Personal Empire of One

Oldie but a goodie! Enjoy, I hope something sparks that creative power within you! 

I learned a pretty valuable lesson in the last couple of weeks. When you see the world changing and crumbling around you…you have two options…you can crumble right along with it or you can rise above the rubble and find a different way to live your life.

It is said that only through falling apart can we truly rebuild an empire. Brick by brick, stone by stone we have built the walls of discontent, anger, frustration, and hate, and in building those walls we have never once really examined each stone or brick for what it truly was…an opportunity.

Could it have been that each earthen brick and smooth stone that we laboriously piled and mortared into place with such diligence was an opportunity to see a different side of a situation? Sometimes we are so tightly wound in being resentful that when we start picking those perfectly molded bricks we don’t see that there are six sides to them. That’s six different opportunities to see a new way to build our empire!

What if we turned over, examined, and made the best 

decision on how to place these bricks in our wall? Could we have quite possibly discovered that the bricks we are using weren’t meant to be the pillars of hate and fear but the cornerstones and foundations of love, peace, and harmony in our lives? How long must we stand there and contemplate where we are going to cement these limited beliefs into our walls that surround us in our empire of one? 

Change your mind! Look at the other side of the brick and make an educated decision on which belief you are going to use. You are the builder of your future. You are the only constant in your life…What you see is what you get…so what are you seeing? What are you giving the world? Someone petrified with fear, or someone who is immersed in love? Are you learning how to build a wall strong with peace, love and joy surrounding you? Because when you come from peace, love, harmony, and joy, the fear will dissolve, the hate and anger will not exist, and you will begin to see there was really nothing to fear to begin with.

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings!

Love,

Gretchen

Unfortunate Thoughts of Writers

Everyone has been let down by circumstances. We’ve all paid for the moment that turns into nothing more than a memory hanging on the hooks of hollow smiles and bloated opportunities. Thrown into the ring, heart bleeding, ripped from our cavernous chest, expected to fight for a strong finish only to be splayed on the canvass face down. Knocked out by self deprecation and fueled by the maddening ideas that everything is somehow built perfectly somewhere just outside our reach. Displayed just far enough away to make us ache and dream for the day we too will feel the eyes of acceptance, the warm touch of approval and credence ribboned throughout the words of our heroes.

Instead, we find ourselves tangled in the thick ropes of our own fears. Judged by fleeting utterances, that relentlessly keep feeding our doubts. Tied up and tortured by the few envious words infused with jealousy and fear from others. When did we stop caring? When did the fascination with people’s follies or their belligerent tirades become more important or meaningful than an offered hand or a string of encouraging words?

Bloodied and weakened by the constant pummeling of who we are expected to be and how we are supposed to act, time won’t stop marching across our battered bones and ripped skin until every last word of our lives shows up on the parchment of our soul. Only then will the fighter within us rage against the constant malevolence of few and change the heart beat of the discontented. Then we can rise to the occasion and script our pen to paper and pour the blood of our soul across the pages in a purge so magnificent, the world will have to wake up and listen.

It is time to reach for the bones of our predecessors and sculpt the stepping stones of greatness within the rooms of our own minds. It’s time to close the doors riddled and shaped with contempt and criticism and open the door infused with intuition and honor. We must rise above the fray of pugnacious hostility, fear, guilt, and jealousy, purge them from our veins, drain them from our hearts, and uproot them from our minds.

True Power occurs when recognized and harnessed for a purpose. When searching outside the walls of our own souls, we may stumble; even misplace the only key that unlocks the secrets to embodying our permanent balance. But never will we lose the ability to look beyond the limited idea of who we think we are, and be reminded that what we are searching for, we are searching with. We are the key to our own happiness; we are the key to our own success. We are the only keeper of thoughts that reside in our own minds. It is what we do with those thoughts and ideas that shape our experience and in turn shape the world around us that counts. Make your decisions count, without being smug. Let your voice be heard, without shouting. And let your love be felt, without limits. And always be grateful for the journey!

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings!  

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!

Sometimes You Just Gotta Dig....

The other day I had someone ask me, how can I live without the scars of my past rearing their heads and the bruises of my childhood showing up from my past? How can I ever get over the fear and pain that is etched in every fold of my heart and every curve of my brain?

Sometimes the answers aren’t simple, and sometimes it’s the simplest of moments that can heal a life time of devastation and destruction. Think about it…how can we move forward in our lives if at every door we have ghosts falling out of our closets and at every turn we have past experiences that keep slapping us in the face? I’m not going to tell you that you will fix this over night…I won’t even tell you, you will overcome your trespassers in this life time…but I will try and help you come to realize that overcoming your fear and pain, your anger and guilt isn’t in any way admitting that you are weak, that you are wrong, or that you don’t deserve the best that life has to offer.

I’m also not going to tell you that your pain isn’t real. It’s real and it isn’t something you can brush under the misconception that pretending it doesn’t exist will ever make it go away. We ALL are dealt with blows so devastating in our lives that we either crumble under the pressure or we rise above the pain.  

