Gratitude

How our environment can impede or replenish our joy

Elise Albenesius — Sat, 27 Apr 2019 08:46:06 +0000

Now that we have viewed depression from a physical stand point, let’s take a look at our environment and how it impedes or replenishes joy into our daily lives.

Family and Friends

Jealousy in these relationships is very unhealthy and also very counterproductive for growth and development in any aspect of your life and the lives of the ones around you. If you notice you get better energy from strangers than your own inner circle it’s a BIG warning sign to Run!

Now I understand with finances and lack of community support this can be difficult and take more time than you would like to make a move. But your life isn’t here to be miserable, it’s here to blossom like a flower. You can view yourself as a plant, and view the ones closest to you as other plants in a garden. How does it look, feel, smell, when you look from this perspective. Do you feel like a flower with little pests eating holes in your leaves?

I would have compared myself to that flower when I was living in direct vicinity with individuals who did not feed my interests or emotional needs. There is a concept in healthy organic gardening called Companion Planting. It is based in chemistry between the plants, and how some aid each other’s growth and others die in the presence of another plant due to it absorbing the same nutrients or releasing things the other plant does not require.

A pretty flower flourishing in a healthy garden really has a lot to do with what’s growing around the flower. Being different than the ones you have been raised around might seem challenging but if you plant yourself with people who are like minded you can find your experience of life change completely.

Location:

Do you resonate with where you live, or are you simply there because it is where you have always been? Are you bored with your routine and interactions on a daily basis? Does the level of comfort with your surroundings feel binding?

I have lived in different states and different cultural zones in America and it’s so interesting how a change of environment can change your outlook on life and also the way you are being treated on a regular basis. Societal factors, expectations, and social status contribute to living a life that does not serve you spiritually. The world would feel like a better place if everyone chased their dreams full force. It would be so cool if our friends and family supported our ideas and dreams as well but that’s not always the case.

Work:

I have worked for the best management and the worst; it’s so amazing how things can change when you are working with difficult people vs. people of integrity. You can’t chance the workplace, but you can change yourself. Applying to jobs that appeal to your desires, spiritual, and mental development or physical needs can be revitalizing.

Some jobs that are emotionally fulfilling can be working for your local recycling program, no-kill animal shelters, non-profit organizations, locally owned companies, or vacation retreats, resorts, or campgrounds. These jobs are small in comparison to corporate positions but they are out there. Being in the sun, doing what you’re passionate about, helping your community are all things that fulfill the organic soul while working a job that you don’t like dulls all aspects of your life.

Cleaning your Aura and Chakras with the 3 S’s:

The three S’s are salt, sage, and sound healing. Salt removes negative energy from you, your home, and your belongings. It can be sprinkled on the floor prior to sweeping, added to your body wash and shampoo, used for cleaning dishes, and put in your laundry detergent. This is a passive way to clear your auric field and energetic space regularly.

As a self-taught specialist in Hand Massage, I love adding salt in my hand wash. Anytime I use it throughout the day it is not only cleaning my skin, but purifying the very crucial energy centres in the body. These energy centres are conductors for the physical transmission of energy healing.

As far as sage goes, I love adding rose petals and lavender to my smudge sticks, and always remember to leave windows open to allow the smoke to exit a room, home, or vehicle. Sage Goddess has a wonderful range of smudges here.

Sound healing is a great way to amplify your environment, I love crystal bowls and Tibetan singing bowls. Sage Goddess has some beautiful singing bowls here. These can be listened to in the car, while you clean, sleep, or played behind regular music simultaneously. Other sounds to cause energetic change for the better are listening to music on YouTube with Hertz frequencies such 852 hz or 528 hz. I have also noticed my wind chimes sometimes vibrate the same sounds as singing bowls and require no technology to hear.

**Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” This means we may garner a small commission at no cost to you if you choose to make a purchase. Read our full Affiliate Disclosure Statement for more information.

How has your environment impeded or amplified your joy? Let us know in the comments below.

Sign up for a free self-worth email course with the form below or follow this link for information on the Remembering your worth e-course.

The post How our environment can impede or replenish our joy appeared first on .

