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If Only, If Only…

Marlon Brando in the classic movie On The Waterfront says, “I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody…” Do you, too, have regrets about not living the best of all possible lives? What would that look like for you? And what’s keeping you from living it?

Maybe you see yourself as a great inventor; if only someone would come along and fund your ideas, you could be a multi-millionaire. Or maybe you’d be the world’s best TV personality, if only you could get a break.  And you could really rock the latest fashion, if only you could lose those pesky extra 20 pounds.

If only, if only . . . the two saddest words in the English language. The regrets of people at the end of their lives include: I wish I had lived my dream. I wish I had taken more risks. I wish I’d taken better care of myself. And high on the list is: I wish I’d been more loving.

You don’t have to be filled with regrets. You might not want to celebrate your 90th birthday by jumping out of a plane, like ex-president George H.W. Bush did, but you can live up to your own highest potential. Read my HuffPost blog “5 Steps to a More Perfect Life” and share your dream there; talking about it helps make it come true.

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Stay Connected! How You Can Keep the Faith in Challenging Times

When asked about the certainties of human life, how would you answer? The comedian in you might reply: “Nothing is sure but death and taxes.” It makes a clever quip. When you think deeply about it, though, you might say that the greatest constants are change and challenge. Cycles of change are built into the cosmos—from the seasons to the tides to the movement of the stars. And challenge? What are the challenges you face every day from the small mishaps in your personal life to the global scale tragedies you hear about in the news and witness on television?  Even if change and challenge are constants in our world, it doesn’t mean that you can’t live your life with a joyful and open heart. All you need is to create some powerful constants of your own!

What’s constant in your life? It’s all the things you love, all your values, and all that you believe in. You have a unique set of gifts and talents, and you are here to use them. Exploring who you are and what you can do is the first step in preparing yourself to embrace change and weather challenges. I have faced a dizzying array of changes and challenges in my life—things I never would have believed possible. Somehow all of them have fed into my spiritual growth and development and opened the true path I am meant to follow in this life. Just in the last twelve months, I’ve experienced everything from physical challenge (falling off a cliff!) to heart-wrenching changes (wrapping up a decade of weekly contact with my online Hay House Radio listeners). The changes and challenges of my life have made me the spiritual teacher and energy healer I am today. The same can be true of you as you open the door to your own true calling.

The challenging times you face today—and the world is supplying plenty of them—can become the components of your spiritual growth and your joyful future. As you pick up the pieces that change creates and meet the challenges ahead, you shape the future. By finding your constants and using them to stay connected to all that helps you heal, thrive, and grow, you fulfill your unique destiny. Your ability to face challenge and embrace change can become the keystones of your spiritual toolkit.

Here are some ways you can stay connected in challenging times:

Maintain your spiritual practice. What keeps you grounded in uncertain times? When your day (or your life) is threatening to go off the rails, what do you do to pull it back together? Here’s where your deep knowledge of your beliefs and values comes into play. Meditation is an ancient practice used to calm and focus the mind and bring your complete self into balance and peace. If you have a meditation practice, lean in and see if there is even more joy and comfort to be found there. If you still need to create your meditation practice, find an experienced teacher to guide and support your efforts. Your yoga and exercise regimens also offer the chance to ground and center yourself. Prayer is another way to reach out and connect yourself to Source energy. Do you dance, sing, write, paint, or use other creative activities to stay connected? Tough times are no time to postpone your spiritual practice. Its purpose, after all, is to help you through such days. Plug in to the ultimate power of Source!

Let the truth set you free. Part of discovering your loves, values, and beliefs is being completely honest with yourself. A daily journal is the best tool I can recommend for opening your heart on paper, for giving yourself permission to be truthful. Over many years, you may have built up layer upon layer of stories about yourself—many for your own good as you perceive it. How many of these stories are true? Do they really serve you any longer? You can use your journal entries to record your feelings as they occur and examine them to test their truthfulness. Have you been honest with yourself? Discovering the truth about your feelings and coming to terms with them gives you the power to forgive yourself and others. Forgiveness, based on your truth, opens the door to the healing power of self-acceptance and self-love. Clearing the channel for connection to your inner self helps you connect to others and to Source.

Join hands and serve. The changes and challenges you face in your life can be the tie that binds you to a community of like-minded friends. Your challenges can also equip you to be of service to others who are feeling the wounds that you have already survived. When you make spiritual study, classes, and workshops part of your practice, you cross paths with seekers on the same journey who become part of your healing community. Joining together in community strengthens your power to form life-sustaining connections and also to serve the world. No matter what seems to be going terribly wrong in the world at large, imagine how good it feels to spend a morning packing lunches for the homeless, teaching an adult learner to read, or visiting a nursing home patient who never leaves her room. By simply joining hands at home, you help build connections that can heal the world!

For the past 10 years I have been so fortunate to share my love of all things energy healing with you on my weekly Hay House Radio show. While this Tuesday will be my final show at Hay House… it’s absolutely not a goodbye.

