Tag: Emotional Intelligence

Believing in More

For the most part I think we all wish to become the deliberate creators of our own lives.  We truly want to believe that we still have the freedom and capability to shape our own realities.
We all want to believe that we can succeed in whatever our dreams may be. Yet somehow we get stuck. Stunted by our limiting beliefs.
I’m too old.
I’m too young.
I’m not smart.
I’m not pretty.
I’m not handsome.
I’m not thin.
I’m not funny.
I’m not wealthy.
I’m not talented enough.
Beliefs that break our hearts and kill our dreams.
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But let us for a moment dissect what a belief is and what that “enough” might buy us.
Let me know if you agree. A belief is a thought that is backed by your confidence, faith, trust and acceptance – it is an assumed truth for you  and the best explanation that you have based on the evidence you have experienced so far in life.
The word “enough” is an opportunity to grow. Ask yourself, what would it require you to be “enough” of something. What would you need to be, to be enough? What would you need to believe? What would you need to sacrifice?
Take a moment to reflect. Are your beliefs a detriment or a benefit to you? That is a good question to ponder.  While you are at it, be honest about the emotional payoff you get from your beliefs.
How does “I’m too old” get you off the hook from embarrassing yourself?
How does “I’m not talented” keep you from failing before you even begin?
Perhaps believing that you are not athletic gets you off the hook from getting in shape.
Maybe believing you aren’t creative keeps you from the agony and frustration of trying something new and being a beginner at something like painting, drawing or dancing.
No matter how old, young or smart we are, we must experiment with our lives to build new beliefs about ourselves.  Grow baby grow.
In order to transform, one must pull all of these tragic beliefs by the root, weeding the garden of the mind.
Remove the seemingly innocent beliefs of . . .
  • “I can’t tell the truth because I may get judged…” Better to be heard, than care about being judged.
  • “I don’t want to get close to this person lest my heart gets broken…” Let your heart be soft and forgiving, beating and pumping that love juice. Love again. 
  • “I don’t want to ask for what I want because, I might be rejected” Rejection is your projection my darling. 
  • “I can’t trust people because I’ve been betrayed before…” But what if you aren’t this time around? 
  • “I can’t pursue my dreams because I don’t know what I’d do if I fail. I can’t afford the risk.” What is life but a risk?

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You become what you believe you can be. Before you can begin to grow, you must believe that you have what it takes.

Featured Artist

Mai @glitchostrich

 

It’s Easy

I want to reverse our perspectives for a moment about our lives. Humor me. I dare you to lighten up your load for a minute. Especially during a time of so much stress and anxiety. With so many of us in need of a break, I offer this.

Maybe, just maybe, our lives are suppose to be easier than this. Perhaps we weren’t meant to struggle so much. Could it be that the only reason it seems hard is because we tend to move against the natural order of things? Yes, we are all going through changes, through difficult times. Moving fast and fighting the flow.

What if your complaining brain turned its mantra upside down. What if we changed our thoughts from this is hard to -this is simple. This living is easy. What if we said to ourselves each day, “I was born to be happy, joyful and at peace.” Without strife.

Why not try going with life, instead of against it.

I know I’ve personally had enough. I’m going to give the east ride a whirl.

Featured artist:

Anna Tsvell

Feelings

Life becomes a little easier when you begin to realize that feelings are meant to be felt, not meant to wreck you. That sometimes the only thing that is really wrong is your mindset, not your situation. You have the power to create something wrong just by the way you are looking it.

Just because you have a frightening moment doesn’t mean your world is about to collapse.

featured artist

Aniela Sobieski

The Process of Self Awareness & Examining Your Heart

Before any true change can happen in your life, you need to really understand where you are at right now. Madeline Johnson

Before any true change can happen in your life, you need to really understand where you are at right now. You need to know what you are working with and that includes the results in your life right now that demonstrate your decisions from the past.

As a progressive and eternal being, you are where you are so that you may learn. You are shown the results of your thoughts, so that you may grow.

– James Allen

If you don’t like where you are living, what decisions did you make to get where you are? If you don’t like how much you weigh, what did you decide to eat that packed on the pounds? (that is unless you have a serious illness that caused inflammation). If you don’t like your friends, why did you decide to connect with them in the first place?

This sleuthing process requires time, honesty and deep self-examination. The detective-like process of becoming self aware and of examining your heart begins with questioning how you got to your position in life right now.

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What were your thoughts, your fears and your doubts along with your hopes and aspirations that manifested what you have today.  Pay attention to your life. Get curious about where you are and apply it to everything in your life, from your job to your partner to your friendships to your diet to your state-of-mind.

