REMEMBER YOUR SPIRITUAL SIDE

"The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays."
-- Soren Kierkegaard

Reminding ourselves often of our spiritual natures truly changes the quality of our lives. It helps us relax, slow down, lighten up, and generally find more space and joy in life.

When we get down on ourselves or life, we can pull back and ask, "How might my soul regard this situation? What am I being invited to experience?"

This shift in perspective helps us let go of the resistance that always comes with negativity. As energy once again begins to flow, our outlook brightens.

"Spirituality is the sacred center out of which all life comes, including Mondays and Tuesdays and rainy Saturday afternoons in all their mundane and glorious detail. ... The spiritual journey is the soul's life commingling with ordinary life."
-- Christina Baldwin

"It is not my business to think about myself. My business is to think about God. It is for God to think about me."
-- Simone Weil

What is soul? What is personality? How do the two work together? Explore your own spirituality

THE SOURCE OF ANGER

"Anger is that powerful internal force that blows out the light of reason."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

How does anger typically surface in your life?

We usually get angry at someone, don't we? We judge that someone has done something wrong and we want them to be punished.

In truth, the actions of others are never to blame. It's our thinking - our blaming and judgment - that causes the anger. And we blame and judge because we have a need that has not been met.

In his book 'Nonviolent Communication,' Marshall B. Rosenberg advises that rather than blame others, we are better served by directing our energy towards meeting our own needs.

He offers a simple tool for change. Instead of saying, 'I am angry because they ...' we can say, 'I am angry because I am needing ....'

"At the core of all anger is a need that is not being fulfilled."
-- Marshall B. Rosenberg

"How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it."
-- Marcus Aurelius

REVIEW AND RECOMMIT

"Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Just think: When we are driving, we know where we want to go and we plot out our route. When we plan and prepare a meal, we follow a recipe and monitor the food as it cooks.

How much attention do we give to planning the direction of our lives?

Taking the time to review our quality of life gives us a chance to re-evaluate what we are doing and where we want to go. It lets us fine-tune our direction, to ensure we are on track for what we most want.

Stop and think about your last 6 months. What did you learn? What would you like to do differently? Where do you want to recommit?

"Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up."
-- A. A. Milne

"Always have a plan, and believe in it. Nothing happens by accident."
-- Chuck Knox

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper...

THINK FOR YOURSELF

"I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself."
-- Rita Mae Brown

Where do you need to think for yourself?

When we begin to cultivate awareness of our thoughts and emotions, we begin to see just how much we live according to other people's and society's beliefs and actions. Don't get upset by this. Just get in touch with how you really think and feel inside and begin to express your authenticity.

"Once in a while it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way they have been told to."
-- Alan Keightley

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are

WHAT BLOCKS CONNECTION?

"People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges."
-- Joseph F. Newton

We experience soul when we really connect with life -- when we stop and consciously experience what is happening.

We lose soul with:
• resistance - to anyone or anything
• superficiality - we avoid depth of experience
• control - we try to control the relationship
• selfishness - we remain self-centered.

Each of these attitudes fosters separation rather than connection. Once again, soul lives in relating.

Take time to become aware of, and perhaps journal on how you relate to other people and things in your life.

"We have to decide for ourselves what's nourishing to our souls, and do those things over others."
-- Thomas Moore

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper...

BRING AWARENESS TO YOUR GENEROSITY

"Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment."
-- Jean De La Bruyère

While it's important to give, it's also essential that we not give more than we can afford. Only you can determine the appropriate amount of time or money you can give away, but it should not cause you hardship. We need to respect our own needs as well as the needs of others.

When do you give more than you can afford?

"Generosity is another quality which, like patience, letting go, non-judging, and trust, provides a solid foundation for mindfulness practice. You might experiment with using the cultivation of generosity as a vehicle for deep self-observation and inquiry as well as an exercise in giving."
-- Jon Kabat Zinn

HEALTH AND HELP

"More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones."
-- Mother Teresa

If we are prompted to ask for spiritual blessings for ourselves or others, how do we best do this?

Speaker Kimberly Herkert offers that it is best to simply ask the divine for health and help. As human beings, we are not capable of seeing the big picture for anyone's situation. As a result, we are not able to judge what is best for anyone, including ourselves.

The Higher Power always knows best, and the general prayer for 'health and help' acknowledges the wisdom that exists there and our faith in divine will.

"God answers prayer in His own way, not ours."
-- Mohandas Gandhi

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

GIVE TO YOURSELF FIRST

"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."
-- Epictetus

Do you want more in your life? More love? More happiness? More money? More satisfaction? Then explore how you can BE more.

