Take Your Life By the Horns

Your strength doesn't rest in an outcome, or a result, rather your strength resides in the power of your decision to do something.

You hold the key to your own happiness, nobody or nothing has the authority to take your power of decision away. We often find comfort in blaming others for the results in our lives. It's so much easier to look outside of ourselves for how f*cked up our lives are.

We walk around casting blame for what's so wrong in our lives and yet, when something goes right, we find it easy to look within. Take credit for the good and blame others for the bad. Isn't it time to discover that the outcome of our lives is measured by the responsibility we take for it?

If one person ... ONE person can prove to rise above the disharmony and discontent in their lives, then it shows that any one of us can. It's in the decision to do something. People that over come horrific events in their lives do so by changing their way of thinking. They don't blame past pain for where they are in their lives. They move beyond the pain, suffering and anger into a state of consciousness soaked in forgiveness, peace and love.

Everyone has been a victimized in this life. I'm not trivializing the event that has caused you so much pain. TRUST ME, I know what it feels like to suffer at the hands of someone else. But if we don't find our inner strength through forgiveness, through empowering ourselves, through taking responsibility for how we act NOW, we will live out the rest of our lives tortured by events that can never be changed. If we keep residing in our painful past, how can we embrace a greater future?

Events of your past shape who you are, I'm not one to argue that. I'm also aware that in order to overcome the tragedies in your life you have to work through your anger, fear, guilt, shame and doubt. Some people have more work than others, that I will not discount, nobody can tell you how to grieve or heal. All I'm saying is once you decide to move beyond the pain, you find there is an entire life waiting for your discovery of it. A life filled with love, peace, harmony and compassion.

Sure, you'll have days where you're mentally stronger than other days. You'll have setbacks and spring-forwards, we are human. However, as you learn to look within for your answers, look within for your strength and power, you'll see that blaming others, or looking to others to make you happy is a dead-end road.

YOU are MAGNIFICENT, you are the result of a miracle made manifest! You were created out of the goodness and grace of a Infinite Power seeking to know life. In seeking to experience life, this Infinite Power, (call it what you feel comfortable calling it), gave you volition, emotions and consciousness. You're equipped with everything you need to be empowered in your own life. It starts by recognizing that you are a mighty moving force that is worthy of love, peace, forgiveness and a limitless abundance of goodness.

I'll be the first to tell you, it isn't the easiest thing breaking the bricks which have created the walls that imprison you. It isn't fun working through your past, it's uncomfortable, tiring, icky, painful and downright debilitating at times, BUT when you decide to take back your life, eventually there will be more good days than bad, more moments of triumph instead of defeat. Take the time you need, a little each day is better than trying too much at once and giving up.

I'll leave you with this, "You can't fix a problem using the same consciousness that created it." Albert Einstein.

Keep changing the way you've been thinking about or approaching a problem, and eventually you will find a solution.

May LOVE and PEACE by yours today.

Love,

Gretchen

Fear of Failing

FEAR OF FAILING 

When we stand on the precipice of a new day, a new moment, a new way of thinking and leap off into the unknown there's a moment of uncertainty that arises. It's that particular point in time as we're flying through the vast open space of the moment, where our future is just a speck below us, and our past is left up on the cliff, and we ask ourselves, "What the hell did I just do?" 

At that moment of realization we discover fear is a real powerful emotion. So powerful in fact that it has cemented us into the exact space we struggle to overcome. 

People holler to us ... don't worry, be brave, discover your passion, do your best. And as we are sailing through this wide open point of discovery we ask ourselves, what if regret appears to be my best? What if crippling fear shows up as my best? What if buckling to the pressures of life seems to be my best? What if failure is all I am going to experience?

To those of you who are sailing through the vast space of "oh sh*t", let me say this... Sometimes we don't have to be the best, all we have to do is show up and be willing to participate.

In order to manifest, produce or overcome the results of the world we have to stop looking at the world as the barometer of our life. We become so caught up in the fear of failure, that we lose the idea that it's our inalienable right to do so. When we glide through the air in our leap of faith and the wind is catching our hair and it is brushing our cheeks, and causing our eyes to water, there's a point in us that will discover that in order to move forward we must be willing to first leap and second be okay with failing. 

It isn't the act of failing that dictates our outcome, it's our reaction to it. ~ G. de la O.

In other words, well, actually in Albert Einstein's words, "We can't change a problem with the same consciousness that created it." 

When you fail at one thing, own it, hold your head up high and be proud of it, because it that point of failing, you leapt. You took a chance where you invested in something greater than fear. You opened yourself up to growth and you expanded your consciousness. You succeeded at knowing what NOT to do the next time.  

