Category: positivity

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.

Calling all LOVERS…..

by shollandsworth, posted in authenticity, Choose love, Empowerment, Faith, Hope, Light, Love, positivity, Power, Rumi, Truth

 

“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” Rumi

It is so easy and tempting to fall into the belief, temptation and gut reaction that in the face of tragedy, hate, terrorism and violence that we are justified if not compelled to react in hate and fear. It is human nature to react. We are animals. However we are also creators, we are also beings with higher consciousness. That is what separates us from other species. DO NOT allow yourself to fall into the trap that when faced with fear and hate you should react with more of the same. It is completely natural and okay to feel those things, but we do not have to become vessels and channels for them. We can take in the feelings of fear and hate and transmute them into peace and love. That is the great gift of LIFE. Who wants to run around the planet reacting to every thing that occurs big or small? We are not rats in a maze. We are conscious creators. We are POWERFUL.

There is no reward in meeting hate with hate. Someone jumps in front of you in line, pushes past you, says an unkind word. What do you believe you get out of putting someone in their place? When you know who you are and whose you are, where you come from, what runs through your veins, you can be like the water. When we dive off of a cliff with great force, it merely yields to our bodies. It makes space for our intrusion, it even offers us pleasure. Do you understand the power of meeting hate with love? Fear with peace?

We know not what burdens and wounds others carry. We know not why they act in the way they do. It always boils down to fear and an absence of love. The times and situations when it is most difficult to respond in love are the times when it is most needed. It is the most unloveable who need love the most. That is never to say that you should stay in a toxic or abusive situation. Our own energy is sacred and of the highest importance. But it takes nothing from us to extend love in any situation, in fact it fuels our own life force, it multiplies our own essence. The more you react from and come from a place of love, the more you become love, the less the other energies will pop up in your reality. It is a truly beautiful and powerful process. When your love becomes so bright, you begin to repel and even transform fear, hate, anger, jealousy. When you buoy your own life force and energy to such an extent that you begin to affect the force field of another, you get to taste what creation and purpose are really all about. That is how we change the world. In all things, in all places, in all interactions, choose love, be love. We eradicate terrorism on the global scale by eradicating terrorism in our everyday interactions. We are the change. And the smallest, most seemingly insignificant interactions are the exact path to change on a global scale. Turn off the news, look out your front door and give love. Give it every time all the time. Be love.

“Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.” Rumi

 

authenticity is the way.

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

More collaboration, less comparison, less competition. We have become so ingrained in our society to buy into the competition lie. We believe that for us to win, someone else must lose. That when someone else gains, there is somehow less available for us. That also leads to comparison. We look to those who achieve, win, etc and begin to believe that we must somehow be like them to also win. We slowly begin to chip away at our uniqueness, at our perfect and valid and necessary expression of life and become a ghost of ourselves, a shadow, an eclipse. We begin feeling less, thinking less. We become programmed and hollow. We put on masks, try on other’s clothes, thoughts and beliefs. We no longer differentiate between our own unique thoughts and feelings and those put on us by our peers or by society. We become sheep. We no longer live and act from a place of masterpiece. We were created. Specially. Specifically and Uniquely. We were painted, sculpted, written and photographed. We are art.

The more you shed the inauthentic and claim your authenticity, the more resistance you may begin to encounter. Claim it anyway. Make authenticity the path, the way. Be authenticity. Breathe authenticity. Speak it. There is no need to fight against the resistance. Make space for it. Smile at it. Breathe through it. Direct love to it. Your conviction to live from that space quietly gives permission for others to do the same. And whether you ever directly get to experience the currents of that particular wave, it happens anyway. It is a great gift to give the world.

You cannot be successful living in someone else’s skin, beliefs or convictions. You cannot be whole, you cannot be effective. Begin to create rather than to consume. To be a force, you must stand silently, peacefully and powerfully in your own truth and let the truth make the noise. Let that truth set the world ablaze. Let that truth heal those with ears to hear. You have a specific, special and unique impact to make. Make your tracks. Let others follow those tracks until they find their own. Light the way. Love and light.

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

Open or Closed?

by shollandsworth, posted in Empowerment, Faith, Growth, Hope, Light, Love, positivity, Power, Rumi, Self Development, Soul, Trust, Truth, Uncategorized

Understandably in life, we encounter disappointments, heart break, cruelty and we believe whether consciously or unconsciously that the answer to that is to put up a wall, build our defenses, employ watchmen to stand guard and ensure our safety from the less enjoyable aspects of life. We believe the illusion that the world is a bad and dangerous place to live and our instincts go to work to protect us. This is born into us as part of the human experience. Our ancestors used to have to literally run for their lives when up against the elements of nature. That response is in fact built into us and for us if we ever come up against a real and immediate threat. However, we have allowed it to run amuck in our lives without any sort of supervision or guidance. We turn on the television, tune into the news, read the headlines on the papers, overhear conversations in public. So much of society is set up to focus on the doomsday reporting tempting us to believe the lie that we are in clear and present danger.

At any moment, we have two options. To be open or closed. When we shut down in an attempt to protect ourselves, we believe we are keeping the “enemy” out, the hurt, the pain, the failure, etc. It makes so much sense in the logical way if you never look deeper and question the way things are. People build fences to protect their property.  Seems legit. Here we are speaking of fences in our lives. When you build a fence to keep anything out, you are in fact, just keeping yourself in. You are shutting down the natural flow and rhythm of the Universe, shutting out the good and incredible that life stands in the wings ready, willing, able and excited to send our way. Life is for you. Life is for you. Life is FOR you. Are you willing to suspend judgement, to hesitate on your need to label things as good or bad, to take a breath and give life the chance to show you just how good it really is? Are you willing to believe that pain can be a messenger, a teacher, a wise friend? Are you willing to listen? Because your heart and soul, God, the wisdom of the Universe is whispering and simply waiting with a smile to impart all of its genius.

If there is one thing I know to be true, it is that we are powerful beyond measure. The stuff of the Universe is not in some far away cosmos, it is in our DNA. God is not some distant fixture atop a cloud, God dwells in your soul. You walk with thunder and lightening in your veins! You truly are a magnificent miracle. There is nothing that you cannot be, do, or have, nothing that you need or lack. The next time you are delivered a blow and want to batten down the hatches, I encourage you to sit with the situation. To breathe through it, to open up and allow it to flow through you. To look at it, speak to it and ask it what it is here to teach you, what blessing it has to bestow upon you. I promise you it will answer, and it is always your friend. It even carries the seeds of comfort.

The more that you breathe, relax and allow yourself to open, the more freedom you will begin to feel within yourself and your life. You will see light fragments shine on once dark and forgotten corners. You will feel joy where once there was sorrow, hope where once there was hopelessness, joy where once there was shame. My beloveds, there is nothing to fear. You are not alone unless you insist it to be so and even then….you are not alone. In the eloquent words of Rumi, “We are all just walking each other home.” Be like nature…in its essence. It does not worry nor toil, and it is perfectly provided for as it perfectly provides for us. Sending you all of my love and light.