In the Delfin Knowledge System, Leslie Fieger advises, "You can have more when you are willing to give more. You must begin this process by giving more to yourself. Give yourself more time; give yourself more attention; give yourself more love; give yourself more of what you want. Then decide how to offer the more that you are (and have) to the world and you will receive even more back in return."

"Let the waters settle you will see stars and moon mirrored in your Being."
-- Rumi

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

When I was in active addiction, I had no values. Any spiritual principles that I had been raised with seemed to have disappeared or didn't seem to matter.

In today, I live by the spiritual principles of the Steps and the values I was taught growing up are now back integrated into my life.

Integrity for me mean to walk your talk. Don't say one thing and do something else. As the saying doesn't say, "Do what I say, don't do what I do." It is doing what you say.

http://angelwinks.ca/images/faithpod/faithpod49.jpg

ARE YOU SERVING?



"You may be good, but what are you good for? You've got to be good for something. You’ve got to be about some project, some task that requires you to be humble and obedient to the universal principles of service."
-- Stephen R. Covey

"We had to learn ourselves, and furthermore we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life but instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life, daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for the individual."
-- Victor Frankl

"If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room."
-- Anita Roddick

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

TIME TO CHANGE DIRECTION?



"Employ the power of positive quitting. Most of us view quitting as something negative, but it’s not. 'Winners never quit,' we're told, when, in reality, winners quit all the time: choosing to stop doing things that aren’t creating the results they desire. When you quit all the things that aren’t working for you, when you quit tolerating all the negative things that hold you back, you'll create a positive ‘charge’ in your life as well as create the space in your life for more positive experiences."
-- Jim Allen

"I like thinking of possibilities. At any time, an entirely new possibility is liable to come along and spin you off in an entirely new direction. The trick, I've learned, is to be awake to the moment."
-- Doug Hall

"Persons and societies do not submit passively to surroundings and events. They make choices as to the places where they live and the activities in which they engage -- choices based on what they want to be, to do and to become. Furthermore, persons and societies often change their goals and ways; they can even retrace their steps and start in a new direction if they believe they are on a wrong course. Thus, whereas animal life is prisoner of biological evolution which is essentially irreversible, human life has the wonderful freedom of social evolution which is rapidly reversible and creative. Wherever human beings are concerned, trend is not destiny."
-- Rene Dubos

Confused about what you want and where you're going? We'll support you in getting clear so you can plan your life and live your plan! Take our online personal goal setting workbook with daily email support. Discover the empowerment that comes with focus!

CO-CREATION



"[Manifestation is] the art of fashioning a co- creative, synchronistic, and mutually supportive relationship between the inner creative energies of a person's own mind and spirit and their counterpart within the larger world in order to bring a new and desirable situation into being."
-- David Spangler

I have always understood that Spirit works through us. Only recently have I really come to appreciate how Spirit works WITH us. The divine life force partners with our unique perspective, our passion and our skills to create new life situations.

We are not passive vessels for God's will. To realize our highest potential, we must co-create with the divine.

"We must see ourselves as co-manifestors -- partners in manifestation -- all engaged in the primal act of unfoldment and emergence. Each act of manifestation may be directed toward a specific outcome, but it also contributes to the greater manifestation of the wholeness, love, compassion, and creativity of the primal source from which we all come."
-- David Spangler

What is personality? What is soul? How do they interact? Experience the power of living soulfully in the present moment.

WHAT ARE YOU FEELING?



"We know too much and feel too little. At least, we feel too little of those creative emotions from which a good life springs."
-- Bertrand Russell

Many of the qualities that bring fulfilment in life are feelings, like love, joy, freedom and gratitude.

In our overly rational world, we tend to think about how we feel, which, of course, is not feeling at all -- it's thinking.

Honour your feelings and be willing to experience them. They give us valuable feedback about what is and what is not working in our lives. They are the signposts to meaningful inner work.

"With just a little education and practice on how to manage your emotions, you can move into a new experience of life so rewarding that you will be motivated to keep on managing your emotional nature in order to sustain it. The payoff is delicious in terms of improved quality of life."
-- Doc Childre

Explore and get in touch with your feelings.

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life. Discover a whole new way of working with life's challenges.

LABELS LIMIT US



"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."
-- Lao Tzu

How do you label yourself? How do you label others?

Be aware that any label is limiting. Labels stick us in a box where there's no room to move. Today, experience how it feels to let go of the labels to rest in 'I am.' Feel the freedom, the spaciousness, the infinite potential of simply being.

"As long as I am this or that, I am not all things."
-- Meister Eckhart

"Your only limitations are those you set up in your mind, or permit others to set up for you."
-- Og Mandino

Meditation is a powerful tool for experiencing 'I am.' *** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate.

