Take Yourself Seriously?

Do you? Really??

For most of my life, I did not either. I spent my life trying to prove myself, trying to get others to love me, trying to prove to myself I was worthy.

I was busy helping others so they would love me, yet I was not able or willing to receive help. When I was able to reach out and receive help my entire world changed. I was able to give selflessly and with love, instead of want.

As I began to take my life seriously, I began to take actions that helped me see, feel experience my worthiness. As I sit writing this, I am taking my life seriously. I am sharing my experiences and opening the door of my failures and successes, so they might inspire others.

Over the past years I have overcome some pretty intense situations. I have been willing to put the work into healing and allow myself to become whole and complete...ya even though some crazy stuff happened to me. I am letting go of the past and allowing myself to be here right here and now.

I am proud of myself for taking myself seriously and doing the work necessary to bring my gifts and skills to full blossom. It is hard work that I gotta tell ya, feels amazingly great. I face my stuff, hang with it to learn and move forward. I try not to allow the hard stuff paralyze me any more like it used to. These days, I am smart enough to reach out to others to help me through those hard spots.

I take my life seriously enough to know, I not not have all the answers nor should I. Oh right, that is why there are all these amazing people in my life...hee hee

We are all blessed with amazing people in our lives. By virtue of being in relationship with these people it is our responsibility to tap into their greatness! When we ask for help we get to make them feel like thay matter. That we respect them and love them, and are willing to be helped by them. WOW! Win! Win! We all get to feel good. Quite the miracle...

So the question is...Are you willing to take your life seriously and ask someone for the help you need??

Maybe it is hard to reach out to someone you know because you think they will judge you, been there. I started by asking professionals and eventually I created the right blend of professionals, friends, family and even strangers that turned into friends...

Your life, your dreams, YOU, ARE worth taking seriously! I know it you know it!!

If ya really ready...contact me...I am patient and a heck of a lot of fun to grow with...

gathernow.com

How do you get back in the Light?

There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.
James Thurber (1894 - 1961)

Stepping back into the light after being in the dark for a long time, can be painful. Our eyes just want to close, they strain to adjust and suddenly can see! Eyes adjust naturally to the light, just as they did in the dark. Our eyes are capable of seeing the tiniest shard of light in the dark and will instinctively close when the glare hurts. We know intuitively what the right light is and can feel the power of it when we do.

Our physical coming into the light is evocative of our spiritual journey. Coming back into the light takes a bit of patience and a lot of faith. Trusting the process and knowing that the light you find will be the one that illuminates the way to joy is the blessing of the adventure.

I had been in the dark for a while and now have stepped fully into the light. This lovely place of hope, of possibility and God's grace. My dark place was an illness that robbed me physically and emotionally, yet spiritually blessed me beyond belief. I have become grateful for my courage to explore the dark in a way that allows truth and brings me to a deeper love of self, of God and others.

These days when the dark calls, I know there is wisdom there for me. If I am smart enough to be there, explore and move through it with grace, the riches will bubble forth. I have learned that there is a time for me to be alone with God in the dark and then there is a time for me to reach out and seek a hand to explore it and move through.

Debbie Ford, released a movie recently called the Shadow Effect. It features spiritual journeymen like Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson to name a few. They discuss the necessity to adventure into the dark with the faith that if explored with honesty, it will bear riches. We live in a society that is focused on running from the dark or we wallow in it. We avoid "feeling" bad. We seek escape and fantasy and end up numb. The movie compels us to bravely go into the dark and face the sides of ourselves that are craving the light of day. It is by going into the dark that the light can find a way there.

Elizabeth Lesser, one of the founders of the renowned Omega Institute, wrote a book called Broken Open. In it she explores what is available to us in times of brokenness. She shares her own hurts and exposes her frailties to herself and others in order to grow. Her honesty and willingness to be vulnerable inspired me greatly. I learned that through a willingness to be vulnerable with myself and the right people, I would be able to excavate the gold in the dark places.