I’ve been busy at work building a platform and a show format that will revolutionize the way we can connect and interact: face to face, on a weekly basis and available for you to listen and watch live or on your own schedule in a variety of formats.

If you want to stay connected, click here >>>

Three Ways to Become the Healer You are Destined to Be

How to Become an Energy Healer: 3 Essential Steps

As you look around our world today, what are the greatest needs you see? People are fleeing from conflict, seeking safety, shelter, food, and medical care. Others are seeking employment, care and education for their children, and most of all hope. At the same time, the natural world shows signs of incredible stress. Worrisome changes in terrain, weather, plant and animal populations remind us that human stewardship of the earth is a sacred bond that must be honored. There is no denying the work that needs to be done. Do you feel in your heart that you have a role to play in meeting these needs, in helping, nurturing, and healing the world? You know you have gifts, you know you can help, but how exactly do you begin?

In fact, you are the starting point.

As Louise Hay reminds us, “the power is within you!” When you ask what you can do to create a life filled with love and a world filled with joy and peace, consider this. You have the right stuff, you have the connection, you have the gifts and talents to turn everything around. You have the power just because of who you are—a child of the Divine, a being of light here to heal, thrive, grow, and to make your own unique and amazing contribution.

If fear tries to tell you the world doesn’t need you, that you can’t make a difference, that no one can see your light, remember who you are. You have the power to clear the fear, heal the hurt, open the doors and windows of your soul to a bright new day. And what a blessing that will be for a troubled world depending on you to step forth into the light and join a healing community powered by love.

Never doubt the power of Source to help you along the path you were meant to follow.

Years ago as a twenty-something lawyer, I never would have guessed that I would end up as an energy healer and spiritual teacher, but here I am. My relationship with energy healing developed from my soul’s cry for wellness, knowledge, and purpose. First, I struggled to be healed. As I climbed the spiritual ladder, I discovered more and more wonders of the Source of All Being that were available to any heart filled with forgiveness, gratitude, and love. As I benefited from energy healing, so I began using the same modality to help others. Today, as a teacher of energy medicine, I pass on the gift and work to grow the network of healing ever wider.

Could this be your path as well?

When you look at the needs of the world and yearn to be a force filled with healing love, you may have your answer. The first step on the path towards your calling as a healer begins with consciously deciding that you wish to devote your life to the healing of yourself and others. This basic generosity and nurturing nature are what brought you here. You are drawn to expand your spirit and tap in to the healing power of unconditional love.

Here are three ways you can shift into a higher spiritual gear and accelerate your movement toward greater spiritual growth and the gift of healing that you are destined to share:

1. Explore and bring forth your higher self.

The great philosophers of the ancient world advised students to “know thyself.” To know yourself, you must dwell in a mind-set of self-reflection and self-understanding. Use your spiritual practices of meditation, prayer, and journaling to discover how you feel about everything that has occurred to you in the past and is happening to you right now.

There is nothing to criticize or judge; you simply want to know and understand your inner world. As you explore your beliefs and values, admit your mistakes and accept yourself with love, you free yourself from fear and negativity. You open the door to expressing your higher self and become the powerful being you were meant to be.

2. Forgive yourself and grow in compassion.

Self-forgiveness plays a key role in your spiritual evolution and the ability to help others. The number one issue blocking your free access to the light of spirit is blaming yourself. It’s the biggest problem I find in working with others—human beings are just too hard on themselves! Therefore, in addition to recognizing and expressing your feelings honestly, the most powerful action you can take to grow in spirit is to accept and forgive your frailties. Accepting your humanness sets you free to give yourself the healing gift of compassion and unconditional love. As you grow in self-compassion so you free yourself to feel compassion for others and open your heart to the gifts of healing within.

3. Build your connection to Source.

Source is the wellspring of all the unconditional love, compassion, and healing light you are seeking. With a regular practice of connecting to Source, whatever that may mean for you—and without fear and negativity—you’ll find a sudden expansion of space for more light to come into your life. There’s enough room in you energetically for your higher-self qualities to be downloaded from the chakras above your head and come right into your energy field. The powerful gifts you always knew you had but couldn’t quite access will begin to manifest. Your strong connection to Source can help you become a vehicle for the higher qualities you need to follow your calling and become the powerful healer you are meant to be.

Getting in touch with your inner light will open the door to your higher self. Dedicated inner work is one of the primary ways you obtain your divine gifts. Your strong connection to Source helps you grow your intuition, knowledge, and understanding, and you start to experience the loving qualities of your true essence. Spiritual growth leads to inner peace and from inner peace comes the power to create peace in the world along with the healing gifts you are here to share.

If you’re attracted to this kind of learning, your’e curious discover more, and are even looking to tap into your gifts and get certified as an energy healer…join me here and begin the spiritual adventure of a lifetime. Click here >>>