Category Archives: self help

Looking Within

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Dan and I were at a Psychic and Holistic Faire over the weekend where he gave his Manifesting Happiness Workshop. This was our second time at this particular fair, and once again we made some really great connections with vendors and customers.

There were many types of intuitives and psychics offering readings (tarot cards, angel readings, channeling, animal totem readings, etc.), and while I didn’t have my readings done this time, I do know how much fun it can be.

But while we were there enjoying being a part of the positive energy that surrounded us, I couldn’t help but look around and feel a bit of sadness for each of us (definitely myself included) who have spent so many hours and days and years looking outside of ourselves for the answers. And while there is definitely a need and a place for intuitives and self help books and inspirational blogs and personal growth magazines, my hope is that we simply use these for what they are: tools to help you uncover your own answers that reside within you rather than taking what these sources offer as the final, definitive answer.

Our souls really do have the answers. I know it may not always feel like they do. I know that life gets complicated and hard and busy and can actually feel like a mess. But if we slow down, center ourselves, and look within, we always find the answer is there.

I love reading inspirational books and blogs and articles that are written with the intent to help and motivate. I love taking it all in and then sifting it through my soul’s filter to see what feels right for me – what gets to stay – and what doesn’t.

This is a great way to get all of the information you are looking for while still giving a voice to your inner wisdom: your soul.

P.S. – I’m super excited to announce that our biggest giveaway EVER starts tomorrow! More details then! 🙂

Saturday Selection – Your Destiny Switch

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Happy Saturday!
This week’s recommendation is a book that I have been wanting to read for awhile now, and I am just finishing it. I’m so excited to share it with you! It is called:
by Peggy McColl
Here is the description from Peggy McColl’s website: 
Your Destiny Switch isn’t just another self-help book. It’s a powerful concept and process that can consciously and creatively transform your life.

You could call it a paradigm shift in creative consciousness, a shift that speaks to your demand for a richer and more experiential engagement in your quest for growth. More than a book, Your Destiny Switch allows you  to balance your key emotions in order to reach your destiny.

Peggy McColl supports this work with a wealth of reference materials that provide an abundance of valuable and usable life-changing tools: state-shifters, the scale of human emotions, performance indicators, measurement tools, and a daily and weekly destiny planner.


This book will help you understand your own creative power by way of your emotions and, more important, show you how to use this power to create desired results by tapping into a powerful energy source within.
***
I have been listening to Peggy’s radio show, Attracting Abundance, on Hay House Radio. I immediately was drawn to her warmth and enthusiasm toward helping people. I also love that she walks the walk – she has completely transformed her own thinking by using the tools she provides in this book. 
 
Because I am a visual person – her comparing emotions to a dimmer switch really hit home for me. If we imagine that positive emotions are at the top of the switch and negative emotions are at the bottom, we can think about where our emotions fall in the switch at any given time. And if you would like to feel more love (or any other positive emotion), you get to make that change. It’s a great tool to teach us how to be more aware of what we are feeling – only then can we consciously make changes. 
 
She gives so many great switching techniques in this book, and I’m excited to get started putting her tools into practice. 
 
I definitely recommend this book, and I’m so glad Peggy wrote it.   
 
P.S. – Have you checked out the Healthy Wealthy And Wise giveaway yet? I downloaded several things myself yesterday – it’s amazing how many inspirational downloads are available! You can sign up for free, and you’ll have access to everything – including our Manifestation Ebook Set, which includes our Gratitude Book, As If Book, and Commitment Book (on page 21)! Enjoy! 🙂

Spring Clean Your Beliefs

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Can you think of a belief that you have that really is outdated or no longer serves you or maybe never really was your belief in the first place?
 Let’s say when you were very young you were afraid to jump off of the high dive at the swimming pool. And from that moment on, you were known as the scaredy cat by your friends and family. Before that, you didn’t feel particularly afraid in other areas of your life, but every time you heard this label, it reinforced this notion that you were afraid of life and timid and weak somehow. And this became part of your identity.
Now imagine that you are an adult who is still carrying around this label and belief that wasn’t accurate in the first place. Years have gone by, and because of this belief that you are afraid of everything, you have shied away from opportunities all because of fear. 
But it’s truly not too late to change this belief. You get to decide each moment of each day how you will react to certain situations, and how you view yourself. So even if this label has become part of your identity, it’s not too late to remove it and replace it with something else – something that feels more like you. 
Try on a bunch of beliefs and labels and see which fits the best. Remember that only you get to decide. You can get input from your friends and family (although I would encourage – at least in the beginning – doing this exercise on your own), but ultimately you are the one who has the final say. 
Have fun going through your beliefs and seeing if any of them are outdated or inaccurate for who you have become. Like we clean out our closets each spring and get rid of clothes that we no longer wear or that no longer feel like who were are, we can also do the same thing with our beliefs. 
Make sure you are only wearing the beliefs that feel the most like you.

Your soul will thank you for it!

