2 ways to Clarify what you want in 2018

Winter is a time of year to rest, focus on maintenance and get ready for the harvest and new buds of your hard work and nurturing. This process of setting goals can't be rushed. First you have to be clear on what you want for this new year. Not what you don't want but what you truly want. I wanted to go more in detail with each part of CLAIM for claim your harvest.
 C is for clarify. What is this word clarity and what does this have to do with us Moms? What would it feel like to wake up with energy and know what you are going to do today? What would it feel like if you were clear on your goals and not reactive... to whatever happens during your day? What do you really want? Where do you see your self in a year, 5, 10 or at the end of your life? What will really matter? I suggest 2 ways to get clear on what you really want. Clear the fog and get clear on what you are planting for 2018! See the video here

Have you ever driven in fog? It is hard to see the car in front of you. I remember a trip through Bakersfield the fog was so thick we couldn't not travel through it. We had to stay the night until it cleared out. Sometimes we lose our vision and we can't see clearly the path we want to take. This can be caused by too many options, perfection, and fear. What is keeping your vision foggy? To discover our vision again it is important for it to be truly defined and clear. You could ask the questions at the beginning of this post. A few other questions you can ask is what makes you feel alive, fulfilled? What went well last year that you could take care of into next year? Low levels of clarity effects not only our vision but our motivation. It keeps us stuck and paralyzed.

Once you have a vision of what you want. It is time to plant the seeds. These seeds are like your ideas and goals. You don't want to just take seeds and throw them on the ground. Who knows what will grow and where. You have to follow the planting instructions and plant them in rows and with seeds that are the same. It is like this with our goals. You have to be intentional of what you are planting and what will grow. This is where picking a specific area in your life you want to grow and get better works best. Common areas to grow is health, family, finances, spiritual, physical. Another way you can do this if focus on the roles or the many "hats" you wear. For example, Mother, daughter, friends, Spouse and so on.Try to pick only a few areas to work on and take care of. Weeds are bound to pop up. Set backs, lack of motivation, negative self talk, and perfectionism creep up too. When we get better at tending our little garden we can add more the next time because our confidence will have grown along with strong healthy habits and dreams.

Once we let the fog clear and we know what we are going to plant we are well on our way to enjoying a plentiful harvest. It takes some planning and reminding ourselves what we are growing and moving towards. Get some clarity and some clear seeds/ideas to plant and it can be your best year ever!

C-Clarity-Be clear on what you want and what you are willing to do to get it
L-Lay it out. Write it down and put your goals in a place you can see. Take away the urgency and perfectionism of it. Just let it be messy. Its like we are digging in the dirt and planting the seeds.
A-Affirm it. State it as a fact. It is like you have already reached that goal and you are living it. Declare it strongly and with energy. That way what you want knows you want it and can find you! I am statements are powerful. I am a clean person. Or I am a healthy person who exercises everyday.
I-Intention.Have a plan of action. Do something small like putting your shoes by your bed so you are ready to go on a walk. Clean a small area and be proud of what you did. Then build on that. Small actions bring about great things
M-Move towards your goal again with the end in mind(your harvest). Keep moving forward no matter the obstacles and stumbling blocks in your way.

Top 5 posts for 2017

This year has definitely been ones of challenge and digging deep to be more than my diagnosis and to discover what my message and legacy I want to share with the world is. So many people have brought me to this place of acceptance and discovery for my illnesses and for things that I didn't know but wish I had. That is part of the reason I have this blog is to help others not have to make the same mistakes or to recover quicker. For these people in my life I am grateful. I am grateful to the Lord for being there and guiding me on this new path of so much unknown.

Here is a look back at the posts that meant something to you and I am glad to be a part of your journey. What would you want me to talk about this new year? What matters to you? Anything new or that I should elaborate more?

1.Top post for this year was: The path of healing is a long and joyful journey

2.This was from last year but it had to make the cut: I am the storm

3.How to have the life you want when everything is a mess

4.Something old and something new: old battles and new challenges

5.How to trust when you don't know how

This is still the top blog post of all time.3 ways to bring balance back to life. What do you like about this one? What could I go into more detail on?

Claim your harvest (goals) for 2018

Christmas is almost here! I hope that everyone has been enjoying the joy and light that comes this time of year. I could just do without the cold. How about you?

I came up with a way to hopefully make it through the winter and inspire you to be mindful and ready to jump into 2018. Most of us grumble when we think of setting goals that we aren't going to finish anyway. That is a horrible way to start the new year and guaranteed to start a downward  spiral of guilt and negative self talk. We can't start a journey with our ox already in the mire. Here is how I like to think of it. Amazing things are waiting for you. They are lined up and waiting for you! How does that sound. All you have to do is show up and claim it. Claim what exactly? Your harvest. What you have been working towards and waiting to grow just for you! You can  watch the video on my Facebook page.