We live in a society where our children are terrified to fail. They are scared to try because they don't want the world to crush them, judge their attempts, or shame them for not succeeding the first time. 

It's time that the pendulum of discovery swing back the other direction. We must let our Future see that it's okay to fail and that fear is okay when you know what to do with it. We must show the young that failing is inevitably the biggest sign of living. They need to see that we can bounce back, regroup and try again. Failure isn't the last train station of your life. The track is endless, the train keeps going. 

Failure is nothing more than a jumping off point to discover you can rise up from the ashes and start anew. We don't have to fear the act of failing because in every action and every reaction there is a gravity of love, compassion, intelligence, openness, discovery, and growth.

Leap off the edge of who you were yesterday and embrace the feeling of letting go of the process you think it must do. There is a power greater than you, that knows what to do and how to do it. 

Let today, be the best November 24th, 2015 ever!

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings! 

Love,
Gretchen

Happy New Year's **Revised**

What if we didn’t do a New Year’s Resolution in 2014?

Yeah…I said it! (I didn’t even cover my head for the proverbial lightning bolt to strike me down either!)

New Year’s has become just as commercially important in our world as Easter or Halloween. Diet industries make millions, gyms sucker you into signing that unbreakable three year contract, and churches brace for the influx of the spiritually lost, who hope to be found.

So often we are left feeling guilty because within days of the New Year we have already failed a fallible system. We think the click of a clock or a flip of a calendar is going to give us a renewed idea stuffed into an old consciousness. Isn’t it time we admit to ourselves…the whole system is set up for epic failure.

We run about believing if we just placate God, or we click off conditions, or change our appearance we will be able to peel back the habits of yesterday in a matter of a numeral change in the ones place of another calendar year. It doesn’t work that way…it never has. It’s about time we stop setting ourselves up for the pain, self-deprecation, hate, jealousy, and guilt for not instantly changing our lives that first couple of weeks spread through January.

We will never success without first creating a consciousness of success. We must begin by changing our idea about the world if we want to see the physical manifestation of our success in it. Einstein said, “You can’t change a problem using the same brain that created it!”

How can we make room for the success of our New Year’s resolutions if we haven’t changed our minds about how we feel, see, hear, taste, and smell success? What investment have we made in our spiritual bank? What thoughts have we been depositing in our experiences? Can we really have a consciousness of successful weight loss if all we do is see ourselves as fat and talk about how much weight we have to lose to be healthy or happy? How can we see an upward motion of success in business when all we have done is bitch and moan about our co-workers and our boss? How can we truly find inner peace, when the turmoil of discontent keeps raging within our souls? 

What if we scrapped the New Year’s resolution, and instead we did a New Year’s revision or reevaluation? What if we took the next couple of weeks and decided to vacation from guilt, fear, doubt, and self-judgment? How would it feel to take a deep breath, and really felt what freedom was, the freedom from self judgment, failure, pain, guilt, fear, and limited beliefs? What if we looked back at 2013 and patted ourselves on the back for making it through another year? 

Take it a step further…look back at 2013 and find one thing we did well. Look at that and celebrate that success. How about we look and find 5 things that we did perfectly. Why not work our way to 12 things…12 things we did right last year. One great moment for each month…I know you can do it. It is time to grow our consciousness of self-empowerment and begin to feel the unconditional love flooding our hearts.

Just think, instead of taking that dramatic step of trying to alter our lives in a matter of several days, we can find the blessings we have in every moment of our lives? We can look at the things that truly mattered in our lives before 2014 and REVISE some of our old beliefs and make them a little more in tune with who we are right now.

Let’s not make January a month filled with apocalyptic moments were we decide to drastically change our lives into something doomed to fail. Let’s take this time to create a clear picture of what we want…and begin to change our consciousness about it. Let’s look for the possibilities waiting on us to discover in 2014.

Thanks for hanging around and reading my ramblings…and Happy Revised New Year!

Is It Time To Make A Shift?

What makes one day amazing and another disastrous? What creates the wonders of some moments and the fear, doubt and anger of the next? 

It is our reaction to situations. We are creatures floating in old belief systems, traditions, and idioms that we give our power over to, and it is time to stop!

Humans are individual expressions of Universal Truth, placed upon this earth to experience life. Why do you think we are the only living things that are given volition? We are the only living organisms that have the ability to choose consciously. How amazing is that? There is a power out there, pushing, flowing, and drowning us in the possibility and ability to make choices; good, bad or indifferent…we have the ability to change our minds, and in turn, create a shift in our consciousness, which produces an outcome in our physical environment. Think about that…We are born with the ability to think, mentally process, and communicate not only our needs, but our opinions, our beliefs, and our desires. That right there is a miracle. Not many other living creatures have the conscious awareness to make up their minds, choose, and deduce outcomes purely from their thoughts.

