Book of the Week-Living an Inspired Life

October 21st, 2016

I just finished reading Wayne Dyer's, Living an Inspired Life. I always enjoy his books, they make me think and, sometimes, after his book has changed the way I see things, my life is better. Every improvement of my mind, leads to a higher quality of relationship with my loved ones and with the state of my life in general.

In this book, Wayne shows us what an inspired life looks and feels like, providing examples from his own life and from other mentors. You take some time to be quiet and to connect with your Source, every day. You have a plan for your life and you are open to signs and synchronicity that steer you in the right direction. You value your health so you make time to nourish your body, rest and spend time with other high energy individuals. You hold onto your vision for your life without becoming attached to outcome or led by your ego. You know that your Source knows what you need and you search for the clues to the next step. You also recognize that all people and experiences are intended to move you forward on your path.

Wayne reminds us that we are each a piece of that Source, that we are connected, powerful and creative. He warns against judging others, dismissing their role in our life and holding back the forgiveness that may set us free. He suggests that we protect our vision for our life from the scrutiny and criticism of others. We also need to avoid media, entertainment and people who expose us to violence, hatred and fear. This pulls us away from our Source.

We are also guided to see our bodies as healthy because that is our normal state. We are bombarded with messages by media that encourage us to worry about our health. There is a pill for every ailment and we are told that 1 in 10 or 2 out of 5 will get this ailment, leading to fear and dis-ease. As we align with Source through time spent alone in silence, we may need to make changes in our lives. In order for our life to bloom, we may need to correct some of our behaviours (addiction, negativity etc) and end some relationships or change employment.

We can move in the direction of our inspired life by noticing what excites us and taking action in that direction. We don't always know how we will get there but if we say yes to life, follow our intuition and simplify our life, we will be moving in the right direction. Wayne encourages us to retrieve our child spirit: joyful, trusting, playful and full of hope and surrender our ego. The ego restricts us because we are working for the payoff, we want the reward and acknowledgement. In order to get out of our ego and into spirit, we can practise giving generously to others without any expectations. We must declutter our schedule as well as our space because there will be no room for inspiration if our minds are full and our life is hectic. That is why it is wise to slow down, do what we enjoy, spend time in the service of others, connect in nature and take small steps, recognizing opportunities as they come your way.

Obviously, this is an ideal way of life but, just making any adjustment in this direction can lead to more joy, peace and fulfilment.

Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org

Book of the Week-Life Loves You

June 13th, 2016

As I sat at my computer to write today's post, I caught a glimpse of my post counter-this is my 100th post. Hooray! This has been an interesting adventure so far. Only a handful of people have read it and that's ok. I am still learning about blogging and I am treating it like an extension of my journal. I explore topics of interest to me and try to stick to my commitment to write every weekday. Initially, I planned to write seven days a week and have a specific topic each day but that didn't work for me. Weekends are for family and if I am grumpy because I haven't been able to write my blog, that has a negative impact on my loved ones. They are the most important people in my life. Hence the decision to only write on weekdays. I also write about whatever comes to mind. Otherwise I am trying to research a topic or pin down a 40+ year old woman for an interview. I am enjoying this pace and I think a few topics will emerge over time. I may end up with a very different blog by the time the year is over. So, on with today's post...

I wanted to share Life Loves You by Louise Hay and Robert Holden. I heard about this book when I tuned into the Hay House Summit. Robert Holden is one of the interviewers for the summit and he mentioned the book a few times. I saw the book at Shopper's Drug Mart a week or two after the summit. It caught my eye and I took it home.

The book documents conversations between Robert Holden and Louise Hay. The premise of the book is that life shouldn't be painful. This doesn't mean there are no obstacles but we stop struggling and try to understand what is happening instead. Each chapter shows us how to love ourselves and live our best lives with lessons, quotes, a look into the interactions between Robert and Louise and, finally, my favourite part, some practical activities to act on this new knowledge.

Louise is known for her mirror work. The book starts with the use of mirror work to boost our feelings of self-love. In her practice, she sits in front of a full-length mirror with clients. She says people struggle to look at themselves and say: "I love you!". The first step is becoming comfortable in our own presence.

