From chapter to chapter. . . . . An adventure. . . . This is where it started!

Messages:

How often do we say or tell someone "Yes, everything happens for a reason?" or "It's like someone is trying to tell me something?"

Chances are this is actually what is happening. . . 

I speak from my personal story at this point in time because that is what I know.  When a decision needs to be made to change your life in some way, shape or form these MESSAGES get louder and louder and more apparent.  Have you ever noticed that when you didn't listen to the message something went wrong? Maybe it is as simple as a flat tire, a parking ticket, you've rear ended someone at a stop light, your car got towed, anxiety, stomach ulcer, or you got shingles.  It is amazing what the body will put itself through in order for you to understand the messages that are being thrown at it.  It is amazing what the universe throws at you in order for you to understand the messages being thrown in your face.  Literally they are being thrown in your face.  We can only take so many messages before we break down and have no choice but to deal with it right then and there.  

What you need to ask yourself is can you see that there is a message staring you right in the face waiting to be answered? Can you let yourself be open enough to notice it when it comes up or are you "brushing it under the carpet?" We are very good at brushing it under the carpet, and when the carpet gets too bumpy from having so much shoved under it you are going to fall off those bumps and that's when "the carpet has been pulled from under your feet."  We know these sayings and these quotes because they are said many times by people around us who have experienced it or have seen it with someone else.  These sayings weren't made up out of no where. . . It has happened to almost everyone in this world at least once and if not once than a thousand times.  

How many times are we willing to let it happen to ourselves or someone we know and love before we all start listening?

After living literally "inside" my head and mind for a year my head exploded with shingles! I had no choice but to listen to what I thought the message was.  I was in it whether I wanted to be or not, I could not move from my "sick bed" for a month.  I wish I had more energy to have been able to meditate through that experience but I could barely get myself to the bathroom without falling down.  There was so much internal thinking going on in my left brain which is often said to be more logical, analytical and objective, while the right brain is said to be more intuitive, thoughtful and subjective, that the my body could not take it anymore and that stress caused me to get very, very sick. I have always been "right brained", but at this point in my life I was ignoring those "right brained" tendencies because I was so scared of the messages they were bringing me.  CHANGE!! that was the message.  I was not comfortable with this message because I was trying to live out the story that seemed so picture perfect.  

Have you ever noticed that the "stories" we create are never actually Our True and Full story? They are the story we have created by listening to other people's stories, parent's stories, other adults in our lives who have all lived and created a similar story and we feel like that was successful for them so if we take those same steps to create a similar story we will be successful as well.  Finish High School and go to College/University.  Get the diploma and then get a job as close to your major or what your major was and get that job with benefits.  Get that job with a retirement plan.  Find a partner.  When that partner is your serious partner get engaged.  Get married.  Get that house you've always wanted.  Have those babies.  Do these steps sound familiar? 

Know this: these steps are not wrong at all, but have you ever thought about changing them up? Perhaps you had the babies first.  Perhaps you had such an amazing job you didn't want to leave and you didn't go to College/University.  What we need to remember is that just because someone else's steps or process worked for them doesn't mean they will work for us.  We have to find our own steps.  And those steps will change, you have to be prepared in life to know that things change, and when I think of change I remember this quote that one of my lovely and beautiful lady's wears on her t shirt to my dance class on a regular basis: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." Charles Darwin 

What you need to know is that I didn't take Shingles the way it was meant to be taken. . . Because I had no one else to take care of me but my mother in law, father in law and my husband who was working full time at the time, I spent the month thinking I was supposed to say in the life I was living , the change that was going to happen was something else. . . . rather than me listening to my inner self knowing the truth.  All of the people around me are beautiful people, good people, and caring people.  But there was still so much missing for me and "My life" that I was still unhappy.  I worked very hard on making my body healthy while working at lulu lemon, from personal training, to running, to yoga, and me teaching Pilates and Dance.  I was in the best shape of my life, so I thought.  And in a month of being bed ridden it was all gone faster than it took to get there.  I didn't spend enough time making my mind healthy or my soul healthy.  One of the hardest things in the world is trying to get ourselves to a place of BALANCE.  This brings up the famous 3 words that go along with balance: MIND, BODY, SOUL.  We all strive for this to some degree.  We have to be willing to throw ourselves in to it in order to achieve it fully.  This is why having these 3 things together is a life style choice, it is not just a 30 day challenge, a new year's resolution, or a once a week activity.  We need to look at the bigger picture, which is maintaining what we are given at birth: this beautiful body that can create so much from within.  We just have to give ourselves the opportunity to create, grow, and be whole.