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  • Recipe for a Joyful Life

    Recipe for a Joyful Life
    Jul 22 2025
    Recipe Card (can be a visual of an actual recipe card for blog or content on website) Preparation: Take stock of your current situation to know where you began. 1 Full cup of gratitude 2 hours of meditation 6 spoonfuls of daily practices (x2) A hearty handful of boundaries A sprinkling of laughter Stir Clockwise while smiling and holding a vision of living a life you enjoy. Repeat for no less than 10 weeks, then revisit your current state, your vision, and account for progress. Celebrate your accomplishments and continue until you allow purpose to set in. ********** Making a recipe card like this might sound kind of funny for something as ephemeral as Joy or living a Joyful Life. But what if Joy wasn't something elusive? Most of us chasing Joy think of it like the wings of a butterfly. Something beautiful that you cannot touch. And like those wings, if you do touch them, they are destroyed. What if it was something you could actually touch and not only feel its tangibility- but build beneath you like the firm foundation of a house? I'm here to tell you that you can, and the recipe is quite available to you with a little bit of commitment to the discipline of the practice of know thyself. First to my butterfly wing analogy, the reason many people think Joy and enjoyment are elusive, and that experiencing joy (like touching butterfly wings) destroys it, is because most people are chasing Happiness. Happiness is an external fleeting thing that depends on factors outside ourselves. And the other side of the Happiness coin is sadness. Take, for example, you place all your expectations for happiness on a relationship with a significant other. And you are in that relationship and everything is all perfect in your life because someone loves you and accepts you and wants to do things with you. This is Happiness you say. Then one day that person says I'm leaving, or that person dies, or that person changes because of some factor outside of your control and the relationship ends. Now you are sad. You are sadder than you ever were before the relationship because for awhile you had The Thing you thought made you happy. And in a way you are right. You touched the butterfly's wings and it couldn't fly anymore, and it died. Now you have no more feeling of Happy - you have the memory of it, the longing for it. But you no longer have it so that attachment to this past state of Happy you lost now makes you Sad because it is draining your today (like a leak in a boat). I watch this play out with my partner every time he speaks of his past fiance who left him because he stopped fulfilling her narcissist needs. He has this attachment to that belief in that with her, when he was in the peak of his health, in the peak of this happiness having all these activities with this other built purely on external circumstances that He was Happy. And maybe he was Happy. For a moment, because he bought her the right ring, he took her to dance in the right place, he provided everything she needed so that she could get on her feet, save for a house, make a down payment and leave him when she didn't need him anymore. And then his Happy came crashing down, when the lie was revealed and she left him because his usefulness to her ended - putting him in a pit of depression that caused him to harm himself with alcohol and other choices due to the severe sadness felt after the high of Happy. Now today, he isn't in that depression anymore, we are in a healthy relationship of exchange co-creating together, but I can still see that attachment to a past version of himself when he believes he was Happy. Because in that past he had health (and no liver disease) and he had for this brief moment some combination of external factors (fleeting as they were) that made everything "Perfect." So now, this attachment to a past version of himself when he was quote/unquote Happy inhibits his ability to fully experience his present moment and the amazing life he and I are creating. He is working on it, and acknowledges his attachment challenges, and having physical limitations is a real obstacle,- which is why finding our inner source of Joy (and thus resilience) is so essential. Ok, let's talk about Joy again and how it is different from Happiness. Joy is not ephemeral and intangible. Further, Joy is not Happiness. Happiness is external and its opposite is Sadness. So the happier you are, when the source of that happiness leaves you the sadder you get. It is cause and effect and the hermetic principle of rhythm. One extreme always swings back to the other like a teeter totter or those sets of silver balls that click on your desk. Joy is built in your life from within and is not dependent on external factors. My recipe card is not facetious. It is true. Just like laying a foundation and building something - you go through a specific set of actions ...