SPEAK FOR YOURSELF



"An open ear is the only believable sign of an open heart."
-- David Augsburger

We can easily get into trouble in relationships when we assume that we know what someone else is thinking or feeling. Parents, in particular, can be quick to judge what's going on in their children.

Rather than assuming we know someone else's experience, we could shift our perceptions into questions. Instead of saying, 'I know you're hurting,' we could ask, 'Are you feeling hurt?' This allows us to connect with the other with no risk of misunderstandings.

"It's always wise to raise questions about the most obvious and simple assumptions."
-- C. West Churchman

"To assume is to be deceived."
-- Yiddish proverb

WHAT'S ON YOUR HOT LIST?

"The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want."
-- Ben Stein

A Hot List is basically a to-do list with one key difference: it only includes topics or tasks that really matter to you, those that genuinely affect your quality of life. You know -- the ones you never get around to! The ones that will make your life your own!

Keep a prioritised Hot List handy to remind you to claim 5 to 15 minutes to focus on and write about what counts in your life. Even 5 minutes is better than nothing. Start small and the momentum will build.

"You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage -- pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically -- to say 'no' to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger 'yes' burning inside."
-- Stephen Covey

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper....

STOP THE BATTLES

"When you fight something, you're tied to it forever. As long as you're fighting it, you’re giving it power."
-- Anthony de Mello

What are you fighting?

Resistance always brings pain. Examine your struggle. What does your personality want from the situation? What does your soul want? What can you learn from this?

Always strive to mend separation and achieve unity. Always choose love over fear. If you can embrace whatever you are struggling against, the struggle will disappear.

"What you resist persists. And only what you look at, and own, can disappear. You make it disappear by simply changing your mind about it."
-- Neale Donald Walsch

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

LAUGH!

"We don't laugh because we're happy, we're happy because we laugh."
-- William James

Why laugh?

Laughter nourishes the soul and triggers joy. It's a natural stress reliever. It stimulates the immune system and increases oxygen, stamina and our breathing capacity. Medical literature is full of reasons to laugh for the health of it.

Don't rely upon your funny friends, favorite sit-com or jokes to tickle your funny bone -- just laugh for the joy of it!

"Laughter is like the human body wagging its tail."
-- Anne Wilson Schaef

STEP BY STEP

"The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time."
-- Sydney Smiles

When I get overwhelmed by the number of tasks on my to- do list, I remind myself that the only way to get anywhere is step by step. And I cover the most distance in the journey of my life when I take a moment to decide which step will bring the greatest rewards.

"Often he who does too much does too little."
-- Italian Proverb

"If you chase two rabbits, both will escape."
-- Source Unknown

SMILE!

"Smile, it's free therapy."
-- Doug Horton

I've learned that if I put a smile on my face when I'm feeling down, my spirits will automatically lift. The body knows that a smile means happiness.

Knowing this doesn't mean I'm always willing to do it. Many times, I have absolutely refused to cheer myself up. Isn't that interesting!

It's a clue that sometimes the ego positively enjoys being miserable. It can be enlightening to explore the pay-offs we get from our black moods.

"Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there is never any recourse to the mention of it."
-- Samuel Johnson

Become aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations.

ARE YOU IN INTEGRITY?

"In order to live a rich life, everything about who you are must be one, in alignment, and in pure harmony."
-- Suze Orman

For clear and honest expression, our thoughts, speech and actions must all be congruent. We will not stand in our power if we are inadvertently sending mixed messages-if we say one thing and do another.

I found it helpful to consciously identify the values that matter most to me. With these values in mind, it's easier to ensure I'm living them.

"Honor your integrity and you will be repaid many times over with increased prosperity."
-- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

COMMITMENTS TO SERVE

"Our deepest need is for the joy that comes with ...knowing we are of genuine use to others."
-- Eknath Easwaran

Holding an intention to be in service shapes our overall attitude towards life in many ways. For example, it brings a greater sensitivity and awareness of others, a commitment to harmlessness, a willingness to put others' needs before our own and a desire to be in harmony with all.

An attitude of service also involves a willingness to be served when we truly need support.

"... there is no such thing as just existing. Everything is in service to everything else. Existence is giving and receiving. A stone gives and receives no less than a saint."
-- Jacob Needleman

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

STRUGGLING WITH A DECISION?

"You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind."
-- Dale Carnegie

My anxiety level spiked the other day as I wrestled with whether to choose option A or option B. I was so afraid of making the wrong choice!

And then I remembered, with deep gratitude, Susan Jeffers' sage advice: There are no wrong decisions! Whatever we might choose in life will bring valuable experiences if we are open to receive them.

