Looking Forward

Reflections and insights as this momentously gargantuan year comes to an end...

Thank you and goodbye 2020! xoxo

There are three more weeks till the year that kept violently shaking the collective world to its core ceaselessly, month after month, finally comes to an end! Although it's been a year of heart-shattering lows and seemingly endless challenges, I sit here writing and smiling as I float weightlessly on an intense wave of gratitude...

There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other as though everything is a miracle - Albert Einstein

Worldwide pandemic, devastated economies, floods, hurricanes, cancer....what this year has made crystal clear to me is that no matter what's happening all around us, we are still incredibly free to choose what goes on inside us. As I completed the first paragraph of this post, I was truly floating on a happy high; then I made the very silly decision of scrolling through my Facebook feed, and was slapped in the face by an inundation of recent Covid deaths in the country...deaths of people I know of, of frontline doctors...more and more people critical in the overwhelmed hospitals...children losing parents for Christmas....My cloud nine instantly evaporated and I landed smack on my butt on the cold concrete pavement! My mood shifted so dramatically that the happy words that just five minutes ago flowed from my fingertips, now seemed to be mocking me from the computer screen!

Thankfully, for the sake of my blog :), I'm now able to zero in on my lows and literally 'talk' myself back into the light, or as Jim Fortin says 'reset my happiness factory setting'. Now, it doesn't happen instantly, but with the abundance of practice the year 2020 has afforded me, I am definitely getting more efficient :)

Just as the late, great genius, Albert points out in the big quote above, we must learn to view our life and the external happenings through positive lenses! Find the miracles in the everyday messes! No matter how awful everything seems, we must learn to find something (even if it's just one small seemingly insignificant thing) to be grateful for, and then channel that positive energy into navigating the darkness. Gratitude literally produces happy hormones in the body...and the more gratitude we practice, the happier people we become.

Yes, the reality of Covid in my country presently is a very somber and scary one. Instead of me crawling into a fetal position and wallowing in misery, I choose to be grateful that my family and I are still safe and that we can do our part in keeping the more vulnerable safe too. This is the first Christmas that my crazy big family won't be together. My Gran is here with my parents and for the first time in her life, she won't be surrounded by sugar-high happy kiddos squealing and running around her...We are all quarantining in our own homes, doing our part in stopping the spread of this monster virus.

When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you - Lao Tzu

'Attracting abundance' into your life became a major fad since the Law of Attraction documentary called 'The Secret' spread across the world. In my blog called 'Magical Things', I expound on all seven of the Universal Laws. I find these laws fascinating and am still on my journey to discovering how to apply their magic in my life. Abundance is something we all desire and as I learned from Eckhart Tolle, 'Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.' Living through the positive energy vibration of gratitude, not only makes you more joyful, but also fuels hope and the belief in a brighter future to come...a belief in big life dreams becoming reality. This positive mindset guides you to take the actions necessary to 'manifest' the abundance you are prepared to receive and the universe prepared to deliver.

Abundance is not something we acquire, it's something we tune into - Wayne Dyer

Abundance isn't only about acquiring big material wealth, abundance is truly more about a way of life...like Wayne Dyer says...'something we tune into. When we understand that we live in an abundant universe, and it's simply up to us to recognize it and use it, a world of possibility emerges. Napoleon Hill termed it 'prosperity consciousness'...it's the same abundance mindset view of the world - that there is enough for everyone and every single person is deserving of this abundance.

When you truly appreciate what you already have and see that there is nothing 'lacking' in your life, you move away from the scarcity mindset and towards abundance. To help me do this, I try to be intentional about flipping the narratives that don't serve me. A couple of simple examples of this:

COOKING

I often enjoy cooking and am not too bad at it, but no one warns you when you get married and start a family, that you will be producing three meals a day for the rest of your time! :) The cooking part, I don't mind, it's the deciding what to cook that really throws me in a tailspin! I've tried creating rotational menus, weekly menus, daily menus a couple of times in the past, but I never seem to follow them, taking me right back to square one of "What to cook?!!" Figuring out what the heck to cook every day has been a major source of anxiety for me until just recently. I decided to switch the narrative. Instead of wasting so much negative energy on the stress of not knowing, I instead, channel the energy of gratitude for having ingredients in my pantry to cook, and the awesomeness of Pinterest! :) I've gotten quite good at creating my recipes from simple names or pictures of dishes that would jump out at me, not even bothering to look at the ingredients listing. When you realize that there is an abundance of sources to tap into, including most importantly your very own creativity and talent, cooking becomes something to look forward to! Throw in some music and a glass of wine, and it becomes an event! (Don't worry I don't do the wine every day, but the music has been a great addition to the daily grind :)

TIME

I'm a list maker and task overachiever (my favorite thing to do is scratch off items on the list after it's been completed...not just a neat checkmark, but a big old line through every letter :). When I know I have a bunch of things to get done tomorrow, I often have those annoying nightmares of being late for school or catching a bus, or the intense feeling of unease from being rushed and never making the deadline...then I wake up way too early, anxious and already overwhelmed to get the tasks completed. I'm still working on this and just recently got some helpful tips from James Wedmore. He suggests we become aware of our relationship with time and start changing the stories we tell ourselves. Instead of the feeling of overwhelm and never having enough time in the day to complete my tasks, I now tell myself that there is an abundance of time for what matters most...that I have more than enough time to get things done. By simply changing the narrative from lack of time, to an abundance of time - my mood, my attitude, my mindset operates from a relaxed place of knowing and trusting that I will accomplish what I set out to do! I'm already seeing a difference in my productivity by operating under this abundance mindset!

IDEAS

Next month...January will make one year since I began this blogging journey. An entire year has passed! When I made the commitment to myself to produce at least one post per month, I was nervous about failing to meet my requirements, of failing to create ideas worthy of sharing with my readers...The more posts I published, the more confident I became in my ability to generate ideas. Earlier this year I had a list of potential topics to write about. Well, I've exhausted that list a couple of months back now, and am still producing. After every blog, I have no idea what the next will be about. But I don't dwell on the not knowing...I actually look forward to the upcoming weeks when I trust in my heart, that an idea will come to me. See the word 'idea' comes from the Latin word meaning 'concept of a thing in the mind of God. GOD...the Grand Overall Designer...the Universal Mind...see there is an abundance of ideas out there just waiting for us to tap into. This knowing is a game changer!

Thought is Energy!

Jim Fortin said this in one of his podcasts:

"All thought is energy. We are all walking magnets- do you think a magnet ever doubts its ability to attract"

When we understand the scientific fact that we are all walking balls of energy, that our thoughts are energy and that the universe responds to the energy we emit, we can become the master designers of our lives. My wish for you for the remainder of 2020 and the brand new year to come is this:

You operate from the positive energy of gratitude, from the deep knowing that you are not lacking anything in your life...you are a shining ball of infinite potential....celebrate the fact that you are the thinker of your thoughts and therefore the creator of your mood, your beliefs, your attitude, your habits and your actions...you are a real life walking magnet, completely aware of your power to tune into and attract all the abundance you desire!

Until we meet again in the brand new year, go forth and shine bright beautiful people!

xoxo,

Jess

Happiness & the daily grind :)