In chapter 2, we add affirmations that empower us to believe in our worthiness. Readers learn to say yes to life by surrendering their struggle and tapping into their wisdom. I love affirmations. I learned many of them from other books by Louise Hay. Here is my favourite affirmation from You Can Heal Your Life, "The more love I use and give, the more I have to give. The supply is endless." and "I earn good money doing what satisfies me". The first time I read these affirmations, they felt so good in my heart, my body vibrated. They get transferred from one journal to the next because I don't want to ever forget them.

Chapter 3 was a very fun adventure, becoming aware of what brings me joy and creating a visual representation of it as if it were already true in the present. I have my vision board in my walk-in closet. I see it every day when I am getting dressed and I look at it every night before bed.

In the fourth chapter, we are guided to recognize when we fell out of love with ourselves as well as everything we have come to believe about our life and our role in our own story. The reader is encouraged to forgive others and him/herself in order to thrive and fulfill his/her destiny. This was a heavy chapter and I had to take a breather here.

The following chapter was all about gratitude, a topic that is gaining popularity. Last year, I discovered the power of gratitude when I started writing down ten things I was thankful for and why in my journal every day. I had to say thank you out loud as I read what I had wrote. This activity did more than make me feel good. It changed my interactions and attracted opportunities into my life at a ridiculous speed. If you are feeling stuck right now, try this out and see where it leads.

Next, we are taught how to receive. If the universe is abundant, you are loved and you are worthy then all you need to do is say yes and remain open in order to receive. I first realized that I was not able to receive when I was in Toronto studying to become an art therapist. I had noticed years earlier when I was doing theatre that I found it easier to exhale than to inhale. This became significant as I analyzed my personality. I realized I thrive on doing special things for others. However, I have a difficult time letting others do stuff for me. I am very self-sufficient and that feels safe to me. I know I won't let myself down but it doesn't give loved ones the satisfaction of loving me back. When we had our car accident two years ago, I was concussed and I relied on my mother and husband to help me. I had to say no to my daughters. The experience helped me to see that my relationships were out of balance. I have recently explored my blockages when it comes to receiving money. I have worked on those as well. Life is fascinating, always a journey.

The final chapter encourages us to feel safe and loved enough to pour our love back into the world. We are guided through a meditation that helps us bless everyone from our loved ones to our enemies and extending out into the universe.

I thoroughly loved this book. It sets a good pace, is an easy read and leaves you feeling giddy with love. Blessing to all of you!

Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org

Worth

May 30th, 2016

I hope everyone out there had a great weekend! The sun felt so fantastic, I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it!

I am reading The Abundance Code, a book that addresses myths we believe about money then challenges us to rewrite our beliefs to reflect the true abundance of the world in which we live. I am loving it so far but when she uses financial terms I am absolutely lost. Hopefully, it will all make sense as I read on. One of the chapters explores the concept of worth, as in, do we feel worthy of money? If not, we sabotage all opportunities to earn more money.

This got me thinking about our sense of worth in general, not just as it relates to money. There are many ways in which we gain our feelings of worthiness. If I think about this theme in a chronological order than I would think our first sense of worthiness comes from our parents. They love us therefore we are worthy. If we are raised in a dysfunctional family where a parent's love is rarely expressed or, worse, the parents are emotionally abusive then there will be some serious damage to our self esteem. Then we start to feel worthy based on our behaviour, whatever is praised makes us feel worthy, whatever is punished leads to feelings of shame or remorse. As a teenager, belonging and inclusion create a sense of worth, popularity with the opposite gender, looks, clothes, the factors of our worthiness can get pretty superficial.

As a young adult, getting into a certain College or University can create a sense of worth. Working at a great job that others approve of either due to status or income or both increases our sense of worth. The following years are filled with steps on the ladder or worthiness, marriage, a mortgage, children, traveling, promotions, wealth.

Then comes the moment when we realize that all of our worth has come from external sources. We hate our job that our parents loved so much! We have gained weight and our health is at risk. We are burned out. The children we have devoted so much energy in raising are off living their own lives. So, there we are in our job, making good money, feeling empty and so very tired. There is often a pivotal moment, either through divorce, illness, empty nest or the death of a loved one. This moment lights a fire in us. Wait a minute, this is not my life. I want more or something different. It starts as discomfort, this life no longer fits. Then we start talking about it with others and realize that they are also dissatisfied with their lives. Next, we take action, sometimes in small steps, for others it comes in risky leaps and bounds.