Holding fast to the blessings

Katherine Wilson — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 08:36:41 +0000

Have you heard the term: “The Dark Night of the Soul”? Many people in the New Age community have. A part of the 7 Mirrors of the Essene and recognised in other practices, such as Buddhism, it is a time when the soul meets its greatest challenges and fears.

The universe, or God, never gives it more than it can handle, and it has gathered all the tools and wisdom with which to meet them. So holding fast to the blessings in the harder times is not a new concept. It’s not an easy practice, but it’s one that provides very real results.

It is one’s faith that provides wisdom, and one’s gratitude that provides a reason to persist. Being faithful is not about receiving a reward, because in the end, what you receive is what you give.

The universe can, “gift,” us with some really dark things to sort through. I’m not talking about waiting in line at the grocery store, although this practice is applicable everywhere, because it is often about small, humble things. Remaining grateful for the little things is absolutely key when your darker times show up. That way, finding diamonds in the rough times becomes automatic, and each moment shines brighter and brighter. Diamonds become your soil, and you become more aware of the Light. You can view some amazing gratitude journals here.

And what are blessings, anyway?

Every person’s soul defines and longs to be in its own Light. Blessings are that which aid our souls to achieve that inner balance, and return to our highest beauty. We are discussing Love. A stranger’s smile, a feather, an unexpected ride, or your choice to give yourself a long, delicious bath instead of a hurried shower. Those are expressions of Love.

The crucial part of blessings is that you have to be open to receiving them and aware that they are there to be received. If you are not, they will pass you by.

Remember how your parents always reminded you to say thank you? Well, my mom never let me forget, at least. Being grateful, and releasing your gratitude back to the universe sends the energy back out there, an energetic, “yes! I got your message and I am a-ok with the gift sent and I would love more of the same!” Doing acts of gratitude does this with more force. So certainly, be conscious of the message you are sending and receiving. Your words are being heeded. In scientific circles, this idea could be related to string theory.

Staying faithful to an image, an ideal, or a standard, however, can provide problems. Staying in the present and remaining faithful to yourself, and your beauty as a being of Light allows the imperfection of humanity. Ultimately, this is who we are, and how we travel in this world. Otherwise, we risk hurting ourselves and others. Balancing an excellent idea and your current reality is the challenge presented to us, and the, “how,” we get a reason to be grateful. We can give ourselves joy by remaining faithful to ourselves, and our needs, our path, and our Light, or we can cause our own suffering.

Holding fast is really learning how to allow. To find those rocks in the river, you have to first find the river, and eventually you realise that you are the river itself, rocks and all.

Rewarding yourself, giving to others becomes the same thing, since you’re all in it together–and equally as sweet.

Holding fast to blessings is about surrendering the preconceptions, and allowing yourself to be free to love everywhere, from little cracks to big gestures. Letting go to Love is how one reaches the Light within and truly finds and keeps blessings.

This makes receiving more natural; being open signals to the universe that you are ready. Your job is to continue making good choices, and being open to positivity and letting go of bad choices and things. Continue to have faith in yourself each day, each moment, and be grateful for your positive choices and the fruit of your energetic choices, every moment.

That’s why it’s so important when things seem to be going all wrong, to continue to see the good, not only in other people, but in ourselves as well. Be grateful for every single quality and moment that is positive. Following the path that seems right to us sometimes seems the wrong one to everyone else, but the inner wisdom is our faith.

This is not blind optimism; it is listening to our soul. The depths of experience, the darkest of the dark moment will hear the Light when you shift your experience away from poor choices and embody gratitude and faith to your own energy. It isn’t always instantaneous, but the universe is always listening to your energy. You will receive your own gifts, some day. Sometimes sooner than you expect!

*Disclaimer: I am not promoting sex acts with children, abuse of any kind, suicide, violence, blood, or murder. I am not responsible for immoral or illegal decisions made and/or carried out by the readers of this article. This is meant to be read and taken to heart by those with the best interests of themselves and others in mind.

*Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” This means we may garner a small commission at no cost to you if you choose to make a purchase. Read our full Affiliate Disclosure Statement for more information.