This examination includes asking yourself what you like and don’t like about your life right now. Once you have decided what you don’t like you must decide what you want to do about it.

What change would you like to see about your living conditions, your career, your relationships and your self-worth. Get familiar with what you would like to change.

Then, once you have uncovered the good and the not so good aspects of your current situation you might ask yourself what you need to think and do in order to manifest what you want. What new ways of thinking and doing must you put into place to make the changes come true.

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Examining the good in your life is pretty easy to do. You know what you like about your friends, your partner and your work. It’s the looking at what could be improved that is more challenging because so often we want to blame others and circumstances for our current conditions.

In order to change for the good we must be extremely honest with ourselves and begin to take complete ownership of what has happened to us, including our thoughts and actions that led us here.

Change begins with changing our thoughts first. For what you think and do now, will inevitably create your tomorrow.

Some habits are really hard to change, even when we know they are not producing what we want.

Focusing on becoming extremely aware of your habits and behavior is critical to your transformational success but it doesn’t mean you have to be critical of yourself.  You simply have to acknowledge the truth about your life first and then put into place new habits that will manifest better outcomes for you.

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There are many ways to support the changes you want to make and that includes changing your perception and environment.

Read: As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

Featured Art

The Chemical Messiah

Everything at Once

It’s not suppose to be easy, but all these expectations only make it harder.  Madeline Johnson

Sometimes I wake up excited about everything. Well to be honest, I am both excited and terrified. Excited about the opportunity the day brings and terrified that I won’t accomplish anything great in my life.

I’m excited to start the day and I’m ready take off and I am terrified that I will not have the time.

Juiced up, I find myself in a frenzy of desire to do this and do that.  Like a child, I am lit by the divine.  I just want to get everything started already. I want it all at once.

I am oozing with enthusiasm. My soul is on fire. I am determined to co-create with God.

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I begin with the desires. I’m going to find that new place to live, start writing that new book, I am going to learn this and learn that.  All at once.

All of the ideas come flooding into my brain and I am energized. I’m supercharged with an unrealistic belief that I must begin everything right now.

I believe I might be touched by delusion.

I am ready to go. Today’s the day.  All the beginnings will be made at once.

By midday I crash. I exhaust myself mentally. I am tired before I begin. I overwhelm myself with the thought of it all. It’s self sabotage really. It’s also immaturity.

I know better. I know that everything takes time. It’s not suppose to be easy, but all these expectations only make it harder.

Most importantly, I must enjoy the process.

I remember that I am in between.

Start again with small steps. One thing at a time, one moment at a time.

I take a deep breath and begin again.

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Featured Art

Bahri Genç @bahrignc

 

 

Miracles by The Moment

Our purpose here is to make sure we love enough. Madeline Johnson

You should try this trick I do, because it really helps put things in perspective. You see, I reverse engineer my timeline to determine how I should live my life now. I look to see my future.

I start by picturing myself on my death bed. I am just about to take my last few breaths and I ask myself.

Did I love enough?

I believe an act of loving kindness is the biggest contribution you can make to this world.

Love, is such a big word isn’t it? It’s almost overwhelming.  It’s a word packed with meaning.

Did I love enough? can also be interpreted as, Did I forgive enough? Did I care enough? Did I give enough? Did I encourage enough? Did I appreciate enough?

But before we can really consider how much we love, I believe we have to rethink what we perceive love to be.

What are the first thoughts that come to your mind when you think of the word love? For many of us, even thought we know better, we are brainwashed from a young age to think of love as merely an emotion we feel. We fall in love. Love is something our mother’s are suppose to give us unconditionally.

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Love is not a mere sentiment of emotion, but the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.

– Deepak Chopra

What I am Reading: A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson.

I am contemplating the power of love and the role of love in our lives. I want to renew and relearn my ideas of love. I want to understand the bigger role that love plays in our lives.  The power of love.

Here below are some intriguing thoughts about love. Reflections from the book A Return to Love . .

Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here.

♥ The spiritual journey is the relinquishment, or unlearning, of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts.

♥ Love gives energy and direction. It is spiritual fuel.

♥ Love is the essential existential fact. It is our ultimate reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in us and others, it the meaning of life. ♥

♥ We came here to co-create with God by extending love.

♥ Love isn’t seen with the physical eyes or heard with the physical ears. The physical senses can’t perceive it; it’s perceived through another kind of vision.

♥ Metaphysicians call it the Third Eye, esoteric Christians call it the vision of the Holy Spirit, and others call it the Higher Self.

