Empowerment Archives - Page 5 of 6

Empower Yourself – Nourish Your Soul

Empower Yourself – Nourish Your Soul

Instead of making goals for your business or material needs, why not set some soul intentions for the well being of YOU, your spirit.
I read it somewhere and thought: "what a splendid idea". So what's the difference between soul intentions and other intentions, or life goals?
For example most intentions or resolutions are kind of competitive. We want to make more money, do more work, be better at something, look better for others, in short have more and be more.

Soul intentions are about our soul needs, which is: more love, more compassion, more forgiveness and more acceptance.
Below are my soul intentions and if you don’t know what yours are, please borrow some of mine…………………………soul needs are universal🙂

I will do things that make me happy
I will float in hot water as much as I can
I will get at least one massage per month
I will eat food that nourishes my body
I will walk and go to the gym
Sometimes I will allow myself a burger, bacon and eggs and a cookie
I will find a spiritual group and 12 step meetings in Germany
I will connect more with real people in life
I will be creative
I will accept and love my parents and kids just the way they are, even when they annoy me.
I will be aware of what I do and how I react
I do whatever I can to be kind and of service to others
I will do the things I need to do even when it scares the hell out of me.

Ok, I’m overdoing it, but this is what I need to do in order to be content. Most of the items are incorporated into my life already, so it does not feel like “oh my god I have to do all this”. No it’s how I love to live my life. My life is a spiritual practice and sometimes it’s all great and sometimes it’s the pits, but its ok.

Sometimes everything is easy and flows like a miracle and the next day nothing flows. I’m learning that if I don’t get so attached to the good days, it’s not so hard to not get attached to the "not so good days". It’s all just energy, good, bad, negative, positive vibration.

It is very important to not make important decisions when angry, tired or disconnected. Self care is improving your connection to your life force and the more you take care of your body mind and spirit needs, the better you will feel.
We live in a world where stress, workaholism and self abuse is awarded. So it’s time to undo the damage and incorporate play, fun and some serious "self indulgance" into life.

Some simple tips how you can do it:

Do some lovingkindness meditation
Create a vision board
Keep a journal and write down your soul intentions
Create a ceremony about giving your vows to your soul intentions

Place your vision board or a poster board with your written intentions, where you can see it. You will notice that the more you will take care of your needs, the happier you will be. This in turn will attract more of the same energy into your life. It’s a miracle, it truly is. Make a commitment to yourself!

A simple lovingkindness meditation for you from Jack Kornfield.

May I be filled with lovingkindness.
May I be safe from inner and outer dangers.
May I be well in body and mind.
May I be at ease and happy.
May you be filled with lovingkindness.
May you be safe from inner and outer dangers.
May you be well in body and mind.
May you be at ease and happy

What have you noticed when you take care of your needs and you nourish your soul? Please leave a comment 🙂

How To Stay Positive In A Negative Environment

How To Stay Positive In A Negative Environment

You might say that it's not a good idea to hang around negative people and I would say the same. But sometimes these people are close family and we might not want to stay away.

For example parents: They might be getting old, in pain, scared and in a situation where they have to let go of control. Can YOU see how hard this is? I sure can and if someone does not have training in spiritual principles, or personal development it's hard to deal with these facts and the default might be: NEGATIVITY.

My choice was to move back to Germany to be closer to my parents. After living in California for 34 years, this was a hard decision, but somehow my feeling told me: Marita it's time to go back and be there for them. One problem is that there is a lot of negativity in my parents environment and I will need a strong practice and support system in order to not get sucked in.

Watching the news several times a day, complaining about the state of the world, the greed, the problems, the cheeting. Getting together with others, all this gets discussed and it's a vicious cycle of a hostile world, injustice, powerlessness and sickness. Wow it's no fun, I don't even want to know.

A toxic environment, but I make it my practice to be present and to stay positive, I want to be a "breath of fresh air". Detachment with love is the practice and I watch everything around me like a movie. The practice is to not react and to be loving and patient. Thank god I have a good meditation practice and support system of friends who will keep me on track.

I am so amazed and grateful about my progress. All the work with 12 step groups, spiritual programs, personal development and coaching have made such a difference in my life. It empowers and supports me through difficult times. The important lesson for me is to know that not everybody around me has the awareness to be on this path of forgiveness, acceptance and letting go and I have to accept this.