How have you learned to hold fast to blessings? Tell us about your experiences in the comment section.

Sign up for our free self-worth email course with the form below or click here to find out about the Remembering your worth e-course.

The post Holding fast to the blessings appeared first on .

Gratitude and the pursuit of becoming undepressed

Juanita Pienaar — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 08:43:15 +0000

It is no secret that I have been suffering from depression for a few years now… maybe a few decades – it’s never easy to pinpoint just when things had gotten quite so ‘off’.

When I was studying psychology at uni a lecturer once said that with any kind of mental disorder we should phrase it as ‘she has depression’ as opposed to ‘she is depressed’ to distance the individual from the disease. To help the individual to still have an identity outside of the disease or disorder.

For me though… I did not have depression. I was depressed. I had crawled deep down the dark depression hole and made my home there. Even when I was living my best life – I was a dive instructor working on tropical islands with unimaginably clear water and perfect, sunny days nearly year round. My life looked amazing from the outside. But looking out from the inside everything was just grey for me. Just dark and grey and empty.

A few months ago I started actively working on my depression – I’m not one for taking medications all willy-nilly and didn’t think that antidepressants was the way to go for me (more recently I caved and started taking that supposedly ‘magical’ little pill while I keep pursuing the natural solutions that I speak of below. Please don’t take any of this as medical advice – discuss it with your medical or mental health practitioner). So I decided to treat my depression naturally. You know, with meditations and supplements, being present and in the moment… binaural beats… I tried anything and everything. And the combination of the parts seem to work.

But wait, I hear you say… this article is supposed to be about gratitude… Isn’t it? Here is the thing: I have come to realise that when I feel the most depressed and I start to tumble down that dark hole, I feel the tightness in my chest and the anxiety creeping in, if I just pay attention to the moment I can catch it… and stop it. If I am able to be aware and be conscious in the moment and pay attention to my thoughts I notice that more and more negative thoughts start creeping in. If I let it go- just give in to the habit of letting my mind rush off, pulling me along and yanking me off my feet and out of balance – I end up spiraling down into thoughts that get progressively worse. Thoughts that get toxic. Thoughts that come close to being abusive. Man, I am a mean person to myself sometimes!

In the last month I have made a huge effort to be grateful. To express gratitude as often as I can (I even downloaded a gratitude app that reminds me to list a few things I am grateful for each day) – and I have seen the powerful effect it has had on my life, on my relationships and on the joy that I experience in life. I have seen how very, very sweet life can be if you start focusing on the wonderful bits- people who love you, the taste of food, flowers blooming in the early spring, being able to tie my shoes by myself! Let’s be honest, some days it’s a bit of a struggle to find something to be grateful for, so I just go with it and make something up as I go along. You can find some wonderful gratitude journals here.

Some days when I struggle to catch myself from falling off the precipice that separates a joyful (or even just slightly content) me from ‘curled-up-in-a-foetal-position-rocking-back-and-forth- me’ I find that I cannot find anything to write on my gratitude list- I cannot even be grateful that I am able to tie my own shoes! On these days I sit and stare at that pink screen on my phone with its little inspirational quote and I rebel. I think ‘I don’t want to be grateful for anything… this life sucks’. It is an effort just to think of something to be grateful for – even when I have so many blessings in my life- and I am fully aware of them.

In these moments the comfort of my depression is too tempting. It is too familiar and easy. It is years and decades of conditioning. It is centuries of conditioning inherited from ancestors. It is karmic contracts and lessons needing to be learnt… and realising that is something to be grateful for in itself. Perhaps it is the thing to be most grateful for. That we can learn these lessons and end these contracts and clear this age old karma… finally.

I have found that in the moments where I can catch those negative thoughts- when I can find just ONE thing that I am grateful for in those grey moments before the dark sets in- it starts to flow. ‘I am grateful that my eyes are healthy. ‘I am grateful for my dogs’ ‘I am grateful for this amazing new BRA!’. So, some days I need to work a little harder to find the things that I am grateful for. Some days it sounds really lame. But it starts building momentum and once I am out of the pull of the depression and the negative thoughts I get into the flow. And man, when it flows it flooooows!