And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
—Anaïs Nin

Lesser opened her book with Nin's quote. It makes a powerful statement. I am inspired by this quote to be honest with my own fear to blossom. I am evolving my business and finally launching my book. I am finding myself in the wonderfully incredible process of creative chaos, joy and fear rumbling around together.

We all have times of self doubt, fear, and weariness. It is how we respond to these feelings that makes a life or breaks it. This morning, I was having the dreary Monday blues. Feeling overwhelmed and confused, I reached out to my best friend. He reminded me of my strengths and brought a smile to my face by reminding me that he felt good cause I called him for help out of the dark. He got to be my light for a moment, while mine became stronger with a dose of his love.

We laughed at the nuttiness of the moment. Here I am the girl who wrote Who's Helping Who? A book all about reaching out for help and the grace that ensues because of it. There I sat feeling ashamed that I needed a bit of TLC, while he sat feeling blessed to be a beacon. OH right he reminded me, I am human...

It is hard to admit we're having a bad day or a bad spell in our lives. They come. Sometimes, you can go within and seek the strength to move through it, other times reaching out for a hand is what is necessary. What I know for sure, is getting out of the dark is so much easier with the loving hand of a trusted friend.

Which friend of yours sheds light in the dark? Give them a call and say thanks for being a light!!

What do you need to face?

Is there something that you have been avoiding?


What are you afraid to take a look at?


What is the growing cost of running?


Is facing it alone scary?


Each of has something in our lives we put off, avoid, and often wish would just go away. What I have learned the hard way, is the longer you put it off, the harder it gets to face. I know in my life, my food addiction was what I avaoided talking about like the plague. I went for years just running from it, I spent years allowing myself to make believe it just was not that bad, until one day I found myself 320 pounds. Crazy, I must have been pretty out of it as I look back. I know that each day I ran from it the harder it got to deal with and the fatter I got.

What I have been learning recently in working on research for my upcoming book, Who's Helping Who?, is that most of us are unable to face our problems and ask help until the situation becomes unbearable, or worse, desperate. What a sad thing. We find ourselves alone with our pain, shame, and the longer we try to face it alone the harder it is to ask for help.

I know with my eating disorder that the idea of asking for help was so hard. I kept thinking I could do it by myself. When I finally realized that if I could do it alone I surly would, I began to realize that my own efforts had gotten me to 320 pounds. That asking for help was the only way out.

As I speak with more and more people about this topic of help, I am amazed and saddened by the notions we have embedded in our society about the stigma of asking for help. We look at ourselves as weak, stupid, lazy, and worse yet unworthy, when the realization we need to ask for help dawns upon us.

What I have learned these past few years is that asking for help is so much easier when I just begin to get that pit of anxiousness in my stomach. When that little queezy feeling comes and the worry begins…ya know the feeling… When that first night of tossing and turning makes ya think, “Man, I need to take care of this!”

These days, I run less and less, and I find myself turning to ask for help so much easier.
I turn to my coach, my spiritual advisor, my sponsor…my people…

Though I admit there are still one or two areas that are so much harder…money is my Archilles heal that I am working on these days. As I continue to build my business and continue to invest in my dream, I am faced with tough decisions and tough realities to face. I know each time I am asked to face things head on it is tough, yet, I always feel so much better when I have spent some time discussing it and assessing it with my financial advisor.

So each day, I ask myself, what do I need to face today? Some days, I have the bravery to get right to it and other days, I say, maybe tomorrow. What I have vowed, is that I do not need to get myself to a place of pain or shame or anguish any more about asking for and reaching out for help. I know that I can get the help I need, whenever I decide the discomfort is taking away from my happiness and wellbeing.

Today, I am pretty unwilling to let anything get in the way of my happiness, so asking for help is a skill I have honed. Thank you God, that I have found the willingness and the courage to know my limits and to know I want to be happy and contented. So today, I find myself saying, fairly often, “ I need help. Do you think you might be able to help me?”

I know that the people who are able to help will say yes, and the people who cannot will say no. My part is the asking and God’s part is bringing the right person to my side to help me and allow me the pleasure of being helped.

Face what needs to be faced!

Know that there are people who can help you and want to help you!

Know you are worthy!

Know you can!