"Lighten up! Whatever happens as a result of your decision, you'll handle it!"
-- Susan Jeffers

THINKING OF POVERTY OR WEALTH?

"Being poor is a frame of mind."
-- Mike Todd

What do you think of money?

Our beliefs create our reality. If you have struggled with money most of your adult life, chances are that something happened when you were young to create limiting beliefs around money and prosperity. Look back to your early years. What beliefs did your parents and other influential adults have about money? Chances are you're also carrying those beliefs. Are they serving you?

"The law of abundance is that everything replicates after its own kind. Like is attracted to like. If you want more wealth, concentrate of wealth; think thoughts of abundance and wealth."
-- Delfin Knowledge System

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically!

JUDGMENT CREATES

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."
-- Mother Teresa

We know the power of thoughts to create. Consider, then, the impact of our judgments. When we judge someone critically, those judgments have the power to affect the one being judged, if they are open to our perceptions. This is the case even when we don't say what we're thinking.

For example, if I judge someone to be fat, and that individual perceives him or herself to be fat and is sensitive to the opinions of others, my thoughts will reinforce their 'fat' experience.

Being aware of the impact of our judgments helps us let go of our tendency to judge.

"There are three kinds of violence: one, through our deeds; two, through our words; and three, through our thoughts. ...The root of all violence is in the world of thoughts, and that is why training the mind is so important."
-- Eknath Easwaran

*** Restart building a new foundation for your life. Clear blocks and transform your life.

GROWING THROUGH AWARENESS OF MONEY

"What is [the role of money] in the search for meaning? Is our relationship to it one of the chief factors that keeps us in our prison, or could it also be a tool for breaking out, for awakening to a life filled with intensity of purpose?"
-- Jacob Needleman

How do you relate to money?

Money is a powerful tool for growth. Pay sharp attention to your thoughts, emotions, reactions and actions where money is involved. Don't judge what you find; just be aware of what's going on. Your growing awareness will automatically support changes in your behaviour.

"What we're after in Prospering is nothing less than a major shift in consciousness-in the attitudes, beliefs, and ideas you have about yourself and your relationship to money."
-- Jerrold Mundis

ATTACHMENT

"The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly."
-- Saint John of the Cross

"Attachment to spiritual things is... just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else."
-- Thomas Merton

"The tighter you squeeze, the less you have."
-- Zen Saying

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper...

MAKING LIFE OUR OWN

"Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways."
-- Stephen Vincent Benet

What's needed for a new relationship with time and life?

Intention -- Get really clear about what you want.

Desire -- How much do you want something new for yourself? Know your motivation. Desire brings the energy for change.

Belief and/or willingness to trust you can have what you want. If belief is lacking, can you believe in the possibility that you can find a new way of living?

Perseverance, discipline -- It takes time and effort to change attitudes and habits. We can't expect a new life overnight.

Acceptance, both of what's happening now and of who we are. Until we honestly and openly accept our present situation, we cannot change it.

A willingness to try something new.

"It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes. ... It is so easy to exist instead of live. Unless you know there is a clock ticking. So many of us changed our lives when we heard a biological clock and decided to have kids. But that sound is a murmur compared to the tolling of mortality."
-- Anna Quindlen

THE EYES OF THE SOUL

Today, we want to share a passage from Martia Nelson's book, 'Coming Home':
"My greatest teacher was the experience of living in split realities: personality and true self. Personality is our daily companion, our conscious self that sees the world through the eyes of limitation and dutifully keeps us informed about what we can and cannot do. True self, on the other hand, patiently stands by, offering the unwavering knowledge that a state of vibrant well- being and unlimited possibility is our true nature, a birthright that can be lived if we choose to do so. ... True self simply refers to the aspect of our being that is completely aware of its expanded nature no matter what we may be experiencing at the time."

Whenever we feel constrained, fearful, unworthy, inadequate or anything we deem to be negative, we have identified with our personality. We can always choose to view the same situation from the perspective of our soul.

"As a Witness, you begin to discover that you are not that which you have been observing; you are not those things that you have been noticing about your body. Instead, you are the noticer."
-- Wayne Dyer

Is your spiritual development important to you?

QUESTIONS THAT AREN'T HELPFUL

"We accept many notions because they seem to be the logical answers to our questions. But have we asked the right questions?"
-- Harold L. Klawans

Sometimes we ask questions for which we really don't want the answer! Nonetheless, when we ask a question, our subconscious minds will get to work to answer us.

Here are some examples of questions we want to avoid:

What's wrong with me?
How long could this take?
What could go wrong?
How much trouble could it be?
How hard could it be?
Asking questions can be empowering - as long as they're smart questions!