But the seduction is always there, always beckoning like a chocolate cake when you’re on an auto immune diet. It is so tempting to just be consumed by its deliciousness, to give in to the cravings and savour the sweet comfort of it. But you know that if you do you will just end up feeling like rubbish. It takes an ocean full of self-control to say ‘No thank you, I prefer to feel happy and healthy without you’ ‘I choose not to give in to your little lies and tricks of seduction’ ‘I have been down that road many, many times and that is not where I want to be’. ‘I will struggle to be grateful today, because I know tomorrow will be easier and the next day will flow with even more ease’.

Stay grateful, keep minding those negative thoughts. Keep pulling away from the seduction of the depression. Use the help of that little pill if you need to… and maybe one day you will wake up and struggle to pinpoint just exactly when you became ‘undepressed’.

How has practicing gratitude affected your life? Tell us in the comments below.

Sign up for our free mini self-worth course with the form below, or click here to find out about our Remembering your worth e-course.

The post Gratitude and the pursuit of becoming undepressed appeared first on .

Spiritual Growth and Manifesting Through the Art of Allowing

Debbie Lohrentz — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 08:21:50 +0000

After each healing session I would always channel the following words to my clients: ‘Allow this healing to ripple, it always clears at the root of where you first experienced polarity and then ripples through all the layers of Self until it reaches the last level of our experience in the physical and the body’.

I have seen this with the major planetary alignments playing out as well, we have had some major incoming energies and alignments happen since January and March 2019. We feel the incoming energies through tiredness and exhaustion at first, then as it ripples over the months, we start to see the effects as it anchors in the physical planes and the miracles and bliss and flow of sacred synchronicity is felt by all.

Are you allowing your practices/healings or the incoming shifts to ripple, or are you forcing change and wanting to see the change immediately? There is a beautiful, unfathomable, Love that governs and oversees our whole existence. The art of allowing this flow needs to become an actionable step in the physical as you completely surrender to Your highest good to unfold daily.

We do our part by aligning mind, body and spirit on a daily basis and asking for what we want, but the other 99% is complete surrender and trust and the work of the Universe. One of my mentors once said to me: ‘Once you start asking HOW? You are just being rude, LOL, that is none of your business’. Every new habit takes time to become your new, so even there we should soften and allow ourselves to fully REmember.

What has helped me immensely on my journey was to constantly, throughout the day, keep an open dialogue going with my Universe / Creator until I have felt my faith and trust build in the area that I was remembering. Being real and authentic in these conversations allow you to fully let go and stay in your true essence. If you’re mad, have it out with your Universe, ask for help and Allow the healing to unfold from there. If you are confused, journal and let it all flow out until you have had your release and the path has been untangled, then Allow the healing to unfold from there.

The Art of Allowing then becomes an action in the physical experience – Allow your words, your heart and your actions to align with your highest good. We are created in the image and likeness of our Creator and through various spiritual practices it always comes back to our triad of experiences. MIND, BODY, SPIRIT.

Are you allowing creation through all these parts of your experience? Allow the mind to wonder and dream. Allow the body to express and release. Allow your spirit to soar and deeply connect.

I received a download about two years ago where I was asked by my team in spirit to find something for mind, something for body and something for spirit to do every day for the next 30 days. I was asked to pick one thing that I wanted to manifest and keep my focus and joy on that throughout the day. The only condition was that whatever I decided to do for my triad balance should not feel like work, but actually be something that I really enjoy.

So I embarked on my journey with a 30 day @ home yoga challenge, meditation every evening in an Epson salt bath and manifestation affirmations throughout the day. The first two days I started to realize how “in control” of everything I wanted to be and I was wasting so much energy every day fighting myself. As I took my positive manifesting statements and said it throughout the day, at first I couldn’t even allow the words to flow from me (I wasn’t even allowing myself to create by speaking what I truly wanted to manifest).

I persisted on my challenge and everyday got easier and easier and I woke up earlier and with so much fun and joy that I didn’t care if my manifestation was coming or not, I was feeling amazing!

