40 Days

 Today, set your intention for the 40 day journey that begins tomorrow.

What do you want to create, renew,

 begin or let go of?

 How do you want to feel in 40 days?  Write it in your journal. Say it out loud. Feel that feeling now as you get a clear picture of your future self… and walk toward it.

 You are powerful beyond measure. You have energy and intention. You can chose and create. You can harness the wind. Committed to being a conscientious steward of the lifeforce inside us - we send love and courage to pave the path before us as we begin our practice. 

Godspeed. 

 Rare are the occasions when things fall fully formed out of the sky and into our laps. Most often, the things we desire are created by our actions.  "Do the thing and you will have the power" said Ralph Waldo Emerson.  His meaning becomes clear when you do the work. The prayer, the exercise, the meditation, the research, the decluttering, the resting, the clean eating, the giving, the refraining, the loving, the forgiving, the self care, the finishing, the beginning... Whatever you have set out to DO on this journey will give you a POWER yet unknown.  The power is a higher vibration and an inner strength that feels new - yet totally familiar - like it was waiting for you all along to come forward and claim it.  So, on we go...to do the thing. 

Millions of people just agreed that it used to be This O'clock and now it's That O'clock. We assimilated the change because we knew it was coming. We talked about it. We walked around the house adjusting our devices.  Take time today to share your Intention for this journey with Your Own Heart.  Dialogue with your Inner Council.  Write it down for Them. Spell it out. Let the deepest parts of you know that you are making a change...for the better.

 "All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to us." - J.R.R. Tolkien  

 We have decided what we want to do with our time on this journey.   And - we can honor that life circumstances and personal wiring may make time management challenging.  Enlist support from family, friends, a coach, therapist - even sticky notes!   Right now - support yourself.  Close your eyes and enjoy a full minute of seeing yourself easily working your intention into your day. 

Our journey is to align with and act on our intention. We are rewiring our brain and creating new neural pathways. A brain is a sly, sly thing! I had a guest on the Shine On Show tell me when McDonald's put salads on their menu - the sale of Big Macs went up dramatically. Brains were like, "What?! We can eat healthier?! That's GREAT! We'll do that NEXT time!"  Here's a workaround.   Each day, as many times as necessary, ask Your Higher Self, "What does my Future Self need from me right now?"  Your Highest Self only offers the delicacies found on the High Vibration Menu. Feed your future.  

"There is strength in numbers, yes,

 but even more so in collective good will. For those endeavors are supported by mighty unseen forces" - Richelle E. Goodrich

 We are not alone on this path. We have the strength of our ancestors in our DNA, we have unseen angels pushing us forward - and we have the power of this mighty group. Today - as you work with your intention - send love and support to the others on this path. Smile, knowing, we're cheering for you. 

 “Nana korobi ya oki" is Japanese for "fall down 7 times -  get up 8".   Yet - when you find yourself on your back, don't miss the opportunity to nourish yourself with Earth and Sky.  Today, several times a day, breathe into your connection to Heaven above and Earth below.  And then, rise up and move forward with your intention.  

“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” Joseph Campbell.    Feel the roots of your intention lovingly growing deep into the Earth...and smile knowing you are part of all creation.

What are the words your heart longs to hear - from your parents, children, partners, employers.... What do you wish someone would say to you? Say those words aloud to yourself today.  Feed your soul what it needs. 

"Ask for nothing less than inspiration." - Deepak Chopra.

 Imagine "11's" as columns reaching up 

and connecting us to the highest frequencies. 

 On this 11th day, ask for the energy you need.

 Ask for the support you need.

 Ask for all the inspiration you need to fully weave your intention into your life - and receive it. 

 Choose your mood.  

Ask yourself what you want to feel today and put it on.  

Choose "Happy with a splash of Kind". 

Or "Mildly Pleasant with a touch Humor". 

 Choose your head space the same way you would pick an outfit -

 and keep it on! 

 You wouldn't change your pants for someone - 

don't change your inner energy. 

 Remember what you're wearing today  😎 and work it.  

“Happiness depends upon ourselves.” —Aristotle

 Do not stress over a blunder! 

Flop. Faceplant. Fizzle.

Bobble. Bungle. Butcher. 

Goof. Blow. Suck!

You're on the path!

 "Success consists of going from 

failure to failure 

without losing enthusiasm." 

- Winston Churchill 

two weeks into to our 40 day Journey. 

Let's revisit our intentions and renew our commitment.  Speak your wishes out loud again. Let your angels hear it!  

Write your goals in your journal again. Recommit to your heart's desire. 

 Pinkies in! Let's promise to keep going.  💪"The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, 

regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” – Vince Lombardi

 If you're used to chaos, order may feel awkward.  If you're used to abuse, kindness may feel threatening. If you're used to failure, success may make you nervous. If you're used to going it alone, support may give you pause. Throw side eye - but cross the road.  " If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got." -  Henry Ford 

  "It's like all of my life everyone has told me you're a shoe. And then today I just stopped and said, "What if I don't want to be a shoe? What if I want to be a purse, you know?