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    15 min
  • The Art of Getting the Right Things Done: How to Gain Wisdom Instead of Just More Knowledge

    The Art of Getting the Right Things Done: How to Gain Wisdom Instead of Just More Knowledge
    May 30 2025
    "Critical thinking is the ability to analyze, evaluate, and reason through information logically. It's about questioning your and others' assumptions, recognizing biases, and seeking evidence before forming conclusions. Wisdom, on the other hand, transcends simple logic. It calls upon the spirit, not just the mind. It seeks the Light — the knowing of a matter. It discerns the unseen and weighs the good of every situation beyond mere logic. Truth is only ever found in immutable reality, but what often serves us better is understanding — a deeper grasp that wisdom provides, aligning with the eternal rather than chasing fleeting facts." – Sovereign Ipsissimus Dave Lanyon In the past year, I had a hip replacement, got engaged, moved into a new home with my fiancé, and walked with him through the ups and downs of his liver disease. I continued running a law practice, took the Florida Bar exam — twice — and wrote two books. At the same time, I continued my mission as a Guide in the Lineage of King Salomon, initiating those ready to walk the path of progression. People say if you want something done, ask a busy person. I might just be that person. But for the first time in my life, I also had to let some things go. I quit some commitments. I stopped doing things that no longer aligned with the quality I expect of myself or the service I offer others. Because when everything piles on, even the strong have to reevaluate. So this year, I chose to attend only the required Professional Integration Days (PIDs) with the Modern Mystery School International, — not to pursue more training, but to honor my current bandwidth. I came in feeling a mix of pragmatism (yay, boundaries!) and a little FOMO over not diving deeper into the higher-level teachings. But from day one, something was different. This wasn't just another "recert." It was real Light, real Teaching — the kind that delivers weeks' worth of transformation in just a few days. And one of the biggest insights that landed for me? The art of getting things done isn't just about doing more. On the surface, it seems simple: take action, get results. That's Hermetic Principle #6 — Cause and Effect. Action leads to reaction, which leads to outcomes. Kabbalistically: Idea → Thought → Plan → Action = Result. Magickally: you place the ingredients in a container, add the right energy, and something new is born. But here's the nuance: you can accomplish a lot through sheer will. But at the end of the day,do you have anything meaningful to show for it? Have you gained wisdom, or just collected gold stars? If I had focused only on being a good lawyer, I'd probably be a partner in a firm by now,and miserable. I'd have achievements and accolades, sure. But a hollow life. Thankfully, something deeper stirred in me,a knowing that just being "successful" by society's standards wasn't enough. I wanted more. I needed joy. Fulfillment. Purpose. And when I didn't have those things, I numbed the ache with food, alcohol, and distraction. Some people thought I should be grateful and settle. But I couldn't. The mundane was never my calling. We don't come into this world with an owner's manual that tells us our purpose on page 42. We fumble, experiment, search. And if we're fortunate, we encounter someone with a key,someone who helps us fumble more efficiently, and begin to uncover our own answers. From a young age, I knew there was something greater. As a little girl talking to Jesus in my heart, I felt it. That drive led me to Catholic confirmation, then to studying Buddhism, and later to a degree in Philosophy. All gave me glimpses, but never the full picture. What stuck with me from that academic journey was my advisor, Mr. West, who told me: "These people,CEOs, world leader,they have degrees in philosophy. Logic and reasoning can take you anywhere. The others are just hoping someone will tell them what to do." And he was right. That skillset carried me through law school and beyond. But critical thinking alone doesn't lead to fulfillment. For that, we need wisdom. And true wisdom doesn't live in textbooks. I found the key,my first real key,in May of 2014 at Healer's Academy in Toronto. I had no idea why I went. I had no plan to be an energy healer,I was a lawyer, a senior project manager. Where was that going to fit in? But something called me. And when I came home and gave my first Life Activation, everything changed. It changed her life. And that changed mine. In that moment, I discovered something far beyond the mundane: I had the power to help someone heal. To step into more joy and wholeness. And for the first time, I felt real fulfillment. The kind that isn't logical, but undeniable. The kind that propels you forward through every obstacle. That's when everything in my life began to shift. My partner at the time left. My home no longer felt like home. My job felt empty. The distractions lost their pull. So I did what felt right, I kept serving. I ...
