Keeping the Spark Alive

My connection to life has much to do with keeping my inner fire lit. The more "awake" I am the more connected I am to Source, to my soul and to others. I have learned over time that different activities that I do stoke this inner fire.

I am a learner. I love being taught new things that I can apply to the skills I use in my life. I love going deeper in my skills and knowledge and learning new ways to apply them. This learning brings newness to what becomes familiar and old. It also brings challenge so that I stretch.

Other benefits that I had not anticipated is that it brings new people into my life and my community expands. It also opens doors to possibilities I had not anticipated. Life gets richer and richer each time I step into the role of a learner.

I am good at doing. It comes naturally to me, so to balance that I seek things that give me opportunities to expand and grow. Learning sometimes means struggling a bit or even failing, but I always gain tremendous lessons from these moments.

Recently I signed up to be a student of one of the world's leaders in online cooking school programs. I am enrolled in their Professional Plant Based Program. I have been a vegetarian and vegan for over 20 years. I have used my passion around this and my belief in honoring the body temple to my work. Many of my offerings, such as SOUL Food and VegVitality incorporate this passion.

Taking this course will keep my fire alive! It will add to my current skill base, expand my community as I work with others in my class, introduce me to many Chefs that I have admired, and offer me possible teaching opportunities down the road as a graduate of the program.

This is just one example of what I do to stoke that fire within me. Challenging myself helps me be very present in this beautiful life. It encourages me to bring my best to each day and it keeps me in the energetic flow of my passions and my skills.

What are you doing to keep your spark alive?

Blessings, Lisa

Keeping the Fire Alive

Keeping our fire alive is a challenge at times depending on where we are on our life's path. We need to be able to appreciate the positives in our life and we need a commitment to put action in our life.

Holding and honoring what is good in our life keeps us out of story, out of the past and out of the future. It keeps us present. It also keeps us in a positive energetic vibration. It is hard to feel sorry for your self, to feel angry or to be in a place of blame or shame when we are in a state of appreciation. It works every time!

Bringing commitment into action has us pause and look about our life and ask, "What needs to be done?" It is a golden chance for reflection. It gives us time to listen to our soul's needs. It brings our authentic wisdom into our life's plan.

If we then bring this appreciation into the equation with the committed wise action we find that our energies are filled with abundance, forward thinking and positivity, instead of a coming from a place of lacking, regret and negativity. It also alleviates the struggle.

We are not approaching our life with an empty tank. We are not seeing our self as less than, broken, or in need. Instead we bring our soul's inspiration, our heart's passion, our mind's dreams. We bring along a rich and vibrant energy that is found in appreciation. Within this gratitude and admiration of what we have been blessed with we find an energy that sets into motion for us the next expansion to our day. It brings abundance of ideas, concepts, resources, and creativity.

Focus has much to do with our inner fire. What we focus our time and energies on is often what we get. A subtle shift in one's perspective, in one's appreciation and we then see the embers begin to come alive. We see our innate power at work. We find our true voice. We awaken our passions. And our fire burns bright.

Blessings, Lisa

The Voice of Self-Love

If we spoke to our friends the way we thought-speak to ourselves, we would have very few friends. The things that we say to ourselves in our minds are often the harshest words. There is criticism, judgement, frustration, taunts, shame and more. And these thoughts NEVER make us feel better or improve the situation that we are in. Yet, we find it so challenging to shut down these thoughts. We find we expect them. We find we even agree with them. And for some of us, we are so bold, that we even say them out loud about ourselves, seeking affirmation from the world around us!

Many of us have very vocal inner critics. They comment and critique all our efforts. They keep us small. They keep us surrounded by our mediocrity. They prevent us from living the amazing life that calls to us, keeping us in longing, doubt, fear and insecurity.

Unfortunately, self-love is challenging for many. Old wounds, old stories, old labels seem to cling to them. To shake off these negative energies takes a good amount of conscious thinking and commitment to stop the negative thinking. For some, they are not sure how, or they try and find it difficult and then give in to the old patterns and behaviors.

Over time I have discovered one way to help support this change in negative self-talk. It rarely fails. It requires some effort, but it is a feel good effort. It requires some commitment, but those who try it find that the commitment comes naturally. This one change can be the catalyst to transformation in your life. It can be the first step in lowering the volume on the inner critic and eventually shutting it out all together.

What is the secret? Most of us enjoy doing or giving to others. We find great pleasure in helping someone in need, sharing with someone, supporting those who need some assistance and giving of our heart. When we are doing this, our positive energies flow. We feel better about ourselves and the world around us. We are engaged with the essence of love and beauty of the world.

Giving of ourselves keeps us in the moment. It reminds us of all that we have to be grateful for. It opens our heart to the care and needs of others. To do this we naturally open the door that allows love to flow. Love does not discriminate. It is more than willing to flow through and surround us and anyone else we share it with. With time we begin to view life differently. With time our perspective begins to shift. Love has a way of doing this. We begin to see our faults and shortcomings through a lens of compassion and understanding. The same compassion and understanding that we are sharing with others.

Step one of shutting down the inner critic is to share acts of love and care with others. Follow your passion. Stay connected with the world and people around you. Share your gifts, your understanding and heart. Find ways to give. Choose a cause to support. As you open the door to love wider and wider you will find that there is also love flowing to you. Embrace it. Be with it and be aware that there is more than enough love to go around. Without much more effort than this, you will find that those nagging negative thoughts of shame and blame will become less and less. You will begin to hear a gentler and kinder voice calling to you, cheering you on and celebrating you. The voice of self-love.

Blessings, Lisa