Here’s to you as you feel and know the Oneness of All That Is.

It’s pretty impressive. It can send us into a downward spiral or corrupt the most peaceful moment. But it can be our secret friend that pushes us to heights we never thought possible; pushing us to fully dance with life. Many of us spend our time and our lives in distrust, hovering fearfully around the cliffs of change, chance, and possibility. We peek over the edge and spy the craggy rocks below. We look and we see pain, discomfort, and impossibility. So why should we jump? Why should we stretch? Why the heck should we venture out of our comfort zones? Where is the sense in that? Well, as a lifetime cliff dweller, I would like to share with you exactly why I feel that taking these leaps of faith is the only way we can soar and truly be who we are meant to be.

Just recently I looked over the edge of one of my steepest, most intense cliffs ever. It’s funny how these crazy heights sneak up on us. It happened in the blink of an eye one morning as I woke from a deep sleep. This day the craggy rocks below spoke to me of complete and devastating loss of EVERYTHING in my life. Their words took me to my knees. The pain was so unbearable that I swore I must have slipped and had been impaled on the sharp edges of the rocks below. Somehow I kept breathing and moving. The Universe sent a loved one to stop the bleeding and I kept moving. Then I realized that it was my life long buddy and pal Fear egging me on, daring me to jump in one of his most flamboyant attempts ever. It took some time, but eventually I found total surrender and gave Faith a chance. And in a very subtle moment of brilliance, I called Fear’s bluff and quietly stepped off the edge.  I discovered that when I took the leap of Faith and jumped off of the cliff, a wonderful thing happened. I found that just above the craggy rocks lies something quite amazing: beautifully and almost imperceptibly a net, which was once invisible before the leap, gracefully and lovingly appeared. It actually was always there and quite visible. I had just chosen not to see it.

So you see, the craggy rocks represent our fears and the net is the Love of the Universe or God (or however you choose to view it). The fear is so dense and dark and powerful that the light of our perception is doused with its intensity and all we can see, feel, hear, taste, and live is the smothering density of the fear.

So when we find ourselves in a less than empowered place, we tip-toe over to the cliff and see the fall and the rocks. Our stomachs churn and we make a hasty retreat  back to our path of least resistance. A little while later we think, “Hhmmm… Maybe I’ll just go take another look.”  Suddenly the craggy rocks have grown and are pointier than ever! So we make another hasty retreat back to the comfort zones of our cozy little lives. A few days later we may go wandering back to the cliff. The sights we see  become more and more disturbing each time we revisit this vista of what we now think is doom. Suddenly it becomes a monster in our minds and begins effecting all aspects of our lives–physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Our whole being is effected.

Perhaps you are wondering what that “subtle moment of brilliance” was all about as I stood at the edge of my most recent cliff. Well,  surrender and freedom can happen anywhere. That day it happened for me in the United Airlines baggage check-in line at LAX. My suffering was unbearable until I remembered one simple thing: the Universe is my Source for EVERYTHING. With that sudden realization I was able to feel the safety of the Light and I gracefully floated off of the cliff as I stared directly at the rocks.

So what I’m sharing is this: Perhaps we can stop looking. Stop thinking. Stop retreating and just jump. Perhaps we can take the leap and choose to dance with life instead of letting fear take away our dancing shoes and keep us safely tucked in the comfort zone of stagnation. It may feel nice and cozy, but the results of that choice do not reflect our True Selves or help us to attain the much coveted title of Empowered Being. I can say this as I have played the cliff dance many a time in my life. But the net is stronger and mightier than any rock anywhere ever. My most recent leap has assured me of that.

But something else happened when I was out there flying in the air with the wind in my face, engaging in life, and staring deeply into the face of those scary rocks: by trusting and choosing to dance instead of just sitting it out on the edge of the cliff, not only did the net appear, but I found myself flying in mid-air.

Sometimes our fears keep us from taking a chance; from moving forward and enjoying and swaying to the beautiful rhythms of life. So I lovingly suggest that the next time you see a cliff in front of you, make a choice. Instead of choosing to sit it out, I hope you dance.

Here’s to your amazing flight with the Universe beneath your wings.