What can you do to claim your goals and dreams?
C-Clarity-Be clear on what you want and what you are willing to do to get it
L-Lay it out. Write it down and put your goals in a place you can see. Take away the urgency and perfectionism of it. Just let it be messy. Its like we are digging in the dirt and planting the seeds.
A-Affirm it. State it as a fact. It is like you have already reached that goal and you are living it. Declare it strongly and with energy. That way what you want knows you want it and can find you! I am statements are powerful. I am a clean person. Or I am a healthy person who exercises everyday.
I-Intention.Have a plan of action. Do something small like putting your shoes by your bed so you are ready to go on a walk. Clean a small area and be proud of what you did. Then build on that. Small actions bring about great things.

Alma 37:6
6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
M-Move towards your goal again with the end in mind(your harvest). Keep moving forward no matter the obstacles and stumbling blocks in your way.

I can't wait to finish planting my seeds and see what grows within the next few months. What about you?

Hope, a light through lifes storms

Since Friday my body has ached with a storm on its way. It arrived Monday and it was a tough day for pain and for Depression. Storms come and go. But the ones inside each of us seem to be more intense and longer. Luckily the storm passed and today was sunny. I love when the clouds break through and the sun shines again. Monday was a good reminder for me that I live my life in recovery and I have to use the tools I have to cope and overcome these days. It wasn't long ago that all I knew was darkness and storms. It felt like the clouds would never part. It felt relentless and that I was being pushed down by the darkness and fear.

One day the clouds did part for me. That is not something you forget. Every day it felt like I was drowning and finally on that day of light and hope I could breathe. I could see the light. With a break in the clouds came a breakthrough. It was an instant when hopelessness turned to hope and I turned to the light and bathed in its warmth. I had forgotten what it felt like to let things through especially the love and comfort our Heavenly Father can give us. What I learned was that my thoughts were not my reality and I could challenge them. How many of you feel or have felt like the barrage of thoughts will never stop? That each day will be a struggle and surrounded in darkness and defeat?

Today I was talking to my friend and I had another big breakthrough. Amidst the darkness it is not surprising how alone one can feel. What I didn't realize that this is a belief I still carry with me. Did you get Goosebumps? I know I did when I realized that this limiting belief was something I didn't need anymore and I could let it go! Imagine letting such a heavy burden go! It felt amazing! That feeling that it is all up to me to make things better for myself and others. Ultimately, my efforts and others efforts weren't recognized. I found myself saying I have to clean this house all by myself. I have to change_____ behavior. I have to control and hide my own feelings of inadequacy. Can any of you relate? It felt like a huge weight had been lifted and the clouds of hopelessness parted and hope shone through again. I was able to let go of such negative energy I have carried for I don't know how long.

Do you feel alone? Do you think it is possible to let go of the burdens you carry? What are you carrying that is weighing you down? What can you give to the Savior? You can! He already paid the price and he is standing with open arms. Imagine it! He is right there with open arms waiting for you to ask him to take this burden. Can you feel his love? He must have told me so many times that I wasn't alone but I couldn't hear it or see it.

When I was diagnosed and wondering what to do next there was nothing that I knew of to help me know what to do next. I didn't know that my thoughts were a cage or there was things I had control over. I just want you to know when you come here you can lean on me and learn what you can do. There is hope when you feel you can't make it another day. God knows. I know. Even if you don't know how he can lift that burden find one of his earthly angels who does. Thoughts of hopelessness, darkness despair and feeling alone can be challenged even when in the grips of mental illness. There is a light and beacon of hope that will light your path however dark it may seem. Allow it. Pray for it. You are never alone!

How to trust when you don't know how

When we are very small and innocent we trust those around us. We unknowingly place our well being, happiness and beliefs in our caregivers power. We put our tiny hands in their bigger, more experienced  hands. This is safety at its best. But what happens when we realize that we are more than just an extension of our parents? We are ready to explore! We are ready to roll over, crawl and eventually walk and see our new world and where are place is in it. We are still unsure and scared but we see our parents outstretched arms and we feel we can do it as long as they are there. This is Trust.

