3 ways to nourish YOU this holiday season

This summer my family took a trip to Colorado.  It was fabulous just being together.  One of the mini excursions we took was white water rafting.  Do you see our pic – this one is my favorite!  I know you cannot really see any of us in the raft and…believe me….. we were all there.  All 6 of us and our guide.

Oh….I still remember that moment.  I literally held on to my paddle with such a gripping force.  My feet were tightly curled between the side edges of the bottom of the raft. It was such a thrilling adventure!!

When we came out of that very intense rapid, my legs and feet were sore and my back muscles were in pain. The girl had a few cuts on her legs. The boys were out of breath. It was WILD!!

Holding on is a powerful force.

Have you ever experienced holding on…feeling like a chain literally linked you to a pole and you could not budge from it?

Well I do.  It is the human in us to do so.

Holding on is a power not always for our highest good. It often serves only our mind to hold our Self to an idea, a group, a belief, and a story. It is a battle of our will.

AND…that will is a choice to stay in the holding pattern of repeat, repeat, repeat OR allow a change to take place that elevates our existence. Freewill is always a choice.

The choice? To hold on or to let go.

The choice? To fight the battle using outside of me sources, like food, meanness, judgement, worry, regret OR to solve it from an inner place within us, like our heart and our intuition.

Whether we hold on or whether we let go, it is our mind that is the problem.  Our mind controls exactly how the rest of us operates. So….when the mind is out of alignment, we will not feel so good in our body, we will find our Self  projecting fear onto our loved ones, and we will live unbalanced….a bit lopsided in our world.

Think about my rafting adventure….

If my mind was focused on perfect imagery for who we are as a family, I would be rather upset and angry at the one picture of us is actually us covered in water and basically unseen.  Rather, my mind is focused on us being real, authentic and exemplary of pure love.  So, this picture overloads my heart with joy because it causes me to remember who we are…as a family AND what fun we had that day…as a family.  My mind knows that a family, in all of its authenticity, is REAL – really excited about learning; is wholeheartedly about belonging – we each know who we are and acceptance of each of us is a key factor; and is a total adventure – no way to truly plan each moment because we make it up as we go. THIS, my mind focuses on and remembers when the going gets tough.

The same would work for how you IN – vision your daily hiccups, kid mess-ups, and life’s challenges.  What is your vision from INside your mind?

It is crucial to be aware!!  Awareness is the door opening opportunity to make the necessary changes for good healthy living.

How do you become aware?

NOURISHMENT

Sustainability of nourishing the VERY thing that elevates your life to higher places of existence.  It is the feeding of those areas of your body, your mind and your soul.  It is SELF-love and SELF-care.  It is vital for growth, health and living well.

Now, if you are like me, and I suspect you are, nourishing ME in the midst of my daily life with family and friends is SOOOOOOO hard to do.  We do not need another thing on our to do list.

Right?

What we need is a more efficient manner in which to nourish who we are…..our SELF.

What we need is a more effective manner to love and care for who we are…..our mind, our body and our soul.

Agree?

Too many times I get in a state of warfare trying to protect my inner world using outside resources. I do the “If only…” dance around my kitchen and bathroom hoping these young ones would clean up after themselves and help out more. When report cards come in the mail, I strategically plant seeds of my wiseness onto them hoping they will become better studiers and schoolers.  When they come and ask me for a treat or permission that makes me uncomfortable, I forget who they are and circumvent an anomaly of sorts about all the hazards of what I am fearing.  These warfare mechanisms are just fear based actions and beliefs coated in mindfulness application of “I love you.”

The reality is…. LOVE is expansive, is free, is wide open, is abundant and is available.  We, the heart-centered leaders of our family, need to stop and behave differently. Yes!

We need to nourish our minds, so our hearts can do the job authentically, lovingly, and abundantly.  We need to nourish the very part of our mind that so easily goes to the dark side of every situation. We need to see love available in EVERY person, EVERY event, and EVERY challenge.

Nourishment is about loving more and fearing less.  Nourishment is about trusting our inner guidance more and questioning the outside world less.  Nourishment is a listening tool for decision making and those freewill choices.

Here are 3 ways to provide nourishment for YOU:

#1 –  Develop a feedback loop for what is.

When faced with a moment that finds us uncomfortable, we tend to be programmed to think about the what if scenarios. What if something bad happens? What if he gets hurt? What if she does not get in? What if? What if? What if? This is such negative and toxic thinking and most of the time completely skewed from the reality. By turning our attention to the what is model of thinking, we begin to see the evidence of our true reality.  We focus on all that is abundantly already in our life and naturally find ourselves in a state of thankfulness.  Using what is as a feedback loop provides a much healthier way of thinking about who we are, our family and our life. What is makes for a more grateful way of nourishing our mind into perpetual love.

# 2 – Let it be for you.

The universe is always working for our highest good. Therefore, everything that happens or could happen is always for you, and not to you. It is about seeing your life as raising you and your loved ones up to an elevated position.  When we believe our life is evolving for us, we tend to relinquish control over the little and not so little things.  In giving up control, we allow our life to breathe fully into an ever-growing, ever-changing, and ever-loving flow. Know EVERY person, EVERY situation, EVERY mess, EVERY mistake, EVERY challenge is always FOR YOU.  They are necessary for you to grow, learn and evolve into the truth of who you are.

#3 – Embellish your story with happiness.

What images, pictures, and models would you use to describe happiness?  Start putting them into your stories.  We have a choice how we respond and talk about our life. And, we have a choice of the words and phrases we use to do so. Why not embellish a bit using those happiness words, quotes, images, and pictures? Talk a different talk and watch how you will begin to live a different life.

To be love-inspired and live well is about nourishing the very YOU in the midst of the outer world around us.

“The best thing you could do is MASTER the chaos in you. You are not thrown into the fire. YOU ARE THE FIRE.”.  –Mama Indigo

Tuning in to who we are and knowing that gratitude is our fuel for evolution will raise our life in such amazing ways. Believing that the universe is working hard for us to live well releases us to hear the guidance our life is showing us. Taking control of who WE are and allowing our loved ones to do the same for themselves is the soul’s definition of whole-hearted love.

Nourishment is love.

Nourish YOU. Nourish your mind.  Nourish your heart.

Focus on what is.

Know it is for you.

Put a whole lot of happiness into EVERYthing you do.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

XO

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