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Saturday, 13 October 2012

Learning Through Adversity



When times are tough and you feel down, look upward, take a deep breath and breathe in the serenity of your Divine. You are sent only the lessons that you are ready to learn. You are supported in all ways by the Universe. ~ ACN






 This has certainly been so true for me in the last year.  It has taken much courage and plenty of smacks to bring me to a place of understanding of this very lesson.  Despite all that I have learned in this incarnation, I found myself floundering, becoming agitated and angry and sadly to say, doing the “poor old me” behaviour. My faith had wavered and I felt myself falling deep into the dark pit of despair.  Really quite ridiculous I must say...

Despite the hand I have been dealt with, I finally took the time to step back and look at what I have learned from this experience. 

I would not have been able to do this, had I not followed my inner guidance and taken those deep breaths, looking upward and hearing what I was guided to hear. 

I have learned in this last year that life is at times tough. Yet my reaction to it was my own choice.  I could, of course, have chosen to breathe and look upward, but stubborn little me, as most are, needed to be whacked on the head several times before I “got” it.   

As this latest part of my journey unfolded, I did what most of us do... I reacted with negativity, asking why me?  What have I done to deserve this?  “It’s so not fair”, were the type of comments that emerged from my lips.  On some level, I experienced a sense of knowing that my behaviour was not in sync with what I believed.  It’s really quite amazing how many of us, including myself, step back into what we were when our backs are against the wall.  

I am privileged to say that having done that, I finally got myself together and commenced with an attitude of “this is a lesson” and that “everything was as it should be at that time”.  I learned that we are never given what we are not ready to learn, that lessons come to us through circumstances and people only when we are really ready to live through the experience.   I learned to take each day at a time, one at a time and discovered by doing this that I was able to breathe through whatever the day brought to me.  I learned to look into the issue and discover what it was that I was learning from that particular experience.  Once I achieved this, I was able to work with the issue and then in gratitude for the service it had been to me, let it go and be in peace with it.

Through this, I learned that I deserve compassion, love and peace; that I am compassion, love and peace. 

I also learned that despite what our heads are telling us, that we are never alone.  There are a host of Celestial Beings that stay with us, guiding us, comforting us, giving us strength and courage. They are the ones who send us signs, in the form of messages we may read on Face Book, or in the lyrics of songs or in the writings of others.  They guide us to see, that we are not alone, that others out there are in the same or similar positions to ourselves and often they show us that what we believe to be the direst circumstances are not. Should we but just take the time to look around us, we will find that there are many who experience far more difficult lives that we could ever imagine; those who endure lives in war torn countries, who live with starvation each day and know no other way of life but to live as such.  There are those, who are torn by family violence, who are so affected by their life circumstances.  There are many such examples; we have only to open a tabloid and read it or turn on the television and watch the news broadcast to know that we are alone in facing adversity in our lives. 

 Then of course, there are the earth Angels, who come in the guise of our true friends and family.    These are the ones who encourage us.  They become our ears and shoulders and spend hours of their valuable time allowing us to pour our woes out to them.  They are also the ones, who when necessary, kick our little butts.  Painful as this may seem, it is often necessary as we dive deeper and deeper into the pit of despair that surrounds us when we are in dire straits. 

The greatest of all was the knowledge and acceptance that our Divine is always with us and in our times of distress it is He that extends His hand, carrying us as we come to terms with the experience. 

The outcome of each experience is the realisation that we have emerged from it a stronger and wiser soul; that we are able to continue forth with compassion and love, carrying no baggage or bitterness into our futures.  It is the knowledge that we are strong and resilient, that we are worthy of greatness and are capable of achieving whatever it is that we want to achieve.  There is nothing that can hold us back. No experience, no matter how tough it was, can break us unless we choose to allow it to do so.

Ultimately the choice to view the experience as a positive step in your journey or as canyon so deep that we see only the negatives of it is our own. 

