Category Archives: Goals

2017 Top 6 Law of Attraction Podcasts

Posted in Goals, Inspiration, Law of Attraction, Manifestation, New Thought by
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Image courtesy of Blackzheep, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

We’re long overdue for a revised 2017 Top Five Law of Attraction Podcast! I have posted previous recommendations on this blog here: https://abundantlifeinitiative.com/2014/01/02/top-10-podcasts-for-law-of-attraction-new-thought-and-life-enrichment/ and here: https://wordpress.com/post/abundantlifeinitiative.com/1650. There are some Podcasts on my prior Top Law of Attraction lists that have since stopped recording new recordings, while a few of my favorites have remained active.

  1. Everyday Attraction with Rae Zander and Heather McKay Novak. This is an excellent Podcast. In the early days, this Podcast was an hour long, but this past year has been in a 30 minute format. I thought 30 minutes was not enough, but, nope – I am still filled up with great, Law of Attraction advise and insight. Rae has the ability to break down Law of Attraction in a way that you can relate to and apply immediately in your life. This Podcast has life changing, comforting information for you and should be your first stop in your search for the perfect LOA Podcast. Check out this podcast at: http://everydayattraction.com/.
  2. Flowdreaming with Summer McStravick. This is still one of the best shows out there on manifesting the life of your dreams. Summer has some awesome products and services on her website that will coach and guide you to living your best life, right here, in the now. Check out her Podcast here: https://flowdreaming.com/podcast/.
  3. Think, Believe and Manifest with Constance Arnold. Constance Arnold has to be the hardest working inspirational life coach there is! She never ceases creating the best podcasts on Law of Attraction. She has so much wisdom and her guests are out of this world with their advice and sharing of their own life journeys. She is an absolute treat to listen to, with her southern drawl and no-nonsense advice. I download Constance’s podcasts from iTunes. Check out Constance at: http://www.fulfillingyourpurpose.com/talk-show/.
  4. Matt O’Grady’s Success Podcast (Formerly of the Matt & Phil Law of Attraction Podcast). I was sad when Phil left the show for his new life in New Mexico, but was super relieved Matt decided to keep the Podcast going. Matt has shortened the show’s run time and offers great advice on all things Law of Attraction. I’m able to download Matt’s podcast from iTunes. Check out Matt’s podcast here: http://mattogradycoaching.com/podcast-show/.
  5. Inspire Nation/Daily Inspiration-Motivation-Meditation with Michael Sandler. I started listening to Inspire Nation podcasts a couple of years ago and it was chock full of witty insight on law of attraction, positive psychology and improving your life one thought and day at a time. I listen to Inspire Nation through Google Play. Here’s more: http://inspirenationshow.com/.
  6. Daily Boost: Best Daily Motivation/Life/Career/Goal Setting/Health/Law of Attraction/Network Marketing. Daily Boost offers bite sized podcasts on law of attraction (among many other subjects), and keeps it all under 13 minutes! This show has been on since 2006 and I am able to access it through Google Play. Check out more from here: https://motivationtomove.com/podcasts/daily-boost-podcast

What are some of your favorite Law of Attraction Podcasts? Any suggestions to add to this list?

~Your Curator of Your Abundant Life Initiative, Kimberly Jo Cooley Hall 

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The Haves and the Have Mores

Posted in Goals, Health, Inspiration, Law of Attraction, Manifestation, New Thought, Prosperity by
Hearst Castle

My photo of Hearst Castle July 2017

This summer, my husband and I decided to celebrate our fifth anniversary by visiting Hearst Castle, in San Simeon, California and it truly was a wonder to bear witness to. What appears to be an endless estate perched high up on a hill that overlooked the sea, was built during the Great Depression, during abject poverty.

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Hearst Castle, Grand Dining Room July 2017

I was struck by how Hearst was able to imagine such a kingdom, in a time when all around him was going bankrupt. There were times Hearst himself faced financial hardships, but what differentiated him from the rest of the world, was his belief that he remained affluent and abundant, even through the depression. He had an attitude of abundance and his legacy was assured, simply because he believed and imagined.

