Inner Champion Celebration

“Honor your inner champion, the one that chooses to confront and work through your obstacles to wholeness, the one that slays the inner dragons with tenderness and persistence. Isn’t it time we soulebrated our courage to take on our patterns time and again? Isn’t it time for an up-framing of our often negative view of our challenges? Instead of “oh no, not that pattern again”, how about recognizing that we are CHAMPIONS for simply taking them on? How about seeing ourselves as some of the first humans with the blessed opportunity to shift the negative patterning intrinsic to the collective unconscious? We are PIONEERS, for God’s sake! What a fantastic thing—to be pioneers in the inner world! Every little step is a radical paradigm shift for humanity.” ~ Jeff Brown Above is a quote that I find so inspiring! Today my thought patterns no longer hold the thought of “Oh well, that is just how it is, or that's just who I am, or that's how it has to be done, or that's what I always say, or just what I do.” Nope, all that has changed! I am a Champion! I have courageously faced and taken on the challenge of renewing myself, switching up my perspective, and asking myself tough questions.

Do I have it mastered? No! I am still a work in progress…but isn’t that what being human is all about? But what I can celebrate and applaud myself for is that fact that I am learning to do things differently. We read the quotes all day and hear others speaking the clichés often. But truly, IF you want things to change about yourself, your life, your future…you DO have to do things differently! The same old you will remain the same unless you venture out and take a risk. It is sometimes difficult and often a bit unnerving, but ever single new step, new view, new dialogue brings us closer to shifting into a new way of being!

I find this so exciting. Every day gives me yet another brilliant opportunity. I don’t bother looking back upon yesterday, mulling over my failures or short comings…instead I look at this moment, this opportunity, this gift of possibility and bring my authentic self to the front of the line and begin! The Universe supports my greatness. Spirit celebrates my inner light. My Soul quickens with every possibility I am willing to explore. And my heart grows with compassion of myself and others as I learn we are all pliable beings attempting to find our form with grace.

Celebrate you champion today! Recognize your ongoing efforts as dedication and commitment. You are worth every moment of acceptance, support, honor and appreciation.

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

Enough Is Enough

This quote, author unknown, crossed my path yesterday and got me to thinking…"The feasting is over but the contentment lingers and it's a magnificent thing, isn't it, when enough has been enough?" It has been a delightful several days with many, many family and friends joining us at our home for laughter, feasting, celebration, memory making and laughter. My heart is full. My body has been treated with traditional favorites that delight the palate and the belly. My mind is excited with the stories shared, the possibilities entertained and the hope of tomorrow. And it has been so good.

And yet saying goodbye to the last child as she heads back to school, giving the last hug to the friend as they dash off to the airport, preparing the last of the leftovers and crumbling up the last roll into crumbs for the birds outside has been good too.

I really do think that in the abundance there lies that fine line of when too much of a good thing lends itself to disappointment. But such was not the case for me this year, thankfully. Alignment and gratitude fell in place side by side. But it does give me a thought about honoring the magnificence in enough being enough!

While it is often beyond my control, I certainly can appreciate this factor with the aspects that I have choices over. For example, not needing to eat the last delicious piece of pie…let it be someone else’s, not joining the shopper frenzy out of some odd American tradition that seems to encroach earlier and earlier into the Thanksgiving feasting each year, and not over-staying a welcome by family or friend when enough has been plenty and long enough is exactly that…knowing the next visit will be equally delightful and sweet. If I find the balance within myself, perhaps that will create a fairness in the occurrence of those who have yet to figure out the beauty of this perspective…perhaps! AND if not, there is always the next holiday to give it a go!

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

Love For The Holidays

Gathering around the table with family and friends is a wonderful tradition we share each year. I love it because it gives us pause, and allows us to focus our attention on all we have to be grateful for. For most of us, we are very blessed and have abundance of celebration and people to share it with at this time of year. But this is not the case for everyone. Recently my friend Robin Rice found within her momma’s heart a calling to share her abundance of love with a particular community. The LGBTQ community has many members who have a difficult time at the holiday season. They are often separated from family, some are homeless, many feel misunderstood and often they look to the holidays with heavy hearts. This year Robin created a spectacular opportunity to offer hearts of love to this particular community through a unique approach with a website, Your Holiday Mom (www.YourHolidayMom.com).

Everyday from November 22 through January 1st messages of love, appreciation, delight and care are posted for the children, teens and young adults of this community. No one should feel alone or unloved EVER, but especially during the holiday season. What better way to put a smile upon a face, to add cheer to someone’s heart or to ease someone’s pain than the love of a mother? Mother’s love heals, it bolsters, it radiates and it understands.

I strongly suggest you visit the website, your heart will respond much like The Grinch’s and grow three sizes in one day! If you like what you hear and see, please post it through your social media sources. If you know a member of the LGBTQ community, please share it with them as well. Our lives are far too short to not offer as much love as we can within our communities. We don’t need to know where it lands or how it impacts whomever it touches. We can trust, if it is of love, it will be right, it will be good and it will be beautiful.

I wish you the happiest of holidays and many blessings ~ Lisa

© COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade

Survival Tactics

Maybe it is the rebel in me or perhaps it is just my way of surviving. I am not sure if it even matters, all I know is that it works for me. When this time of year rolls in and the world around me becomes chaotically busy and frenzied… I slow down. When peoples’ daily agenda pads fill up with more and more commitments and obligations, mine gets more and more white space. Living simply during this time of the year allows me to find my way. I know that over-stimulation is not good for me. I shut down. I am the one person in my family who avoids the Mall like the plague. I don not enjoy it, come home with a screaming headache and feel like I need to reprogram myself after a shopping trip spent there. Too much noise, too many people, too many distractions…ahhhhhh!

So the same is true for me with my days and nights during this time of the year. I have to create white space for me to be able to enjoy my holiday time and the things that really matter. I make a point of letting go of things that are not necessary. I delegate to my family responsibilities that I do not need to hold all by myself. This is not the time to play Super Woman!

When I make the effort to live simply, (how sad that it needs to be an effort), everyone benefits. I am a happier person, a better-organized person, I am able to have fun, live large, celebrate and relax. I also have the time then to honor my body and eat healthy and get out side for long hikes and walks. Simple living suits me well. I know I glow and ripple out positive energy when I embrace this. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember all this and I find myself stepping into that beckoning pool of frenzied holiday activity, only to quickly pull myself out, wrap up in a blanket of peace and comfort and move on.

How do you survive the holiday season?

Blessings ~ Lisa

©COPYRIGHT 2012 Lisa Meade