You gotta love it when you get a reminder that you’re unconscious.  In the last 24 hours, I got TWO.

After ranting about being in the moment, I found myself yesterday doing exactly what I wrote about in  “Using the Damn Brain God Gave You”.  No, I wasn’t on the cell phone and driving, but I was just as distracted.

I was on the phone with a friend that I hadn’t spoken to in several months.  We were looking at a website and trying to come up with a solution to a problem I was having with a client.  After we finished perusing, I *should* have turned my attention to our conversation.  But nooooooooooooooo.  I went back to my email.  And *ding* there was a comment on my blog.

Did I wait to read it?

Silly.  Of course not.

While I was still talking to my friend, I’m reading the comment.

Guess who wasn’t in the moment??

BUSTED.

Today, I was talking to my buddy, Coach Iyabo, when I start going on and on about this mastermind group I’m in.  Just like the brilliant coach she is, she asks, “Do you want to be in this group?”

(crickets)

Dang.

Guess who wasn’t “ownin’ her shit?”

BUSTED.

But the beauty of not always being who you say you want to be is that you get to choose again.

Gone is the need to pick up the proverbial club and beat myself.

And that my friends is GROWTH.

As long as we are breathing, we have the chance to choose to be all that we are.

Beautifully human and Perfectly Divine….

All at the same time.

Cool, isn’t it?

You bet’cha.

Rock on!

Lisa

“You were on a pedestal, so to speak, and you’ve fallen from grace.”

I never imagined the long-term impact those words would have on me because the night I heard them uttered by the man I loved, I simply wanted to die.

And on two separate occasions, I would attempt to take my own life, because the pain of losing him was more than I could bear.

When I decided that I could go on, those words had already become deeply rooted in my psyche.  I would spend the next 20+ years of my life, trying to reclaim my place.  It turns out that it wasn’t as much in his eyes, as it was my own.

In the moment that I let everything he said to me that night become my truth, I gave away my power.

Because I saw myself as the “fallen one”, I would spend years trying to prove my worth to others.

I needed their approval because I didn’t have his.

Truth was, however, that I didn’t approve of myself. 

How many of us are hung up about what we didn’t get from another person?

How many of us use our past as an excuse for why we don’t have the life we want?

How long do we have to play victim, wallow in what “they” did to us, blame our parents, our weight, our bosses, our gender or race?

When will we stop the madness?

Every time we look outside of ourselves for acceptance and approval, we have given away our power.

I left my power on the porch of Delo hall in 1985 when I told myself the story that I was nothing because he didn’t love me. 

And for over 20 years I would attract people and circumstances to support my belief of unworthiness because my power still rested in his acceptance and approval.

It didn’t matter that I had a loving life partner and beautiful daughter.

It didn’t matter that I was surrounded by great friends.

My internal story was that I was unworthy, unlovable and simply didn’t matter.

Take at look at your internal story. 

What’s happened in your past that still holds your power?  What person or circumstance are you giving your energy and attention to that no longer serves you?  What story or stories do you have running over and over again that keep you small and safe?

Reclaim your power.

It starts with a choice.  You can choose to use your power to create the life you dream of or you can continue to give it away.

It’s always your choice.

I only wish that at 20, I knew that it was this easy.  But I do now.

You don’t have to wait 20 years.  Or another second.

Reclaim your POWER…NOW.

Live More Boldly,

Lisa

If I see one more article about holiday stress I think I may scream!!!!!!!!!

Yep, I’m caught in the trap of automatically reacting to something.

Sound familar?

Like everything, the “holiday season” is but an illusion.  Did you have any say into this idea that from Halloween until New Year’s that you were supposed to run around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to buy the ”right” gifts, food, decorations..and so on and so on???

Did anyone ask your input into whether Dec 25 was a better day for you than say, August 2?  

And how about the turkey and the pig?  Did anyone ask their opinion about being served up in excess come the end of the year? 

Well, no one asked me.  So for me and my family, we do what we choose.

My father died on what’s known in this country as “black Friday.”  On the day that millions of people are trampling each other to spend money they don’t have on stuff that no one really NEEDS, I was saying good-bye to my Daddy.  I was 24 and got my first lesson in perspective and choice.

Had I waited until Christmas to buy something for my dad or show up at the house ’cause we “had” to,  I’d have been S.O.L.  Christmas didn’t come for Daddy that year. 

Why do we wait until some arbitrary day on the calendar to show appreciation?  Because the retailers tell us to?

I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day–my husband and I tell each other every day how much we love and appreciate the other.

I don’t get wrapped up in birthdays or anniversaries–the next one isn’t always promised, so we celebrate our family in little ways.  Dinners out at someone’s favorite restaurant, gifts “just because”, vacations and short get-a-ways, because life’s simply too short.

Showing love and appreciation doesn’t require good credit or lots of cash.  Nor do you prove your love by the amount of stress and strain that you put forth in creating the “perfect” meal or holiday party or buying your kid something because “everyone else has it.”

The only person asking you to do, do, do, is YOU.  If you didn’t lift a finger or spend a dime, it wouldn’t make you any less the magnificent creation that you are. 

If what you are doing doesn’t create peace–STOP.  Otherwise, please keep your complaining about how stressful this time of year is to yourself.

Your stress is self-inflicted. 

Choose peace.