Category: Motivation

avoidance and destiny

by shollandsworth, posted in authenticity, avoidance, destiny, Empowerment, Faith, freedom, Growth, Light, Love, Motivation, positivity, Power, Self Development, Soul, Trust, Truth

Where in your life are you in avoidance? What are you resisting whether consciously or unconsciously. It most likely holds the keys to your greatest breakthroughs and even your destiny. At this point in life, many of us are aware of the existence of our ego. The poor ego has gotten a bad wrap. People want to make an enemy of it, kill it even. I like to think of the ego as a toddler. Toddlers are adorable, certainly not bad, in fact, they need our love, protection and guidance. We would never give a toddler the steering wheel and let them drive. So why would you allow the ego to steer your life? The ego has one main goal: to keep us safe because it love us, and they believe that staying where we are accomplishes that. When I was little, fear was all I knew, it consumed me. I remember having diving class, and I dreaded it. I was a natural swimmer, a fish. My parents recognized it in me and encouraged me, and I was even pursued pretty heavily all my life by swim coaches. I probably had the innate ability to take it to the highest level, but I had all of these irrational fears which are not relevant here. Back to the story….I recall my first lesson where we were to jump off of the low dive. I absolutely did not want to…actually I desperately wanted to, but I was paralyzed in fear. I kept walking to the edge and freezing. Eventually the instructor coaxed me off the edge, and it was game over after that. Shortly thereafter I was doing back dives and one and a half flips off the high dive. I found freedom in the dive, I connected to my natural gifts, to my essence. You see, the toddler in me wanted me to stay safe while the higher self in me knew what was to be gained by bailing off a perfectly steady board into the unknown…everything.

In my life, this willingness to dive led me to many beautiful cliffs as well as many exciting adventures. That willingness embedded itself in my spirit and has made it possible for me to take risks that I otherwise would never have considered. Not every breakthrough lie through huge life changing leaps. Sometimes it is the smallest tweak in a habit or thought pattern. It can be a chore that needs to be ended to, or a scary business opportunity. If it creates discomfort in you, be willing to take a look at it. Avoidance always means something, and it can almost always be traced back to our little well meaning but misguided homie, the ego. We must always be willing to turn the light on and look at that which we would prefer not to, and always without judgement. Simply observe, take note, and choose consciously, wisely, bravely.

Do the words someone said create an irritation in you? Why? What are you not wanting to see in yourself or in your life? Does it bother you that someone is living their life differently from yours? Could it mean that your highest self wishes you would choose courageously to step out onto a different path? Are you afraid that you are wrong in your beliefs? It always means something otherwise it wouldn’t create friction within you. And it typically calls for a change in perspective, change in beliefs, or change in self, in action. Avoidance is our compass, our north star if we simply allow it to guide us. We have been led to unconsciously believe that if we ignore something it will go away. The truth is, it won’t. It never does. In fact, the longer we wait, the more we ignore and avoid, the steeper the price we will have to pay to change whatever it is. The more effort we will have to exert, the more faith we will have to exercise. Get the lesson now, take the guidance. It is all a gift, it is all for you. There is nothing to fear.

Walk to the edge of the diving board, the cliff. Dangle your toes…bail off that thang and find your freedom, find your liberation, find your purpose, find your bliss. Its all there waiting to embrace you. You have everything to gain. Love and light homies.

Lay Your Burdens Down…

by shollandsworth, posted in Empowerment, Faith, freedom, Growth, Hope, Light, Love, Motivation, positivity, Power, Rebirth, Self Development, Soul, Truth, Uncategorized

I had a very big day yesterday. I have been “broken” for a long time now. Although I have been committed to choosing my mindset, overcoming and rising up, my mind and spirit still carried the residue of what my body had been through over the last few years. While I had chosen my perspective rather than wearing the one given to me by others or by my unconscious self, I was still haunted by the events. It is not far fetched or unreasonable that when you go from “wonder woman” to near death in an instant that it would affect you in more ways than one. It is not shocking that the time spent running from annihilation during my coma would leave a trace of darkness somewhere in my psyche. It makes sense that being treated and handled with extreme care and caution following the series of events would become a new way of life. No one would blame me if I stayed in that place. No one would blame me but why would I ever choose to stay there? I think where we typically go wrong is first and foremost in the unconscious. Most of us are living and operating from an unconscious reactionary state. We are unaware of what we are thinking, feeling, choosing, etc. Things begin to change dramatically the day you become a force in your own life and create your life rather than react to it. We look at all the evidence that we have gathered from the current circumstances which are only there based on our thoughts and choices (whether unconscious or not) up until now. The second we choose to change, choose to become the force, circumstances will begin to shift dramatically. We have to give our lives time to catch up before we make conclusions about what it all means.

Let my life be living proof for you. I was not handed anything on a silver platter. No one came to save me. I screamed and yelled at God, I begged God, I ignored God. This Being, this Force, this Entity loved me enough to allow me to save myself. I can only imagine how difficult that would be to watch someone you love so deeply in such despair and not save them from it. But that is a true and deep love. A love that is willing to sit in its own pain so that the object of their love and creation can be truly born. God sat by, and I believe sat directly in front of me breathing love and strength into me while I found my own. You see….my entire life, I was seeking my own strength. On the outside looking in, it could have looked like I had had it. I had my shallow strengths temporarily taken from me so that I could discover the strengths that could never be taken or destroyed. I stand here in immense gratitude for the fruits of that battle, I stand here a butterfly emerged from my cocoon.