Without pushing it I allowed myself to completely surrender into my Vortex and it felt like bliss. On day 12 the flood gates opened and my manifestation of R50 000 (about $3500) came into full fruition in my physical reality and I was in awe. I have learned so much through this journey and have been playing more and more with manifestation and the art of allowing myself to Remember and see the magic unfold ever since.

May your journey be immensely blessed and may you allow your beautiful Soul to shine forth into every aspect of your life so you can enjoy your own heaven on earth right now.

How so you allow the flow in your life? What do you do each day to balance your body, mind and soul? Tell us in the comments below.

Sign up for our free self-worth mini course with the form below and find out more about our Remembering your worth e-course here.

The post Spiritual Growth and Manifesting Through the Art of Allowing appeared first on .

How to deal with Shadow emotions and what happens if we don’t

Robyn MacGregor — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 11:36:17 +0000

How do you deal with yourself when you realize you were acting a little whack the other night?

When you go to a job interview and the interviewer asks you what your strengths are, do you enlighten them as to how much of a team-playing, detail-orientated perfectionist you are, but when they ask what your weakness’s are you have no idea what to say and instead think “I can’t tell them what I suck at and am not good at”.

In our article “Manipulation: A Shadow Action” we mentioned that sometimes, with all of our good intentions and well wishes, we can be the manipulator. I wanted to further explore the moments in our lives when we are the ones in the wrong. Where the Facebook quotes about ‘not letting haters get us down’ and ‘5 ways to cut toxic people out of our lives’ is aimed at us – because we have become the toxic haters.

This time we look at the part of ourselves that we might try to hide because they are not the best version of ourselves. We look at how we can be more aware and what happens if we don’t change.

Firstly, I want to start off by saying that we are not perfect.

We always say this but I think we have lost the concept on what that means in our everyday lives.

We expect everything to be perfect and done on time. But, more than that, we expect to have our emotions in order, to never overreact, to have all our ducks in a row, to never get upset, to never be a little ticked off or irritated. As I have gotten older I have realised that the less wiggle room we give ourselves with these traits, the more stressful it becomes and because we think that we have to be perfect all the time, it makes us miserable… because we are falling short.

The best thing I have heard this year is “We are not gods, we are flawed mortals” or something like that. I liked it because it was lends a shoulder to those of us who have a difficult time dealing with some aspects of ourselves that we struggle to accept.

When I look at myself and try to figure out when the times are that I am not my most happy self, sometimes I find it is when:

I am overwhelmed by all that I have to do.
I am criticized.
I am feeling taken advantage of or taken for granted.
When I am worried about money.
When I am not reaching my goals.
When I am stressed.
When I am hungry.
Or when I am tired.

When I look at myself and try to figure out when the times are that I might lash out or be the nastier version of myself, I am actually surprised to find that most of the time the things that make me unhappy are also the things that trigger my hidden self to come out a little more.

In those times I will admit that I can be

Irritated.
Moody.
Short tempered.
Angry.
Upset.
Just generally unhappy.

If you do not deal with these aspects it leads to a loss of balance (as much as we try to have balance) and, more importantly, throws our perspective and good decision making skills right out the window.

Some of the ways I find that when I am unhappy how it affects my life

I do not enjoy any of the work I am doing.
I find that I dwell on negative aspects.
I am not appreciative of what I have.
I am constantly bombarded with negative thoughts.
I might develop a ‘poor-me’ mentality.
I might want to sleep a little more than usual.
I do mind-numbing things like watch too much TV or scroll through social media more than usual.
I am short with loved ones.