Living in a space of mystery and not knowing what tomorrow will bring is also challenging, to say the least. Living life outside of the comfortzone, having faith that everything is the way it's supposed to be and just flowing with whatever happens. That's the space where miracles happen.

My " Simple Miracle"

The beginning of December I applied for an apartment in Germany, I was hoping to be able to move in January 1, but I will not be able to move in until February 1. The thought of staying with my parents for another month was hard for me and for them. Now the miracle was, that I applied for US citizenship and the only thing left to do was my "Swearing in Ceremony, which I did not have a date for at the time. One day later my friend checked my mail and I got the date for the ceremony, January 8th. I booked a flight and decided to stay in California until the end of January. So, it worked out perfectly!

These miracles strenghen my trust in the universe and the more I notice them, the more I can let go of trying to control everything. What a relief that is.

What's your recent miracle?

Wie Macht Man Ein Vision Board?

Herzlich willkommen, ich habe diese Seite für meine Deutschen "Vision Board Freunde" kreiert. Es ist leider minimal, da ich nicht die Zeit habe, in Deutsch zu bloggen. Aber wenigstens kann ich Ihnen die wichtigsten Fakten hier übermitteln. Ich schreibe normalerweise in English und mein Deutsch ist etwas rostig, bitte haben Sie Verständnis, daß es nicht perfekt ist. Mein Business Guru: Alex Mandossian sagt immer "Besser etwas fehlerhaft in die Tat umsetzen, als etwas "perfekt "nicht machen." Na ja die Übersetzung tut's nicht ganz aber ich hoffe man versteht es. Am Ende finden sie ein Paar Videos!

Was ist ein Vision Board? Es ist eine Collage, zusammengeklebt aus Bildern, die Ihre innersten Träume, Ziele und Wünsche für Ihr Leben darstellen. Manchmal entdecken sie sogar Träume und Ziele, die Ihnen vorher noch nicht bewußt waren. Es ist ein wunderbarer Prozess, mit einer Prise Kreativität und 2 Prisen Zauber. Es ist wichtig, daß Sie einfach loslassen und spielen. Lassen Sie sich überraschen.

Continue reading “Wie Macht Man Ein Vision Board?”

How To Make A Goal Board For Your Business

How To Make A Goal Board For Your Business

What's the difference between a goal board and a vision board?

A goal board is similar to a vision board or a dream board, but more specific. A vision board is more about your personal life, see below.

New love
New career,
Better health
Balance,
Money,
Travel and so on

Either way, vision boards and goal boards are effective tools to empower your life. A goal board is more about how to achieve your business goals and intentions. Let's say you work in Real Estate: you would make a list of goals, you would like to achieve. This will be the same for any business.

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How To Make Decisions When You Don’t Know What To Do

How To Make Decisions When You Don’t Know What To Do

Do you sometimes have a feeling that nothing in your life works and you feel stuck, like a hamster on a wheel?
Well I did, actually I am happy to report that I just moved beyond it. There is nothing more empowering than making a decision and once you make it the energy starts to move.

For weeks maybe years I had this one big decision looming over me. I knew I would had to make it eventually, but did not know when. But I always felt slightly off track. Until one day I made the decision, coming from nowhere, I just knew what to do. Has this happened to you, that you wake up and just know

So what happened to lead to this event?

Several things happened that made everything even more difficult in my life, I had a very stressful, transaction at work, I had problems with my living situation and nothing made sense anymore. It was so weird that I had an intuitive reading and whatever I was told was another piece in the jig puzzle, that I needed to know.

I got a hint that something was telling me it’s time to do something, a hint that turned into a bill board, telling me: Marita it's time to do it and eventually I listened.

It felt like a "knowing", or certainty" that now is the right time to move into the next stage.
The next stage for me was making plans to move back to Germany as my parents are turning 80. I lived on another continent for 34 years. I had my kids, my businesses and all my belongings in California.

Nevertheless, I had a feeling it’s time to go back. It was 3 months ago, that the universe kept telling me it’s time to go. I organized everything, gave things away and put the most important stuff into storage. In order to avoid the last minute moving craziness I stayed with friends. Just the thought of staying with friends gave me anxiety attacks and I was a nervous wreck. Now looking back it was all wonderful, I had a chance to spend time with people I loved and connect at a deeper level.

The move was made, I 'm in Germany now and everything is falling into place, I will move into an apartment in the heart of the city. I will have everything in walking distance. I will have time to focus and develop the things I am passionate about. The more I think about it, the more I know it was the right decision.