That’s the lesson for me in visiting Hearst Castle – one must keep an attitude of being wealthy, abundant, and healthy, if they are to have those attributes begin to show up (and stay) in their lives. The dips of financial wealth do not bind our future  to poverty – but a lack mentality will most certainly lock you to a fate of struggle. Do not allow negative feelings towards your today’s lack experience to color your tomorrow’s financial experiences.

Tying your worth or even your ability to generate money energy by your current bank account balance will surely keep you in a low funds lifestyle. Tying your overall health and wellbeing to today’s pain and suffering, will surely foster more future agony. I say this from a place of knowing real, true physical and emotional pain and with the authority that even with all the pain there is in this world, you can still carve out a few seconds to allow yourself to feel your way into manifesting how you truly want to feel.

Even for just a few seconds a day, hold your highest goals and thoughts in your heart and mind – to begin the paradigm shift needed to change course to your right direction.

You must look past the current circumstances and how you do this is by setting goals, creating and saying affirmations daily, and taking action steps in the general direction you’re trying to go. As with any change in life, initially there will be evidence of struggle and at times chaos, but in time, as your thoughts begin to purify from lack-filled ruminations to ones of abundance, your life will start showing signs of change for the better.

Right or wrong, for better or for worst, Hearst held the belief he was to have and hold abundance for generations to come and guess what, that’s what he got. All you and I want in this life is to experience a colorful, abundant life. Let’s be like Hearst and know abundance is already ours for the taking.

~Your Curator of All Things Inspirational, Kimberly Jo Cooley 

Life’s Garden Manifestation Toolkit

Posted in Affirmations, Goals, Inspiration, Law of Attraction, Manifestation, New Thought, Spirituality by
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Image courtesy of “Young Plant” by amenic181, from freedigitalimages.net

We stay spiritually connected and at the helm of our manifestational process by carving out a little time each day for spiritual practice.

My own spiritual practices ground me, purges mind clutter, and helps me to get in the flow of gratitude, receiving, and co-creating with the Universe. Here’s a list of some of my manifestation tools:

Thoughts: This is the most accessible and most important manifestation tool you could ever have or hope for. Your thoughts are like a vehicle that gets you from point A, to point B. How you maintain your vehicle is how smooth or bumpy your ride will be in life. Look around at your life – all here because of your thoughts.

There’s special handling when it comes to your thoughts. Lazy handling leads to negativity permeating your daily experience. Even in the midst of hard times, we can train our mind to see the good in a situation and to focus on what we do want, versus what we don’t want. Even if we receive a negative thought, replace it with a positive equivalent. Stop staying in a complaining continuum. Complaining leaves us in a state of victimhood.

Daily Meditation: There are countless reasons to meditate, but in terms of manifestation, your mind needs quiet time so you can become acquainted with that small voice that is lovingly guiding you. I utilize YouTube for guided meditations, binaural beat videos, and nature sounds to meditate each day. Other times, I rely on silence and allow my thoughts to drift away. I meditate first thing in the morning for 10 to 20 minutes each day and it helps shape my day in a positive way.

Clear Quartz Crystal ball as a meditation tool: I use my crystal quartz crystal ball to gaze into and drift into to a trance-like meditative state. During this meditative state, I focus on what I want to manifest.

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Affirmative Prayer: Any form of prayer can be powerful, but affirmative prayer multiplies the power tenfold. I practice a form of affirmative prayer called Spiritual Mind Treatments (https://csl.org/build-a-prayer). Although my spiritual affiliation is Centers for Spiritual Living, our Sister organization is Unity, and I love their definition of affirmative prayer, which is affirmative prayer “reflects the certainty that we are each being led to our highest good, despite any temporary appearances”(http://www.unity.org/prayer/what-affirmative-prayer). Spiritual mind treatments takes the begging and pleading out of prayer and compels us to act as if we already have what we desire, bringing our desires into our physical experience.

Gratitude: To be thankful for what we have signals to the Universe to send more of that which we are thankful for. Gracious thoughts easily push out negative thoughts, which is why it is a powerful and necessary tool in the manifestation toolkit.