 Or a hat?"  -Rachel Green, Friends. -

 Today, BE what you want to be. Act the part. 

“The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. 

No apologies or excuses. 

No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. 

The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible 

for the quality of it. 

This is the day your life really begins. 

- Bob Moawad.  

Today, enjoy the freedoms and graces that come with taking ownership of your beautiful life.

 Research says nearly 95% of the thoughts you think today will be the same thoughts you thought yesterday. 80% of today's thoughts will be negative. Intervene! Say something new. Do something new. 

Step out in your intention. 

“Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.” ― Deepak Chopra

Speak well of your life life. Raise the verbal vibration. Keep the air clean.  Bless your own heart and soul with the words you choose. Honor your intention by giving it a beautiful vessel  in which in can grow.  “Be happy with what you have while working for what you want.” Helen Keller 

20 Days into our 40 day journey. Perhaps you've noticed -  you're not alone. There's wise counsel within that supports you at every turn. There's a light that grows stronger with every success. 

There's a whisper that urges "try again ." 

 Today - smile back at the the light within.   

"You are not one you are a Thousand. Just Light your Lantern.” — Rumi

Molly Langman of Refinery29 wrote. "The 21-day rule is a myth. Or more accurately, it's a misinterpretation of something plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz wrote in his popular book about behavior, Psycho-Cybernetics. When Maltz did an operation on a patient — whether it was a nose job or a leg amputation — he noticed it would take them 21 days to adjust to the change in their body. Based on that, he wrote in his book that “it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve.” And, as this idea spread, people started dropping the “minimum of” part, writes James Clear, author of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones. But those two words are kind of important! Without them, the idea that it takes exactly 21 days to form a habit became a widely reported, widely repeated fact — when in reality, the whole idea is based on the opinion of one plastic surgeon. Day 21 - Let's pull each other forward. “Don’t give up. Keep going. there is always a chance that you stumble onto something terrific. I have never heard of anyone stumbling over anything while he was sitting down” ~ Ann Landers 

 Back in February I dove into 65 hours of Restorative Yoga Teacher Training. Duck to water, I was swimming - until - every bat out of hell flew into my hair to hiss directly into my ear. "Who do you think you are? Yoga at YOUR age? With YOUR thighs? Pitch, blease!" - I went for a massage. While Allision tackled my trapezius', I shared the saga of the hell bats. Allison cooed, "Oh...that's just a gate you have to walk through. You know that...." - What the hatha?? I did know that! And - I forgot it totally when the ego's game to "keep me safe" went into overtime. Shazam. I went back to class. Day 22 in our 40 day trek. If you come to doubt yourself...take a good look around...the monsters aren't real. Keep walking. Everything you want is on the other side of that gate.  - “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Marianne Williamson 

 Our mission today is to infuse our lives with love.  Send love to your coffee and the people who grew the beans.  Send love to your house and the people who built it. Send love to your bad knee and your good one.  Send love to the laundry and the washing machine. Everything around you is vibrating at a particular frequency. Feel what happens when you add love.  - “Deep at the center of my being there is an infinite well of love. I now allow this love to flow to the surface. It fills my heart, my mind, my consciousness, my very being and radiates out from me in all directions and returns to me multiplied” - Louise Hay

   "Act as if everything you desire is already here. Treat yourself as if you already are what you'd like to become" - Wayne Dyer. - Today, celebrate. Make a reservation. Schedule a spa day. Bring yourself flowers. Act as if you are at the finish line. You did the thing. Made the show. Arrived where you wanted to be. Practice feeling the way you want to feel. The gifts that feeling will bring you will shine a new light on the rest of the journey. 

 Day 26 - "The obstacle is the path." - Zen Proverb.  You can take another road but your hurdle will reappear. Interesting. Others walk  by what stops us cold.  Our Obstacle is Our Path because the "block" is not "out there" - it's hidden in us.  Study the way the block makes you feel.  With deep acceptance and understanding, the path clears. The glow of the lesson dispels the memory of the struggle.  Today, name the beast in your path.  Tomorrow we can tame it. 

 What if the "obstacle" is actually a loyal guardian dressed up to evoke the feeling of an old issue that wants to heal? Today as you work with your intention remember the words of Pema Chodron who said, "Obstacles are our friends,. They teach us where we are stuck." Today, take your obstacle for a walk.  Hold hands.  

 Dark and cool room, comfy bed, cozy jammies, sleepy tea, quiet...peace.  We can't make ourselves sleep.  We can only prepare for sleep by creating the conditions that support it.  We can set the stage and invite sleep in.  What can we do today to create the conditions for our intention? Prepare.  How do you want to feel?  Create conditions that support your heart's desire.  “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” - Abraham Lincoln“'.  

