Within Ourselves

      The last few weeks I have been following the news closely and find myself asking the question "what kind of world do we live in"? The more I follow the news the angrier I can feel my heart becoming and the more often I am left questioning what can I do?

     I think we have come to a point in our human existence where we feel helpless because we are viewing wide scale problems with the idea that someone else needs to do something and when something else horrible happens we raise our hands up and say "why is someone not doing anything" resulting in the continuous anger that is fueling us all today. I think the solutions to our problems start within our own hearts which then stem out to our homes and then out into our communities which move across our nation and wrap its way around the world.

    We must take personal responsibility for the injustices in the world. What part of them were created within ourselves and which parts of ourselves need to change in order for the world to be different. Have we become so centered on our own self gratification that we no longer see the struggles of others? Have we forgotten to take the small moments to give thanks and show compassion to one another? Can I see from where you are standing and can you see from where I stand and open our worlds to the idea that we can both be right depending on perspective? Can we build a better future without condemning someone else to one of poverty or taking away freedoms? I think we can and above all I think we must.

    I think we have become too reliant on the outside stimuli that we have forgotten to check in with ourselves. I think that our problems seem compounded by our inability to understand how to find a way out of them. I think we need to look harder and be braver in our quest to find a better way.

Good Night,

Brelynn

Clarity and Gratefulness

   

I have been looking for where to start again with the blog, my website and where I am going forward from here. I started writing because I wanted to make a difference and I wanted people to see that our lives are more than just the moving parts but rather the wholeness of those parts. Whether we have fallen apart, been put back together or at the beginning stages of being created, we are the entirety of all those parts and everything that those parts have been, are and could be.

    The other day I was driving to work. Lately I have been having a bit of a hard time coming to grips with the monotony of life and have been looking for what is missing. As I was stopped at a light there was a man on the side of the road. He was going through the trash can looking for what he could find. As he rummaged through the trash I saw him find an old sock and a look of hope flickered across his face as he turned over the sock in his hands to see if it could keep them warm.

   Before this moment I was thinking about all of the problems in my life and in the moment I saw this man I felt like there had to be something more I could do. I thought about disregarding my gut feelings and just driving straight to work but the rock in the bottom of my stomach was making the right hand turn to into the parking lot beside me. I parked my car and started looking for something in my car that would be better than what he had. All I had was a purple jacket and some chocolate but it had to be something better than what was in the garbage so I stepped out of my car with it.

    The man had started to move away from the garbage as if nervous because he didn't know why I had turned into the parking lot. I called him back and shouted out to him "sir, are you looking for something to keep you warm". He turned around and came to me and told me he was looking for something to keep warm and something to eat. I told him I did not have a lot but I hoped this jacket and chocolate would help, handed over the items and walked back to my car. As I walked away from him I looked at my new car and realized the statement "I don't have much" was far from the truth. I had bounties of things to be grateful for. I have a family that loves me, a job that provides all the physical things I could need and want. In my life I have overcome so much over the last few years and though it is not not perfect my life is on the way up to something wonderful. Overall I might have my problems but my life is blessed.

   I can only hope in some small way my jacket and chocolates blessed the mans life in some way because the moment of clarity he gave me was worth far more than the items I gave him.  He had given me a much greater gift, he gave me the gift of clarity and gratefulness. Sometimes in our lives we are the rich and sometimes we are the beggers but each of us has a divinity worth more than the current place we stand in our lives. We are all connected and all a part of the larger whole of life. I hope each day our lives provide the opportunities for us to not only see what we have but also the absence of what we do not have. Sometimes in life the things we don't have are just as much a blessing as the things we do.

May your days be full of lifes blessings and may you always know your infinite worth.

Park City Chickfest

Today I  will be at the Park City Chickfest. Come see me, I would love to see you!

On Sunday, May 4th,  2014 please join us for an afternoon of spiritual celebration through music, meditation, reflection, and laughter. Over 30 Providers of alternative health services, energy workers, and spiritual guides who specialize in a wide variety of modalities will be available for you to ‘sample’ in the Woo-Woo Buffet. Bring your BFFs and share this special afternoon of looking deeper and letting your joy shine bright!