Do you listen to your feeling when you make major decisions and how do you know?

Why It’s Sometimes Good To Go Through Big Life Changes

Why It's Sometimes Good To Go Through Big Life Changes

Did you ever go through big life changes and came out with a much better life?

Sometimes we do not want to make changes, although we are miserable in a situation. Why do we want to hang on to a relation ship that makes us unhappy, or a career we hate? We all know it's crazy, so what is it?

Fear of change
Fear of the unknown

Those 2 are normally the main reasons why we stay in miserable, sometimes abusive situations. I myself stayed in a bad marriage for 32 years and if it wouldn't have gotten absolutely crazy I probably would still be in there, miserable, unfulfilled, unhappy, depressed and resentful. I can only say: thank you universe 🙂

I did not say this when I went through the worst, at first I was angry and resentful, actually it was so bad that I wanted my husband to die. So I could stay in the house I loved and hang on to the things that were precious to me. Yes it was not pretty and I was not nice.

Now for the first time in my life I am doing the things I love to do, I love what I do , I love who I am and I am full of possibility for my life.

If you feel like you are not living the life you want to live, get out and do it. We have only one life and it's too precious to be wasted on people who do not love us, or things we do not want to do.

I believe that if we fully express ourselves we will find happiness, if we try to fit into the box this might not be the case.

So dare to be you and if you are in a situation like this remember that the changes are hard and life might be challenging for a while. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I know it, I've been there.

Sadly we are programmed to always look for security and I believe that if we are ruled by security, the reward will be a dull life.

Below is my favorite quote, it says it all!

“Come to the edge.' 'We can't. We're afraid.' 'Come to the edge.' 'We can't. We will fall!' 'Come to the edge.' And they came. And he pushed them. And they flew.” Guillaume Apollinaire

What's your story about a Big Life Change ? Please leave a comment

Learn To Play with Fear

Learn To Play With Fear

I love to write about fear, it's a fascinating subject. Fear keeps us safe and fear keeps us stuck, but on the other side of fear is success. The levels of fear we experience are different for everybody. Some people get panicked by little things and for others it takes a lot more to scare them. Fear is our survival mechanism left over from a long, long time ago, when we had to fight bears and other beasts. Fear is also pure ENERGY

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What To Do When Someone You Love Drinks Too Much?

What To Do When Someone You Love Drinks Too Much?

Growing up with alcoholism or living with alcoholic spouses, children or siblings is unpredictable hell. Lots of people in my family of origin drank. They were hardworking, responsible, honest members of society, but too much drinking is not healthy for the one who drinks or the people around them. I grew up in Germany where beer is called liquid bread, but it's still alcohol and it gets you drunk and if you drink it every day you can call yourself an "alcoholic."

In my family the definition of "alcoholic" is someone who is homeless, in the gutter, dressed in rags and drinks cheap liquor. Well this is not true, there are many high functioning alcoholics out there, who are doctors, architects, bankers, politicians, lawyers and so on who do not fit this picture. The clinical defintion of alcoholic is: Someone who cannot control their drinking, drinks on a regular basis in order to cope with life and stress.

My drinking started when I was 15. I never knew what was wrong with me until my life was so miserable that I agreed to take some therapy sessions in my late 40s. My therapist suggested Alanon and mentioned that I might suffer from codepencency. I was desperate so I went to my first meeting and learned that I started drinking because I felt inadequate and unlovable. Drinking made me feel a lot more comfortable around people and with myself. My perfectionism, my need to control everything and everybody, my anger, my unhappiness and my need to desperately hold onto a very unhealthy marriage, were all signs of what they call "codependency."

What is Co-dependency (please click the link if you would like to read more)

Co-dependency is a learned behavior that can be passed down from one generation to another. It is an emotional and behavioral condition that affects an individual’s ability to have a healthy, mutually satisfying relationship. It is also known as “relationship addiction” because people with codependency often form or maintain relationships that are one-sided, emotionally destructive and/or abusive. The disorder was first identified about ten years ago as the result of years of studying interpersonal relationships in families of alcoholics. Co-dependent behavior is learned by watching and imitating other family members who display this type of behavior.

Who Does Co-dependency Affect?

Co-dependency often affects a spouse, a parent, sibling, friend, or co-worker of a person afflicted with alcohol or drug dependence. Originally, co-dependent was a term used to describe partners in chemical dependency, persons living with, or in a relationship with an addicted person. Similar patterns have been seen in people in relationships with chronically or mentally ill individuals. Today, however, the term has broadened to describe any co-dependent person from any dysfunctional family.

