Tag Archives: personal health

A Story of Three Women

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This is a story about a mother and her daughter and of her daughter’s daughter. It begins in 1961. A period in time where mothers stayed home with their children and children were taught to be seen but not heard. Children were expected to be good girls and boys and respect their elders. Friends of their parents were addressed as Mr. and Mrs or Uncle and Aunt. These points are important as they play a role in the relationship between this mother and daughter and her daughter’s daughter.

When she was five, the daughter said something that seemed funny to her and apparently it was NOT to “Uncle Frank” and her mother. The shock of being harshly reprimanded for her childish act haunted her well into her later years. She was too young to understand relationships between mothers and fathers. One day, her father disappeared from her life and she ask her mother “why”? The mother replied, “We don’t talk about him anymore”. The mother saw a lot of “Uncle Frank” after her father disappeared and the daughter lived in fear of Uncle every time he visited.

When she was seven, the daughter got a new father, when one day, she was introduced to a man and his four children. They were all sitting in the kitchen of the home she shared with her brothers and her mother. Her mother said, “This is Mr. Dew and these are his children. They are living with us now as one big happy family and you will call him father”. In fact when the daughter went to school her last name was changed to his so she was recognized as one of his children. The daughter was now one of ten children where she was seen but not heard.

When she was twelve, the daughter saw her father, the one she knew as her father, at her brother’s wedding. Her father sat right behind her and when she turned to say hello, her mother stopped her. Her mother said “it would hurt her new father’s feelings if you turned around.” So the daughter sat looking forward because she was afraid of getting into trouble. Her mother said “that’s a good girl”. By the time she was free to reconnect with her father she knew as her father, he was gone, again. The daughter became aware of the anger growing inside of her towards her mother. It was also the beginning of the resentment she felt for her new father and the difficulties she was to create for him and her mother for years to come.

When she was fifteen, she learned that telling the truth was painful and life took an abrupt turn in her young life. The daughter told her Aunt about a great pain she had been carrying for a couple of years. She was suffering under the burden of her step-father’s inappropriate behaviour towards her when she was 13. The Aunt was horrified by this news and shared this with the daughter’s mother. The mother asked the step-father if this was true, and in front of her daughter, he said “no, it was not”. This was devastating to the daughter and when her mother took her step-fathers word over hers that the divide between mother and daughter ripped open beyond repair.

In her sixteenth year, the daughter left home filled with anger and hurt in her heart, not only for them but for herself as she grew older and became a mother herself. It was also the time that her father that she knew as her father passed away, leaving her yet again.

When she was twenty-one, the daughter discovered that her father she knew as her father, was not her biological father. Her Aunt felt the need to share the truth about her beginnings. To discover she had three fathers should have been quite devastating to the daughter but instead she became curious about the skeletons in her family closet and asked her mother for the truth. It was a truth her mother never wanted her daughter to know and now that she did, strangely, it was a truth that brought them together, they had something to work on together. They actively searched for the man who was her biological father, and there was peace between them. The daughter found pleasure in the knowing and she looked forward to being asked “who is your father?”. With a big smile on her face, her answer was always, “which one?, my biological father, the one I knew as my father, or my step-father?” Of course laughter would follow and she told her story over and over and over again until she became numb to impact this had for her. A few years past and the daughter found the courage she needed to reach out to her biological father only to be rejected. This would forever fuel her sadness when she watched strangers joyfully reconnect with lost loved ones. The mother and the daughter, both learned that you can numb yourself from the pain inflicted by others but you can never escape self-inflicted pain.

“That which doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”

Friedrich Nietzsche ~ 19th century German philosopher

When she was twenty-five, the daughter became a wife and mother in a period in time where mothers were free to choose, work at home or away and children were encouraged to be seen and heard. Children were still expected to be good girls and boys, address older people by Mr. and Mrs and it was okay to address their parent’s friends by their first names rather than Uncle and Aunt. One day the daughter had a daughter of her own and a new hope of righting the wrongs in her own mother/daughter relationship. The daughter vowed that her relationship with her daughter would be different because she was nothing like her mother. Or was she?

As time went on the daughter started to recognize her mother’s words coming from her mouth when she spoke to her daughter. The horror of sounding like her mother struck fear into her heart. The daughter started to notice her mother’s ways of being, showed up in her way of being, and she cried for her daughter’s love. The mother’s daughter tried everything she knew to connect with her daughter, only to be rejected over and over and over again. The daughter was once again filled with anger and hurt in her heart, not only for her mother and her daughter but for herself as she grew older and became a grandmother.

