Saturday, January 22, 2011

Too much to chew on...

As I woke up at 4 AM with sharp stomach pain, I couldn't help but wonder what realities are just too much to chew on that I am having a hard time digesting. When I look at my life, I see areas where reality is just too hard to chew and I think the physical manifestation of those big chunks of information is a serious case of indigestion. Wishing there would be a Pepto for emotional indigestion or a serious case of unhappiness and confusion, I reach out for the normal Pepto to treat the physical manifestation of what is brewing within. Yes, there are those days when we wake up and see the world different, like the veil was lifted and reality hits us like a hard slap on the face. We may have been waiting for something that will never manifest, we may be thinking that a person will change, we may be hoping that the job we are so unhappy at will somehow be different tomorrow. Many times, we put all our expectations on the outside - whether it is people or things - for situations to get better and in doing so, we give our power away. We think we will be happy if .... and you can complete the sentence. We shift the focus from ourselves to outside factors believing that if the situation changes, we would be happy. We have 0 control on the outside factors but we do have control over ourselves. We can choose to take a different road. We don't have to let life happen to us, we can make life happen to us by directing our energies and making our own decisions.

Sometimes it is easier to let life happen to us, let other decide our future, because in doing so we don't need to feel responsible for what our life look like. We don't have to take ownership of the fact that we are unhappy and we could choose to be happy. We just go with the flow expecting things will get better someday.

A few years ago, one of my astrology teachers told me "if you don't make a decision, the universe will make it for you." For example, those people that complain about their jobs every day but never choose to find a happier job may get fired or let go because they were not happy but they were not able to make a decision.

As I try to digest my reality and make sense of the road to take, I know I have let life happen to me during the past few months waiting for things to change but I can see that many things will only remain the same. It is too much to chew on at times but in the end, I want to be the driver of my own life and not be sitting on the passenger seat. I want to have control of my life and where I want to be. I don't want to wake up one day and realize that my life has passed me by and I just let things happen to me, that I have lived a flavorless life and have regrets.

Like Alice, I can choose to make my own path. I don't need to wait for others, I can decide for myself on what is best. Our lives are our creations so we can choose to create something beautiful, with intention and power, or we can let it grow and see where it takes us. One path has ownership and power, the other one is just the opposite. We can always choose and it is up to us to decide what's next.

Blessings )0(

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Planting the seed...

There are times in life when we feel we are sinking deep in the cauldron, when we feel there are no happy feelings around. There is nothing to hold on to, nothing to keep us from just drowning in the darkness. We look around for signs that we will be ok, that the pain will pass and that we will be back to feeling joy. Darkness is as much a part of the cycle as it is light. The only issue is darkness has a bad reputation and nobody wants to be seen as dark.

As the wheel of the year moves from the dark to the light, we also shift our vision and start bringing some clarity and illumination into our lives. We plant the seeds that we want to see manifested during the spring and summer, and we prepare. We confront those areas that no longer serve us and as the weeds that grow near the plants we are cultivating, we work on weeding out the unnecessary to leave space for our projects or visions to grow healthy and strong.

One of my favorite ways of planting the seeds is to create vision boards or treasure maps. These vision boards are boards that hold our vision as the name indicates. These boards contain pictures, words, symbols, among other items that symbolize all those things we want to manifest in our lives. As I start looking for pictures and phrases for my board, I can help but notice the pattern in the phrases such as:

"Yes, You Can"

"Get Inspired"

"The Perfect Time to Make a Resolution"

"Life is too short to take yourself seriously"

"For a Better Tomorrow Take Action Today"

"Bridging Cultures"

The pictures I have selected all show women who are happy, who irradiate light and who are shinning. Has my darkness taken me so low that I can not see my own light and I need to see it in pictures? What am I afraid of? Resolution, decision, action are all words that involve change and transformation.

Every morning, I take a card and read the meaning. Today's card said "Don't worry about making the wrong decision, instead, worry about not making a decision at all." This phrase really resonated with me since sometimes I feel I give my power away and I let outside events or other people to control my destiny. It is time for me to decide for myself. To choose to live the life I want to live. To take ownership of where I am and where I want to be. I know I can make it happen. I know I can manifest it. I just need to shift from the darkness to the light and see that everything is possible and that I have the power to manifest a bright future filled with love, happiness, joy, and purpose.

Blessings )0(

Sunday, January 16, 2011

There are no happy endings...

Today, I was watching the movie Bedtime Stories with my nieces and when Adam Sandler said "there are no happy endings" that phrase really struck me. I started thinking about the meaning of that phrase and it dawn on me that endings and happy usually don't go together. There are just a few endings that bring happiness like finishing school, but the majority of the endings in life are usually connected to sadness. The ending of a relationship, the ending of a life, and many other endings. We usually take endings as bad things, but we usually forget to think that when a door closes another one opens or that we need to make room for new things to happen. Everything is part of a cycle of birth-life-death-rebirth and endings only mean new beginnings. If we can move pass the fear of change, we will start seeing that endings are not as hard or sad as we think they are. They are just opportunities to start again, to change the course, to choose what's better for us. Many times, we take the road of "better as is instead of searching for something better" or "better bad but known than bad unknown..." or something like that, I know there is a saying in English but I can't remember it right now. The point is that we stagnate in a bad situation for fear of the unknown instead of making space for a new beginning, and this new beginning can be happy. Change brings transformation and many times we choose to stay the same to avoid change but in doing so, we prevent growth. Change is part of growing, of evolving, of finding what is really good for us.

As I said before, choice is part of our lives and we choose every day what we want. Whether we choose to stay the same and stagnate, or change and give ourselves a chance for something better is up to us. It's about breaking the fears that bound us to the situations we are right now and letting go of what does not serve us anymore. Many times it is easier to blame others for what is wrong in our lives, but in doing so, we lose our power. It is time to take full responsibility for our lives and be aware of our happiness or sadness. I know there may not be happy endings, but there can definitely be happy new beginnings after one ending so it is up to us whether we make that happen or not. Choice is always ours. Will you focus on no happy endings or will you focus on happy new beginnings? The choice is yours.

Blessings )0(