"The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions."
-- Anthony Jay

TIME FOR STILLNESS

"We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget that the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it's all about."
-- Joseph Campbell

The sages all say that the path to liberation is found in entering the stillness within. To experience that stillness, we need to be willing to regularly stop the activity for a while.

How do we do this in a busy life? We set our priorities. Perhaps it means giving up a TV program or using a coffee break to grab a few moments of solitude. Perhaps we have to ask our partner, relative or neighbour to give us 30 minutes of time away from the kids. If we really want something, we can make it happen.

"Learn to pause... or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you."
-- Doug King

*** Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate. Learn to meditate with new exercises weekly.

ACCEPTING REALITY

"...self-contempt never inspires lasting change."
-- Jane R. Hirschmann and Carol H. Munter

I can suck myself down into a deep, black hole when I focus on what I think I SHOULD be... more loving, sexy, productive, whatever. Thinking I should be something else means I'm not good enough now. This is poverty thinking and a guaranteed way to be miserable.

I can let go of this suffering by accepting WHAT IS. I can say, "This is how I am right now and that's okay."

When I first tried this, I could say it but not believe it. Then I began to experience the freedom this perspective brings - just by changing my mind! Now I'm beginning to believe it. What a gift!

"When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless."
-- Byron Katie

Become aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations.

SPEAK KINDLY TO YOURSELF

"What is this self inside us, this silent observer, Severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us, And urge us on to futile activity, And in the end, judge us still more severely, For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us?"
-- T. S. Eliot

How do you talk to yourself? Would you talk that way to anyone else?

Our thoughts create our reality. How do you typically think about yourself? Do you berate yourself for being stupid, sloppy, forgetful or insensitive? Do you watch yourself with interest, respect and compassion? Stay alert to your self-talk and let go of judgments that don't serve you.

"Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship to myself."
-- Nathaniel Branden

Our process is clear. First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'. Are you ready to commit to changing your life for the better?

LIMITED PERSPECTIVES

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

We never have enough information to enable us to fully understand the truth of the reality around us. And there is never only one correct perspective about anything.

Knowing this helps me let go of my tendency to label things as good or bad. I suffer least when I can accept reality just as it is. And I benefit most when I open my heart and mind in appreciation.

"If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now."
-- Marcus Aurelius

*** Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are.

BEWARE OF DUTY

"Should is an ordinary, everyday word -- except when it is used to indicate an order that may not be refused. Then should becomes a finger waving under the nose. ...Should users build prison cells for themselves. They are so focused on what they should do -- that they cannot think about what they can do, what they might do in the future."
-- Dr. Arthur Freeman and Rose Dewolf

Many of us have been taught to do our duty. What does this imply to you? For me, 'doing my duty' means doing something I really don't want to do. My heart's not in it, and so the energy for the act isn't there. I have to force every move. Usually, there's underlying resentment. When this is the scenario, tasks may get done but there's no gift to the world.

We do not truly serve the world if we give to others but neglect our own truth and our own needs. It's only when our own needs are fully met that we can generously and whole-heartedly give of ourselves. It's not selfish to look after ourselves -- it's essential!

"To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart."
-- Pearl S. Buck

*** Do you feel an urge or calling in you to be or do more? Then honour it and open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose. Maybe it is time to do life instead of life doing you!

TO SUPPORT OR NOT

"It is not helpful to help a friend by putting coins in his pockets when he has got holes in his pockets."
-- Douglas Hurd

Are you struggling financially because you are helping another adult who is being irresponsible around money?

Without intending to do so, we can keep people dependent when we are willing to financially rescue them. Enablers typically feel it's their duty to help out. They may see giving money as an expression of love. Unfortunately, they may lose their own financial security as a result.

As hard as it may be to do, the solution may lie in forcing the dependent to find his or her own way financially. In this case, it's not selfish to not lend a hand -- it actually serves the highest interests of all. Learning personal responsibility can be a tough road but it's a necessary one for empowerment.

"Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon them and to let them know that you trust them."
-- Booker T. Washington

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically!

ARE YOU IN INTEGRITY?

"In order to live a rich life, everything about who you are must be one, in alignment, and in pure harmony."
-- Suze Orman

For clear and honest expression, our thoughts, speech and actions must all be congruent. We will not stand in our power if we are inadvertently sending mixed messages-if we say one thing and do another.

I found it helpful to consciously identify the values that matter most to me. With these values in mind, it's easier to ensure I'm living them.

"Honor your integrity and you will be repaid many times over with increased prosperity."
-- Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

*** Tackle your financial challenges holistically!