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Journal System: I now journal in a more systematic way, by taking a gorgeous floral binder and dividing it in the following sections: Daily log; Wins; Meditative Insights; Gratitude Log; Dialogue; and Dream Log. Some entries are two lines, while others are pages long. My dreams find their way on the pages and eventually manifested into reality.

Brain Food: I fill my YouTube and iTunes Podcast subscriptions with Law of Attraction and Inspirational shows and keep them in heavy rotation on my smart phone or iPod.

Vision board book: I took a sketchbook with thick, 80 lb pages to hold my life’s visions. There’s something so satisfying about turning the pages of my vision board book. When you need a life pick me up, a vision board is like an old friend who reminds you of all that you are capable of being and becoming.

Mini abundance crystal grid: On my desk is a little plate that holds healing crystals and stones. I will do a future blog post on how and why I use crystals in my healing and manifesting. I saw this grid for abundance on Pinterest. Featured below are two tiger’s eye stones, fool’s gold in the middle of the glass plate, two green aventurine stones, and a citrine point.

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My mini abudance crystal grid, palo santo sticks and essential oil.

Affirmations:  There are millions of affirmations everywhere, but the ones that work best are specific, home grown from your own conscience, and placed in plane view to see everyday. I place mine on my bathroom mirrors and when it is time for a new affirmation, I remove the old ones and add a new Post It with new, inspirational words I’ve created.

My altar: Anyone, of any faith, can have an altar. An altar is a physical representation of what stirs the soul of the altar keeper (you). My altar sits in a corner of my bedroom and includes family photos, a dreamcatcher that has deep sentimental value, my healing crystals and hand-made totem poles, oracle cards, selenite and himilayan salt crystal candle holders. Inside the altar is painted rose-gold and stores my divination tools (sage, incense, lighters, cards, journals, etc.). 2017-04-23_20.52.01_resized (1)

Exercise: I meditate as I exercise and I visualize all my organs working beautifully, blood flowing effortlessly, muscles responding, and my body is shaping and becoming all I dreamed it could be. Exercising brings the mental and the physical together, to bring about a physical manifestation that we all desire for ourselves. It is a physical action that, if aligned with the right thoughts, can yield wonderful results.

What are some tools in your personal Manifestation toolbox?

~Your Curator of All Things Abundant, Kimberly Jo Cooley

Goodbye 2016, Welcome 2017!

Posted in Goals, Inspiration, Manifestation, New Year's Resolutions by

Image courtesy of “Fireworks” by Noppasinw. From http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Happy New Year! A new year deserves a proper welcome and the old one warrants a proper goodbye. Aside from the usual resolutions and wild parties, have you given thought to new traditions you’d like to honor your new year by?

It’s important to set intentions on how you wish to bring forth a beautiful life in the days ahead and no time like the new year to do it.

There were some things about 2016 that I wanted to leave behind and some things I wanted to carry into my new year. I usually create or enhance an existing vision board each year, write my intentions, and spend time with family. I decided to do all of that AND round it off with a beautiful ritual at dusk to signify 2016’s sunset and the sunrise of 2017.

My sister and my three children got together to work on our intentions and visions for next year. We poured over magazines, ate food, sipped on sparkling apple cider as we created our vision boards.

While my family created boards, I continued to work on my existing “book of visions” and my new Bloom Vision Planner – which has a space for a vision board. The photos below will demonstrate what I worked on towards my life’s vision.

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My new Bloom Vision Planner!

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I added a planning pad with velcro to my Bloom Planner.

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I added velcro so I can attach/detach my planning pad. The planning pad allows more space for other aspects of my life – like blogging!

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I chose this planner because of the space to add a vision board. I had so much fun creating my vision board with my family. 

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I’ve been working on my “book of visions” for a year now. I purchased a sketch pad with thick pages to add cutouts to. I prefer a vision book to a board – it allows me to add many pages for all aspects of my life. 

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My vacation pursuits page of my book of visions. 

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My writing life vision page within my book of visions. 

As the day drew to a close, I asked my family to write on tiny slips of paper what it was they wished to gently release to 2016. My own personal release statements included releasing impatience and lack mentality. We burned each of the slips of the paper, as we said, “_________ I release you and gently leave you behind in 2016. Amen and so it is.” As the room became dark, I said, “The sun has died, the old year has passed.” I then had each of us light candles. Once the room was filled with candle light, I then said, “The sun has rose, the new year has come.”