When the daughter was fifty, she realized that she had the same relationship with her daughter that she had with her mother! She sank deep into despair. In her heart, she knew that she would have to heal her relationship with her mother to change her relationship with her daughter and the thought of this terrified her. What if she couldn’t??? For many years the daughter had tried to forgive her mother, for choices that her mother made. As a mother herself she understood that her mother had done the best that she could. The daughter worked hard at forgiving and she thought that she had finally reached forgiveness towards her mother. Finally she could have the relationship with her daughter that she longed for. Or could she?

The daughter watched her daughter blossom into a beautiful, wise woman who expressed her love for everyone except her mother. No matter how the daughter expressed her love to her daughter, the her daughter would meet her with nothingness. “I love you” was met with silence. “Can we get together?” was answered with “I’m busy”. The daughter’s heart was broken and again she felt the divide between mother and daughter tear open. The daughter knew that she couldn’t run from the pain of others and saw that she couldn’t run away from self-inflicted pain either. The daughter was heartbroken as she didn’t want this for her own daughter now that her daughter had a daughter of her own.

Watching history repeating itself was more than the daughter could bare and she vowed that she would find a way to change the future. For the sake of her mother, who was no longer living, her daughter, her daughter’s daughter, and finally for herself. She didn’t know how she would do this, and she was determined to end the cycle because she knew it was important for all daughters beyond her. The daughter knew that healing her own heart was the key to healing her mother’s heart, even though she was no longer living. She knew that healing her daughter’s heart gave promise for a loving relationship with her daughter, her daughter’s daughter and future generations of daughters to come.

In her twilight years, the daughter is taking a stand for herself, for her mother, her daughter, her daughter’s daughter, and future generations of daughters, so they are free to express their love for each other from their hearts. For the first time in her life, the daughter had found forgiveness for her mother, her daughter and herself. She trusts that the wounds within her heart have finally healed, once and forever, for all daughters past, present and future.

Giant Leaps From Little Steps

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Photo by Samuel Silitonga on Pexels.com

I have been known to say “knowing doesn’t make a difference” when talking about what to do when making changes in my life.  For example, I would say “I want to lose weight”, I know there are countless ways to lose weight and I’m not using any of them!  It feels like every day that someone is sharing their weight loss method that worked for them and if I used it I would lose weight too!  Yes, I believe this is true and knowing doesn’t make a difference!

I could lose weight (I don’t have any medical reasons why I can’t) and I choose not too.  Why? Because there is something else at play here that lives deep within my sub-conscious that stops me and until I find it nothing will work. Anytime I feel blocked or held back in my life the culprit is a limiting belief I hold in my sub-conscious mind.

When you consider that we have thousands of thoughts coursing through our brains every minute and the challenging part is we are unaware of most of them. Is it possible that there are limiting beliefs among those thoughts that are mucking up our lives?  As I read the “The Biology of Belief” by Dr. Bruce Lipton I have learned more about the existence of these beliefs and how they influence my actions and inactions.

Knowing this DOES make a difference!

Eureka, I have found a piece of life’s puzzle that was missing!  Now I have what I need to change the list of beliefs I have been listening to most of my life, rewriting them in a way that empowers me.  Is it possible to change the words in my belief statements and create new believable belief statements?  Could it be this simple?  The answer is YES and it’s highly effective when you go through the steps I am sharing here.

It starts with identifying the hidden belief statements by looking at your feelings and actions in a specific situation.  For example, when I looked at my current financial situation I focussed on how I felt about it, how I viewed money, how I saw other people with money, how I handled money, etc.  What emerged were very loud, very negative thoughts and feelings I had about money. Up till now, I wasn’t aware of most of those thoughts and feelings and for the few, I was aware of, I didn’t see them as controlling my life!  This was a total eye-opener for me!

What is so cool is, I use this process in all areas of my life where I have felt stuck, stopped, and out of ways to change.

Here is the step by step process I went through:

  1. I identified the limiting belief as I believed it to be (the negative statement I heard in my mind)
  2. I reworded the old belief statement into a positive one using the following criteria: state in the first person (I), use present tense (now, not future), using positive language and keeping it short and finally, make it emotionally meaningful to me (resonating)
  3. I effectively use these statements in meditation, emotional freedom technique and written form to remind myself that they are my truth.

