already?

It seems every Autumn my mood takes a downfall. This year isn't much different. I've been finding myself in a state of confusion, unsure about myself or the next step I should take. I've learned to be grateful for these moments because they always lead to better times ahead. Rather than resisting, I have decided to go with the flow of events and emotions as they come. Grounding work and tapping into my creative side are proving to be great motivators for me to stay present in the moment and help me focus on the things that are most meaningful in my life.

"Eastern cultures believe that people experience better health when living in harmony with the natural cycles of their environment. Winter is at it greatest Yin in nature this time of year expressing its inactive, cold, and damp nature. Emotionally, it is best to remain introspective, restful, and consolidate your energy.
In winter, the cold and darkness urges us to slow down. At this time of year we are encouraged to reflect on our health, replenish our energy, and conserve our strength. Winter is ruled by the water element (the greatest body of our emotions and is expressed in nature as well as in the body. Fear and depression tend to become the dominant emotion this time of year often because of the lack of light the eyes receive. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) also called winter depression describe a form of depression that occurs in the winter months. Women are affected more often than men, and the prominent symptoms are low mood, starting in autumn or winter, lack of energy, irritability, overeating, weight gain, a craving for carbohydrates, lack of interest in socializing and increased sleep and daytime sleepiness. In Winter, people should stabilize their emotions and cultivate their mind."

I found some wonderful suggestions for having a healthy winter, you can check them out at: Peaceful Mind

Stop Resisting Your Struggles and Have a Little Faith



We put so much effort into resisting our struggles that we barely have enough strength left to rise above them. When we focus our attention on resisting the situation, we don’t have enough resilience left to actually overcome it.

“Spend your energy looking at your struggles
to see and feel what is going on deep inside.
Once that is seen for what it is, you are free of it.

We focus our attention on struggling to avoid and trying to solve problems.
Sometimes that is a distraction from looking deep within ourselves. We would rather deal with the problems of the outside world than face what is inside.
When we face what we see and feel inside and stay with it, we get to the core of it and see it for what it is. Then we are free of it and the outside problems resolve without effort. The feeling of gaining and loosing energy is a distraction from focusing on looking inside.

The more mindful you are the more you see that.

I have found that when there is a situation in my life that I see as a problem and I am struggling to solve it there is an unresolved conflict within myself that has not been resolved. When I turn the focus of my attention from struggling with the problem to seeing and feeling what is going on within myself, I see the unresolved conflict for what it is. Remorse, forgiveness, love and thankfulness naturally follow. I have found if my attention seems stuck on the problem I can accept I am contributing to the problem and I do feel sorry for that. Then I naturally seek insight which happens and forgiveness, love and thankfulness flow.
” ~Erin Lee

“Faith is a belief in something greater than ourselves. Having faith is having trust.
Having faith is acknowledging that there are things that happen that we do not know why they happen at the time. When we exercise faith we are letting go of control. We are throwing up our hands and saying I don’t know why this happened but I trust that everything will be alright.

Control is an illusion. The only thing we have control over is our thoughts, words and actions.

Faith means acknowledging that there are greater forces at work than us alone, and that, maybe, if we stopped trying to force things to happen the way we think they should unfold, we could spend more energy trying to align ourselves with what is actually happening. By acknowledging that we do not have all of the answers we are also saying that we do not have all of the solutions. By learning to let go of some control we are taking a step closer to living in the world the way it actually is.

When you catch yourself frustrated at something, stop and ask yourself if it is something you have control over. If it is then act, think or speak differently. If it is not something you can control, practice having faith and then let go of attachment to the outcome. Then notice how much more energy you have and how much better you feel now that you have stopped worrying needlessly.” ~ Dr. Kaleb Montgomery

Friday 4 December 2015

3 Steps to Stop Your Poor Me Drama

Are you tired of your Poor Me ways, complaining about your circumstances, playing the victim and giving your power away, feeling alone and like no one cares, never seeing the silver lining, and wondering if life is really worth living?


My dearest friend, Candella, has begun a series on the Celestine Vision Website to help us deal with our own control dramas and will also be writing about helping others when they present their own dramas to us.
 

You can read her first article here - Poor Me: 3 Ways to Step Out of The Poor Me Control Drama

Check out the end of the article for a printable reminder poster of the 3 steps I created to help us stay focused on our goals of overcoming the Poor Me.