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    8 min
  • The Glory of Choice (and Free Will)

    The Glory of Choice (and Free Will)
    Apr 22 2025
    Our current circumstances are the result of the fruits of our choices. Yes, the news may say this about the President and his administration doing that, and everyone has opinions. But what are you doing with your life? Are you making choices to better yourself? A student called me the other day, upset and angry at the world, spouting, "There needs to be more light!" And I said, "Then you need to become THAT light." I told them that being angry and negative is just adding more anger and negativity to the world. They heard me and applied for the Ritual Master path in the Modern Mystery School. They then chose to work on themselves to bring more light and higher vibrations to this world. We need more light, but it can only start with first bringing this light to the darkness of our hearts and daily lives. Are you making choices for yourself to better yourself? Turn off the TV and the radio, get off social media, and sit with YOU for a second. What do you want? What brings you joy? What unburdens your heart? Do you want to make your home, neighborhood, and family more peaceful? Do you want to be less stressed out? Do you want more abundance? Do you want purpose? Or do you want to enjoy tea in the morning while listening to the birds without racing your mind? Do you want to find your proper, indestructible, happy place? We all have a choice. Even if it is a situation in your life where you feel the odds are against you and all directions appear to be rivers of poo. YOU still have a choice. The Choice can be to continue and sit in misery or we can choose how to face adversity. And we can also decide how we face the possibility of JOY within our actions. I once lived a life where I constantly chose to limit my joy. Because of my belief system, it had to be hard to produce results (as in non-enjoyable). Now, hard work is important, but not at the expense of your health and family and living a joyful life. We also cannot sit back and wait for things to knock on our door and for others to create happiness and abundance for us. We must take personal responsibility and action toward our goals. But that doesn't mean choosing the path with the most painful obstacles or the path you have deemed "responsible" is the best. I once chose a seemingly "responsible" path to become an attorney. I didn't choose this path because I was excited about the work. I chose it because it was good, honest work that I knew could be well paid for, and I had the necessary skills. I knew I would be good at it if I could achieve it. So, in a way, I didn't choose to be a lawyer - I chose a path of achievement. Thus, when I completed my law license in Minnesota at 23, I looked around and said, "Is this all there is?". I didn't like being a lawyer. But it was a hard-to-achieve and honorable profession, so I dove in head first, working myself to almost a full head of grey hair and chronic fatigue by age 27. I was well paid in a successful profession and ultimately miserable, but to the world, I was "successful." Inside, I was full of anxiety and despair. I began drinking every single day to manage the deep-seated anxiety and dissatisfaction from the weight of other people's problems. So, I chose to run away from it. I left Minnesota and ran to Seattle, Washington. I thought life on the West Coast would be different, that lawyers there would be different, that everything would be different. But wherever you go, THERE YOU ARE. I was still me, and instead of choosing my joy, I kept choosing the path of what the world told me success looked like. I needed a change and began searching for a new career. It wasn't surprising when I found myself taking the job as a project manager. Yes, it was a new career, but it was still wholly based on achievement, and I was ready to put on my work boots and fully (get things done) again! And I was good at it. I got the same sense of accomplishment and superficial pride because I was doing lots of work - but it was other people's work. Not my work. I was drinking less, but still too much. I was at least meditating with my Buddhist practice regularly. I achieved a state of OK, of just getting by, of occupying myself with the mundane. But I was still choosing to suppress my joy because I was ignoring my motivations for living. I was on the path of what I SHOULD do out of fear and scarcity and programming - and honestly, a complete unwillingness to face my negative ego that kept me a codependent functional alcoholic pretending that this is what life should be. Then, I found something that opened my eyes so wide that I couldn't continue to ignore my power to choose joy. I found access to my source of power, my will, my courage, my higher self. I found the ability to articulate what I enjoyed and what I wanted to create for myself. It was there all along, but I had buried it deep and ignored it for so long that the sound of my desire, intuition, and ...
