3 Ways To Let Your Soul Guide You (listen to your gut!)

THE “ACCIDENT”

Theoretically, Halloween 2006 was the worst day of my life.

During a dressage lesson, my beloved horse tripped, fell down, panicked, jumped up and launched me into a wall all in a matter of seconds.  I hit the wall so hard that when I landed, my lungs collapsed.

As I floated outside of my body, I remember thinking, “Well this isn’t a bad way to go…”

And then the universe dumped a cold bucket of reality on me with the horrifying thought of my kids living alone with my still-alcoholic-ex-husband.

Thankfully, that’s all it took to yank me back into my pain-ridden body as my mind (and likely my mouth) screamed for morphine.

HINDSIGHT IS 20/20

I can remember as clear as day how I wanted to cancel my lesson that morning. I was too tired and KNEW I should skip it.  On top of that, traffic was horrendous, I almost ran out of gas AND I forgot my riding boots.

Looking back on all of this, had I listened to my intuition, or paid attention to “the signs” would I have broken my back? I don’t know.

But I can tell you this – breaking my back took my “bar” (the barn) away from me and I was forced to sit with myself – it wasn’t pretty and it certainly wasn’t easy.

Boredom, frustration, anger, and pain were taking turns shoveling a pile of pity on me as riding, exercising, working or traveling (my life preservers) could no longer be my distraction du jour due to the seriousness of my injury. It was a dark and depressing period in my life with no pain relief in sight; I can honestly say it was the first time I experienced “hopelessness”.

MAKING SPACE TO LISTEN TO MY GUT

I’m not a quitter – never have been, never will be.
But I have to say this accident tested me.  It put me in the fetal position on the field of life for longer than I’m proud of or care to even admit. Luckily, I had the help of some pretty amazing friends who guided me back to the solace of my soul again  with books to read, videos to watch, even asking me for help for their problems as a lure that the world still needed me to play.

So I did what I could. I read. I learned. I wrote. I planned.
And as soon as I could, I took action, charging down a path of personal development from one coast to the other, to India, to Fiji, to Europe and back again, only to find out what my heart had been trying to tell me the whole time…all I needed was always with me.
I just needed to make the space to listen.

REGRETS ARE THE LIES THE MIND TELLS US

Did it take a severe accident I still haven’t fully recovered from to get where I am now?  I don’t know. And I really don’t care because one of the things I have learned is “regrets are the lies the mind tells us.”

We will never know one way or the other which exact moment landed us in the one we live.  It’s all a hypothesis, mostly devised from a mind whose only knowledge comes from experiences of the past.

Here’s what I DO know. My ex went to rehab and got healthy. I met some incredible people, became friends and business partners with Tony Robbins, met my soul-mate on the internet, got married, had twins and started my own business.
And I look for clues from the universe every second of every day – and you can too just by doing these 3 things!

#1:  Become a human lie detector
Think of the biggest lie you could tell yourself.
For example “I hate my son.” (assuming that’s a lie!)
Sit with how that makes you feel.  Pay attention to where you feel the physical discomfort.  What does the mental anguish feel like?
Now, tell yourself something that you know is true and fills you with joy. “I love my son more than anything in this entire world.”  (assuming you do!)
How do you feel? Where do you feel it? Pay close attention to these ‘happy feelings.’
Next time you have to make a decision about something – pay attention to your body and compare it to this exercise as you find your answer.

#2:  Become a world-class biographer
This is so easy to do with all the technology available to you. Buy a cheap camera, take photos of your favorite meals, of things that moved you – even a book you just read.
Upload your photos to picassa (http://picasa.google.com) or to flickr (http://flickr.com).  A great iphone/ipad application you can download to do all this and more (including voice memos) is called Evernote (http://evernote/com).
Facebook is also a great platform to do “electronic” scrap-booking. You can even order a book that aggregates all your status updates, who “liked” them or what comments were made. (http://apps.facebook.com/my-egobook/)

If you aren’t a shutterbug, that’s okay – downloading an iphone/ipad app like the gratitude journal allows you to simply input one thing you’re grateful for each day, week, month or heck even minute!
You can also just grab an old fashioned journal and ask yourself what made me feel great today, what did not. Pay attention to coincidences that you experience each day by looking for them. Once you start to play a game with the universe to find “the signs” you will see them pop up everywhere.

#3:  Be a positive signal to attract the best life you can by being grateful
Stopping to experience your win, whether it be a present from a lover, a promotion at work, or just a quiet, happy moment with your child, means you are taking the time to say thank you and signaling you want more of this “good stuff.”
Stay in the moment – don’t think about the future. Don’t dwell on the negatives – real or imagined. Stay open to now. Just by asking “Why did I bring this moment to me?” you can more easily find the recipe for lemonade no matter how bruised the lemons look in your hands.
The most important thing to do is to pay attention to anything that comes your way. If it’s hard for you to decide if a thought popping into your head  is  more noise from the mind or your intuition, just sit with the thought – if it brings you joy or happiness, then do it. If there is any feeling of stress, guilt or worry, set it aside and move on. Either way, be happy with your choice you make.