Monday 30 November 2015

What Makes You Unique? Find Your True Worth


"Look into my eyes and hear what I'm not saying,
for my eyes speak louder than my voice ever will."

~Unknown


I recently watched my friends’ wedding video. The beauty of the celebration took my breath away. As I paid closer attention to the bride, my best friend, I could see under all the excitement of this special day, through her eyes, what her thoughts were doing to her. It was loud and clear to me. I could sense her hesitancy and lack of confidence so I asked her about it. I was shocked to find out that she was nervous about the way she looked and what their friends and family thought of her if she didn’t perform well on such an important day. 


What do my eyes say about what is inside me? Sometimes we communicate more through a glance than we could ever say, and it can be both wonderful and terrible, depending on both the message sent and the one received, which of course might be different.
These windows of the soul…When we look at someone, really look, there can be many details about what is going on, behind them! Our eyes are very interesting in that they can both shine outward, and allow others to look into us.
There are many reasons I appreciate my eyes, but truly, I think the best is that these lovely lamps, these windows of the soul allow me to share myself and allow others to share themselves with me.


My shock at her self-doubt comes as no surprise. Where I see beauty and grace, she sees her imperfections. It’s amazing how many people can look at the same thing, yet, each person will see it differently. If we were to fully accept ourselves and let go of our self-decrepitating thoughts about our appearance, we would begin to understand that we really are not just our body. We would see it as a vessel that carries us through this earthly plane, take care to appreciate and maintain it, and use it as it is meant to be so that we can keep it aligned with our mind and spirit. The imperfections we think we have would cease to limit our ability to open up, let others in, and shine our light out to the world. 


How many times have you been inspired to do something or say something but held back as your inner critic puts you down for the way you look or what others might think about you? When we know and accept that our true beauty comes from within and choose to show our authentic self, our bodies fade away. We invite others to look past our physical self to see our true essence in all its glory. 


The energy that comes from our uninhibited bliss we have hiding inside can be freed. It will draw others to us, bathe them in the joy we have, and connect us with the very core of who they are. By looking past our own bodies, we are able to look past others’. It becomes more important to us to see them on a deeper level, and in doing so, we give their soul a safe place to come out and shine with us. 


Your self-worth lies not in your appearance. It is within the vulnerability of your Beingness. Accept and appreciate all of who you are, inside and out, and you will see just how beautifully radiant you really are! 




5 ways you can begin to see the blessings you have been bestowed in your uniqueness:


1. Start the day off right by showing yourself some love in the mirror as you get ready. Compliment yourself and set the rule that there is no room for criticism, nit-picking, or insults. (The best way to supercharge the effect of this activity is to start from head to toe and express gratitude for every inch of you. Think about what the body part does for you, what it allows you to do, and why you would never want to part with it.) 


2. Every time you catch yourself putting your appearance down, change your perspective on it or counteract it with something positive specifically directed towards the area you are abusing. (Found yet another grey hair? Reflect on the life you have had, the wisdom you have gained, and if you are not yet ready to go natural, see it as a great excuse to go to the salon for a relaxing pampering session with your favorite hairdresser.)


3. Comparing yourself to others causes you to shy away from your truest self. Don’t let your admiration of others’ qualities dim the light of your own. You are special in your own way, just as they are special in their way. When you celebrate what you love in others, they will be more inclined to find gratitude for the good energy you are sending them and return a kind word back to you about the qualities they admire in you. Also, as a result of you expressing your appreciation to others, you create a welcoming aura about you and people will enjoy being around you. Your friendliness and open-heartedness will be so appealing that people will wonder what your secret to happiness is.


4. Take care of yourself by eating heathy foods and drinking lots of water. At the very least, make sure you have a good balance and are consuming enough organic raw foods to boost your energy and raise your vibration. Many people on their spiritual journeys have found drinking and smoking hinders their connection to the divine and also obstructs their meditation practice. Exercise helps keep you energized and improves your mood. Even a daily walk has its benefits that will leave you craving the action of movement if you miss a day.


