Soulshine

“Today become aware of the beliefs to which you are attached; allow yourself to become free of them and to live as you choose.” Don Miguel Ruiz Jr, Living a Life of Awareness Many of us suffer from attachments to beliefs that serve us poorly. And we aren’t even consciously aware that our attachments to these beliefs are making us miserable. For example, we may believe that we have to find Mr. or Ms. Right in order to be happy. Or we may believe that we can’t fully accept the fact that one of our children is gay because the religion we practice won’t allow us to fully love a person who is gay. Or we may believe that we will never be lovable until we are as thin as a fashion model. These are just a handful of bad beliefs that people often get attached to. They then use these beliefs to put their lives on hold. If I am waiting on Mr. or Ms. Right to come walking along and sweep me off my feet so I can then finally be happy, I’m putting my happiness on hold indefinitely...

“Your life is a canvas; the colors are you!” Magne Furuholmen , White Canvas    You are the artist of your life. Your life is a canvas and you have the power to paint your life into the most beautiful, fulfilling portrait possible. God has created you for this very purpose, and God has encoded into you all of the talents, skills and ability to make your unique mark upon this world.    No one can stop you. Absolutely no one has the power to take your God-given purpose from you. People may sometimes get in the way, but no one can keep you from living all that you have been destined to live; and to create.      Dare to be uniquely yourself, just as the one white Tulip dares to be uniquely itself amidst the hundreds of red Tulips below. Take your deepest most cherished desire and create a beautiful reality from it. God created your life, but you have the power to create (or co-create with God) your life’s purpose.    The more ...

“… I leaned into my longing. I felt the sadness and emptiness in my soul that came from years of buying into the story that I am not good enough, something I’d been trying to avoid for a long time.” Chris Michaels, The Power of You In The Power of You , Chris Michaels refers to the belief of “I’m not good enough” as being like a beast in the center of your being. Anyone who has ever suffered from addictive behaviors is familiar with this beast. It’s the Beast of inherent shame and there’s no feeling on earth as bad. Many of us have tried desperately to tame this beast through our addictive acting-out. We may have used alcohol, drugs, sugar, shopping, people, gambling, sex or many other self-destructive forms of behavior to quiet the beast. All of them failed time and again—and they always will fail. Addiction is a means of running from the Beast. We never conquer anything we run from. Once we start running, we never stop because the beast is always one step ...

“We’re often not attached to the thing itself but to the idea of that thing. We have a compulsive belief that we must acquire something outside of ourselves to make us complete.” Don Miguel Ruiz Jr, Living a Life of Awareness No one wastes more time looking outside themselves for personal completion than a codependent does. Before recovery, I was vigilantly looking endlessly for the right person to complete me. I had a big empty hole inside my chest. It wasn’t visible, but I felt the unbearable emptiness of it every day. It never went away. And I had no clue how to fill it up and make myself complete—aside from finding someone else to fill the hole and complete me. Time and again, I tried foolishly to fit various people inside my empty hole. But no one ever filled it up to my satisfaction. All of them were able to calm my codependent crazies for short periods of time, but no one ever brought me lasting peace and happiness. When these various people were failing ...