P.S. – One of the biggest giveaways that we’ve ever been a part of has started! It’s sponsored by Healthy Wealthy And Wise, and over 700 self-help goodies are available! Just sign up for free, and you’ll have access to everything – including our Manifestation Ebook Set, which includes our Gratitude Book, As If Book, and Commitment Book (on page 21)! All for free! I just love giveaways! 🙂

Pushing Through the Obstacles

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Sometimes we are on a roll in our lives where everything feels like it’s going really well and flowing effortlessly. 
And then we add something new – something that is out of the norm from our every day life. We stretch a little bit out of our comfort zone and expect things to continue flowing. 
And sometimes they do. 
 But sometimes we come across obstacles where we didn’t expect them to be. 
Sometimes we even come across road blocks that seem to be right in the way of reaching our dreams.
When this happens, take a look at these obstacles and notice where they are coming from and what messages they are conveying.
Are they coming from fear – is our ego stepping in and warning us that it might be scary to try new things?

Are they coming from outdated beliefs that we have about achieving success and finding true happiness?

Or maybe we haven’t stretched our adventure muscles in awhile and just need more practice. 
Over the past week, I have been writing my book, and I have stumbled upon many obstacles – some that I had a feeling would show up and others that I’ve been surprised by.
And while I recognize them for what they are (old fears and distractions coming up to keep me comfortable), I still have to work through them and move them aside. This dream is too big to allow anything to stand in my way.
I was listening to a powerful telesummit yesterday with Jack Canfield where he was talking about how we can live our ideal life – even with the obstacles. 
He brought up the great point that we are always going to have obstacles – but our response to these obstacles is entirely our choice. 
We get to choose our thoughts, which means we also get to choose our outcome.
So the next time we are reaching for our dream and we come across an obstacle – take some time to go within and try to get to the bottom of the message it brings up. And then thank it for showing up and teaching you more about yourself, and either push through it or go around it. Keep moving forward.
We are all learning lessons every day. And with each lesson, we are all getting closer and closer to our truest self – our divine soul.
And every obstacle and road block is helping us do just that. They are also great tools to show us just how passionate we are about achieving our dreams and living our ideal life. 
Every obstacle we push through and every barrier we eliminate 
leads us closer to our dreams.

Blessings in Disguise

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A writing prompt from Journaling Further Within: 50 More Prompts for Self Exploration.
Sometimes the hardest times in our life turn out to be the biggest blessings.
Can you think of a time when you struggled
but are now thankful that everything happened the way it did?
Spend some time today looking back at your life. 
Think of a hard time that you went through. 
Can you now see anything good that came from it? 
Were you able to learn any lessons from it?
Are you a better person somehow because of it?
Are you stronger? More sure of yourself? Wiser?
We all can grow from our past hurts and past experiences.
I believe that everything happens for a reason. 
We can grow from and learn from each situation that comes into our lives. 
Just like you, I have had some really hard moments in my life where at the time I truly couldn’t imagine them as a blessing. But having perspective can really change everything, can’t it? 
Wouldn’t it be great if we could take that perspective and apply it to our lives while we were in a hard situation? 
Instead of waiting until everything was healed and good again, what if we could look for the lessons while we were experiencing the difficult time? What if we stepped out of ourselves for a moment and looked to see how we might be able to learn and grow from this situation? 
We can all turn struggles into blessings – we do it all of the time. 
By changing our perspective and looking at each experience as a way to grow, the struggles become lessons instead of hardships. 
Give it a try in your own life and see how it goes. 
P.S. – All of our ebooks are 1/2 off for an entire month! Yay for sales!

Expanding Your Horizon

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We live in such a vast universe with so many possibilities. 
And because we are all creatures of habit, we don’t always realize when we may have boxed ourselves in or gotten stuck in a comfort rut. 
I had the great fortune to speak with Star Ladin  from Star Marketing Media a few months ago. She is a branding/marketing expert and really loves to help women entrepreneurs take their businesses to new levels of success. While she had tons of great advice and observations, one thing she said really stuck with me. We were talking about Etsy, which Dan and I have had some success with. At the time, our products were only available for retail sales on our Etsy site. We had just been the featured sellers and were feeling pretty great about how things we going. 
The observation she made that day was that while Etsy was great, it was only a small drop in a world filled with endless possibilities. Why were we limiting ourselves to just one avenue of reaching people? 
I was blown away by this comment – it was a true aha moment for me. 
I had boxed myself in and gotten comfortable with the ways things were. 
I wasn’t even aware that there were more avenues to go down.
This was such an eye-opening experience for me. 
We have since started selling our journals on our own website and have begun to truly expand our horizons in so many other ways!
I am so grateful for Star’s advice that day! 
Take some time today and look at your own life. 
Is there any part of it where you are boxing yourself in? 
Are your beliefs limiting your true potential without you even realizing it? 
How can you expand your horizon? 
When we get real with ourselves about everything in our lives, we can begin to consciously create our ideal life. And the best part about this process is that the possibilities are infinite! Have fun expanding your own horizon and staying open to what’s to come. 
P.S. – Today is the last day to order before our one-month writing sabbatical begins!  
Here are our shops:
thisisit – journals, notepads, jewelry, and wedding goodies
soulful journals – writing prompt journals
quality craft supplies – handmade paper and beautiful beads
Use coupon code “love25” for an additional 25% off, too!