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    13 min
  • Getting Your House in Order: What Do you Actually Desire in 2025? How to Co-Create with the Universe and Stop Getting Blocked by Your Tricky Ego

    Getting Your House in Order: What Do you Actually Desire in 2025? How to Co-Create with the Universe and Stop Getting Blocked by Your Tricky Ego
    Dec 31 2024
    "Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. " For reason, ruling alone, is a force confing, and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction. Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;and let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes." - Kahlil Gibran The Universe was like, "Nope - you don't get what you want." And I was like, "What the fuck?!" Last year at this time, I hit a shocking and painful wall in my life. I had leaned in hard to my spiritual training to reach a certification that I truly desired, and had spent a massive amount of time, energy and money in the process of trying to complete.. I was attempting to put down roots in Florida, but still standing in Seattle, and traveling frequently to Michigan and Toronto. The year before, December of 2022 I had officially moved to St. Augustine, Florida,I I had found a nice guy I liked spending time with. And, over most of 2023, this "nice guy" and I moved towards becoming serious, By Fall, we agreed to be with each other in a committed monogamous relationship. I, however, was still deep in the throes of my training, which meant spending much of my time flying between Seattle and Toronto.. . Unfortunately, despite the grueling hours, long nights and money spent, I failed my final exam and did not receive my certification. As I returned to Florida, there was not a part of me that was not exhausted. I was processing failure and grieving what I thought was meant to be mine. - I was ready to step back and redirect my attention. I was finally ready to settle deep into my beautiful beachside hometown in Florida, and pivot my desires into the arms of this relationship that had been placed on the backburner for too long. Or so I thought -It wasn't long after, I found out my nice guy was also seeing someone else and wasn't so nice after all. The days after, I went into shock.. All I wanted to do was go home. and cozy up to my boyfriend. And the Universe responded with an abrupt and harsh NO. - Again, what the fuck?! Not to mention, this wasn't the first time I had been cheated on. "How could this happen to me again? This pattern? This betrayal? What is wrong with me?" I began to think…but then I chose something different. I resisted the temptation of fully drowning myself in self pity and victimhood, - Instead I called in help. I reached out to some very wise and trustworthy friends, and asked for a reality check. One of those friends told me about a story of a woman who had died recently of something entirely preventable. The woman had been so focused on other people: pleasing them, helping them, doing for them, busying herself with all of their needs first, - she did not take care of herself. She ignored her basic needs and neglected her body as it began to tell her something was wrong.. AND IT KILLED HER. . . The preacher at her funeral said words that chilled me deep into my bones. "Get YOUR house in order. This woman is dead because of something entirely preventable. She was taking care of all of you, but forgot to first take care of herself. She chose to not first get her house in order before providing assistance to others, and paid the ultimate price. Yes, we should seek to help others, but we cannot pour from an empty cup." They were words my very weary mind, body and soul needed to hear. My house was not even close to being in order and I was exhausted from all the travel and fruitless endeavors. My car had been stolen, my arthritis was angry, my house had ants, my dog missed me, my boyfriend left me, and my businesses was suffering. I had failed to ground myself into this budding new home,because I was so busy running all over the country pursuing something that actually wasn't my dream. I began to really ask myself, "What is it that I actually want?" And the answers came. I I wanted a nice cozy, simple life with a man who enjoyed spending time with me. I wanted to be healthy and available to be of service to others with my light work and my law practice. I wanted to be figuring out my joy and passions again. I wanted to bask in the sunlight and sit on a beach. Was I doing any of this? Nope. And I was in deep despair and grieving so many things. My house was not in order. I made a vow to myself and placed these newfound prayers and intentions into my daily meditation.. I finally admitted a truth I had been hiding and distracting myself from - I wanted a partner. I wanted a home. I wanted to find my husband. My person. My mate. Someone who I could truly co-create with and share my life with., I was ...