Some things that we can do

Set goals: Every week set achievable goals. I am not talking about the end goal, like workout 5 times this week and develop a morning routine.
Start small: This is the only time thinking smaller is actually a good thing. Pick 1 or 2 things for the next week that you would like to work on. Like getting up a little earlier in the morning, or working out at least once (you have to start somewhere).
Be realistic: This is something I think we all forget to do. We set these huge goals and do not have smaller achievable goals set that would lead us towards reaching our bigger goal. We only see ourselves at the top of the mountain, we forget about packing in water, having the right shoes, getting the body ready for the walk. We forget the journey.
Find hobbies: Something you really like to do that brings you joy. Forget the word passion, just look at something that you like or are interested in. Have a quick look in your Google history for inspiration.
Ask for help: Talk to family and friends and see where they can assist you. If you are wanting to stop eating junk food, ask a family member for an easy recipe that they love to use. Speak to your partner about what you need from them and also what they need from you in order to both live your life in harmony.
Learn from other people: I cannot tell you how beneficial it is to get outside of your mind and see how other people live their lives. What their habits are, how they structure their days, what they spend their time on, how they manage their money and their time. Speak to people to gain some insight that you can learn from and apply to your own life.
Try and eliminate nastiness and negativity from your life: Whenever you want to complain or feel negative, in your mind give a short thanks for something you are grateful for. I am not a positive-preach all the time kind of gal but when you do this it does give you some perspective and lessens the time you spend focusing on the negative. You can find some great gratitude journals here.

Remember that our lives are short and that one day, we won’t be here anymore. Who wants to live a life full of negativity, anger, irritation and unhappiness?

What do you do to notice your shadow side? How do you recognise it and how to you address it?

The post How to deal with Shadow emotions and what happens if we don’t appeared first on .

How to keep a Gratitude Journal and why it’s important

Robyn MacGregor — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 10:44:18 +0000

Sitting in bed 10 minutes before I am meant to go sleep with a beautiful new book on my lap full of blank pages and again, I am a little stumped as to what exactly I am meant to write….

I am tired and can’t stop thinking about all the things I didn’t do today and have to do tomorrow and also the ending of my latest Netflix series.

Bullet journal, dream journal, food journal. Whatever kind you choose to keep, as I have gotten older I have realized that the need for a journal is above all else, an opportunity to document our lives.

So why do some of us find it so hard to keep a journal…consistently….and why gratitude?

Let’s talk about a couple of the benefits of keeping a Gratitude Journal.

It is quicker to jot down a couple of things that you are thankful for instead of keeping a stream of consciousness journal like we use to when we were young, think: “Dear Diary”.
We can choose if we want to write 5, 3 or 1 thing that we are grateful for. We can actually choose! And we can choose when we write in it.
It will make you appreciate the small things in your life more because it is so easy to complain but to show gratitude takes a pause and will change your perception if done regularly.

Let’s talk about some of the reasons why we still have not filled in those little books

We have to buy the book that is just right!

I have read in quite a few articles that the way to start is to buy an artsy looking kind of book that will “make you want to write in it”.

The reason I don’t love this is because once you have the book that you spent a bit of bucks on, you only want to write in perfect beautiful cursive and not scratch anything out… it becomes more about the look of the book and how your writing looks rather than actually using the book for what it is meant for.

Having said that, here are a few really fun Gratitude journals.

We have to write every night or it has to be at a certain time.

While I agree that it does help for there to be some sort of routine when you write… it shouldn’t have to be every night after the house is clean and all the chores are done… Or so early in the morning before your brain has switched on- unless that works for you- then write away!

Pick a time that is convenient for you, maybe when you have had a little time to unwind and release the day… What I like to do is play a little music, listen to a meditation or do a few rounds of breath work to clear the day and my mind in order to be present for this little, but very important, task.

What can we do to start today?

How likely are you to write in your gratitude journal every single day?

Unless your life is exactly the same every single day and you have a zen-like focus on all your tasks, not likely.

Start with saying to yourself “I will write in my gratitude journal for 10 minutes every day”.

How did that feel to you? On a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being a nope and 10 being most likely). Whittle it down till you get to a number of days and amount of minutes that feels stupidly doable to you. For me, for example, its 5 minutes once a week. Sounds like a little but imagine if you commit to that stupidly doable number. In a year that is 4 hours where you might not have consciously expressed gratitude if you had not committed to those 5 minutes.

Create a space for gratitude.

It is very challenging to come home from your working life and immediately open your book and start to write down all the things you are grateful for. You need time to calm the mind, relax the body and go inward. To create the space and ask yourself what environment you need to take those 5 minutes.