5. Put yourself at the top of your priority list. The main reason for this is that you can’t take care of others unless you first take care of yourself. Slacking off on your own personal needs (self-care, sleep, alone time, healthy meals, etc.) for the sake of others or your endless responsibilities, results in creating a vicious cycle that quickly spirals out of control. You are left wondering, “What about me? How did I lose so much of myself?” When you start to think that you don’t even know who you are anymore, you start to question everything about yourself and that vial little inner critic perks up his ears and gets all excited because you are at his mercy. He plays with your thoughts and turns you against both yourself and all the things that make you so wonderful and exceptional. All those distinct qualities that make you stand out and special and needed and worthy are reduced to imperfections, flaws, and weaknesses. Make yourself a priority; get back to who you are; find the strengths and blessings in all that you dislike about yourself. And most importantly, remember that deep inside, your soul knows how perfect you are, just the way you are, right now. 


~*~*~*~


As you can see from the story about my best friend, we all view ourselves differently. Taking steps towards positive change, accepting yourself, and connecting with your true essence brings you closer to your Beingness. When you learn to love yourself unconditionally, you are able to begin to love others unconditionally. You see past all the superficial stuff down deeper to what really matters in yourself and other people. You begin to feel more grateful and make each moment worthwhile and meaningful.


Today, she can look back through her wedding videos, and together with her husband in a warm embrace, they laugh with enjoyment as they rekindle their love with remembrance of the vows they made. Her path to self-discovery has helped her get closer to love. Life became simple and less complicated once she started living a life of awareness. She believes awareness is being yourself and living a truthful life. Her search for truth has led her to meditation, and says, “The whole Universe is within me and I am within the Universe. My search started outside and ended within me.”


The journey back to ourselves is a personal, unique experience for each of us as we create awareness and strip away the layers of the ego to reveal the magnificence of all that we are within. If you are ready to awaken to something deeper and more meaningful, join us starting December 1st on a journey of self-discovery back home to your true self in our workshop: Being – Living a Life of Awareness.







Saturday 28 November 2015

Feeling exhausted with life?



When we are physically, mentally, and emotionally tired, we begin to feel like we just need a break from life. Not all of us have the luxury to be able to get up and walk away.
“Sometimes the best thing that you can do is not think, not wonder, not imagine, not obsess. Just breathe, and have faith that everything will work out for the best.” ~Unknown

“If you are emotionally drained, you cannot give. Replenish yourself. A hollow cloud produces no rain and the earth dies of thirst.” ~Unknown

“When nobody else celebrates you, learn to celebrate yourself.
When nobody else compliments you, then compliment yourself.
It’s not up to other people to keep you encouraged.
It’s up to you. Encouragement should come from the inside.”
~Joel Osteen
 

Monday 23 November 2015

Come back home to your True Self


Are you ready to take that first step on a path to self-discovery, live a life of awareness, become authentic, and awaken to something deeper and more meaningful?

Amanda Salsman from BecomingAuthentically You has collaborated with her dear friends Vishal and Riddhi, founders of The Purple Bridge  to bring you an empowering workshop that guides you to your True Self, the essence of your Beingness.

And we are offering a 70 % discount on our first anniversary!

The workshop starts on 1 December, 2015 and ends on 17 December. 2015. Ongoing support is provided after the workshop concludes on 17 December.

Our purpose for this online workshop is to help you to reconnect with your soul self, do things from your conscious self and have all that you want in life.

Read more about the workshop here - http://www.thepurplebridge.com/workshop/



Sunday 22 November 2015

Embrace Spirituality

"During this current period of history, we see the easy material life getting harder, with widespread financial and social disruption. All these challenges are evoking an even greater spiritual awakening in us, where we can realize many new abilities and perceptions.
But each of us has to make a decision. 
It is a challenge of courage, but also of practicality. In some sense, events are forcing us to put our beliefs into action. We must enter into the flow of Synchronicity to lead each of us forward. If we make this experience more consistent, we realize our lives are trying to take off in a destined direction and we feel more alive." 
The Twelfth Insight by James Redfield

Saturday 21 November 2015

Are you being tested?

When we are more dependable, stable, and consistent, we begin to eliminate the moments of shame, judgment, blame, ridicule, and embarrassment.

"Focus on yourself. Become stronger within and your patient, resilient, creative self will step up to walk alongside your children leading them in a co-operative childhood towards a respectful adulthood." Alice Hanscam, author of Parenting Inspired

What ways can we focus on ourselves when in power struggles with our children? Are you able to take a moment to get centered within so you can respond in a loving way, rather than react on your impulses?