May 2012 Archives

Here I am sitting in the middle of a coffee plantation in Costa Rica, having just spent a week in the jungle... and before that a week co-leading a self-love retreat with my sister of self-love, Christine Hassler.

And I realize that today I am living the life I set the intention to live 3 years ago.

It's funny - or sad - how we can go years without ever stopping to intentionally set out to create the lives we want... we just kind of go with the flow (and then wonder why we aren't happy.)

Or how we can forget how far we have come in making our dreams a reality, because there is always something more to achieve. And we miss the fact that we are actually living our dreams right now.

This self love blog from my heart to yours, is an invitation to

self-empowerment: be the Queen or King of your own domain and start taking steps today to create the lifestyle YOU DESIRE - intentionally DECIDE to chart the course of your own life... be the monarch of your dreams.

and

self-appreciation: have you stopped lately to acknowledge yourself the ways in which you ARE living the dreams you set for yourself?


Be the Queen or King of Your Life... chart the course of your life & enjoy the ride!

Your HEART knows exactly the kind of life you want to live... and there will be lots of reasons or people that will tell you that you can't. But when you take the reigns of your life into your hands, and proclaim yourself the queen or king of your domain, you become empowered to live the life YOU decide.

 
 
TAKE THIS SELF LOVE DARE:
Take your 'dream life' public

If you want your 'dream life' to go from a dream you wish for to a reality you live in, you've gotta spread the good word. Don't be bashful. This is no time to keep a secret. It's time to SHARE the truth about what you are intending to create for yourself.

1. One, write down on paper what you are proclaiming for your life just like a queen or king would - what course are you setting out to create in your queen/king-dom? Write it out in paragraph form like a story - how you live your days, your weeks, your year, what you do and who you are.
2. Two, TELL SOMEONE... be it a friend, your partner, your dog. And keep telling people. "My dream for my life is..." Speak it, believe it, and witness how your life begins to come into alignment with it.
3. Three, SEE HOW IT's ALREADY HAPPENING... find at least one or two ways you are already living the life your heart desires and really own how you have created that. Tell someone how happy you are about this. Happiness breeds more happiness!
   

AND use this space right here on this blog to post your dream life - I'd LOVE to witness it!!! 

Since the day I decided to fall in love with myself and stop trying to live a life that wasn't mine, I have been one of the happiest people i know - not happy all the time, but happy most of the time, or not very unhappy for very long. But several weeks ago i found myself on the tail end of a several week "I am not feeling so happy" spin. I'd wake up unhappy, be cranky, feel stressed most of the day, eat way too many brownies, work ALOT, stay up too late, pass out and start the whole thing over again.

Finally one day when my assistant Mary walked in for a fresh day of work and her first tentative words were, "How are you feeling today Christine???" I knew something was amiss and I had to fix it. This wonderful being who helps and supports me was having to stick a dipstick into my temperament just to gauge how close she should get  - now that wasn't any way to live! And if she was feeling that way, how was my partner, friends feeling? Or even more importantly, how was I feeling??? And had I even stopped to take that into consideration before plunging myself into overwhelm and overwork?

I decided to hold an honesty hearing with myself, a deep conversation that included 5 super powerful questions that led me to the startling truth that my SOUL was starving for JOY - all the success, $$, drive and hard work were not feeding my soul, because as it turns out my heart derives joy from play, rest AND doing great work - and the first two were sorely missing!

And that is when I realized, I hadn't asked myself in a very long time 'What makes you happy?" I hadn't considered my joy factor when making decisions. And I wasn't quite sure I could name 10 things that even made me happy, really happy Can you? And are you living them - making sure YOUR soul gets what it needs?

Just like your lungs need air to live, your  SOUL needs MORE JOY ... The question is, are you willing to do WHATEVER it takes to create it for yourself. If you don't, who will?

I taped in the video in this blog for you - a Mediation on Location taped on the eve of Lunar Beltane, a day that is about expanding into JOY! This video meditation and the self love adventure that follows will take you on the same adventure I took that led me back to joy - as I remembered what really made me happy and promised myself to get it!

ME ART: CREATE YOUR JOY PORTRAIT

Supplies: Piece of paper and color-infused writing utensils - Get ready to claim your bliss!

 

Step 1: Get the Joy Started. In the middle of the paper write the word JOY. Underneath the word JOY write, "What brings me joy?"

 

Step 2: Tap into Your Joy. To get your joy motor moving (it may have been sitting quite awhile) close your eyes, put your hand on your heart and take a few deep breaths with yourself. As you take each breath feel yourself going back in time to different points in your life when you can remember experiencing great joy, bliss, and happiness. Almost as if a movie is playing in your head, see yourself in these moments, feel yourself in these moments and remember what joy felt like for you. If you need help accessing your joy center, go to www.selflovemeditations.com and get the Self Pleasure meditation.

 

Step 3: Fill Up with Joy.  Taking what you've seen about your joy moments, and what your soul already knows about following your bliss, your mission is to fill your entire page - your personal Joy Portrait --with everything that brings you Joy - words, phrases, and symbols. Make this page Joy-FULL. Use the following joy starters to find your bliss...

·      I am happiest when...

·      I feel most alive when...

·      I feel most free when...

·      I can't help but smile and laugh when I ...

·      When I was a little girl I loved to....

·      My soul gets nourished when...

·      I feel most cared for when...

·      I just love...

·      I find great joy in...

 

Step 4:  Ask Your Soul What it Needs... and make sure it receives it.  Once the page is full, completely full, pause for a ME MOMENT.

·      What do I see?

·      How is my life in alignment with my joy? How is it not?

·      What's one re-direct I can make now to attune my life to joy and get my soul what it needs to thrive? 

 

As a completion ritual, write the words "I Attune to Joy" on your ME ART and make a self-love promise to attune your life and timing to what brings you joy.

And i'd love to hear 5 JOY-FULL things you found from this self-love adventure - post them here!

And, For more fabulous self-love adventures, go to www.MadlyinLovewithME.com and get the free Self-Love Kit - full of all kinds of daring acts of love and inspiration guaranteed to bring  more joy and love into your life!