It sounds simple, doesn’t it?  I can assure you it wasn’t and each time I go through this process I can honestly say it is so worth the discomfort of converting old into new! When I was writing my original belief statements I was taken back as the words I wrote would cause tears to well up in my eyes. The feelings were so raw and right there! I was literally writing and crying at the same time and struggling through the process. I had a flashback of specific moments in my life that were painful and confirmed why I believed these statements.  I have to say I learn a few valuable lessons while going through this experience 1. the pain of living with these statements far outweighed the pain I was feeling at the moment and 2. I didn’t die going through this exercise.

I was challenged to reword these belief statements using the criteria.  I found myself using words like I wish, I want, I will, none of which are present tense.  I also found my statements were too long and when I read them, they sounded good but I wasn’t really connected to them.  What’s really amazing to me is the completeness of all the work I went through in this process. Now, I can look at these statements and I no longer have any feelings about them.  I have come back to this post on many occasions to test the process and when I read these statements it’s like they didn’t mean anything to me.  I am so grateful for the tools I have learned and as new limiting beliefs expose themselves to me I put myself through this exercise with them too.

Here is a list of limiting beliefs I identified for myself, as you read this you may find yourself resonating with these particular beliefs too.  Feel free to use them if you do.

  • Original belief: I believe that when I ask for help no-one will be there for me
  • New belief: I feel love and support from others like a warm blanket on a cold day
  • Original belief: I believe that no matter what I do things will never change for me
  • New belief: Every step I take changes my view of life
  • Original belief: I believe that happiness is possible I just don’t know what will make me happy
  • New belief: I recognize happy moments in my life every day, both big and small
  • Old belief: I believe, despite multiple attempts to change it,  I am not where I want to be and I will never get there
  • New belief: I am exactly where I need to be and anywhere I want to go is reachable from here

When I read these words a smile has replaced the tears and the peacefulness I feel inside confirms the transformation for me. It takes little steps to transform your limiting beliefs and the promise of giant leaps is real. Yes, it does work and it can work for you too when you are ready. If you need help formulating your statements, feel free to contact me for help.

What limiting beliefs hold you back in your life?

What Was I Thinking???

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“You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe.” 

– Oprah Winfrey –

Your subconscious mind accepts as truth, the statements you tell yourself, it doesn’t care whether those statements are negative or positive.  

So why would you choose to continually tell yourself that you are not good enough?  Not smart enough? Not pretty enough? Or that you don’t deserve to be happy? How often do you hear any of these statements in your head? More than once is too often and it’s time to change this.  Statements like: “I’m so stupid, I’m not worthy, nobody loves me, I can’t do this” are some of the more damaging ones and there are more!   Anyone of these statements can stop you from having what you want in your life and the good news is you don’t have to listen to them anymore!  First of all, none of the statements above are true.

I can hear some of you saying “they are for me” and to that, I say again, NONE OF THESE STATEMENTS ARE TRUE for anyone.

These words are a perspective, yours or someone else’s, that repeat themselves over and over in your subconscious mind, making you feel like these words are the truth.  These negative statements are bogus and they were added to your life-living program that resides in your subconscious mind. At some point in your life or before (another conversation), these programmed statements, and many others, were saved in your subconscious mind’s file system causing you to operate in life as if they are true.  In other words, these are limiting belief statements embedded in your subconscious mind and they are limiting your life potential. Here’s the thing, you don’t have to live with these words anymore and you can reform these statements from negative into positive ones and change the outcome of your life.  Not only have other people done this successfully for themselves, but more people, like you, are also discovering that they can too.

Consider the alternative statements “I am good at what I do”, “I have all the knowledge I need” “I am beautiful, inside and out”, “I am worthy of the best that love and life have to offer” These statements are true for people who believe these words, whole-heartedly.  They are the people who appear to be insanely happy all the time!  You know ‘those’ people, the ones who appear to be over the top happy, living life to it’s fullest, always wearing a perma-grin on their lips.  I used to think “they can’t be that happy all the time”!  Well, a matter a fact, yes they can and you can be as well, if that’s your goal!  The fact is our natural way of being, as a human, is to be happy, content, joyful, grateful, compassionate, caring, social, nurturing, happy, happy, happy! It’s time to be the human being you were born to be!

So, why are we so unhappy?