I say all of that to say this….Lay your burdens down. Resist the urge to continue hitting the replay button. What happened to you is just that…it happen(ed). Past tense. It was then, this is now. It is over and done. You are not your experiences or your circumstances. You are what you choose to do with and about them. You are who you become from the journey. As a coach and trainer, I am forever hearing people talk about their weak wrists, nagging ankle injury that they have had since childhood. I will never forget an amazing client I had who on day one of training with me spent fifteen minutes explaining every physiological issue they have had since birth involving both their personal and what they believed to be genetic issues. I listened and smiled and led them straight into and through those issues and watched them come out the other side without having to carry those particular burdens any longer. Your freedom is through. Your freedom is in letting go. You are not chained to your finite experiences. You are the creator, you are the author. You have a choice and you have the power. All of my love and light to each and every one of you today. Blessings. SaraMae

 

 

 

Victim or Victor

by shollandsworth, posted in Empowerment, Faith, Growth, Hope, Light, Love, Motivation, positivity, Power, Uncategorized

 

In any given moment, we always have a choice, and its almost always between two polarities, with the point of power always belonging to us. We have been taught to believe we are powerless, at the mercy of those with the perceived power, at the mercy of our circumstances, at the mercy of some outside source who judges our worthiness depending on our actions. We have believed that we must sit and wait for circumstances to change before we can do xyz. That we must be different, look different, do different, have different…

I love what 3x Cover Model, Fitness World Champion, Self Love junkie, Lifestyle Entrepreneur and all around epic incredible human being Lori Harder says at the beginning of her earnyourhappy.com podcast “we don’t wait until we’re ready for someone to tell us that we’re good enough, we take what we want and we anoint ourselves.” Such a true and powerful statement. We are so much more powerful than most of us have ever been taught to believe.

I am honestly so incredibly grateful for the immense struggles that I was given because they taught me how powerful and strong I really was…what I could really endure, what I could really overcome…who I could really be…what I really stood for…what I was truly passionate about. I would say they forced me, but they merely gave me a choice which to me there was only one option. While losing my feet seemed  like one of the very worse things that could have happened to me, I still clung to the blessings that I had that many others would do anything for. And to me it would be far worse to be miserable, angry, bitter and to choose to stay broken than to rise in my strength, power and potential. To not just overcome my challenges, but to eventually use them to help others do the same. I have always been motivated by helping others, and I just kept thinking about what I would one day be able to do again rather than some of the things that I may struggle with. I kept thinking about the people who I could potentially help one day rather than the things that I felt I may never have again. And to be honest, there really isn’t anything I don’t think I will be able to do, just walls to climb over or knock down.

For anyone who may be struggling, I just want to share the view from where I am today. I am still on the journey, there is still overcoming to be done, but I am far stronger, far happier, for more fulfilled and just far more myself for the process. You have far more power than you realize. There is nothing you cannot be, do or have. Don’t for one second give your power away to anyone or anything. And know you are never alone. Much love. SaraMae

Feeling stuck? Be the catalyst.

by shollandsworth, posted in Empowerment, Faith, Growth, Hope, Motivation, Power, Self Development, Truth

 

Where in your life do you feel stuck? Literally or figuratively? It is so easy to give into the thought process, the illusion and believe that it is logical to make a change once the “stuckness” gets removed by some outside force or condition. We say that when we have energy, we will exercise, when we have motivation, we will workout, when we have time, we will take up that new hobby or volunteer, when we have money, we will have xyz. It seems counterintuitive to give of ourselves where we feel we lack. Life responds to us. It responds to our intentions, our beliefs, our commitments, our actions, our words, our thoughts, our states of being. There is nothing that we cannot do, be, or have if we are willing to become that thing. There is nothing that any of us are lacking at any time, in any condition, under any circumstance. There are degrees of difficulty, but never a lack of anything. And the tiniest shift, tiniest action, tiniest amount of money, tiniest fraction of time can create a completely different reality.

I understand how difficult it can seem when the entire bottom has fallen out of your life. I have experienced every single aspect of life falling apart and having to pick up the pieces. I know people who have faced the same levels of devastation, and I am here to tell you that I believe in the very core of my being that it is often in those moments, in those circumstances that our greatest blessings lie. It can seem so far from that, but if we are willing to think of them as such, they come to shake us up for our greatest and highest good, to help us become unstuck, to break open.

What are you wanting in life? More time? More money? More love? More support? More kindness? More resources? More fun?  Be that. Give of that, give the very thing you think you lack and watch the universe completely come to your aid and conspire in your favor. Don’t take my word for it. Do it for yourself. Are you short rent money? Find a cause you love, find someone else who is short on rent money and give whatever amount speaks to your heart…hundreds or pennies. The greater stretch, the greater blessing, the greater shift in your being and therefore your situation, but start with where you are, when you are and how you are. Want more love? Be loving towards someone else in any manner, especially if you are slightly uncomfortable. Feel all alone and like you have no support? First, see if you can support yourself more and then extend your support to anyone else. Whenever and wherever you feel tempted and compelled to hoard and withhold, give there. You are powerful beyond measure, and have the power to completely alter your circumstances along with as many others as you choose to serve.

Be the catalyst of your life. Be your own hero. Come to your own aid. On the days when you feel especially exhausted, lethargic and unmotivated, lace up your sneakers and go anyways. Trust the energy to come to you by the mere conviction of your actions. Life and God know when things are particularly difficult but we act in spite of and do it anyway. Its in those moments, when we feel the least like it, when it would take the most effort, the most faith, the most strength of character; when we rise up and take that leap of faith, that first baby step, that first shift in the new direction, when we creak the doors of our mind open with our willingness to believe differently. There are roars of applause that go unheard but sound off anyways in support of our growth and expansion. It is why we are here lovelies. To kick ass and bless others. Love and light. SaraMae