♥ …love requires a different kind of “seeing” than we’re used to – a different kind of knowing or thinking.

♥ Love is the intuitive knowledge of our hearts.

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Am I loving enough right now?

I am staying open and aware to the opportunities to bring more love to everyone today. I will continue to demonstrate love in every aspect of my life. To love more with my thoughts, words and actions.

Featured Art

@acid_jane

The Softer Side of Strong

There is a softer side of strong that is unbreakable. Madeline Johnson

When I was young and silly I thought that being strong was about being mighty, powerful, outspoken and relentless. Ungovernable.

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I thought being strong was about being in control. Standing firm and determined, demanding, forceful and willful.

Ridiculous.

 

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I have uncovered a softer side of strong that is unbreakable.

This style of strong is still, calm, clear and confidant.

Solid.

Collected and rooted deep in love. Yet freely open in spirit. A soaring type of strong.

Both solid and fluid.

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Recommended reading

Keeping Your Thoughts Strong As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

Keeping Your Faith Strong  Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox

Disciplined & Strong Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink

Featured Artist

Nancy Friedland, Gallery on Instagram

Moving On

There comes a time when you must simply move on from a challenging, and painful situation. Madeline Johnson

There comes a time when you must simply move on from a challenging, and painful situation. Even though it may feel like you are leaving things undone, messy and unfinished, there is simply nothing left that you can do. You’ve tried it all.

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This could be moving on from a half-hearted relationship, a thankless job, a place called home, a long worn friendship or the saddened death of a loved one. You’ve cried, screamed, fought, thought, mourned and now you are simply out of emotions to feel. You draw blanks. The painful experience has run its course. It’s time to go. You are emotionally barren or maybe you are full of the opposite you once felt. Either way, you have changed.

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Hopefully you learned a lesson or two.

Sometimes you simply can’t win, but that doesn’t mean you’ve lost.

You can lose a battle, but win the war.

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Featured Art

@the.walkiest.lady

Authentically Humble

The world would benefit if we were all a bit more authentically humble, for this living is a joint affair. It’s an agreement to exist together and to work together and dare I say thrive together.  I won’t just tolerate you. I see you. I feel you and through knowing  you, I’m beginning to know more of me.

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If I listen deeper with more of an open heart, I may be able to hear the things you are too vulnerable to to say. I want to understand what you are going through too.

For what you are struggling with –  is also mine. Not to carry, but to respect.

By honoring you, I humble me. I strengthen me.  It makes this living thing, a lot easier to do.

Being humble does not mean you are meek, small or invisible. It doesn’t mean you are  silent or that you should stand by the sidelines of life.

A vulnerable and humble being has the strength of character to realize that they don’t know all the answers. They are strong, fluid and connected to others.

The act of humility allows for openness of communication and knows that good ideas can come from anyone. A humble human doesn’t brag about accomplishments. They act with decisiveness and integrity, and inspire through actions and not publicity.

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Read more: Jocko Willink’s Extreme Ownership

Featured Artist

Yoko Kimiko on Instagram @robot_minds

Your Soul Retrieval

One must wander, wonder and get lost in life and in newness. Anything actually that whispers an ounce of inspiration to you. Madeline Johnson

Some Shamans practice what is called a soul excavation. This is a healing ceremony and an act of rescuing someone’s soul, a reviving of that part that can be lost after experiencing difficulty or trauma or a period of soul sucking work. It could be a doomed relationship, a failed venture, a broken partnership or a depressingly cold winter season of  life. Regardless of how one lost their mojo for living, they haven’t lost it forever and it is their responsibility to heal.

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None of us have time for things that are soulless.  We want to feel inspired and charged with energy and love.

I believe we all have the natural ability to practice a soul retrieval each day. It takes persistence and can at times be exhausting, but it can be done. It starts with stillness and a search. A relentless quest for that breath of life that gives you wings and helps you soar.

Reviving your soul involves play, curiosity, exploration and continuous effort. Being fully persistent and curious about what turns you on, what awakens your spirit once more.

Many recommend that you think about what made you come alive as a child, but I argue, we aren’t children any more. Sure we might be emotionally, but not physically.  New passions will activate our soul now and will make us come alive again with a spark of joy.

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One must wander, wonder and get lost in life and in newness. New places, people and spaces. Sometimes in new creative acts. Acts of creation like dance, music, painting, singing – anything actually that whispers an ounce of inspiration to you.

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Featured Artist

Robert Steven Connett @rsconnett on Instagram