Moving Forward

During 2016, I completed my PhD and checked off a huge career milestone. There are so many people I am grateful to, encouraging me to the finish line. I am sure I will blog more about this later this month. I can now get my life back. Wait a minute.... Life has drastically changed. What will I do now? I now have time to actually take care of myself. Practicing unconditional love toward myself is very hard. It is hard for me to not look toward others for strength. However, this year I am committed to learning how to practice extreme self care, focusing attention to spiritual growth, health, and home. I want to create a healthier balanced life, a new start, and leverage resources to live a creative, joyful, peaceful and abundant life. To kick this off, I have entered a 5K on Saturday, thanks to the encouragement of a good friend. Other friends are helping me by suggesting recipes, possible fitness centers, books, and I even had someone suggest that I subscribe to Dawn Jackson Blatne...

I am continuing to work on myself and considering life goals and progress over the last year. This last year, I have been reminded on the importance of learning to value yourself. It takes time to work on yourself. After two years of counseling and completing many life goals and accomplishments, I find that I sometimes still struggle and feel overwhelmed as a single parent. I have learned the importance of life purpose, focus, to not react, the importance of boundaries, and have identified behaviors that I deserve in relationships with other people. I made a list of personality traits in August and this has helped me keep myself in check. Many friends and family would say the following to me. Learn to love yourself. How do you do this? I still struggle at times but feel my family is making great gains. Be positive and live a life of purpose.  Give to others without people knowing.  Faith in God will carry you through. You are a light and are protected.  Take action...

Reminders on how we can be kinder to ourselves. Responsibility Versus Blame: Responsibility is making a conscious choice on how you will respond to a situation or idea. How can you learn from this experience? What can you learn from this experience? Blame creates guilt, guilt creates punishment and punishment creates pain. Respond to yourself and life in a loving way. Relax and Meditate: Relaxation is essential to the healing process. We can't heal if we are tense. Mediation and deep breathing helps to be centered. Tell yourself that you love you and all is well. Notice how much easier your body is. Do this several times a day. What is it you need to know today? You can consider this question during meditation. Meditation creates the space in which we can quiet down and listen to your inner self. Become connected to yourself, through meditation. Affirmations : Praise yourself as much as you can daily. Tell yourself, I love you. What can you do today to make yourself happy? ...

With the start of the school year, many regroup to reconsider goals. The two year anniversary of my divorce was last weekend and I found myself in a place of reflection. My family has learned so much these last two years. I am much stronger and cognizant of my surroundings, purpose, behaviors, and reactions to situations. None of us are perfect, but we need to be aware and conscious on how we react to situations. Is our reaction coming from a spirit of love, or is the reaction rooted in fear or anger? Here are some goals I hope to remind myself to consider this fall. Learn to cultivate gratitude. Care for your neighbors and community. Practice 3 outcomes or results that you are committed to 6 months out. For me wrapping up PhD hopefully in September, graduation in December, and health. Love is shown through ACTION, not words. How do you show love in all that you do? Care less, but love more. Fear and anger are the two emotions that hurt individuals the most. Fear or worry is...