There are times where the answers are more difficult to hear than the actual act of applying them to your life.

But I will say that when you learn that external experiences are just that…external experiences and that inside you resides a power that created the radiant pull of the moon, the rotation of the planets, and the heart beat that keeps you alive…that is a magnificence you can’t deny. There is a power greater than you and you have the ability to use it. As a matter of fact…you were born with the capacity to use it and it's right where you are!

We have the ability to think. We have the ability to contemplate and make decisions. We have the power to take an idea and form it into something that will either catapult the human race forward or annihilate an entire country. We have the ability to choose and in that ability is where our power lies. Our true power lies in our capacity to make choices. Sounds simple, elementary, even easy to do…but when you learn that volition is something everyone has, it’s a game changer. A huge game changer!

It is at the point of realization where we must decide if we are going to be a victim to our past or a creator of our future. Now I know what you are thinking…come on Gretchen are you really gonna tell me, with a straight face, that we have the power to create our future? YES. I am going to tell you that and I will even go as far as to tell you that the minute you give up the stories of yesterday your tomorrow changes immediately. We can’t move forward in our lives if we keep hanging onto our past. We must let go of the rope that keeps us tangled in the past and reach for the ladder which supports us into our future. Let go of what we can’t change, let go of what keeps us bound in limitation and learn to accept the limitless treasures residing within.

The easiest way to start is forgiveness. We must forgive in order to move forward in our life. We must learn to let go of the pain that clings to our memories of what other people did to mark our souls. I’m not asking you to forget…but I am saying you must let go of the pain that has weaved itself into every fiber of your being, one moment at a time.

I think you need to be told you are brilliant, you need to be reminded you are Love, and that you are a perfect expression of Peace. You need to learn about the unlimited power that lives in your soul. You need to know that the most powerful way to reclaim who you are is by changing your thinking. In the Bible it says, “It is done unto you as you believe.” Read that again…IT IS DONE UNTO YOU AS YOU BELIEVE.

If it is done unto you as you believe, then that means what you believe…right now…is what your life is going to be.

What do you believe about yourself and others? Do you believe you are brilliant? Do you believe you are a perfect expression of life? Do you believe you deserve to be successful, brilliant, and happy? Or are you falling back on the same excuses that kept you exactly where you’ve been stuck?

Anyone can blame others for their plight in life. Don’t be anyone! Look at your past for what it is…A learning experience that helped you grow into the individual you are today. Say goodbye to the empty shells of experiences that you have outgrown and enter into the countless possibilities waiting for you to explore. Stop playing victim; we have enough people filling that role. It isn’t virtuous, it isn’t giving you the power to change your life…All it’s doing is keeping you shackled to your past beliefs and limiting definitions. Be the change you want to see in the world…heck, just by reading this you have taken the first step! Pull out a journal; write down one thing you are grateful for then the next day try and find two things…eventually, you will be able to put the journal aside because your consciousness will create the habit of finding the pearls in your life even among the muddiest of clams. Start finding the pearls in every life experience you have…they are there, sometimes you just gotta dig. Believe me!

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings.

Yesterday Was A Super Sad, No Good, Very Bad Day

As is sit here and write this blog post I can honestly say, yesterday was one of the hardest days I’ve had in a long time. See, yesterday, Sunday November 10th, 2013 my spiritual center closed its doors. We made a decision, and yesterday…it was over. Rummaging through the sentimental and packing up an era wasn’t the easiest thing to do…

But you see, amidst the change, a new idea was born. I came to realize, the place I worship, the place I find the “church” in my life…isn’t a brick building or a space that is filled with the aroma of coffee or the comfort of a padded chair…my Spiritual Center is within me. My glorious moments of enlightenment aren’t founded or birthed in realities outside of myself; they are discovered one thought at a time, one action at a time in the creative power that lies in every fiber of my being. Sure, I will miss the routine of making Sunday morning more than a day to sleep in. I’ll miss the opportunity to feed my children their spiritual food prepared by someone other than me. But, I won’t stop visiting the spiritual center that resides within me. It won’t stop me from continuing to remind my children, friends and family the creative power that resides in their souls.

Spirituality is more to me than planting my ass in a chair on Sunday morning. It is more than finding comfort in the rituals I so amicably claimed as my own. Spirituality is beyond any form of religion or governmental definition. My spirituality is what governs my ability to understand and practice my religion. IT is what moves me to write this blog. IT is the Creative Process that is born and reborn, renewed and rejuvenated in every cell of my being every moment of every day. IT is what powers my thoughts and creates the miracles in my life daily. Today I will say, “It is done unto you as you believe” and truly mean it. I will wipe the sand of disappointment off my feet and walk forward with a renewed commitment to give unto others as I would give unto myself.

Today is the day I look into the eyes of the people around me and tell them they are loved. They are powerful beyond any limiting definition, and that Freedom, Love, Joy, Peace, and Abundance is theirs for the taking! Today, I look into my future with a new found excitement.

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings….

I truly appreciate you!

Gretchen