Here’s how it works: There are two types of Chickfest tickets, Woo-Woo Wonderful for $25 and Chicky Cheap for $10.

Woo-Woo Wonderful ticket-holders are allowed in at 11:00am – an hour before anyone else. During that hour they meet with Providers in the Woo-Woo Buffet and make up to four appointments or ONE-ON-ONE sessions later in the afternoon. A very limited number of these tickets will be sold to ensure that all Woo-Woo Wonderful ticket purchasers may make four appointments as long as they arrive at 11:00am.

Chicky Cheap ticket holders are welcomed at noon and encouraged to snap up any one-on-one session that Providers may still have open. Everyone is invited to attend the several group healing sessions, mini-lectures, and shop the Illuminate Mall. Your ticket price covers everything – no further payments to Providers are expected.

Body Image: More than a body

   

 I was a body for 15+ years. I know that phrase might sounds weird and abstract but it is exactly what I was. I spent almost 15 years thinking almost exclusively about my body. What it looked like, what it was shaped like, what it ate, what it drank, what it did, how it compared to other bodies, what genes it had inherited, reshaping my body, tracking my bodies cycles and every other concievable aspect of my body. Then one day I woke up. I woke up and realized I had spent at least the last 15 years of my life being just a body. I had let my body get in the way of being in relationships with others and had let my focus on my body steal precious memories from my life because I did not think a body like mine should be doing something like that. I had robbed myself of life by just being a body.

   But I am not just a body. I am a soul. I am an ambitious soul, one with hopes and dreams and determination to get out into the world and change the conversations that are happening around the tables of our society. See I am not the only one living as just a body. There are households full of people out there with the idea that they are just their bodies. Though your body is a part of you, it is not all of you. When you die your body will be placed into the ground and what will remain are the people your life has touched. You will continue on in this world through the memories of those you loved, your acts of kindness, the people you impacted and those messages you sent forth into the world. But you cannot do that if you are just a body. Touch is nothing if not for the connection of sensory and emotional processes that interpret messages. Your body is a vessel of circuitry that allows you to experience a life here on this earth both on a physical and spiritual plane.

    Don't just be a body. Live a life with your body. See the world through and with your body, fly and soar with your body. Fall in love with your body, cry, smile, moan and sweat the pains of life with your body. Laugh with it, feel the joy that comes when your soul  radiates true bliss and your body gasps for air due to uncontrollable laughter felt in your very core. Experience embracing the ones your love with it, holding onto them with commitment meant for lifetimes. Don't just be your body, be your soul living a in your body.

Failure: A reason to get back up

     

Thomas Edison once said that he failed his way to success. Some days I feel like this relates to me. Some days I feel like I wake up fail, the next week I wake up everyday and fail some more and a month later look back and think of all of the failures then realize how far I have come. Failing is not the end but the beginning of any new journey. Your life begins at the end of your comfort zone, so let the uncomfortable moments begin.

      My father has quoted a poem many times throughout my life and it seems fitting to share now. When life has thrown me more than I can bare this poem stands out in my mind and reminds me I can stay down or get up and win the race.

The Race- D.H Groberg

"Quit!" “Give up, you’re beaten!” they shout at me and plead,
"There’s just too much against you now, this time you can’t succeed.”
And as I started to hang my head in front of failure’s face,
My downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.
And hope refills my weakened will as I recall that scene.
For just the thought of that short race rejuvenates my being.

A children’s race, young boys, young men; how I remember well,
    excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn’t hard to tell.
They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race
    or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.
Their parents watched from off the side, each cheering for their son,
    and each boy hoped to show his folks that he would be the one.
 The whistle blew and off they flew, like chariots of fire,
    to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy’s desire.
One boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd,
    was running in the lead and thought “My dad will be so proud.”

But as he sped down the field and crossed a shallow dip,
    the little boy who thought he’d win, lost his step and slipped.
Trying hard to catch himself, his arms flew everyplace,
    and midst the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.
As he fell, his hope fell too; he couldn’t win it now.
    Humiliated, he just wished to disappear somehow.
But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,
    which to the boy so clearly said, “Get up and win that race!”