If you suffer from other people's drinking or crazymaking behavior, I would suggest Alanon. An organization that helps family members of alcoholics take care of themselves and live happy fulfilled lives. It's a simple program, it's free, or by small donation. I started going to meetings and my life changed. Within 3 months I felt better. I was able to let go of trying to control everything and everybody around me and I could "live and let live." I had more energy and I learned to enjoy my life despite of what was going on around me.

I would stop complaining to my children about my husband's behavior and I could let go of trying to be perfect. I learned that it's important to take care of myself and let others do what they need to do for themselves. Yes it was new behavior and it was uncomfortable, but the more I practiced the better I felt. Now 11 years later I'm still going to meetings, I love the honesty and to be surrounded by people who want to transform their lives and are not afraid to share their feelings. It has helped me empower my life and my children's lives.

If you like to get more information about the program and meetings in your area, check the Alanon website

Empower your life by healing yourself. Do you have a story you would like to share? Please leave a comment.

When You Are Going Through A Hard Time It’s Important To Play

When You Are Going Through A Hard Time It's Important To Play

From the book: "Women Who Run With Wolves", by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph. D,

"It is play, no properness, that is the central artery, the core, the brain stem of creative life. The impulse to play is an instinct. No play, no creative life. Be good, no creative life. Sit still, no creative life. Speak, think, act only demurely, little creative juice. Any group, society, institution, or organization that encourages women to revile the eccentric: to be suspicious of the new and unusual: to avoid the fervent, the vital, the innovative; to impersonalize the personal, is asking for a culture of dead women."

I love this book, it is so close to my heart. We cannot be reminded enough how important it is to play. Routine is a killer to our creativity. We all know this, but we still go for routine, no wonder that most women are stressed out, bored and have no energy. Too many things to do, too much work, taking care of others, too much cooking, too much cleaning, too much responsibility. But very little fun, no wonder lots of women start drinking or taking drugs, legal or illegal to just survive.

Continue reading “When You Are Going Through A Hard Time It’s Important To Play”

How To Empower Your Life

The word empowerment sounds like a very important word. But that's not the case. Just taking care of your needs is a healthy start. I made a list of simple things that will empower your life without getting into overwhelm.

Eat the right foods,
Read something inspiring
Drink enough water,
Get enough sleep,
Make sure you have fun
Take some time off for yourself
Enjoy a bubble bath
Exercise

Walks in nature, are relaxing and rejuvenating, if you feel bad, or stressed. Just go for a walk and try to enjoy nature without thinking about problems or whatever is wrong in your life. Nature can be a savior, the wind the sun, the rain, the trees, the ocean can replenish the well.

Meditation is also helpful, it gives you the moment to step back and create more awareness over when to react or not to react. It's empowering, to be in charge of your reactions. So instead of flipping off the rude driver in front of you, or the encounter with an unfriendly person in the store, you just take a deep breath and let it go, this is mindfulness in action. Congratulations you just empowered yourself:-)

Set boundaries with other people, know what you want and what you need. If you can be true to yourself you do not have to feel upset or feel victimized. Try and do the things you love to do, nourish your spirit, take time to play and have fun. Surround yourself with people who have the same interests and who inspire you. It is very hard to be empowered and motivated if you are surrounded by negative people, or people who do not want to get off their behinds. It's a downer, stay away from them!

Forgive more: remember the quote: Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy? It feels so much better to forgive than to be angry and resentful. In 12 step programs they call resentments: "The poison that you drink but want somebody else to die" Not good indeed. So if you forgive you can be happy and everything else does not matter, even if somebody did something terrible to you, forgiveness will make you feel better. Again, you just empowered your life.

Say what you mean and do what you say. Be in integrity, dont' lie, don't say you will do something and then you don't do it, it will make you feel good about yourself.

Feel your feelings, do not avoid them and drink, work, smoke, control or find other ways to avoid your feelings, they will get you anyay. You might as well feel them now and get it over with. I know it does not sound like fun, but feelings need to be acknowledged and they will persist and knock on the door until we listen. They are like entities inside ourselves that want to be heard.

Try to not complain, complaining sucks your energy like nothing else. Empower your life by taking responsiblilty for your life and your actions. This is a big one. Every complaint is a way to not take responsibility.

If you have other little ways to empower your life, please share it with us and leave a comment.