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    12 min
  • Thanksgiving: The Real History of the Misunderstood Holiday of Gratitude

    Thanksgiving: The Real History of the Misunderstood Holiday of Gratitude
    Nov 11 2024
    I personally love Thanksgiving - if you've ever read my blog, Paprika Angel you will see my love of food and travel but also the time and energy I have spent preparing this meal for friends and loved ones and sometimes strangers for years. With minor exception I pull together 10 or more people to feast extravagantly every year, even if my funds are short. I always have found a way because I love to prepare and feed and make offerings at this time of year from a place of love. At one of my in person legal educational events last year, my door prize included a Turkey Day kit and the who won it said. "Oh, I don't celebrate Thanksgiving." and was offended by my gift. I stopped in my tracks, not to apologize, but for my naivety and surprise - as some still believe and or are wholly ignorant of what Thanksgiving as a National Holiday is about. So we are going to go down a little gobbler day history less here to reclaim any misconceptions of Thanksgiving back into the light. There were no docile aboriginals showing up at some saintly puritan pilgrims' feet offering them maize and turkeys. Our mythological buckled hat pilgrims straight off the Mayflower likely did not sit down at any table anywhere, let alone with the natives of the region we now call New England. There is however a 1st hand account in a letter form from around that time of the first English settlements of Prospectors (not religious pilgrims but gold hunters seeking riches in the new lands) that a "harvest festival" of sorts occurred over the course of weeks involving the hunting of wild game (deer, wild turkeys, bear) and the sharing of cranberries, gourds and tubers by the local native friendlies. Likely, the "settlers" were starving to death on their own with no knowledge of what was edible in the inhospitable places they chose to set up camp, and having no supplies from England left over, the aboriginals may have felt sorry for some of them and shown them what to do. Or for the sake of trading for weapons to gain strength over another nation, they brought the prospectors food. The original table is a myth taught to school children. Just as the belief that the original settlors came in the name of religious freedom and that Columbus discovered America. The actual first settlements in what is now the United States America were all about gold and riches. The actual first settlement in the United States in St. Augustine - and that was under the guise of saving souls by the Catholic church but it really was about the protection of Spanish gold from South America. But if there was truly to be a first North American Thanksgiving it would be the priests and Spanish military landing at what is now called St. Augustine and meeting The Timucuans, a truly kind and docile native people of Northeastern Florida, who took immediately to the prayers and symbols of the Catholic priests, and all of them celebrated together the mass and feast of St. Mary at El Nombre Dias (there is still in a cross in the ground today where this happened). They all prayed together, Timucuan, Spanish sailors and soldiers, Catholic priests - and they offered thanks and praise to god and the great mother, and they shared in a feast of shellfish provided to them by the friendly natives. But as England and Spain were rivals in the prospecting of North America for gold and riches, this story of a true first Thanksgiving (coming together in gratitude and prayer to the universal force that loves and protects us) is not in the common mythology of the United States. In fact it is buried in the annuls of Florida history as Florida did not become a state released from Spain until just before the US Civil War. So, let's move forward in time a bit to when we have a thriving New England after the Revolutionary war when we are an independent nation open to those seeking freedom of religion, opportunity to farm, and asylum from persecution. It was during these times that we have huge influxes of Puritans who had Thanksgiving as a time of prayer. Entire days devoted only to giving thanks to God for everything in creation. For a long time this day of prayer and observance was the equivalent of our modern day Christmas celebrations because in puritanical christian practice the giving of gifts and worshiping saints like the Catholics and Lutherans was looked down upon. Puritans were very austere and labeled any festivals as negative, wasteful, and involving satanic invitations. So instead they prayed and gave thanks and this holy time generally occurred around the beginning of November - the early parts of winter and the late stages of Autumn when it was important to count your blessings and prepare for the meager months ahead by working hard to fill your stores. Pigs and Poultry would be slaughtered and salted and prepped for winter storage. So there would be a time of feasting as things that couldn't be stored had to be used up to prevent ...