He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that’s all,
    and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.
So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win,
    his mind went faster than his legs. He slipped and fell again.
He wished that he had quit before with only one disgrace.
    “I’m hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn’t try to race.”
But through the laughing crowd he searched and found his father’s face
    with a steady look that said again, “Get up and win that race!”

So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last.
    “If I’m to gain those yards,” he thought, “I’ve got to run real fast!”
Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight, then ten...
    but trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.
Defeat! He lay there silently. A tear dropped from his eye.
    “There’s no sense running anymore! Three strikes I’m out! Why try?
I’ve lost, so what’s the use?” he thought. “I’ll live with my disgrace.”
    But then he thought about his dad, who soon he’d have to face.

“Get up,” an echo sounded low, “you haven’t lost at all,
    for all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
Get up!” the echo urged him on, “Get up and take your place!
    You were not meant for failure here! Get up and win that race!”
So, up he rose to run once more, refusing to forfeit,
    and he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn’t quit.
So far behind the others now, the most he’d ever been,
    still he gave it all he had and ran like he could win.
Three times he’d fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.
    Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.

They cheered another boy who crossed the line and won first place,
    head high and proud and happy -- no falling, no disgrace.
But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, in last place,
    the crowd gave him a greater cheer for finishing the race.
And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud,
    you would have thought he’d won the race, to listen to the crowd.
And to his dad he sadly said, “I didn’t do so well.”
    “To me, you won,” his father said. “You rose each time you fell.”

And now when things seem dark and bleak and difficult to face,
    the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.
For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.
    And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
And when depression and despair shout loudly in my face,
    another voice within me says, “Get up and win that race!”


    So get up my friends and push forward. Some days the light is small at the end of what seems to be a never ending tunnel but step by step the path will get easier, the path will get brighter and some day there will be a much clearer understanding of why life handed us the cards we were dealt. Be brave and courageous and rise each time you fall. You never know what is around the next corner of life but you will never know if you do not keep moving forward.

Intuitive Living for the Mind, Body and Soul

     Have you ever taken a moment to think about how amazing your body is? Take this question seriously for a second because I have a sneaking suspicion somewhere during your day you looked into the mirror and found fault with the amazing body that stands before you and it is high time we started to give credit where credit is due. The capabilities of this body even in its most basic state are a miracle and I do not say that lightly. Your body has over 200 Trillion cells and it is estimated that your body produces over 400 Billion chemical reactions per second, that is a lot of reactions. On top of all of that it took thousands of years to create you! Each of us was created from generations of ancestors who through love, devotion, trial and tears came together to create the priceless creation that is starring back at you in the mirror.

     Have you taken some time today to appreciate and admire the person starring back at you in the mirror? Sometimes we become disconnected with that person so don't worry if you don't see all of the great things immediately, I didn't either. If you take some time to look a little harder you will see someone who is truly unique and spectacular. We are each one of a kind and there will never be anyone identical so why would we expect a one size fits all method to work for our daily living?  This is what intuitive living is all about. It accounts for the fact that each of us are different and need different things. Intuitive living is not just for how we relate to food and our bodies but how we relate to life.

  For a long time people have focused on outside sources to help them achieve their health, wealth, relationships and personal sanity. Living a great life takes more than following a set pattern of rules established by an outside source, it takes listening to yourself and responding to those signals. You were born with the ability to know exactly what you need in order to become great but a large majority of people these days have stopped listening and many are paying the price. Society is looking outward for the next best thing, the thing that will change them and bring them back to being whole. The answers to this does not come from an outside source but it does come from within.

   Listening to your intuitive cues means living at the core of your being. It is being perceptive and reactive to your needs. But how do you start on the path to intuitive living? You start by becoming self aware. Next time you eat start to notice when you become full or if you are still hungry. If you are with a friend or spouse start recognizing how you feel within the context of the relationship. Start to be aware of how your life is playing out. Do you feel at one with your decisions? When do you start to get tired? Do you feel like you have a connection with your higher power and is that something that brings you greater fulfillment? Start asking yourself questions, getting to know what drives you and what sucks the energy from your life. Feel what it is like to be in your body and start asking why you are doing what you are doing. Becoming conscious of your thoughts, feelings and actions is the first step in self discovery and a key component in living an intuitive lifestyle.

