Expand through appreciation. You get more of what you "see".

Hi beautiful people! What an amazing day it is today!

Two years ago and most of the years of my life I would have had rare times when I could have made such optimistic statements... especially from a place of sincerity, authenticity and inner peace. Now, this is how I live my life! I live a life full of joy and inspiration!

Someone asked me "how do you know when you are doing well in your life? How do you know you are a good person? How do you know you are beautiful and acceptable?" I said, look at the people in your life, how do you see them? Weather or not the people in our lives are these things is irrelevant, it is whether or not we SEE them as such. We are all wonderful reflections of each other.

What do you see when you look in the mirror? What do you see in the physical mirror on the wall or in the mirror of those around you?

There was a time in my life that I could only see "yuck" in all others and especially in myself. Then later on, I could only see others as something or someone good and I could only see the "yuck" in me. I felt that through spirituality finally I could recognize the good in others... but that somehow I was the exception to the rule. Ha! I found out... there are no exceptions to this rule. We all have good in us, it is just a matter of what we choose to see.

Truly the more beauty we see in ourselves the more we can see in others and/or vice versa.

I now see beauty, greatness, love, joy, and so much more. I see this in my mirror and in the mirror that my family and friends reflect back at me. And I see this in people I am meeting for the fist time every where. I see all of this because I made a decision one day to open my eyes and SEE. I made a decision to look as I would think the Great Spirit would look. I wondered; "If I were my higher power, how would I choose to look?" Hmmm, this sparked a curiosity in me. This took me from place of a victim or other reactive role to the place of observer and active participant.

When I look at myself and others in my life... I choose to see the good.. the light... the love... the joy and so on. The question is; what do you choose to see or focus on in others? What do you choose to see or focus on in yourself?

Do you do EFT tapping, massage, counseling, Reiki, study, spiritual practice or some combination of healing arts to assist you on your healing journey so you can make and step into such decisions?

Sometimes this is a process, it was for me (and still is), but you must make the first step whatever that is for you.

When we choose to see the good in the world... this does not mean being blind to the darkness of the world... but what it does mean is we get to contribute to expanding the light in our lives, in the lives of others and in the world.

What you focus on expands. It's the law
What you resist persist. It's the law
There are no exceptions to universal laws.

What do you want more of?
How do you want to see yourself?
How do you want others to see you?
How do you want to see others?
How do you want to live your life?
What impact do you want to have on others and on the earth?
What impact do you want them to have on you?
What do you want more of in your life?
You get to choose.

Appreciation is the greatest tool for expanding what you want, distracting you from what you do not want, bringing more joy, raising self esteem and self worth.

Find something to appreciate in everyone, in every situation and in each hour of each day and watch your life shift!

Find a spot on your body (big or small) that has no pain and appreciate that it feels GOOD and watch that spot expand!

Find that penny in your pocket and appreciate that you have money in your life and watch your financial prosperity expand!

Find that love you experience in your life and appreciate it deeply and watch love expand in your life!

Give thanks for all of the quality relationships or moments of them in your life and watch quality relationships expand!

Find appreciation for all you have enjoyed and watch the wealth of experiences expand!

Life is sooooo gooood!
Enjoy.

Recommended reading:
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
Eckhart Tolle, The New Earth

Louis Hay, You Can Heal Your Life (book and movie)

Catherine Ponder, Open Your Mind To Receive

Recommended Viewing:
What the Bleep Do We Know; Down The Rabbit Hole
The Peaceful Warrior
(These are also books).

Just remember… you matter…. Two

 You are more beautiful, more important and more incredible then you have ever realized.

I am writing a series of blogs to share with you how I discovered my own value and through my journey I have learned some tips, steps and experienced some awakenings that I believe can help you as well.

I have had a couple of experiences that led me out of my need and addiction to self hatred. Or perhaps I should say more honestly that I had a couple of experiences I actually paid attention to that helped bring me out of self-hatred.

As I said before that self hatred often starts from nurture (our environment) and it is often continued by our environment and or by our own doing. We can get caught up in a number of addictions, behaviors and patterns that reinforce the belief we bought into that we are worthless or of little value.

Self hatred is taught. Self hatred comes from angry, abusive people, etc it does not come from a place of facts or complete facts. While in pain body humans get caught in the illusions of hatred, rage, violence etc (pain body) and project this pain body onto others. The universe is beautiful beyond measure... And so are we.