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    13 min
  • Forgiveness is FOR YOU - Let Go of the Hurt and Start Living Your Life

    Forgiveness is FOR YOU - Let Go of the Hurt and Start Living Your Life
    Oct 25 2024
    Forgiveness - the big F word. It sounds so simple but is the most difficult. Why is it so important to forgive? And how do we actually forgive? To forgive is to release the hold a hurt or injury has on your physical and metaphysical self. The release cuts the cord to the negative energy that is binding you to an old self and way of being. If you can let go of the attachment to the pain and lower frequency emotion, you will allow space in your heart to heal. And by healing from the heart you increase your capacity to love yourself and others. You raise your frequency to a higher vibrational state and attract more positive things and people to yourself. This is why forgiveness isn't for the person you forgive. It is FOR YOU. Forgiving ourselves and others is absolutely necessary for us to be able to grow, shift and evolve. And evolution/evolving is essential to living your highest life. If we trap ourselves in a box and refuse to change and grow, we lose access to so much abundance. . Our energy is instead occupied and used to hold on to the past. And then we get physically or mentally sick. We become sick and tired and then we get angry because we are sick and tired of being sick and tired and then we start to blame everything outside ourselves for the illness taking over our lives. When the perpetrator of all of it is the person in the mirror. Our refusal to evolve. Our fear of change. Our attachments to the status quo. Our inability to forgive ourselves for our mistakes are all chains. If we choose forgiveness we can liberate ourselves. . Flush it down the proverbial toilet and free up all that energy to actually live our life. And living life is worth more than the need to hold on to the hurt. But how? That is the big question. As this is not an act we can think ourselves into. Overthinking exacerbates the challenge, it roots the pattern of regret and resentment, anger or feeling wronged, and triggering thoughts that "something is wrong with me,I'm broken, and unlovable" Thoughts create our reality. As within so without. So an intercessor of sorts is needed - our will, our heart that is connected to source - and our surrender to just that. Sweet surrender! By enacting the will to release it to God/Jesus/source - (whatever you name your universal power) and ask it to carry this hurt away from you. Surrender and activate the strength of your positive ego and the collective consciousness of the masters of light behind you to make it happen. We can call in Gods and Goddesses of forgiveness to help us, like Quan Yin, Jesus Christ, Holy Mother Mary, Buddha. So how do you forgive? Invite help from your source, activate the light from within you and your divine masters, surrender, radically accept that you cannot change the past but only the future, and then release! A year ago my brand new car was stolen. I meditated with Buddha and Jesus to reach the place of nonattachment. To forgive the thieves who took my car, as well as, some irreplaceable items near to my heart. I prayed for forgiveness for the thieves. "I forgive you," I would pray. And then I would say to myself, I forgive youfor leaving all the things I left in the car that disappeared with it. In the end it was stuff, but much of it was irreplaceable tools from my healing practice. This took focus, but in the end, it was easier to forgive than to accept the injury INTO my life. I held gratitude for the car and renters insurance to compensate me for what was lost and moved on. I let it go, and it gave myself new space and energy to focus on. I focused on what was going right in my life and forgave what wasn't. The example of losing material stuff is an easy one. Emotional forgiveness is much harder. A knife into the heart from someone you trust is one of the hardest wounds to heal and forgive. But it is also possible and when you reach that place you will stop the pattern from moving forward in your life. I speak from a place of great experience. I have been devastatingly betrayed at least 5 timesby past romantic partners The first time it happened I thought I had healed and moved on but I hadn't and it stunted my growth from age 22 to 45 years old. I played it safe (or so I thought) during those 23 years of life. I built walls so high around myself that I never thought I would be hurt again I cautiously entered relationships with men who didn't require me to be vulnerable. And I wasn't vulnerable. . I did not ever want to trust again because I never healed the first wound in my heart.. So, I settled for being in a guarded castle. And as a result, I invited in people to be romantic partners that felt no responsibility towards my heart and then replayed the same betrayal again and again. It was not until I took full personal responsibility for my choices and forgave myself that that specific knife in my heart could finally be ...