Our thoughts are the main reason and they are the result of what we believe about our thoughts.  What we believe about ourselves, our life, and the world we live in.  Every thought we have, also known as opinions and perspectives, is formed by our beliefs, both positive and negative.  What we accept as the truth, either self-proclaimed or told to us by others, and how we choose to define our very existence. It may surprise you to know that we actually live in a world of anything is possible, nothing is real and all you have to do is choose how you want your human experience to be.  Is that really possible?  ABSOLUTELY!  Is it easy? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

If you are not living the life that you want and you are ready to change this, then you are in the right place right now and it’s time to get to work!  As a life-living strategist, I am here to work through this with you, to help you take back your personal power and to help you create your life, by your definition, of “happy ever after”.

Let’s try a little experiment here to find out what you actually believe. I’d like you to read the quote below.

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” ― Oprah Winfrey

What did that little voice in your head say when you read it?  Did you hear “that’s not true” or “I agree with this statement”? Or did anything else pop into your thoughts about it?  Write down what you heard so we can refer back to it later.

Now take a look at this image, what do you see?

Do you see the beauty of nature or an emptiness?  Did it stir emotion within you of excitement? Loneliness? Calm? Peacefulness? or nothing at all?  Record your thoughts and emotions as they appear to you.

Your initial thoughts and feelings are clues to what you truly believe on a subconscious level and these thoughts and feelings may or may not be in alignment with what you consciously believe.  If this is the case, this is where we begin to look for the limiting beliefs that are stopping you from living your life as it was meant to be lived.  The first step to removing a limiting belief is to discover it’s existence, then, to create a new (positive) statement that is meaningful for you. We download it into your sub-conscious replacing the negative one that has stopped you in the past.  There are a few techniques you can use to do this successfully and effectively and choosing the modality that works for you is the key.  Over the years I have tried many and I’ve found value is each of them at different times of my life.

Happiness is: living my life as it was meant to be lived and by my design!

Time to Take Out the Trash

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Look familiar?

photo credit to abundancetapestry.com

Trash talk happens.  When it does, do you listen or put it in its place?

Are you aware of your “trash talk?”  Not sure?  I can tell you it comes from that little voice in your head that just said “what is she talking about? and I don’t hear voices in my head!”  Yes, that little voice.  If you have spent any time listening to that voice chances are you have heard a lot of trash talk.  You are not alone in this experience and it’s an epidemic in our society.  It is safe to say the source of our insecurities, lack of confidence and diminished view of self-worth is fuelled by trash talk and it’s time to take out the trash for good!

There is an imaginary muscle in our thoughts that, when exercised, can toss the trash when you use it, of course, and like any muscle regular exercise is needed.  Staying toned is vital to keeping the trash at a manageable level and in check at all times.  Two things that are important to understand, 1. you will never rid yourself of trash talk completely and 2. you CAN keep it at a minimum so it’s not running your life.

When it comes to any new exercise regime it’s vital to take note of where you are right now and to have a goal in mind that you are reaching for.  What happens between those two points requires consistent practice through focus, commitment, and disciplined determination.  I have a quote that I use as a tagline in my emails that says:

“discipline is simply choosing between what I want right now and what I want most”

I read it every time I send an email as a reminder of what I want most in my life.  What quote are you using to remind yourself of what’s important to you?  Find a quote that resonates with you and use it!

Now that you are aware of your trash talk, what kind of things are you hearing?  Do you catch yourself agreeing with your little voice?  Are you as horrible as your little voice says?  What we say to ourselves is horrendous and what’s really amazing is we would never allow others to say these things to us so why do we allow ourselves?  Think about it?  If someone told you that you were a loser, you will never amount to anything in your life, you are not good enough or pretty enough or you certainly don’t deserve to be happy.  You would likely give them a full fisted sandwich in the kisser!  So why do we listen to the little voice?

There was a time in our history, billions of years ago that little voice came in handy, it was the voice of reason when human beings roamed the earth in search of food and shelter.  It was every man (woman) for themselves and definitely, an animal eats animal world out there.  Wait a minute!  It sounds like nothing has changed in a billion years!!!  Our little voice is a vital part of our survival in this world and unfortunately, it doesn’t know when to shut up and keep its opinions to itself. Kidding aside that little voice has saved your life at some point and for that, you can be grateful.  The downside of having our little voice in our heads is when it goes into a negative mode and constantly bombards you with thoughts that are hurtful and damaging under the disguise of trying to keep you safe. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always pick the right things to keep you safe from and this is where you need to take charge.