I will write more on this in later blogs as well. But I would like to recommend some movies, documentaries and books for you to dive into on your learning journey. I will write a blog and title it recommendations for your healing and prosperous journeys…

 The belief that you are worthless or not worth much are both: almost 100% illusion and nearly 100% selfish.

Even if you can do an inventory with absolute certainty that you haven’t left anything out and you discover that you have heard most feedback and comments on you, your life, your value, your contributions etc and it’s all negative… Know that the majority of what others say is a reflection of how they feel about themselves. These are feelings. FEELINGS AND EVEN THOUGHTS DON’T ALWAYS MATCH REALITY!

Humans all have value! All living beings have value! So, what can you learn from what you have heard? Are you a bully? Are you difficult to talk to? Do you pick your nose and do other things in public that may make others feel uncomfortable? This list could go on but the point is if you hear feedback on things like this, sure, you might want to consider making some simple changes in your life to fit into society better and to bring more peace to yourself and to others.

But what about the feedback that says, you’re ugly, you’re stupid, you’re worthless and so on? How can you learn and grow from this feedback?

I used to think if I isolated then people wouldn’t be affected by my ugliness or my stupidity. And if I could do a job like grooming dogs, milking cows, working as a garbage truck driver or any job at least I’d have job value. But this is all crap.

The truth is that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. The more you see your own beauty the more you will see the beauty of others. The more you see your own and theirs the more they see yours. And the more you attract of that beauty into your life. For me I had to do this backwards. I had to see the beauty and value in others before I could see my own. Then I had to ask myself, what really makes them different or better than me. And I had to be willing to PAY ATTENTION TO THE POSITIVE FEEDBACK IN MY LIFE AND CHOOSE TO BELIEVE THE GOOD MORE THAN THE BAD.

The truth is that we all have varying levels of intelligence and more importantly we all have different types of intelligence. Beyond education and experience we have learning styles and contribute from that a different way of seeing things and understanding things and our unique insight adds a different twist that keeps life as we know it balanced, creative and exciting.

Our own energy alone contributes to this world. Our existence alone contributes to this world. Just our own life existence contributes to this lifetime. For example; the people that abused me as a child, contributed to my passion about ending violence and creating peace and equality in this world. And the leaders I encountered through books, in a classroom or on the streets that taught me about myself worth, about the possibilities of living a good life and assisting others in the same way… all of the people I have encountered in my life have had an impact. And it is my choice how I use it all.

Choice was a hard one for me to learn. I may have to blog about this word as well another day.

Think about how others contributed to your life. Are you a better person because you decided you would not do harm as others have? Are you stronger because you have had to go through some tough times?

What contributions have strangers made in your life? Think about: The person in the store that smiled at you, how did their smile affect you?  The person at the doctor’s office that told you that you had incredible fashions sense, how did that make you feel? The mail man that said he loved how you did your yard, how did that make you feel?

So how is self hatred selfish?

When we live in self hatred we deny others the freedom to love and appreciate us. We reject their acts of love, kindness, compassion and their compliments. We tell them that the beauty they see in us is their illusion. While in pain body we can also say and do things unknowingly that cause harm to others. We deny others the gift of giving, the gift of loving, the gift of being part of our lives fully. We hold back our truth value and purpose.

When we deny ourselves, we deny the entire world.

I will end this blog and do part three and so on to share the stories I have to drive some of this home.

Here are some affirmations you can say to yourself:

 I CHOOSE TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE POSITIVE MESSAGES I RECEIVE IN MY LIFE!

I AM LEARNING TO HEAR POSITIVE FEEDBACK AND ACCEPT IT WITH GRATITUDE.

I AM LEARNING TO SEE MY OWN VALUE.

I AM LEARNING TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE CONFIRMATIONS I RECEIVE ABOUT MY OWN BEAUTY, SELF WORTH AND CONTRIBUTIONS IN THIS LIFETIME.  

I AM AWAKE AND AWARE.

I AM LEARNING TO LOVE MYSELF.

I AM LEARNING TO ACCEPT MYSELF EXACTLY AS I AM

I AM LEARNING TO ALLOW OTHERS TO APPRECIATE ME

I AM LEARNING TO ACCEPT COMPLIMENTS AND TO BELIEVE THEM

I AM LEARNING TO LOVE OTHERS