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    11 min
  • Why Gratitude? The Foundation of an Abundant Life

    Why Gratitude? The Foundation of an Abundant Life
    Sep 27 2024
    Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude. What really is gratitude? I speak about it all the time. I share with students, clients, and colleagues - gratitude is the foundation of an Abundance Mindset and living a joyful life. But why? What is really happening with a gratitude grounded life? Simply put, gratitude is the practice of appreciating what one has. On the next level it is the practice of appreciation for what one has, what one is given, and what one has lost. But it is more than that. It is a practice in being aware. To appreciate what one has - one must be first aware of what they have. To appreciate what one is given, one must be aware that they are being given things. And to appreciate and hold gratitude for what has been taken away or lost - one must have an even greater awareness of cause & effect and other subtle hermetic universal principles at work - so you can see the quote, unquote "loss" for what it truly is. So if one is actually grateful, and truly holds appreciation for everything in their life (even the unpleasant stuff), then you are in a place of high vibrational awareness, clarity and discernment. Holding true sight and acknowledgement of what is going on around you and the ability to access wisdom and discern what is actually happening at any given time. So, in short, gratitude = awareness. Awareness = discernment. Discernment = wisdom. Wisdom = Discernment. Discernment = Awareness. Awareness = gratitude. And thus, we have a positive thought cycle occurring which allows us to live a joyful abundant life in flow with the universe even if our circumstances are filled with opportunity and challenge. In fact, we are more likely to seek opportunities and challenges because we have awareness, because we know that those difficult things we face are the fertilizer for the joy we grow. A joyful life is not one without difficulties or sorrow. We all experience loss and grief in life because life ends. We lose loved ones to death. This is the only certainty in life. That this physical life ends. And along the way in our life we have people we love, and they grow old and die, or they are young and die from illness or tragedy. These are huge losses. But we continue. And those of us who learn in life how to continue and thrive are those who realize and are aware that this cycle in the physical body is not about learning how to survive - because that is the one impossible task. None of us get out alive. This experience in the physical body is about learning how to live and to see the glory that is everything we are given, everything we have, and everything we experience—even the losses. Jesus said to his disciples when you can truly SEE, then you will enter the kingdom of heaven. He was talking about discernment and gratitude. True awareness. When you can truly see what life offers you are capable of gratitude, and when you have awareness, gratitude and discernment - you enter the kingdom of heaven—a joyful life. What is more heavenly than to be able to look at a shit storm in your life and say Thank You Universe for this opportunity. I am so grateful I had this experience. I've been reflecting on gratitude all month. At the end of August I had the opportunity to be faculty for an attorney retreat and intensive where we engaged in some serious learning about different life insurance vehicles and annuities interspersed with meditation, personal development, and fun outdoor activities.We pushed ourselves out of our comfort zones in order to learn and shift ourselves and our practices for the sake of being better advisors to our clients. For me, I was also there holding a container for everyone to meditate and grow within, while keeping the focus on gratitude. Because with gratitude we can learn better, we can accept change better, we can live better. It is an essential element to anyone's life but especially for times of change, growth, and obstacles. And in order to change how one does something, or accept and adapt to a forced change we have to expend energy - we have to move out of the groove we have been in to shift into a new one. No more autopilot. Time to expend effort little by little every day until we get to the new phase of our becoming. Gratitude helps us with this because when we start with awareness and recognition of everything we have in our environment to support us (even if it is just out own wits), and we see just how good it is, then we do not have to expend energy worrying about the lack and attracting more lack, we aren't running away from anything, we are moving towards something. And if that which we focus on expands it continues in the positive manifestation zone and we manifest that which we desire to bring about, versus that which we are trying to leave behind. As an attorney, I find it exceptionally important to always be finding ways to hold gratitude and create containers for my clients that allow them to move ...
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    11 min
  • Are You Stuck? Feeling Trapped? Shake it off, Time to Get Back Into Flow!