Do you need a candle? A light meditation? A nice bath? A few rounds of breath work? And in the beginning, even if it feels a bit silly and like you could get up and go pack those dishes away. Try to stay with it….soon it will become an automatic action that will become part of your life.

Take gratitude into your everyday life

Even though we are talking about an actual journal, for gratitude to become part of your life, it has to be something that you conscientiously do every day. So message a friend who you have not chatted to for a while, tell a colleague that you are grateful for the joy they bring to your day or thank your partner for making your coffee this morning.

Go easy on yourself

Do not box yourself….do not limit yourself and think that this process has to be perfect or it will be fruitless. Just like exercise, meditation and all the other wonderful things that make life interesting and allows us to grow, it is something that you need to keep coming back to, as much as you can.

At the end of the day, nothing will ever be perfect and the mere act of returning to a habit that we are trying to instill in ourselves and trying again even when it is not going smoothly or consistently is the very essence of change. We should congratulate ourselves on every small victory.

Happy journaling!

Join us on a journey into yourSelf. We will start off with a mini email course on Self-worth. Start the journey below.

The post How to keep a Gratitude Journal and why it’s important appeared first on .

Why do people always leave me?

Juanita Pienaar — Fri, 18 Jan 2019 11:49:22 +0000

New Year’s Eve 3 years ago I was sitting on a beach in Zanzibar. Everyone around me was in a festive mood, having a great time. There was a bon fire and everyone was in a wonderful mood, ready to welcome in the New Year… And I was sitting among them with tears streaming down my cheeks, heart-broken once again.

I remember saying to a friend that everyone keeps leaving me- what is the point of living in love if everyone keeps leaving me? My friend kept trying to pull me out of the dark hole that I dug for myself while I had no interest in hearing her. I continued to rattle off all the people who promised to love me- and then left me.

My best friend who passed away, the guy who broke up with me on new year’s eve while we were on a road trip with all his friends a few years before (I obviously have some bad karma with the date), the many men who promised me their hearts… until they made it into my bed and then found me wanting… The male best friends who pursued my love until they got it , only to change their minds…

Somehow I was always left behind… left feeling like I wasn’t enough.

After sitting and watching me wallow in my not-enoughness my friend eventually gave up and said: “Jay, I cannot be around this negativity anymore”, got up and left me. Those 8 words were the first sparks that led to a huge moment of enlightenment for me. In the next few days, as I recovered from a hang-over and a broken heart her words started resonating louder and louder. I started to realise more and more how negative I had become. How every thought of mine was laced with venomous self-doubt… Self-disgust even. How I managed to find every little thing to complain about all the while living a beautiful life… New Year’s Eve on Zanzibar for goodness’ sakes!!

I embarked on a journey that has slowly transformed my life. Often it felt like as I took one step forward the tides of life pushed me two leaps back. I was moving against the current of my own negative conditioning, always seeing the worst in everything. The harder I pushed to become a more positive person, the louder the negative thoughts were shouting in my head. At times I sank into a deep depression, wondering what the point of it all was.

Once I stopped pushing against the current and went along with the flow of life things started to change. Life started teaching me about self-love, self-care and self-worth. I started becoming more assertive, setting and enforcing boundaries and, with time, I became more empowered. Above all this journey has brought me to my core. I started getting to know me and learned to love every bit of me- even the yucky bits that I never wanted to acknowledge even to myself.

I learned to be grateful for my life, for what I had, the people around me and the situations I found myself in- even when they were not ideal or how I wanted it to be.By becoming grateful I became more positive, my ego (and negative thoughts) started to speak softer and softer until it eventually became only a whisper. Take a look at these amazing gratitude journals!

It made me realise that as I stand- in every moment of doubt, of shame, of guilt, of depression, of uncertainty, of failure – I am enough.

Or click on the button for information on the full Remembering your worth e-course in order to find out how I managed to transform myself from someone who couldn’t find one thing that she loved about herself to an empowered, confident woman who has re-membered her worth and refuses to let anyone convince her of anything less – and how you can do it too!

The post Why do people always leave me? appeared first on .