The fields were parched from lack of rain. Crops lay wilting from thirst. People were anxious as they searched the sky for relief. Days turned into weeks. No rain. The minister called for an hour of prayer in the town square. He requested everyone bring an object of inspiration. On the appointed day the townspeople gathered clutching holy books, beads and charms. They prayed. In time, a soft rain began to fall. Cheers swept the crowd as they held their treasured objects high. From the middle of the crowd one symbol of faith overshadowed all the others: a girl had brought her umbrella. - What do you need to bring to your future? Today, practice deep faith. "You are what you believe yourself to be." Paulo Coelho   

Simplify.  What can you do without? How can you breathe more freely? Today, let's let go of what does not serve us.  Not just the stuff, but the tasks and the dramas and the entanglements that are truly not necessary and do not enhance our lives.  We can change our routines and our conversations to make space for the new, the lighter, the freer.  Today, do less.  Travel lighter. - “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.” ― Henry David Thoreau  

It's not them - It's us. Our circumstances are a reflection of what's inside us. If we find yourself getting the short end of the stick time after time - look inside. Find the energy of that vibration. It's going to be buried deep - so look hard.
Feel the feeling and remember the very first time you felt it. A memory, stuck and in need of healing, is trying to get our attention. Find it, love it and it will give birth to a new energy pattern. This new pattern will show up in the length of our future sticks. Rumi said, "Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader, are your own nature reflected in them." And this thrills me - because we can tend to our nature. In fact, that's why we started this journey. Home stretch, Sisters. Let's commit again to our path our growth and our new reflection.

 A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling. They came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross, they saw a very young woman also attempting to cross. The woman asked if they could help her to the other side.

The monks glanced at one another because they had taken vows not to touch a woman.

Without a word, the older monk picked up the woman, carried her across the river, placed her on the other side, and carried on his journey.

The younger monk couldn’t believe what had happened. An hour passed without a word between them. Two more hours passed, then three, finally the younger monk blurted out “As monks, we are not permitted a woman, how could you then carry that woman on your shoulders?”

The older monk replied, “Brother, I set her down on the other side of the river, why are you still carrying her?” ---  It's been long journey.  Is there anything you can set down? Is there something you can let go?

It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.

She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.

And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.

Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.

The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.

Khalil Gibran

The Journey
Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.

  Put the darn cape on!  You, who have traveled through these many days of working with your intention have earned the title:  Shero - She Who Writes Her Story.  "You may not have signed up for a hero’s journey, but the second you fell down, got your butt kicked, suffered a disappointment, screwed up or felt your heart break, it started. It doesn’t matter whether we are ready for an emotional adventure—hurt happens. And it happens to every single one of us. Without exception. The only decision we get to make is what role we’ll play in our own lives: Do we want to write the story or do we want to hand that power over to someone else? Choosing to write our own story means getting uncomfortable; it’s choosing courage over comfort."- Brene Brown 

 Day 36 - Our mission today is to fall more deeply in love with our own lives. Love your home, love your work, love the breath in your lungs and the beating of your own heart. Speak with love. Respond with love. Think with love. Act with love. Choose to pour love on everything you have and everything you see in your world. Let's see what's possible when we bring love to the center of our lives - today.   “Eventually, you will come to understand that love heals everything, and love is all there is.” Gary Zukav 

 Clear away distractions and illusions. Put down the unnecessary. Prepare. Give thanks in advance for the blessings on their way to you. Make space in your heart and your home. How much are you able to receive? “Whatever we are waiting for – peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance – it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach 

 Every morning we are born again. 

It's what we do today that matters most." Buddha 

  You have magical powers - in your mouth. The words you speak create chemicals in your body to support the story you're telling. Even if you're feigning trouble, you're creating a chain of internal events to support trouble.   Same thing with joy.  You can turn up the volume and fill your being with it - if you choose to. Shakespeare wrote. "It’s not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."  Want to know what's in your heart? Listen to your words.  Want to change what's in your heart? Start by changing your words.  Every time we speak, we create.  Today, speak your new language.   Breathe life into your future. Use your powers!

 We've traveled together to tend to the art that is our life. And now, we are here. This is our time, our season.  This is our mysterious life in this mysterious home. We can wait or we can begin. We can move or stay still.  We are here now, at a new place on the road.  We can choose the next steps.   Allow your soul to speak. Allow your spirit to rejoice in living. "You are a child of the universe. No less than the trees and the stars, you have a right to be here". Claim your life.  Ask your soul to dance.  Honor your essence. Take very good care of yourself. And, when you can, help someone else along too.  Shine On. “If the light is in your heart, you will find your way home" -Rumi