Remember, your mind is not a bad guy, but it does love to keep busy! Swinging from concept to concept and stirring up drama and emotion simply to entertain itself. By monitoring your moods, you’ll have a better gauge for your internal state, allowing to dial yourself up or down, instead of being at the mercy of your monkey mind.

You don’t need to wait for the worst day of your life to learn what your soul is trying to teach you. Just open yourself to its message.

Are you letting your soul guide you? How did you first hear its call?

Lori Taylor is a direct marketing specialist who writes about Seizing The Minute at her site, One Click Society. Follow her on Twitter.

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Inspirational Words: The Courage to Live Fearlessly

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“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”
–Ambrose Redmoon

It is my hope that today’s inspirational words will encourage you to live fearlessly.  But what exactly does that mean?

No matter who you are, fear will get in your way at some point during your life.  It doesn’t matter how strong, bold, powerful, smart or enlightened you are.  Fear is a reality that we just can’t escape. Fearless living isn’t about taking that fear away, leaving behind some superhuman immunity to fear.  It’s simply about having the courage to move through it.  When your life doesn’t reach a standstill in the face of things you can’t predict, explain, rationalize, or finance; you are indeed learning to live fearlessly.

Life is meant to be the grandest of adventures.  But how can you live it fully while busy running from all that you’re afraid of?  I’m not suggesting that you dash outside to jump off a building. That would be an act of stupidity rather than courage.  What I am suggesting is that you muster enough courage to push through fear when it stands in the way of living the life that you deserve.

Fear comes in many forms—fear of change, fear of pain, fear of success, fear of failure.  The list goes on and on.  However, it is important to remember that fear itself is not enough to hold you back.  It is your thoughts, actions, and inaction that give fear its power.  So, what can you do about it?

If you feel inspired to start your own business or change careers, to get married or become a parent, to advocate for a cause or to break free from a tradition; fear will show up.  However, you can choose to draw upon your inner strength for the courage to live your best life no matter what.

You can create a plan to make your dreams come true.  You can take steps in the direction of your desires.  None of this will immediately erase the fear, but little by little this takes away its power.  Before you know it, you will have survived something that you were almost too afraid to try.  That is what it means to live fearlessly.  And there is no better way to build more courage and more faith in your own abilities.

The next time you look at someone and think, “Wow…he is so brave,” I want you to remember something.  Remember that the bravest among us must still face fear.  Successful people are not successful because they have no fear.  They are successful in spite of their fear. Heroes are not heroes because they have no fear.  They are heroic because they take action in spite of their fear.

Instead of waiting to feel fearless so that you can start living fearlessly, move past the fear now.  Tell yourself you can do it, decide to do it, plan to do it, and then DO IT.

The seeds of courage are within you, but you must cultivate them if you want a mighty harvest of fearless living.

Photo by: knezeves

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3 Ways to Change Your Perspective

Photo credit: Vaida Petereikiene

You know what the real enemy to happiness is? It’s not sadness, or failure or fear… its complacency. It’s becoming so comfortable with just being comfortable that we stop trying to make things better. We stop even trying to make things different. We go on and on, satisfied with being good enough, and we don’t realize that nothing is really all that good until we wake up one day and find ourselves miserable. Sometime before we reach that point, there are chances, windows that can be thrown open to let in some fresh air and sunlight. Changing your life doesn’t always mean turning your entire world upside down, sometimes it’s just about getting a new perspective on yourself, or the world around you.

Change your body

We spend our entire lives in the same skin. Isn’t that amazing? The one thing you truly carry with you from birth to death is your body. And our bodies can be the ultimate frenemy. They are there for us, they enable us to live and yet all the while they can be a source of resentment and struggle. But they are also something we can alter.

Our bodies will change on their own over the years, but there are plenty of developments along the way we can control. If a change of perspective is in order, why not start with your own reflection? Weight issues are battle for many of us; whether it’s losing or gaining pounds we spend far too much time agonizing over some notion of physical perfection. Or hell, screw perfection, even just something we can be proud of. Any of us can make healthier food choices and exercise a little bit more if we really want to change our bodies in that regard. And sometimes, weight loss, or gain, can be exactly the thing we need to turn our lives in a new direction. But that’s obvious. What about some of the less conspicuous options?