But even more incredible we have the ability to override our intuition. We have the choice to listen or not to that intuitive voice in our heads. And right there is the point of where we as individuals choose how to live our lives. We can keep falling victim to fear, doubt and anger, or we can make the conscious choice to think ourselves into a better life.

Yeah, I just saw you roll your eyes…but hear me out! It is all based in scientific principle; or what I like to call Cause and Effect. It has proven time and time again that people can control their experiences by merely changing how they react to the events happening around them in their lives. When we change our outlook or belief about a situation or event, that event or situation must change.

One of the most defining, and definite statements in the Bible is, “It is done unto you as you believe.” It doesn’t say it is done unto you as someone else sees it, or as someone else wants you to see it.

Our life is nothing more than what we keep thinking into it. It is an individual responsibility that you can either live life as a victim or an empowered individual. You don’t like your life or the experience you are having…change the way you are seeing it. Stop reacting from fear and hate, and begin to react from that deep seeded love, harmony and peace. Nobody is making you react to your life, but you! We all have met an Eeyore or two in our lives. You know the people who never catch a break, who never see the forest through the trees, who, if lightning was going to strike they would be the one it would hit. Trust me the world has enough Eeyores!

One of the brightest minds to grace the earth, Albert Einstein was quoted as saying, “You can’t fix a problem, using the same mind that created it.” How profound is that? We can’t change a situation that keeps happening if we keep looking at it the same way we’ve always looked at it. We must change our idea about it, in order to change the outcome. No matter how hard we keep forcing that square peg in that round hole it’s not going to fit until we either change the peg or find a square hole.

Instead of resisting change, begin to embrace it. Instead of looking at a situation from fear and doubt…find a way to come from peace and love. Try and see the good in every situation in your life. Start seeing all the things to be grateful in your life and focus on that. I promise your conversations will begin to change, your environment will change, and you’ll start seeing your life change to something better you had yesterday. Trust me it isn’t easy at first. If it was easy we wouldn’t be experiencing any destruction, disease, and disrespect in this world. But if we just start today, just start in our own lives, seeing the potential, love, peace, and harmony that exists in our lives, no matter how small a spark it seems to be, our lives will change dramatically for the good. 

Okay, enough of my ramblings. I want to leave you with one last statement to think about. Ready? What you think about today creates your tomorrow. What are you thinking about that you want to experience tomorrow?

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings!

What Are We Afraid Of?

How many of us have been living in a world of what if’s and how can I’s…If we believe we must struggle to have success or suffer to be noble, we will walk around reaching for empty opportunities and cling to other people’s ideas of who we are.

Too often I find myself trying to make my life into something someone else thinks it should be. I stretch myself to create something wonderful only to realize I was putting my power into empty shells of truth and vacant moments created by fear.

We all know how paralyzing fear can be. It can ruin nations, kill millions, and bring the most powerful people to their knees. Fear is insidious. It can creep into our consciousness even when we think we’ve beaten it back. It has a way lurking in the shadows of amazing moments, waiting for the perfect time to rear its impervious head and tear our lives to shreds. But what most people haven’t realized is that LOVE can penetrate the fear, dissolve it, obliterate it, and stuff it back into the vast nothingness from which it came.

All you need is love…love is all you need. Who would have thought the Beatles were so enlightened by singing a simple tune that carried so much influence? But it’s true. Love is the most powerful thing in the world! It can heal nations, give life to millions and has the ability to enlighten the most powerful person in your life…YOU! That’s right, when you come from that place within that’s filled with Love, Harmony, and Peace; suddenly other people’s definitions of who you are…don’t matter, you find it’s much easier to be happy, and you notice fear loses the hold it had on your heart. 

Have you ever met someone who was super happy and wondered, “What did they put into their Post Toasties this morning to make them so happy?” Or you’re in a pissed off mood and someone smiles at you and it makes you stop in your tracks. We are so conditioned in this culture to live in that space between miserable and complacency that we’ve been blinded to what our true potential and life should be.

We are supposed to live a life blanketed in Love, Joy, Peace, Service, Prosperity, and Harmony. Think about it…If we weren’t we wouldn’t long to have it. We wouldn’t cry when children hug their parent returning from war, we wouldn’t have the butterflies in our gut when we fall in love with someone, and we would have the desire to protect the innocent. We wouldn’t experience the goose bumps that ripple across our skin when we see something magnificent.

Life is the biggest miracle ever…period. It doesn’t take someone to walk on water or feed the masses to realize what a miracle is.