    Are You Stuck? Feeling Trapped? Shake it off, Time to Get Back Into Flow!
    Aug 22 2024
    "Do as I do, be as I am. " Jesus Christ "When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too." Paulo Coelho (author of The Alchemist) Sometimes we forget who we are. Sometimes we think, is this all there is? And if that is true, what is the point of all of this? We all can feel stuck. Trapped even. Unable to get out of the web of the choices we made to get to this point. And then when you are so wrapped in that silky meshy mess, panicking that the gross scary spider is going to come and get you that you lose sight of everything but the panic! The fear! The NEED to get OUT before the monster gets you! Then before you know it, this is what your life is - survival and fear. Trapped in a web and trying to get out. No longer are you actually going anywhere. You are just GETTING OUT. But "getting out" is not a destination. And OUT! Is driven by fear which has us thrashing around so much that we just wrap the web even thigh around ourselves so it is now even harder to achieve. It is like one of those Chinese finger traps,you played with as a kid - the harder you pull against it, the tighter it binds you. But if we stop thrashing and fighting and fearing The Monster (the unknown). If we breathe and take a moment and ask ourselves. Where am I? Who am I? Where am I going? What do I actually want? Where do I want to go? What do I WANT to be doing right now? (in the positive, the answer can't be ESCAPING or ESCAPISM behavior). If all options are on the table, what would I actually choose to be doing to spend my time if I wasn't so scared and spending all my energy beating back the tides of change, fear, and all the things I don't want? If you could articulate in the positive a destination. I want to be writing a book. I want to go to the gym twice a week. I want a job that fulfills me. I want to have a conversation with my partner. I want an abundant family. I want to laugh. Do you see where I am going with this? What can you articulate in the positive? What do you aspire for yourself? And yeah maybe your mind will say it's a pipe dream. But you know what? It is YOUR pipe dream. And if it brings you joy and light - why is it silly to aspire for that, and to do that, instead of just surviving? instead of just "getting away from THIS." Because running away is not a destination. Getting away is not a goal. It is running from the monster. Running away from the monster is not running to something at all - it is getting you lost deeper in the woods and going right into the belly of the beast. If you feel trapped and depressed or scared of what is to come. What if you were not spending all of your time on surviving, on beating back the fear, or trying to get away? If you hate your job and every night you come home and drink a bottle of wine - what is that doing? That is just numbing the pain from the job you hate. Is it getting you a new job that is fulfilling? Is it raising your vibration to a place where you can see a new alternative? Is it giving you anything but escape? Yeah you are surviving the pain. But is that a life? Surviving and enslaved to something you hate? Our negative ego is a real motherfucker. It makes us believe that running away is a solution. It says STAY SAFE! Don't leave this box. HIDE! Outside this box is failure - is the inability to pay your bills. Outside, is the eternal question, are you dying alone? Because it says you are not good enough. You don't deserve nice things. You are not capable. No one likes you. That is for other people. Other people write books, other people take fabulous vacations, other people get graduate degrees and careers they actually enjoy. It is an insidious record that keeps playing over and over again - that keeps you thrashing in the spider web you spun yourself. Keeps you making choices that keep you trapped in a cycle of fear and miserable-ness and not progressing toward something that will actually bring you satisfaction and joy. And here is the secret. It is not in some new age book from the early 2000s called, The Secret or even just positive thinking, or in that next social media influencers webinar about the 10 steps to financial freedom and happiness. It is none of those things. It is in the most simple (but hard to practice) axiom of Know Thyself. Know thyself as God. Know thy own needs and wants. Your thoughts create your reality. Hermetic Principle #1 - All is Mind. 99% of your success in creating a change in your life comes from how you feel about the situation because every feeling creates a thought, and every thought is acted upon. So if we feel good about where we are going, and are actually consciously choosing where we are going, and know in your heart of hearts that where you are going is what you actually want to do - then you will follow that gratitude filled feeling, into a gratitude and hope filled thought, ...
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    20 min
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