Trust has never been easy for me. I really don't know why. It may have started early on in my life when my birth Mother and Father were deciding whether to keep me or not. I don't know. The issue with trust first came up for me in therapy a few years ago. I felt like such an infant then. I still do. I really didn't know what was happening to me and why certain things kept triggering me. Do you ever feel like you are starting over? Do you feel like nothing is in your control? It is as if you are rolling around on the floor with no idea how to get from point A to point B. I felt and feel like this some days. A little less now that Depression has loosened its grip. I do know that some people in my life acted in ways I didn't like or that I perceived as danger. I wasn't in any danger. But it made me feel uneasy, unloved and not good enough. No one knew, not even me ,my internal dialogue.  At a very young age I felt very unsafe and struggled with big emotions that I learned were bad. I don't know why I saw my world as scary and unforgiving, but I did. It became my subconscious program that played over and over to supposedly keep me "safe". That is our brains job. The more negative and bad things happened to me the more it reinforced this belief deep inside. This happens to all of us. These feeling create beliefs. We all have beliefs that drive our thoughts and behaviors everyday. This is really hard to say because looking back I had great parents that loved me. I had some amazing teachers that encouraged me and helped me with what I now know as anxiety. Eventually, even though it took a while, I made friends at school. I did have neighborhood friends but school was a jungle for me. I think it was third grade that I made some good friends. I never really trusted myself or anyone around me in any lasting way. I have really amazing friends now. I never knew this deep scar about myself until I dug deep into my past and found buried feelings. It started in hopes that it would help ease my depression. I learned through that experience that feelings buried will keep surfacing. They come up over and over. What do you do with such big feelings? Trust!

I realize that I have put up so many walls and in many ways am now just taking my first steps towards healing and recovery. I am taking baby steps into loving myself, trusting others that they won't hurt me and most of all putting all my trust in my Savior. It has been a really rough road but when I picture putting my full trust in someone it is like taking my first steps as I did as a baby. In that moment I know I trusted my parents completely just like my kids did with me. Trust is vital in taking forward motion or opening your heart up to something or someone. Trust is knowing that the bad stuff is behind you and does not define or confine you. It is tearing down the walls and allowing yourself to be loved unconditionally. Who knows you better than our Heavenly Father and Jesus? Even though we cannot see Jesus I know that his arm is stretched out still. To any of us. We just have to take the first step towards him and know that he is there. I begged for help and he did not leave me comfortless. I like to think that he was lining up some pretty amazing things and people that have come into my life over the last few years. That he knew what I needed when I didn't. He knows what you need. All of us!

Some days it is still very hard. Is it hard for you too? The fiery darts of self doubt, negativity, over thinking and fear are all around. When I fall and these penetrate my mind and heart I feel guilty that I am not trusting him fully. How can I trust when I have these thoughts and feelings? Then I remember who I am. I remind myself every day with my morning power hour to pack a powerful punch to the negative. But, when I lose my way and stumble I can picture my Savior there with outstretched arms saying "Its okay that you fell. Get up and try again. You can do it!

I love what Jeffrey R Holland said in General Conference April 2016   "Keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever." I know it may not seem like much, but to have someone cheering you on is motivating and propels you to move forward. If you don't know how to trust just start taking baby steps. Pray, study and little by little you will take more trusting steps and strides. Keep taking steps to get where you want to go and trusting in God and his goodness to get you there. I believe in you and want you to believe in you too!

Setbacks and possibilities

This week has been full of set backs. This is something that I have grown used to but still press forward. Why? Why do we push forward even when all the outside forces are combined against us? Why do some of us use our voices to share our story and others sit in the shadows? I have been asking myself these questions and more lately. I have a voice and I am trying to raise it and let everyone know what I know. I can't be quiet even if my blog is still in its infancy. Eventually things grow and that is my hope for happiness blueprint. There is a plan a guide to keep us on the path of happiness and wellness.

My story and your story needs to be told whether you reach the masses or not. Staying quiet only suppresses what is dying to get out. You might be thinking Why me? Why not you? What are we so afraid of anyway? Fear is just an emotion not something to be feared. Win or lose if we gave it our best we have done enough. How do we do this?

Just start! Make room in your life for possibilities and dreams. That space will be filled. I have already been seeing it in my life. Have you noticed things keep falling into place? Things and people fill that space, they line up and help you move your idea forward. If not yet, prepare yourself. The only limits we have here are ones we put on ourselves. Even now I am typing with a brace on my left wrist because of chronic carpel tunnel. My other hand is not as bad. I push through the pain because I love to write. I love to help and share. I always hope that you share my words as well. I used to write because I was sad and felt there was more to my life than to wake up and just do what I could to make it through the day. Most of my time was spent on the couch wishing I was gone from this world or that someone would tell me they have the answers I needed.

I started with an idea that has grown and I believe will continue to grow. Let me give you a visual of the importance of YOUR unique voice. Where we live there is a base near by and the planes fly overhead constantly. It is loud and a big conversation interrupter. What I notice though is people still talk but they talk louder and try to still talk despite the noise. I want you, as many of us, to speak out against the noise in our heads that tells us we are no good or that we can't do it. It is just noise. It can pass and we can again hear our heart and soul speak to us.