Look in the mirror, anything you see you can change. If you need to reinvigorate your life, maybe a cosmetic change is the way to go. I’m not talking plastic surgery, I suppose it’s an option, but again it’s obvious, and risky. I mean more like, tattoos, piercings, hair color types of changes. We tend to think of these things as rites of passage for the young. But a change in hair color can be an exciting new venture for anyone. I don’t just mean covering the grays either; I’m talking about going blonde for the first time in your life. And if age equals wisdom, is there any better time in life than mid-life to get that tattoo you’ve always thought about? You probably know yourself a lot better now than you did in your 20’s, and have a better idea of what kind of image would have sustainable significance. A belly button piercing seems like something for an 18 year old but certainly not a mother of 2, but… why not? Who cares if no one will see it but you? Whether it’s a tattoo or a navel ring, you will know and the knowledge that you did something so crazy will make you smile and it may make you wonder what other things you can do that you’ve never considered?

Change your view

My mom used to suggest when I had trouble sleeping that maybe I just needed a change of scenery, and somehow moving to the couch would always help. I doubt it was the scenery, but sometimes when we spend too long looking at the same things; they lose their meaning. That’s why sometimes the best thing you can do to change your perspective is to literally change what is right in front of you.

The way you change your surroundings can be quiet or dramatic. It can be as simple as re-arranging your furniture or as huge as buying a summer home in Cancun. Feng Shui isn’t for everybody, but a book will only cost about $10-$15 and if putting my headboard against a wall is supposed to help me sleep better, it’s worth a Saturday afternoon to give it a shot. It may work, it may not, but it’s fun to imagine that my day to day life could be affected by the placement of my bed. Ok ancient Asian arts aside, re-painting a living room, buying a new carpet, hanging new decorations or getting a new slip cover for an old couch can all drastically affect how you see your living environment. Sometimes just those changes will re-awaken us to the things we love about just being at home.

If fixing up the house isn’t going to cut it, you may have to travel around the world to find your answer. Or maybe just across town. Because the answer isn’t anywhere else, it’s in you; you just may need to go somewhere else to figure it out. The fact is nothing changes your perspective like a trip. It could be a day trip or a two-week excursion to your dream destination. Getting up, and out of your rut can be as easy as getting on a Greyhound. If you are looking for a real life-changing experience though, there’s nothing quite like experiencing a new culture for the first time. If you feel like maybe you need to be reminded of exactly how fortunate you are, try visiting a poorer country to see how the rest of the world lives away from Starbucks and Best Buy. When you see the places where children beg to braid hair to have money for food, believe me, your perspective gets a little electro-shock therapy. Suddenly your dead-end job and mediocre family car don’t seem so disappointing.

Change your resume

Speaking of jobs, the way we make our living is a major part of our identity, so if you really want to shake things up, a career change may be the answer. Granted, it’s not feasible for everyone to switch occupations. The job market isn’t exactly brimming with opportunities right now, and sometimes we can’t afford the financial sacrifices, so we have to make the best of what we have. But that’s ok. You don’t need to change jobs to change your resume. There are plenty of things we can add aside from a new title, or place of employment.

Improving yourself is always an option, but how you choose to do that is entirely up to you. I see the continuing education brochures for my local community colleges and high schools all the time. I browse through them, think “Hmm, that looks like fun” then they get lost with the junk mail and forgotten. But what if, just once, it wasn’t? Why not try that jewelry making seminar or that cooking class? The options are so endless everyone can learn a new skill that may change how we define ourselves. Some are just fun, like ball room dancing or synchronized swimming, but others like a course in real estate or tax law can be put to practical use. If a visiting a physical classroom is out of the question, online education is available 24/7 pretty much everywhere. Whether it’s getting a GED or learning Italian, it’s only as far away as your home computer.

When all else fails, a new perspective on the world isn’t just in undeveloped nations, it’s in every community in every country in the world. You have a local soup kitchen or shelter somewhere near your hometown, even if you don’t know about it. Charities all seem to come out of the woodwork at the holidays, but philanthropy is going on all year, all around you. All you have to do is look for it. Nothing will make you appreciate your own life like seeing what others live without. It will make you re-evaluate your priorities, and it’s something that can be done as a family. It may seem cruel to expose children to the more unfortunate side of the world, but the truth is it can also breed, grateful, sensitive and generous kids, who will grow into empathetic, giving adults. If you really want to love your existence again, imagine having a different one that is filled with the kinds of hardship that hundreds of thousands of people face every single day.

The power to change your life lies in you. But making the leap into something entirely new can be terrifying. So don’t force yourself to dive head first into the void. Try working up to it, you may find that a few small changes are all you need to re-invigorate your happiness. Or you may decide that you need whole-life makeover. And sometimes, you may discover that everything you need for happiness, you’ve had all along.

Janet is a writer for New Look Houston a Texas laser tattoo removal clinic. She is a blogger and freelance writer who loves to travel and re-decorate, although she’s not very good at the latter.

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