All external sources of worth are temporary. Feeling worthy based on the approval of others always leads to disappointed because they will not always agree with you and you may need to take action that they don't understand. What made you popular in high school won't work when you are a middle-aged adult. Your looks will change over time. You can lose the house, get laid off from work and get divorced. So what's left?

You are worthy because there is no one else like you. You have a combination of strengths, traits and skills that are all yours. There is a reason why certain actions, people or environments light you up inside, these are guideposts to your purpose. You are worthy no matter what, whether you are rich or poor, busy or between jobs, gorgeous or average. When you acknowledge and celebrate your worthiness, you naturally make decisions about the people and activities that are worthy of your time and attention. That makes life interesting and worth living.

Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org

The Hay House Summit

May 12th, 2016

Every year, Hay House, a major publishing company of self-help books, organizes a free, online summit. You can watch movies or listen to interviews on a variety of topics. Each interview lasts approximately 50 minutes and is packed with information.

I was inspired by Wayne Dyer's movie, The Shift. It was the first thing I watched. Dr Dyer teaches us how to move from a place of entitlement to an attitude of service. We each have something to offer and our life should be a joyful exploration of how we can use our skills to help others.

I listened to a fascinating interview with Alberto Villoldo who explains how our body is able to heal itself and even re-grow organs. We are programmed to grow and develop in the early years in order to reproduce then these functions shut down. However, Dr. Villoldo explains how we can turn these abilities on even during the early years in order to maintain our health and vitality. Amazing!

Next, I heard about Antony William's ability to see people's illnesses and recommend treatments. He is a medical medium. I was also impressed with Dr. David Hamilton's description of his research into the placebo effect. Apparently, he was busy creating medicine to help with people experience issues with their heart. He noticed that believing in a doctor or medication was enough to produce statistically significant results. He talked about the importance of gratitude, kindness and compassion to promote health and/or to help the heart heal post-surgery. There was a really powerful, healing visualization exercise at the end of his interview. I absolutely believe that what we visualize impacts our bodies.

In the second batch of interviews, I learned how to unlock my access to abundance by recognizing myths that I absorbed during my childhood in an interview with Julie Ann Cairns. Her words really struck a chord with me. In all our relationships, we experience frustration and observe patterns that get repeated. The patterns stem from childhood lessons and our frustration to the results we get from those patterns of behaviour is an indication that we are stuck and need to release some old beliefs. I am going to buy her book, Breaking the Abundance Code. She claims that if we work through the seven myths outlined in her book, our negative beliefs about money can be challenged, resulting in a better relationship with money.

Joseph Clough spoke about how to match the frequency of what we want in order to attract it into our lives. He encourages us to stay focused on our goals with our thoughts as well as our actions. We need to make the time to pursue these goals by cutting out activities that do not move us forward (like watching television). He warns against being rigid. We may be aiming too low so we need to remain open to even better possibilities that may present themselves to us. He suggests that we look for a lesson in every obstacle and never give up on our dreams.

Katie Dalebout wrote a book about journalling which is a passion of mine. She offers 55 directives in her book and described some of them during the interview. An interesting one was, If you knew this was going to be the best day of your life, how would you dress, what would you do and who would you see? I was familiar with the benefits of journalling therefore I didn't take as many notes during this interview. However, Katie shared how she came to write her book. She attended a Hay House Writer's Workshop. I have been contemplating this very same thing. They sometimes have them in New York. The next one is in Maui so too far for me at this time but, as soon as there is a workshop closer to Ottawa, I will sign up. Hearing about her experiences at the Writer's Workshop and the process she went through to become a published author was very motivating for me.

Lastly, Karen Henson Jones shared her transition from being a busy woman, working at a fast-paced job to having a near-death experience and needing to reconfigure her life. She travelled and shares what each trip taught her about life. She speaks about compassion and past lives. She believes our experiences and relationships are meant to help us grow, that we pre-selected them before coming into this life. We have a chart or life map and everything is part of the map. She takes us through three powerful healing visualizations at the end of her interview. I was so grateful for her talk.