We felt a sense of resolution to what we wanted to release and let go and an excitement for what’s to come in the new year. Our family needed this ceremony, after the hellish year we had nearly losing my son Daniel in a near fatal auto accident in the first part of 2016.

Three books I consulted on creating a ritual for my family to participate in were Spiritual Clearings by Diana Burney, Real Life Rituals by Karyl Huntley, and The Smudging and Blessings Book: Inspirational Rituals to Cleanse and Heal, by Jane Alexander.

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I now feel ready to embark on my new year with fervor and focused intention. There will be nothing tethering me to the old year.

I invite you to look at ways to release the old and to make room for the new.

I wish you a very blessed and prosperous New Year!

~Your Curator of All Things Inspirational, Kimberly Jo Cooley

New Year…Now What? Effecting Total Transformation in 2016

Posted in Affirmations, Goals, Inspiration, Manifestation, New Year's Resolutions by
Image courtesy of 2015 2016 Inscription Written In The Wet Yellow Beach Sand Being, by Serge Bertasius Photography, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net?

Image courtesy of 2015 2016 Inscription Written In The Wet Yellow Beach Sand Being, by Serge Bertasius Photography, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Once again a new year is upon us. There’s the proverbial new year’s resolutions. The sincere promises to be better and stronger in the new year.

All the good intentions in the world will not bring one any closer to their new year’s desires, without some inner re-tooling and awareness.

New habits have to replace old ones. New thoughts have to be paved over old, non-serving ones. Patterns have to be reviewed and considered whether they need to come with on the 2016 journey, or be left behind in 2015.

In the creative process, there’s the affirmative thoughts/processes and there’s the action component.

May McCarthy of the awesome book The Path to Wealth (which I highly recommend) says “If people want to effect change, be healed of a disease, or attract something different they must ‘deny’ the condition or disease and follow it with a statement of what they want, called an ‘affirmation.'” She further points out “affirmations and denials are tools to support the change process. Using affirmations alone can bring you a long way on your journey toward your good. But adding denials, or a strong claim that anything that is not for your good is removed, is a powerful way to help eliminate negative beliefs, fears, or any other thoughts that arise and appear to be blocking your path.”

When you affirm what conditions you do want with affirmations, you are stamping the Universal energy. From that stamped desire, inspiration in the form of intuition will guide your next actions steps to take.

Your job is twofold – to affirm the “whats” in your life and to take inspired, action steps when you receive intuition to act. God works out the “hows” of getting your good to you. There’s no need to expend precious energy on how something will come about. If you are following your job tasks, the “how” will reveal itself.

I wish you blessings upon blessings in the new year and beyond. You do not have to believe in new year’s resolutions to effect real change in your life, but there’s no time like a new year to jumpstart your transformation. Remember – focus on the “what” and the “why” you want the “what” and God will tend to the “how.”

~Your Curator of All Things Inspirational, Kimberly Jo Cooley 

Is My Visualization Projector Broken?

Posted in Goals, Inspiration, Manifestation by
Image courtesy of Empty Seat on Row In Theater With Movie Screen Stock Photo by kittijaroon, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Image courtesy of Empty Seat on Row In Theater With Movie Screen Stock Photo by kittijaroon, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

In a recent conversation with a friend, I asked, “I know you will manifest many things next year, but what are one or two things you deeply desire to manifest in 2016?” She expressed her desire for a good job and a loving relationship. We then started discussing how she could manifest a great job and an even greater love life. I suggested visualization and to act “as if” she already had what she wished to have. She then said her “visualization projector” was broken. “It stopped working a few months ago,” she complained. Whenever she attempted to visualize, nothing appeared in her mind to focus on – she was receiving a blank screen.

She asked if this was normal. I assured her that her visualization projector was not broken, rather, it was waiting for her to switch it back on and feed it with new images.

