You are amazing

(From UA blog).

Here’s a little game to play. 🙂  I think things work better when they’re fun.

You know how it is, when your sink gets blocked up and you need something to go down, and unclear all the gunk?  Well this phrase is a bit like a spring  clean for your heart. 🙂

Here it is…

“I am amazing”.

So here’s the game:

Repeat this phrase to yourself over and over.  What you’ll probably find (unless you’ve already done a lot of work on yourself) is that you’ll come up with a whole lot of resistance.  Such as, “That’s not right because… (you can fill in the blanks yourself)”

This phrase is a sink un-bunger.

The more you repeat the phrase, the more the resistances you have to it, will come up.

“I’m not amazing because he left me,” or, “I’m not amazing because Sharon said I was fat,” or “I’m not amazing because so and so called me a loser”… 🙂  It’s surprising how many un-useful things we store! 🙂

But what happens, when you keep on repeating this, is that you reveal all of those lingering negative beliefs you hold about yourself.  And those limiting beliefs are the gunk in your drain-pipe.  They need clearing!  They’re blocking your energy and you really don’t need them anymore.

Have fun! 🙂

Dear feelings…

Dear feelings,

Firstly I want to say thank you.  You may not have always been right, and sometimes you were downright too sensitive, but I know you were only trying to protect me and keep me safe.

I know now that I just need to allow myself to acknowledge you – whether you are wrong or right.

And then I can set you free.

Love, Joy xxx

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We live in a world where we are taught not to express our feelings very often.  Only some types of feelings are okay.  The other feelings, the ones that other people find uncomfortable, we are often trained to repress and hold in – so that we don’t always feel safe to express them or feel that they are valued.

But feelings are feelings – whether they are right or wrong and they just want to be heard and acknowledged.  It’s okay to express them, even if only to yourself.  Maybe by writing a letter that you”ll never send, or having a conversation with someone only in your head…as long as the feelings get heard and acknowledged – that’s the main thing.  That’s all feelings want.

Your feelings may not always right.  I know that sometimes my feelings are really whiffy and far too sensitive,  but they are still feelings.  Repressing them doesn’t help.  So many times you hear the words, “Think positive, think positive,” and they are wise words, but if you don’t let out the feelings first, it’s like putting make-up on a dirty face.  The feelings will stay there, until you let them out.  Until you acknowledge them.

When you repress a feeling, what you are really doing is pushing it back down inside yourself when all it wants to do is come up and come out.  Feelings are like apples placed in water, if you push them down to the bottom of the container, the first thing they are going to do when you let go is pop up to the surface again.  Trying to stop that is like fighting against gravity – it’s a losing battle.  Feelings are drawn to the surface, just as surely as gravity draws our feet to the ground.

So it seems that the simplest answer is to let them pop up – because that’s what they are meant to do (by some unknown law of nature).  And the wonderful thing is when you let them do that, they very often don’t bother you anymore.  You might get a new set of feelings about something else – but not those old ones.

So even if they’re wrong, or even if they’re uncomfortable, know that until you let them ‘pop up’, they won’t go away.  Pushing them down only makes them want to pop up again – that seems to be their nature.  They just want to be heard and acknowledged.  And just doing that releases them and sets them free.

So even if they’re wrong, even if other people don’t agree with them, even if you don’t agree with them, still let them be heard and acknowledged and that helps to release them.

Be happy for no reason whatsoever

Babies are our most amazing teachers.  They know all about being joyful and happy.

They don’t need a certain kind of job, or a certain kind of car or house, or a certain kind of income, or lifestyle, to qualify their moments of sheer glee.

They also know how to live in the moment.  Going from tears in their eyes to giggles in their bellies, in the twinkle of an eye.

Truth is, you don’t need anything to make you happy.  It is simply a way of being.  It doesn’t have to be earned or worked for; it is simply a choice.  And a choice of simplicity.

If my cup is full then…

If my cup is overflowing, if I am full, if I am already complete then…

I do not need to ask anyone for a ‘top up’,
I do not need to ask for acceptance if I accept myself,
I do not need anyone to tell me that I’m okay, if I already trust that I am.

If my cup is overflowing, if I love and accept myself, exactly as I am, with all my flaws and imperfections, with all my good qualities, with all my mistakes, with all my triumphs then…

I free myself,
I free myself from self-criticism and hate,
I free myself from guilt,
I free myself from shame.

If my cup is overflowing, if I am so full of love for myself, then…

I have more than enough love to share,
I can be generous and not stash love like a squirrel,
I can trust that there will always be more, that life is abundant,
I can give and receive love freely.

If my cup is overflowing, and I feel truly happy then…

I can share my happiness with all those around me,
I can be like a ray of sunshine on a cold winters day,
I can light up a room, and warm a lonely day,
I can be radiant.

May my cup be overflowing, may I be a gift to this world and to myself.

Thank you Universe.

Learn to take a compliment

I rarely use the word SHOULD.  I’m not too keen on the word.  So when I use it, it’s for a reason. 🙂

If there is one kind thing you can do for yourself, it is this: you should learn to take compliments.

When someone appreciates you, or tells you kind things about yourself, it’s a gift – don’t reject it.