Make choices that are good for you, that will bring you to the next level on your journey.  Lift your spirit daily by playing happy music, or watching happy enlightening programmes, or reading uplifting books.  Be in service to those around you.  Motivate yourself daily by reading quotes and applying those that have meaning to you.  Be in gratitude for that which you already have.  All these will support you in staying in a positive state of mind which will allow you to achieve the ultimate outcome; the lesson you have come to learn. 

In love and light,
Amanda


Image courtesy of: http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs13/f/2007/005/a/c/Adversity_by_Wolfwoodster.jpg
© Amanda C Nicolin 2012
Permission is granted to share this article freely on the condition that the author is credited.

Sunday, 15 January 2012

Self-Love: Your Gift to You



To graciously accept all aspects of self is to truly love the being that you are ~ ACN





Oh Wow! What a statement! To graciously accept all aspects of self is to truly love the being that you are.

I doubt that there are very many amongst us that can honestly say they love and accept every single little thing about ourselves. We criticise and complain about so much about ourselves. Our hair is too straight or too curly, our eyes are not blue or green enough, we are overweight or far too thin, we are too short or too tall, our skin is not what we want it to be and so on and so forth. We judge and criticise ourselves constantly. Sadly, it does not stop with judgement of the physical. We continue to judge and criticise our personalities, our beings, our souls. How sad is that.

Why do we do this? Why can we just not simply accept what and who we are?

We are programmed from birth, from our very beginnings to listen to the words of others. We listen first to the words of our parents, sometimes gentle loving ones and others harsh critical ones. For some reason we buy into the harsh ones, listening to them and believing them to be true. Not many of us believe the loving words spoken to us yet we take the negative ones on as if it they are our own personal cross to carry and then subsequently structure our lives and how we live them by them.

We buy into the “you are stupid, or you are useless, you are ugly or fat” etc that are spoken by others to us. Eventually we reach a place within ourselves where we believe ourselves to be worthless and undeserving of anything beautiful and good in our lives. What a tragedy and injustice to our souls.

Our bodies constantly change throughout our lives, never the staying the same. We have the joy of living in a baby body, the adventures of living in a toddler’s body, the fun of living in a child’s body, the discovery of living in a teen’s body and so on. Yet as our bodies grow and change we develop the propensity of hoarding negative inflictions about it and subsequently our mindset changes to include these negative inflictions building them into our lives and becoming them as we journey through this life.

Yet in all this there is good news. You can CHANGE the way you think and appreciate, accept and love, yes LOVE, your body, mind and soul for the beautiful creation that it is.

Now I am sure that some of you are sitting there thinking to yourselves; what rot, how can I change this body without a trip to the good old cosmetic surgeon? You can. You do not need the services of those skilled in the art of cosmetically changing a person’s body. Sure you can if you want to and can afford to and certainly you will change the outer appearance of your body. Yet at the end of the day, unless you change the way you think, and see your inner beauty, you will make one consecutive trip after the next to you dear surgeon for even more work on the most beautiful creation that is your body.

Whatever your body is, it was chosen by your higher self to house your soul, to aid you on your life journey. Take the time to celebrate it. Nourish it with good, wholesome food, exercise it and keep it as healthy as you possibly can. Pamper it and love it for what it is. Most important of all, accept and love it for what it is for it is an awesome creation made in the image of your Divine.

Let go of the “baggage” that you chose to carry in your rucksack for it does not serve you. The proclivity of your soul requires that you acknowledge the being that you are. Celebrate this facet of your being also. In accepting each facet of your being, acknowledging those negative issues that have affected you, honouring them for being of service to you and coming to a place of peace for and with them you will see that you are indeed a creation of beauty and wonderment. Yes, you are an awesome, amazing creation of your Divine, filled with love of self and others. All you have to do it find that love within you. Yes, it is there, just waiting for you to open the door and let it flow over you, through you and then ripple out to the world around you.

May you be blessed throughout your journey of self-discovery, acceptance and love of you! You are indeed worthy and deserving in finding that which resides within your being; Divine Love.

In love and light,

Amanda

Image courtesy of: http://www.create-a-life-you-love.com/images/onthebeachfree.jpg

© Amanda C Nicolin 2012

Permission is granted to share this article freely on the condition that the author is credited.