You can visualize anytime, anywhere. Oftentimes, we fall out of practice, but it is easy to get back on track. You can do the following:

  • Meditate: My seventeen year old son meditates almost everyday and he offered this suggestion to share with my friend on rebooting a visualizing mind. When we meditate, we allow space in our mind, clearing out needless cluttered thoughts, while making room for visions that serve us.
  • Imagine: My four year old inspired me to sit and imagine. She can play with almost anything for hours! Two forks become two people in her imaginative world. I advised my friend to imagine what it would feel like driving to her dream job, or sitting at her new work desk. She could imagine getting her paycheck and feeling a strong sense of satisfaction. She could even link her job image to her love image and envision herself driving home to her new husband. He’s prepared a lovely meal for her and and her son and he’s waiting to hear all about how her day went. Human beings were meant to imagine their whole lives, not just during childhood.
  • Draw or clip pictures: I suggested to my friend she can create a vision board or keep a folder of clipped magazine photos showing what she wants to bring forth into her existence. Whenever she needs to remember what to focus on, she can pull out her board or folder.
  • Journaling: Write, write, and write some more. Your written words on what you wish to manifest has magical power. Your thoughts become things when they are written down. From the written word, a transformation occurs and manifestation into the physical form takes place.

Visualization is a fun and easy way to feel what we want to have, before we actually have it in physical form. A manifesting practitioner knows visualization is a tool worth using on a frequent basis, if they wish to hasten their blessings. Are you visualizing the life of your dreams? If not, what are you waiting for?

~Your Curator of All Things Inspirational, Kimberly Jo Cooley 

As Easy as Manifesting School Buses

Posted in Goals, Inspiration, Law of Attraction, Manifestation, New Thought by
Image courtesy of School Bus Stock Photo, by Arvind Balaraman, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net.

Image courtesy of School Bus Stock Photo, by Arvind Balaraman, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net.

Children are the greatest manifestors because of their ability to see the world with new, wonder filled imagination. Their thoughts and feelings are raw and unfiltered, not (yet) tainted by doubt and worry from the adults in their lives.

Some children love cars, for others, it’s unicorns. For my four year old daughter, Ella Samone, it’s school buses. She looks forward to the day she will ride on a school bus. She pretends she’s a passenger on a school bus while I drive her to daycare. My vehicle transforms into an imaginative school bus in her imagination. She also has the uncanny ability to manifest several yellow buses rolling by her each day. I kid you not, if Ella Samone wants to see a school bus at 8 PM, she will! People gift her yellow school bus toys. Just a few weeks ago, we drove by a lot full of non-operational school buses, to Ella Samone’s delight. A long, yellow school bus rides alongside our vehicle on Interstate 80 now and then. Even in the summer or times when one doesn’t expect to see a school bus, one appears.

Ella Samone became the passenger in her mind first, she acted as if she was a passenger and soon enough, she will manifest it on the physical plane. She’s already enjoyed the creative thoughts of bringing school buses to her experience. The actual ride will be just the icing on the cupcake for her.

Ella Samone didn’t allow limiting thoughts to drown out the creative thought of seeing school buses every day. She used all her senses to imagine herself in a school bus. Adults can learn from a child’s tenacity surrounding what they draw into their experience.

We can be like the child who sees only the possibilities through vivid visualization. Our thoughts are influential, in their purest state. It is when we pile on the doubts, worries, and resentments from ourselves and others that the influential thought loses its influence. We also do not allow our minds to imagine long enough to shape a new creative thought. How do we become child like in our ability to allow our desires to remain in their unadulterated version, so that they are realized on the physical plane?

  • We have to allow the creative thought to come in and titillate our souls.
  • We have to be in a place of receiving the creative thought.
  • We have to be what it is we wish to be from that creative thought.
  • We have to celebrate both the birth and the manifestation of the creative thought. We do this by living as if it were already here.

Manifesting something as small as seeing school buses everyday is how we practice for manifesting the big castles in our lives. Look to our children for inspiration on how to be in the moment and filled with rich imagination.

~Your Curator of All Things Inspirational, Kimberly Jo Cooley

Thank God for Contrast!

Posted in Goals, Inspiration, Law of Attraction, Manifestation by
Image courtesy of Earth And The Moon Photo by xedos4, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net.

Image courtesy of Earth And The Moon
Photo by xedos4, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net.