Just say, “thank you” and smile.  🙂 And let it in.

I know this may be difficult for some people and the reason for that is as follows:

when someone has a poor self image of themselves, and someone else tells them they are great, it doesn’t match with their inner belief and so it gets rejected.

Why is it that it’s easier to believe the bad things people say?  Why is it easier to focus on the bad things?

It’s not.  It’s just as easy to believe the good things – it just takes a bit of re-training.  It’s really just a bad habit in thinking and habits can be changed.

So please, learn to take compliments.  Learn to accept them and let them in – it might take a bit of practise, it might seem strange at first but why shouldn’t people appreciate you and be kind to you?  You are just as deserving as anyone else on this planet.

When someone offers you a gift in words, be thankful.

Love is the answer

Your best decision has been to love.

Even when people didn’t seem ‘deserving’.  Your decision to love has been your strongest choice.

Though it may not have always been easy to forgive and let go of resentments, it was your wisest choice.

Because deep down inside your true nature is love.  Anything else doesn’t fit.

No matter what life may throw at you, your job is to be true to yourself.

When you love, your heart becomes light and free.  It throws flowers at the world.

When you hold onto resentment, your heart becomes cold and you block the sunshine from your soul.

Choose love, time and time again.  Even when situations dictate that you can only love, from a distance.  Love is an energy; it can travel across space and time in an instant.  Send love.

Love is the answer to all of life’s questions.  Love is the cure to all of life’s dis-eases.

The world needs more love.  We all need love.  You need love.

At your core, your true essence is love – you have always known this.  This is your truth.  This is your path.

Though you may steer off the path from time to time, keep your eyes fixed on where you are travelling and come back to the road.

Come back to it time and time again.

With love as your guide, you can not get lost.

You are love.

Namaste.

Have you been told you are loved? (short and heart-warming video).

Write a love letter to yourself

Why not write a love letter to yourself? 🙂

To all the parts of you, that need love.  All the parts of you, that perhaps you don’t really like too much.  Why not give yourself unconditional love?

This is not as selfish as it sounds.

For each one of us, that raises our own vibration, through loving and accepting ourselves unconditionally, we help to raise the vibration of our planet.

Someone that has self-love will naturally find it easy to love others.

So loving yourself becomes good for you and for everyone around you.

Go on! Love yourself :)

The decision to love yourself is probably one of the most important decisions you can ever make.

Maybe you’ve been blessed with loving family and friends and have grown up in a supportive environment so have never really had to make this decision.  Maybe you just naturally do, love yourself.

But if you haven’t been so blessed, the unkind words and actions of others can play in your mind on a loop and cause you to feel horrible about who you are.  Your inner world can then be an unkind and critical place.

Regardless of the actions or non-actions of others, your inner world belongs to you.  I’m speaking about the thoughts and feelings that you carry around with you, wherever you go.  Your inner world is your home, the place you live from.  Almost like a snail who takes his shell with him.

And because your inner world belongs to you, you can take control of it.  Regardless of what is going on outside of you in the world.  Your inner world is your home and nobody else’s.  You are the power in there and you can decide whether to make your ‘home’ a warm and comfortable place, or a critical one.

If your inner world is supportive of you, you will feel good about yourself.  If your inner world is critical, you will feel lousy about yourself.

When you feel good about yourself, you feel strong.  When you don’t feel good about yourself, you are weakened.

You might ask yourself, “Why do I have the right to feel good about myself?” but how about, “Why do you I the right to feel horrible about yourself?”

Why shouldn’t you like and love yourself?

When you like and love yourself, you become powerful.  When you like and love yourself, you become a power for good not only for yourself but for others that are lucky enough to be around you.

The world is full of things and people and places and opinions.  Some people will like you, some will not.  Some people will be kind, others will be unkind.  All of it goes on around you but it is you and you alone that gets the final say on how you see yourself.

So why not, love yourself?

You know, people that don’t really like or love themselves are usually the ones that are unkind to others.  Take bullies for instance.  Their need to hurt another stems from a feeling of lack or insecurity within themselves.  If they don’t feel good about who they are, they try to build themselves up by  knocking someone else down.  Maybe the person they bully makes them feel threatened in some way.  Maybe they want to be like that person or see something about them, that makes them feel inadequate.  But if they just loved themselves, they wouldn’t feel the need to bring another person down.

So loving yourself makes you a kinder person and frankly, the world needs more kindness.

Have you heard the words: “Oh she loves herself, she does,” as if it was a bad thing.  But is it?  Is loving yourself a bad thing?  If more people liked and loved themselves the world could quite dramatically, take a turn for the better.

On a more individual level, the decision to  love yourself can only help improve the quality of your life.  If you can learn to be kind to yourself, supportive, encouraging, patient, understanding then your inner world will be a much nicer place to live in.  And you will find that you smile more, and walk taller and will naturally feel like being friendly to others.  Because when you like yourself, you expect others to like you too.  And a lovely circle is created.  As you like yourself, others like you, which just reinforces your like for yourself and just by liking yourself, you’ve had a positive impact on someone else’s day.

We are all ripples in the ocean of life.