Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yesterday I received the most beautiful bouquet of flowers from our team at work. It was a congratulatory gift for completing my BA degree. I was thrilled and very grateful for the gesture. It was only this afternoon that the thought occurred to me that I don’t give myself enough credit for my achievements. I need to acknowledge me more often and, more importantly God, for only through Him are all things possible.

My beautiful flowers

So I want to take this moment to acknowledge God for making it possible for me to complete my degree while I was:

  • Getting my head around a new role in which I had to relearn old skills and learn new skills all at the same time (I am still not where i need to be but I will get there)
  • Acting as chairperson in our body corporate for the last 2 years
  • Buying a new home and adjusting to a new relationship at the same time
  • Dealing with the end of that relationship, the loss of my mother and the break-up of my family all at the same
  • Giving my son and I the space to grieve together for the loss of my mum in particular
  • Adjusting to a diagnosis of diabetes and learning to live with it and how to overcome it
  • Working on healing and growing myself through the use of self-help and spiritual books
  • Working from home during the lockdown and trying to ensure that my son maintains a certain level of education all by myself. At the same time I did the Mind Power course. I also had to ensure that all the lockdown regulations were being followed in our complex and prepare for and write my exams. (I have to say that it was exhausting juggling everything and I still can’t believe that I passed my exams1 )
  • Supporting my son in all his sporting endeavors and making sure we maintain a good quality life and that he hardly ever feels neglected and just doing my best to be as good a parent as I know how to him.
  • Losing my favourite aunt almost exactly year after losing my mum. The whole experience was like losing my mum all over again.
  • I started writing and got my blog going and have written on other platforms like Medium an Quora. I have enjoyed this tremendously!
  • Fitting in assignments between travels to Dubai and China.
  • And of course, trying to be a good friend, sister, daughter, cousin, aunt and niece to those I love and have given me their support.

It’s been an amazing 6 years. Most of the stuff mentioned happened in the last 3 of the 6 years. So it’s been quite a ride! Phew! I deserve those flowers at the very least I think ..lol.

I am taking a break this semester and aim to start my honours in Psych next year. I am so excited about that! It will be my first honours degree! My end goal is a Phd in Psych and I have no doubt that I will achieve. It’s only a matter of time. God will go before me and make a way.

I have done this exercise for another reason as well. Listing your achievements helps to change your mindset from one of lack to one of abundance and success. The thinking is that you will remind yourself of what it feels like to be successful so that you continue to feel those feelings and draw more success to yourself. Nope, it’s not hogwash. I invite you to think back to a time when you were feeling really great about something. What other good things suddenly started happening to you? I can guarantee you that you received a welcome surprise while you were in that state. If you pay attention , you will find that these welcome surprises pop up when you are thrilled about something good that has happened in your life or are in a state of deep and authentic gratitude.

I encourage you to go ahead and list your achievements and all the things you had to overcome to get there. Remind yourself of what a successful person you already are, because you are!

Thanks for reading this piece. Covid19 is still a real threat so stay home and stay safe.

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Believe

I have a tattoo of a daisy with the word “Believe” crafted into the stem on my ankle. At the time It was a reminder to believe in myself and grow in confidence. It’s still serves that purpose but the word has come to have different implications for me.

Daisies

The dictionary defines ‘believe’ as “to accept something as true, genuine, or real”. What we forget is that some of our beliefs are conscious but there are a whole lot that linger beneath the surface and have a huge influence on how we go about our daily lives. It is only in the last few months that I have become aware how much these beliefs shape the stories I tell myself and therefore my whole life. I have often told people who lament their lot in their life that they are where they need to be. My understanding being that the Universe has conspired to bring this point now and that there are no accidents. For me it also just meant that everything is ok as it is, Accept…then act.

It was only last weekend when a friend said it to me when I was having a moment that I realised I am where I am because of the choices that I have made in my life. Those choices were driven by conscious and unconscious beliefs I had about myself, my environment and my worth. I needed to accept that so I can start making different choices. So yes, the Universe has conspired to get me to this point but it is in response to the direction that I have given it. That is actually an empowering and liberating thought which has me very excited about what the future holds.

In the book, Conversations with God, we are constantly reminded that we are creators. We are all a part of God and that, like God, we are creators. We are not here to learn how to be but here to create the experiences that we want to have. We are here to live out the grandest vision that we have for ourselves, yet most of us choose to play small because we fear “what other’s may think” or that we might fail or because we don’t believe that we are worthy of that vision. We are. You are. I am. It is our birthright. These are the first unconscious beliefs we have to change.

The next belief that we need to work on is that we live in a scarce Universe. We don’t. We live in an abundant universe. Yes I know sources of fresh water are becoming fewer and the earth is heating up causing the ice to melt, etc, but we just need to change our everyday behaviors to minimize our environmental impact. There is and will always be enough for everyone if we just used what we needed and didn’t waste as much as we do. Abundance doesn’t mean there is enough to use to excess, it means there is enough for everyone to enjoy without wasting. Well that’s my take on it anyway.

In the Mind Power Course that is run by Robin Banks (I highly recommend this course if you are looking to invest in yourself), we are taught that our thoughts are real forces and they really are. We are also taught that we have our own ‘model of reality’ that is determined by our beliefs. In order to change your thoughts, you need to create a new model of reality for yourself. You do that by changing your beliefs. Sounds like mumbo jumbo doesn’t it? Let me ask you this…When was the last time you had to change something in your life? What belief did you have to change to make it happen? What evidence did you provide to yourself that what you initially believed wasn’t true and/or that your new belief was true? As an example, in order to quit smoking I had to change a few core beliefs I had about why i smoked. I believed that I need cigarettes to calm me down when I was stressed. I believed that smoking was a part of who I was and to give it up was being untrue myself. Yes I actually believed that hogwash.😂. I looked for the evidence to support these beliefs. I realised that I had spent the first 18 years of my life without cigarettes and I was just fine. Allen Carr’s book reminded me that cigarettes are merely a vehicle to get nicotine into my system and it was the hit of nicotine that provide the relief from a craving. The craving is what caused me to feel stressed so the cigarettes were the cause of the problem and not the answer to it. Knowing and accepting this, there is no way I can justify going back to smoking. My beliefs about why I need to do it have changed.

So it turns out that our beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, are what drive us to think the thoughts we think and take the actions we take. They determine where we will end up in life. Thoughts are the tools that we use to fuel new beliefs and to create a new reality for ourselves. Know you are worthy of dreams, there is more than enough love, money, joy and prosperity out there for you and that you are the co-creator of your reality. So go out and make it happen😉

As always, stay safe. Wear your mask, keep your distance and keep your hands clean and sanitized when out and about. I would to hear about the tools you used to change your beliefs and the impact it has had in your life.

Bye for now

Daily Quote: Joe Vitale

“If you don’t go for your dreams, who will?”

Joe Vitale
Image: Canva
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