Definitions of Contrast: n. 1.  The use of opposing elements, such as colors, forms, or lines, in proximity to produce an intensified effect in a work of art. 2. The difference in brightness between the light and dark areas of a picture, such as a photograph or video image (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/contrast).

My Spiritual Definition of Contrast: Contrast is a byproduct of the manifestation you’ve created based on your choices of action and inaction. The noun contrast is revealed initially in an unpleasing and unsatistfactory way – making you feel like your life is now hugely negatively affected by it. Just as choices are inevitable, so is contrast, but it is how you perceive and receive it that determines the outcome.

Recognizing the gift that contrast is will allow you to harness your life in a way that is refreshing, productive, and lays the foundation for creating more of what you want. It is your perspective of your situation and how you respond to it, that will define your experience. If you must have a cry over what seems like a bad situation, have that cry. Allow your disappointment or anger to have its moment, otherwise you will find yourself having to face those emotions over and over again.

Oftentimes, contrast is showing us an area where we may have neglected. It can also be the natural result of other actions you’ve consciously or subconsciously created.

We get complacent, not minding our thoughts and actions and contrast can come from our neglect. Sometimes we need contrast to come in and shake things up, to remind us of what it is we do and don’t want.

Recently I had a situation at work where contrast showed up. I was told I would need to help out my old department, as they were severely behind and the workers were threatening to walk off their jobs. I had an immediate, visceral fear that I, too, would feel like I wanted to walk off my job if I had to put my own work on hold as I helped these workers. I could not see the blessings that was on the other side of what appeared to be disappointing news.

In time, I started to see why it had to be me to help them out – my bosses felt I could do it and that felt good to know they can trust me. I was able to give expertise to the workers so they can settle more claims. Most importantly, the contrast showed me what it is I really do want and don’t want in my job and even opportunities outside of my work that could grow – such as writing a book geared towards the spiritual side of customer service. Or, even better, to consider self-employment and consulting. I would not have seen these opportunities had I not had been asked to help and to see the resulting contrast of answering yes to the request.

The truth was, I had gotten complacent in my goal setting – I was coasting along, not giving my Flow direction or feeling what I wanted next. I was not really moving towards any new career aspirations other than what I had currently going on and I felt like I was in a safe place. The contrast of having to do my work as well as another department’s work forced me to look at where I’m at and my future aspirations once more, only this time, with more information on what I do and do not want. Who knows what may come of this latest experience, but now I am alert and aware again to what’s going on and what I need to be focusing on.

The moon is a whole, massive object, but there is a light side and there’s a dark side. The light side cannot exist without the dark side. The light is no better than the dark. The dark informs us, just as the light. What is showing up as contrast in your life?

~Your Curator of All Things Inspirational, Kimberly Jo Cooley

Stop Worrying About the “How” and Just Be in the “Now”

Posted in Goals, Inspiration, Inspirational Quotes, Law of Attraction, Manifestation, New Thought, Spirituality by
Image courtesy of amenic181, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Image courtesy of amenic181, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Your job is to generate and to allow your creative thoughts to come, shaping matter into manifestation. To nurture creative thoughts by being fertile ground for them to sow and grow. To be an allowing vessel for blessings to flow to and through you. To be ever present in the now is to slow down enough to savor what is and to be confident in what is to yet to be.

God/The Universe’s job is to handle the “how” in bringing forth the manifestation or your creative thoughts and ideas.

Your “now” lays the foundation for your tomorrow. If your “now” is filled with worry for the “how” of things you want to create, all you are creating is more worry about not having what you want. We live in affirmative universe, that gives us what we focus on and believe. To effect change in one’s life, one must look at what they believe and are focusing on.

Let your “now” be filled with gratitude and appreciation. Let your “now” be filled with peace and creative moments. Let your “now” have times of respite and reflection. Let your “now” be void of dissatisfaction and boredom. Your “now” should have no room for boredom, dissatisfaction, anger or resentment.

Don’t prematurely pull up your creative seedlings, by allowing doubt, worry, and fear to uproot them. Be like the farmer who tends to his plants, but doesn’t hover over and crowd them. The farmer is patient, all the while knowing that what he has planted will grow in its own time.