I love the Hay House Summits. There are so many interesting presenters. You choose the topics of interest to you. You can take notes and, if you know someone else who is listening to these interviews, you can discuss them afterwards. I am so grateful to Hay House for providing this enriching experience for free. The fact that it's online means I can listen to the interviews while I am driving, cleaning the house, cooking supper or, after the children have gone to bed. I hope you all go to the hay house website (www.hayhouseworldsummit.com) and take advantage of this tremendous opportunity.

Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org

Book of the Week-The Power

February 27th, 2016

I have been reading The Power by Rhonda Byrne because, when I was browsing the books available at the public library, its bright orange cover caught my eye. As I began reading this book, I recognized many of the concepts from The Secret: you have a choice every day whether to focus on the positive aspects of your life or not and, based on this decision, you will either get more positive experiences or negative ones. Whatever you give to others comes back to you so you need to be mindful of what you think, say and do to others. Your thoughts affect your feelings.

We think we are reacting to what has happened to us but the universe responds to us and our feelings are a strong magnet. Whatever we feel most intensely about is what will be increased in our life. There is no distinction between whether we are a good person or a bad person, whether this is a good feeling or a bad one. Strong feeling equals attraction. When you feel anger for someone, you are bringing more of them in your life because of the intensity of your feelings. She suggests noticing what you love and focusing on that. List the people, places, activities, objects you love, notice them in your environment and this is what will grow, opportunities to spend time with those people, visit those places or obtain these objects. Your feelings are a frequency like a radio station and you attract people and circumstances that match this frequency. I you want to bring different people and experiences in your life, adjust your frequency.

Rhonda explains that we are co-creators with the universe. We must be able to imagine what we want. What would it feel like to be this way, to do this, to have this? Once you are clear about what you want and what that would look like, you need to feel as though it were true. She encourages people to surround themselves with cues that their desires have manifested. If you want to go on a trip, you don't focus on the fact that you can'y afford it. Instead, you search the internet for hotels and save a few options on your Favourites page, you buy your swimsuit and sunglasses, you wear sunscreen every day so you smell like you are on holidays, you visualize the warm sand and salty sea air. You tell people how much you love that place and list everything you love about it. You may even print off a photo of your destination and stick it on your fridge. The possibility of going there feels more and more real. Your love for this place and your visualization become a magnet, drawing this experience closer to you.

I don't know if you ever watched Seinfeld. In one episode, George started a program to help reduce his stress. Whenever he had a negative thought, he would stop himself and repeat the words: Serenity Now. By the end of the episode he had a full on nervous breakdown. The author clarifies that there is no need to resist or fear negativity. You are not trying to suppress negative feelings, you just don't amplify them. You focus on what you want and what you love to increase your frequency so your energy matches your desires and you become a magnet for it. Negativity can exist but it doesn't dominate your thoughts, your are too busy imagining the positive outcomes. She describes an exercise to help you release your negative feelings. You imagine that each negative emotion is a wild horse that you climb onto and ride. Then you can choose to get off the horse.

Rhonda emphasizes that we are good enough now. We don't need to work harder, be skinnier, smarter, more of anything, we are fabulous as we are and life is our catalogue. We just need to choose what we want and keep loving it. If we concentrate on our lack, as in, "I would love to do that but I'm broke so it's never going to happen", then we are creating that story for our life, we associate bad feelings to that experience therefore we repel it. She warns against feeling envious of others who have achieved what we are striving to accomplish or feeling discouraged by our lack of results. These further associate negative feelings to our desires, placing them out of our reach.

In order to elevate your frequency, you need to feel as much love as possible for yourself, the people in your life and as many aspects of your life as possible. Gratitude is an expression of love so when you say thank you or you take time to acknowledge how important someone is to you, you are spreading love all around you. Life should be fun so if you focus on what you enjoy and spend time feeding your imagination with your desires while appreciating what you have, this is the key to success. This is true for money, health matters, work and relationships.

This is a feel-good book and it may seem a bit simplistic, just pick what you want from the catalogue, visualize it and send love to it and, presto, you get it. However, I do believe there is power in focusing on what you want, feeling it with every sense so you can imagine your life as it would be if your desires were manifested, watching your negative self-talk, writing down ten things you are grateful for each day and creating a vision board so you can visualize what your ideal life would look like. Is it all baloney? I will try it out and report back. Let's see what happens.

Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org