Allow the beautiful music and lyrics of Lee Ann Womack to touch, inspire, and nourish your soul.

Did you know that we are all innately great multitaskers? It certainly is apparent to me, as I can be feeding my dogs, listening to the radio, talking to a friend, and while all this is  going on, I can be listening to and hearing clearly that little voice in my head telling me all kinds of stuff.  Yeah, you know about that “stuff”.

It’s really a game ya know. But who’s gonna win? Unfortunately, some of us are not into this competition and just roll over and allow the onslaught. I seem to have an unending fascination with this topic as seen in my  January 4th post, but bear with me as I feel this is truly a topic worth exploring!

So what is that little voice really all about? What the heck is that bully up to? You see, it really thinks it is trying to protect us; to keep us safe. And it, being the ego,  is trying to protect itself too. Quite the dichotomy.

So I’ll be bold here and share with you one of the things my little voice really enjoys trying to do with me (I am guessing that it enjoys it because sometimes it can do it so well…).  It so often tricks me into playing small and into not seeing my greatness by telling me how much better everyone else is, how I just can’t do it, and how I will surely fail. What a mouthful!

And when and where did all those thoughts of smallness and incompetence originate? I love that question. I have my theories, some more esoteric than others, but the bottom line is that the voices are a present factor and need to be dealt with, or I will become a six foot tall woman playing life as if I were six inches tall. And I have decided that that is just not a road I will traverse.

As I said, who knows the origin of these less than positive thoughts. But one thing is very clear. They  can be an ongoing block to our connecting with our greatness. Our inner landscape can at times be more treacherous than anything we see in our external landscape. What continues to make it even more interesting is all of the lovely emotions that seem to partner up with the voice.  So what’s a person to do?

Well, below I share with you a couple of little tricks I have discovered in dealing with my not-so-friendly-friend in my head. Perhaps one or two may resonate with you or perhaps you can share your own techniques. Each one is a different approach and some may be more powerful for you than others.

1. So let’s say the bully just  teased you with, “Forget that! You could NEVER do that!” Close your eyes, take three or four deep breaths, and fully hear that statement. Recognize it. Acknowledge it.  Then label it. Perhaps you could call it something as simple as FEAR  or INSECURITY. Whatever label works best for you. The minute you label it, it becomes something outside of yourself and looses its charge. Acknowledge it again and accept it by saying, “I accept that I have this fear”.  Accepting it helps it dissolve as you are no longer pushing it away as resistance can make it grow. Take the time to honor it.  Recognize and acknowledge the feelings that are coming up too. They too can be diffused in this way as well.
2. Be polite to the voice but firm and simply say, “Thank you for sharing”. You are the boss anyway, right? (I must give a nod to T. Harv Eker for that one)
3. Perhaps the bully’s words are indeed signaling to you that there is something deeper going on. So take a pen and paper in hand and write out the words it gave you. Then just do some free association writing. This will get all of that “stuff” out of your head so you can now go forward with a clear focus.
4. Play a game with the silly statement the bully flung out at you. Use affirmations to put it out of its misery. First think of the opposite of what it told you. For example, if it told you , “You are a failure”, the contrary could be “I am a success”. Take out your trusty pen and paper again and make two columns. In the left-hand column write out the positive affirmation of “I am a success”. In the right-hand column write what is still coming up for you contrary to that. Perhaps what comes up from hearing the positive is a denial of it and looks like, “No! I can’t do anything right!” and you put that in the right-hand column. But just keep on writing out your positive statement in the left hand column until you no longer hear a negative response and no longer need to write anything in the right-hand column. Once you have neutralized the enemy, you can just continue penning out the positive. You win!
5. Hold the thought that anything that comes into your mind that is negative and does not speak to the Truth of You and your greatness is simply a lie. Choose in that moment to not believe it since it is a lie, and focus on the positive and what is the Truth.
6. When all else fails, just do what a very dear friend of mine does. Just stand up to that bully voice and its nasty little words and say, “JUST SHUT UP!!!!”

No matter how we deal with that voice, the bottom line is that we must find a way to not allow it to shroud the beauty and the power that is us, our True Selves. We are all destined for greatness. We are all designed for greatness. It’s just that our inner voices have their own agenda…