The lover lives in the “now,” the worrier lives in the future, and the naysayer lives in the past. The naysayer relies on information about their life from what they’ve seen and only what they’ve seen. The worrier relies on information on fears of what they cannot see. The lover relies on the love they are experiencing right now and will continue to experience. Be the lover. Lover of creativity, lover of life, lover of all there is.

Know that all is truly well and working in Divine Favor for the best life has to offer you. Resolve to enjoy life, right now, and to refrain from needlessly stressing over things, for stressing will never bring what you want closer to you.

~Your Curator of All Things Inspirational, Kimberly Jo Cooley

 

Are Your Health Goals in Alignment with Your Values?

Posted in Fitness, Goals, Health, New Year's Resolutions, Weight loss by
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles, 2013, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles, 2013, from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

I and many others are embarking on a health and wellbeing journey. It has not been easy, but it has already reaped rewards and it’s because my resolutions are in alignment with my values (finally!).

Weight Management: I am not particularly interested in calorie counting or counting pounds. In fact, I am not going to weigh myself until my biometric screening in June. Counting lost or gained pounds are counterproductive – especially when one is building muscle mass as they work out.

Others find solace in seeing lost pounds, whereas I find solace in feeling great, having tons of energy and sleeping well at night. I want overall wellbeing – few to no colds, a general sense of great health, and a knowing that my body is thriving.

There’s no right or wrong way to look at weight management. What’s most important is whether or not your weight management styles are in alignment with your true values.

Nutritious Diet: I value consuming lots of fruits and vegetables. My mother gifted me a NutriBullet for Christmas and I now I am cultishly juicing/extracting everyday. I’m hooked. Now I crave fruits and vegetables over chips and cookies. Juicing assists with my value of consuming a large amount of fruits, vegetables and nuts. I don’t beat myself up over having a meal at a diner or a dessert. I know I am in the land of the living and sometimes I want to indulge. I make all the conditions in my life to allow me to easily eat or drink when and what I want.

Moderation is key. Because I am on blood thinners, I can only consume a small amount of alcohol, so I save drinking for special occasions. I eat everything in moderation and never feel compelled to finish everything on my plate. I am a lifelong naturally slow eater, which I’m told is a good thing (a pain for my friends and family, but a good digestive/metabolic thing for me).

Exercise: I was the biggest gym rat ten years ago – going five to six times a week. Before that, I would rally up friends to take belly dancing classes with me. I do not have a gym membership presently, but I do have my beloved elliptical machine in my garage, some great 1980s ab workout videos and YouTube exercise How-tos. I also have my sneakers and long, suburban blocks to walk. There are several parks in walking distance that I can jog to. I may get a gym membership, but I have exercise at my fingertips right now, free of charge.

So many of us think we have to go to the gym and that there’s one way to fitness. Fortunately, there are many paths to great physical fitness that can be aligned to our personal values – not just what’s the latest fitness fad or what others are doing to stay fit.

Meditation: My relationship with meditation has strengthened over the last year. I carve out ten to fifteen minutes of my lunch break most work days to meditate. I book an empty conference room, turn down the lights, tune in to my YouTube meditation channels on my cellphone and I meditate. Sometimes, it feels like I’ve left my body, the building, the planet, only to become aware of reentry into my physical being when the music or chants stop. Meditation is what grounds us and at the same time releases us from the clutches of worry, anxiety, and earthly issues. I am most proud of myself for continuing to meditate on a regular basis, even at work.

Singing: I don’t sing for others, I sing for myself. I sing when I’m happy, when I’m sad, when I’m driving, and when I’m feeling silly or serious. Singing is a form of exercise and meditation for me, all mixed into one. After losing my breath during my pulmonary embolism episode, I value feeling good and breathing. I can breathe, damn it!

What makes us beautifully human is our ability to sing, dance and be merry. Love your body, this earthly vessel that carries you. When we forget to love ourselves, our body communicates to us what is needed to get back into alignment. Sometimes that communication is illness, injury, or depression.

When we start to recognize and honor our values, our goals naturally flow and align to and from them, effecting lasting, positive changes in our lives.

~Your Curator of All Things Abundant, Kimberly Jo Cooley