Clarity Through Contrast

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In order to find out what your true calling is – what life path you are meant to be on, you can tune in to your inner voice. You can sit still, breathe, and listen to what your wisdom deep inside wants you to know.
Another way to find this out is by gaining clarity through contrast. 
Have you ever done something that seemed so far away from what you knew deep inside you were meant to do? 
Many people feel this way about their jobs. They realize exactly what they want in a new job by recognizing what they don’t want in their current job.
This can also be seen in relationships. Have you ever noticed another couple fighting and filled with contempt for one another? I’m sure this made you realize right away what you didn’t want in a relationship of your own. 
Being on a direct path to your true calling is one way to start living your ideal life. And being on a roundabout path by experiencing different situations and recognizing which parts of these situations no longer feed your soul is another way to get there. And neither one is better than the other. They each take you to the same outcome: you living the life you were born to live.
Anytime I do something that I am no longer excited about doing, I realize that I am receiving clarity through contrast. I have begun the process of sifting through each experience and putting it all into two categories: my true life path and my “this no longer serves me” path. And it all becomes so clear when I look at everything through this lens. 
Take some time today to think about what you truly would love to do with your life. 
Take some time to think about what your ideal life would look like. 
And then take some time to notice if there are any parts of your life that no longer fit this ideal (job, relationship, etc.). 
Can you gain clarity through contrast?
When we begin to sift through and get clear on what our true life path looks like, we are able to recognize each experience as either on the path or away from it. 
And we can then begin to let go of any relationship or experience that no longer fits in with our plan for our life. 
And this is such a fun, exciting process!

Push Out of Your Comfort Zone

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Have you ever pushed yourself way beyond your comfort zone and taken yourself to a place you never thought you could go? 

Have you ever felt so strongly about a path you were meant to be on that you took a huge leap of faith knowing that it would all work out?

Have you ever listened to your intuition and went with your gut instead of your mind? 

Have you ever gone against what you knew in order to experience what you felt you truly needed in your life?

Have you ever pushed fear out of the driver’s seat and replaced it with faith and hope? 
Stretching our comfort limits is a great way to grow and learn.
It’s so easy to stay put in our lives – in the known. 
And yet in doing so we aren’t fully experiencing all that life has to offer. 
We aren’t fully experiencing all that we have to offer.

I know that it can be scary to risk and push ourselves.
Fear is a strong emotion that can grab hold of us and squeeze the hope and life out of us – but only if we let it.

Let’s all agree to push fear aside and replace it with strength, knowing, and empowerment. 
Let’s all agree to push ourselves out of our comfort zones.
Let’s all agree to take that leap of faith and risk the known for the exciting unknown, which is filled with infinite possibilities. 

Let’s all agree to no longer be comfortable just being comfortable.
Yes, let’s do this.
And let’s watch the magic unfold together.

Self Care at Work

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Today’s post contains a writing prompt from our Journaling Further Within book:
Do you practice self care at work?
What are some things you do 
to create a space that nurtures you?
Several years ago, I put together a list for myself – a guideline for practicing self-care at work. I laminated it and posted it where I can see it every day. And while I don’t always follow it, I find that it’s a great reminder.
I thought that it would be helpful to post it here for all of us to take in, post in our workspaces, and begin to practice (myself included). 
I definitely can’t take credit for all of these suggestions, but I simply am drawing a blank on the book that a few of them came from. Yikes!

If you have other suggestions for practicing self care at work, please be sure to leave your comment!
Happy balanced working, everyone! 🙂

Our Happiness Level

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I was listening to Hay House Radio yesterday, and the host was talking about how our happiness levels could be measured by averaging the happiness levels of our top few friends. I found this so interesting and also very eye opening. 
It’s so important to surround ourselves with positive, emotionally healthy, and happy people. Because emotions and feelings are contagious (here is my previous post about this), it’s especially important and crucial for our own well being that we are cognizant of who we choose to be close to. 
And I know that this isn’t always the easiest decision to make. Sometimes you’ll find that you’ve been friends with someone for years – you have a history that you would feel bad letting go of. And yet… every time you are with this friend you find that you start off in a happy mood (your mood), and you leave in a negative, sad mood (their mood). It’s crucial to your own happiness to carefully choose who you spend time with. If someone doesn’t help elevate your mood or make you feel great – it may be best to spend less time with them in the future. 
And I’m not talking about a dear friend who has had a bad day and needs to vent (we’ve all been there). I’m talking about the person who continuously sees life through a darkened lens – who sees each experience through their negative filter. And while you may love them and want the best for them, you can also love yourself and want the best for your own well being and happiness. 
On the positive side – think about your friends who radiate happiness. Think about how wonderful you feel after you spend time with them. Filling your life with people like this will actually help increase your own happiness! 
And it doesn’t just have to be your friends – you can read positive books and blogs (like this one!), listen to inspirational podcasts, watch television shows that are happy and fun – anything you can think of to raise your own happiness level.
And in doing so, everyone who comes in contact with you will also have their own happiness levels raised. 
It’s definitely worth thinking about. Your happiness is that important.