I used to write to have something to look forward to. I didn't know if it was just for me or if it would help other people. I just knew it made a little hole in my dark cloud everyday. Now I write for you. I don't want you to suffer needlessly when I have things to help and share. I can help you figure things out years before I did. Pain was and is still my teacher. I still have to make sure I am asking forward thinking questions and not backward thinking ones. The right questions set you up for success.

Let me explain further. Asking questions like why is this happening to me keeps you a victim. It keeps you stuck. That is a backward thinking question because it moves you where?....backwards! Instead you could ask questions like what am I to learn from this? What inside of me needs to grow and develop? That is forward thinking at its best my friend. It keeps you moving forward even if it a baby step idea like maybe there is a way to find happiness everyday? You want to tease your brain to think a little differently and not have it freak out on you and shut down the idea before it has a change to emerge fully and be accepted. Thoughts have power to keep you stuck. Getting lost in your diagnosis or blaming it keeps you stuck. I want to help you get unstuck and use your beautiful voices.God has a purpose for you. He has promised that ALL things shall work together for thy good. This means even the difficult circumstances of our life. Use your voice I will do the same. Together we can look FORWARD to great things.

How to give change a chance when dealing with Chronic illness

Summer has come and gone so fast!! I have not written much. Like most, it has been busy but not because I have been hopping around from activity to activity. It has really been a pretty relaxed summer. However I managed to fill it up with reading and listening to different health summits and very little writing. I used to write to figure things out. To get all the garbage floating around in my head out and on paper. I went through the victim why me stage to actually starting to figure a few things out now. Then getting impatient because nothing was changing.Nothing, as far as I could see anyway. But things have been changing so slowly.

Change is a process and when I accepted that I realized all of my discovery process was necessary part of my healing journey. True not much has changed, except me! Just imagine I have been locked up in a cocoon all summer and now I am emerging ready to fly on what I now know and wish I would have known before. Every part of my story feels more like a teaching tool then me being beat down, defenseless and overwhelmed. How many of you walk around frazzled and overwhelmed by all you have to do? It is a trap! Don't fall for it! What about your motivation and energy to live and love your life no matter what?

I have to be clear about something. My transformation is still happening. But I can't stay in a cocoon all my life. It is not meant to shut out all people and life experiences. It was more to give me a focus, direction for the rest of my life. I was really working on my mindset and reprogramming my brain. This can also take a lifetime as well. But, I have started the shift away from what I used to do, be and think.

Every morning I woke up excited to learn and borrow other peoples brains for a while. To get out of my head and not force anything. What happened? Something amazing! I created my power hour and my 10 year wellness plan. It took a while to get into this mess and it will take a while to get out of it! But I do see that I can have all I want and more! You can too! My family and I are just making little shifts. Little shifts toward greater peace of mind and happiness.

As I started to learn more I shed more of the things I didn't need and I tried not to fight my body wanting to do this. As I did this emotionally and physically I started wanting to get rid of all the junk in my home. One day I woke up and my kids had caught the decluttering bug too. They cleaned up their floors and under their beds. It is amazing to me to think of how much I was trying to force. When I relaxed things just happened on their own!

 I notices other great things. I had more energy. I was cleaning up a storm and eating and staying full and not feeling bloated. So I know it is possible to have what I want and that my body knows what it wants. When I listen and give my body what it needs then it can heal itself! Our bodies are really amazing! Remember God created us after his own image and likeness. He created us to be happy and it is our natural programming. So there is no need to really search for happiness because it is in us. We just have to re program and make sure to listen to the right voices and stay in the drivers seat.

It really feels like I have gone back to school. There is so much I didn't know!Everyday I was not in control and that is what made me feel out of control, fearful and overwhelmed. Who is driving in your life? Are you in turmoil inside your body or is your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual self all in balance?

The dread of everyday is gone. The amazing part is that my circumstances haven't changed.......yet.;) I am still trying to learn about what is making me sick and my food is the same. But I do not feel stuck or that I will never feel better. I visualize the life I want and go for it! !10 years is a long time to wait to be well but it also gives me enough time to heal and help my family do the same. I want to help you too! Take one little step and make a small, measurable change. Don't let that perfection bug get you! Focus on the process and the movement forward. Even if it is small and nothing seems to be changing. It is always an inner struggle and change before it can manifest itself in other aspects of our lives.

I still want to be real with you and share the ups and downs because this change is hard. It takes patience, kindness to yourself and others, and time. Lots and lots of time. You don't want to miss what your wellness journey is trying to teach you. You can get so much out of the trails and leaps of faith and to know that God feels you are ready. So be ready! Ready to jump in, explore and learn as much as you can. Then share it and things will happen! I have seen it in such a short time. It can happen wherever you are. Whether in the depths of despair, depression, diagnosis or on the rise. Your happiness blueprint is inside you!