Most people think that life happens to them, what they don’t realize is that we are capable of creating our lives.  Not only capable but responsible!  What is so magical at this point is when we take responsibility for the creation of our lives we also gain the power to create life any way that we want.

What do you want?

Do you have any idea of what you truly want in your life?  Most of us say “yes” but stop and think about the question and most of you will be completely blank.  I know because I have gone through this exercise myself and I go through it with my clients. I still haven’t met anyone who could clearly answer the question.  Why not?  Well, it all comes back to that pesky little voice and the trash it’s been sharing with us over the years.  Nasty!

The bottom line is, manage the little voice, have it work for you rather than against you and you can have whatever your little heart desires.

Yes, you can have it all

Permission to Take Time… again!

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I originally wrote this piece back in 2014, updated it again in 2015, and re-read it recently only to find that I’m not following my own advice here!  I am hearing myself say “I don’t have time for (you name it I’ve said it).  My first reaction was to start chastising myself for not practicing what I preach and then it occurred to me that perhaps there was a better way to bring this back into my daily awareness!  When I look back I can see there were times I put this into practice and what my process was to do that.  Looking closer at that process I started to see the steps I took to shift my way of being and get back on track with what’s important to me.

What is important to me?

To live my life every day with joy, to love my friends and family unconditionally, and to work with passion and purpose making a difference for others.  

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I can see that I am not always in alignment with these words and I need a reset moment to get me back on track!  A reset moment?  What does that look like?  It’s a moment where I take a time out, step back to have a better overall view of where I am right now, review my priorities, make changes as needed and get back into the game with an action plan in hand!   This is not a one-time-only exercise and realizing this fact has made it possible for me to get back on track faster and stay longer.

What would you change in your life if you had a transformational reset moment when you felt off track?  Perhaps some of these examples are areas for a reset in your life:

reconnect  with people in your life you have lost touch with

refocus your attention at work or home to bring back the pleasure in those areas

reset your goals in life because the path you are on isn’t working for you

rejuvenate your appreciation for who you are in the world (this may also be a new awareness for you)
restart your passion for living, just like when you were a child, remember those days?
re-activate your love for your job, if you didn’t have this in the beginning then a reset is mandatory!
rediscover the pleasures of life because life is meant to be enjoyed and lived fully!
I am now in the process of creating the process of a reset moment and my goal is to have something tangible that I can share with others who find themselves in the same place.  If you feel that you are not on track with what’s important to you and you want the opportunity to reset, you will want to stay connected with me in this conversation.  Use the comment space below or subscribe to my blog to stay in this conversation.
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Here is the original post I wrote back in 2014, I would love to hear your comments about this or anything in this post that resonates with you.

It sounds funny to ask for permission to take time and that’s exactly what you must do when you are creating moments in your life.  We have all said, at some point in our lives, “I can’t afford to take the time” and “I should be doing something else, not wasting time doing this”.   We often do not give ourselves permission to be in the moment doing things that we like to do and it is impossible to be in the moment without it. 

I started this conversation talking about creating time and being in the moment.  This post is part of that conversation because giving yourself permission to use your newly created time is a key element along with being in the moment and commitment to clarity. Giving yourself permission takes awareness and practice AND, so I have discovered, it is quite rewarding when you do.  What kind of rewards can you expect?  It varies, from tangible rewards like lovely gifts and intangible rewards like kind and thoughtful words shared by others.

Often we use one of many excuses as to why we don’t have time.

“I have too many things to do right now, I’ll do it later”

“If I stop now I’ll never catch up”

“I’ll have plenty of time to do (stuff) when I’m older (retired)”

Which one have do you use?  We typically make the mistake of thinking our time is not our own when actually, it is.  Yes, we have our commitments, responsibilities, expectations and it’s up to us to make time for these and what we want in life.   I know, I know, easier said than done, I agree and I still say it’s possible when you make a commitment to yourself to follow through with whatever it takes to make it happen.  It starts with…

Giving yourself permission to take the time AND believing that it is possible.

From this point on every step forward is a good one whether it’s a giant leap or a baby step.  The question is “what would you be doing right now if you had the time?”  Pick something and make a commitment to yourself to do it.  If you can’t do it right now, pick a day and time within the next 7 days to just do it!  Make it happen!  I would love to hear how it went for you and what your experience was if you are game to share.

tomorrow today yesterday

It’s your time, take it!

Lisa