   When you start to realize what you do and why you do it you start to recognize what is working and what is not. You become more aware of what is going on in your body and can give it what it needs. You start to recognize what relationships are healthy and which ones are not. There is not a one size fits all method. We all have to start somewhere but before we start looking for the next diet, spiritual methodology or self help book perhaps we should consult the person who knows us best and that person should be YOU. If you are not that person then it is time to start rediscovering and awakening the divine soul within you. It is time to start to living an intuitive life.






 

Resolution Revamp: Taking Action and Grateful Reflection

     

Resolution Revamp: Part 3 & 4 Taking Action & Grateful Reflection

    So you have taken some time to take a second look at your resolutions/goals and figured out what you really want out of life. You have created declarations that speak to your soul and have felt a renewed sense of connection that your previous resolutions did not bring. Your goals no longer are focused on losing things in life but rather gaining better prospectives, habits, relationships etc. At this point you must take action. Just by starting something you create the momentum that begins to propel things into existence. Be on the look out for more opportunities to reach your goals. When you focus on gain centered goals you will find many other opportunities to achieve your goals.

  For your Declarations:  Read them out loud everyday like you mean it. Put them in your car and when your alone shout it out at the top of your lungs, look yourself in the mirror, connect and make yourself believe them. Read it, say it and write it like you mean it. It may seem silly at first but trust me, you will start to not only have a whole new relationship with yourself but you will start to find new and wonderful things coming into your life. If for some reason you just cannot muster up the courage to shout your declaration from the rooftops fear not, there is still plenty of room for the shy and reserved. Figure out what works best for you. Some people express themselves best through pen and paper, write out your goals and declarations or meditate upon them and start visualizing them happening in your life. Whatever you do get them in your head. If you cannot do it everyday do it as much as you can. This is not about perfection it is about consistency and picking things up where you left off. Whatever you do start to embody your declarations.

 One of the best parts about this process is it allows you to add things to your declarations. It creates room in your life for change and advancement. Somedays you might decide you need to change the statement a bit. Maybe you need a little more compassion in your life, maybe you need to hear that your creator knows who you are or maybe you need to hear that you are loved unconditionally. You can add these in or take things away at any point during the year and you can always pick up where you left off. Transformative growth doesn't stop just because you got busy. You can hop back on the train and adjust your perception whenever you like. The biggest thing with these is to keep them in your mind so you consciously think about them every day. You will be amazed to see the small things you start to do just because you have something at the forefront of your mind.

For Your Goals: Start implementing your goals into your life. You now have a few different ways to start achieving them and will probably find more along the way. Everyday look for ways to incorporate these goals into your life. Sometimes you might come to points where you may feel discouraged or like you just are not getting what you had hoped out of the goals. Take time to look at your goals again, what are you really looking for. Reassess and reapply the principles of Declarative Goal setting. We are continuously changing and growing and our goals should aim us towards where we want to go. Transformation is not something that happens overnight and it is not a one size fits all process and sometimes our goals may need some adjusting. This is progressive goal setting and just because you have to reroute does not mean the goal is unrealized.

The Last Step: Grateful Reflection

     You will start to recognize new opportunities coming your way and will find yourself doing things in line with your Declarative Goals. You will find yourself seeing things that are not lining up with your intentions and substituting them for new positive things. Part of this process is recognizing your growth and recognizing those who have helped you achieve it. Write down what is happening, share it with a friend or just acknowledge you are moving forward. Recognize those who have helped you out, give yourself credit for what you are doing right, and write down the experiences that are changing your life.  At the end of the year you can take a look at the journey you went on and realize progress was made. You are a transformative soul and can do transformative things.

New Year

   I promise if you continue to keep your goals and declarations at the forefront of your mind your life will change. Come the end of next year instead of realizing all of the things you did not accomplish you will look at how you embodied your declarations and how your life has changed. You will recognize how you gained a better relationship with yourself and others. You will realize how your words have created actions that changed your life. You will see a change and you will have not just resolved to change but you will have become the change you wanted to see. Through doing your goals like this you will start to see lasting change. We want to live lives full of purpose, passion and transformation with the key word being full. So open up your life and start to fill your life with wonderful things. Then at the end of the year you can truly say you have gained something wonderful!