What we need to do…and yes, I’m gonna tell you what to do. We need to take a moment and think about how phenomenal our lives really are. Every day we breathe, our heart beats, we think, and have thoughts, we talk, and swallow, blink, and our blood flows through our veins...most of us can taste, see, hear, and have the sense of touch. Miracles that occur every second of our lives and yet we all tend to take for granted. So if there is a power that can create such perfection (even when it’s perfectly imperfect) then we need to, in the very least, acknowledge there is a power greater than us and we have a right to use it.

It doesn’t take much more than a shift in our thinking; a different perspective to the same situation. “You can’t change a problem with the same mind that created it.” (One of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein). It’s time to wake up, take our lives in our own consciousness, and decide to be the change we want to see in the world. It’ s time for us to change our consciousness…so we can change our lives.

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings!

Don't be Limited by Conditional Thinking!

First off let me apologize for being pretty much nonexistent on the blog for the last month. I’ve been taking a class about Ralph Waldo Emerson, Judge Thomas Troward, Dr. Ernest Holmes and Emma Curtis Hopkins that really has stretched and pulled at my spirituality as well as my intellect. It made me really grow in ways that I never knew I could! Yeah, I’ve learned so much more that I get to pour in this blog and some really great ideas I can’t wait to talk about! But let’s get onto the topic I thought was important today…getting caught up in the nets of conditional thinking.

How often do we get caught up in the drag-nets of race consciousness? How many times a day are we affected by other people’s moods? We all have days where we are going along; having a great day until… someone’s bad attitude decides to show up. We could be singing along with the greatest songs that move us to shiver inside, but the minute someone enters our mental space—all the power goes out and we are left sitting in the pitch dark waiting for someone else to turn on the lights of flip on the power breaker. Why is that? Why do we allow other’s follies, moods, shortcomings, or otherwise affect us? It’s because we haven’t learned how to be of the world but not part of it. Now wait a minute…what the heck does that mean? Simply put, it means as we grow in our spiritual consciousness, we begin to learn that conditional thinking of people around us is nothing more than chatter for the fishes. When we learn to let go of other’s negative energy and replace it with love, we inherent the ability to let what others say, just roll off our backs.

You all are familiar with the statement, “It is done unto you as you believe.” If you don’t know that statement, stick around, I tend to state it…a lot.

See, if we are going to live with a conditioned consciousness, our lives we be conditional. We will be affected by the going-ons around us. When it rains we will find fault with nature, when we get in the car, we’ll be pissed at other drivers, when we interact with people, we will experience them in limiting ways. When we decide to be in the world, we will find that every interaction we have with anything can be affected by our negative or limiting ideas. Let’s remember the quote from Einstein, “You can’t fix a problem with the same consciousness that created it.” See we can’t become at peace if we are running around pissed off at people. We can’t be happy if we allow other people to define who we are. We can’t really have prosperity if we keep telling everyone we don’t have any money! 

Thoughts are things. We know this—we know it because we experience the outcome our thoughts all the time. We even claim it, when we say, “I knew that was going to happen.” How many times do we keep chanting a future event we are afraid is going to occur…only to see it happen? “God, I hope I don’t lose my job.” Oh, man, I have a bad feeling about this.” We are ALWAYS claiming our experience. ALWAYS! What we think about today becomes our experiences tomorrow. So why are we mucking it up with limited beliefs or conditional thinking.

Remember, I’ve stated this before…don’t be bound by precedence! Don’t think that just because it’s never happened that it can’t. We have hundreds upon thousands of examples where society wasn’t bound by what was conceivable. If that were the case, women would still be dragged around by their hair and men would still be chasing around mammoths with spears. Just look around and you will see where we have effortlessly leapt over the idea of being bound by precedence; where conditional thinking has crumbed to our evolutionary thoughts. From the discovery of electricity to the invention of the personal computer we haven’t let race consciousness, or the collected thoughts of people, limit us to what has always been.

We as a species have volition, freedom of ideas, thought, and intuition; that’s what keeps us in a forward motion, in a movement towards greater understanding of the power within us. We have a power within us that gives us the capability to move mountains and the only thing stopping us is our idea that we are limited in our abilities to do so. We become conditioned to what has happed as the only truth, whereas, if we truly looked at it, it is nothing more a link to our past. We must live on the highest point of discovery, willing and ready to take a faith-filled leap out into the vastness of our future. Be ready to accept the multitude of greatness coming your way, be willing and open to the harmony and peace permeating your every experience, and be able to see the overflowing abundance of Love in your life, right now! Spend your day in gratitude and forgiveness. See the Love within everyone…and I mean everyone around you.

When we let go of other people’s ideas and form our own thoughts filled with Peace, Love, Harmony, Abundance, and Joy…the world around us changes to what we expect it to be!

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings~