Lead Your Life Forward

It feels so good to be home!

As you know, I love to travel. I love meeting, seeing, and experiencing different people and cultures... observing what inspires them and what drives them in the day to day living of life. If I go more than a month or two without some sort of excursion (whether that's a short trip to LA to meet with colleagues, or a longer one to Europe for pleasure), I go stir crazy. Travel has become my catnip, and there will always be a significant presence of it within the curated version of my Love Styled Life.

Lately, however, I've noticed something different... a craving to be still. A craving to experience a more simple way of being. A craving to indulge in my daily mediation, in my own mediation chair... to spend my morning at the local coffee shop (as opposed to the airport Starbucks), and walk along the rocky winter beach of Santa Barbara (as opposed to the unfamiliar sidewalk of a new city). All of this to say, I'm craving the comforts of home. My home. This bespoke version of home I've curated here in Santa Barbara.

Yesterday many of us celebrated Easter, and for the first time in 36 years my family (due to travel and other conflicts) decided not to get together and celebrate. So for the first time in my life, I was faced with being on my own for a holiday that is completely centered around family.

If I'm being honest, Easter has never been my favorite holiday... but the irony is, the minute I knew our family celebration was cancelled, I missed it. And missed it deeply. It made me miss my Mom, her Easter baskets and silly Easter shenanigans. It made me yearn for a time that no longer exists... taking me out of the present, and into a state of regret. A regret for the moments I didn't appreciate when I had them.

And while I allowed myself to sit in sadness for just a bit, I eventually snapped my fingers and snapped out of it. Living A Love Styled Life is a practice for well-being that calls us to choose our feelings and choose our perspective. So in that moment, I recognized my responsibility to choose and connect with what I truly desired to feel - the desire to feel a sense of connection to family for Easter. As a result, I did what I teach my clients to do: asked myself how I desired to be, knowing that I desired to feel a sense of connection to family. The answer came immediately, and was simple: make the short drive up the coast to Los Olivos, and spend Easter Sunday at my grandparents old church in their old home town, with their beloved old community. I recruited a dear friend to join me, and the day turned out to be pretty fantastic! 

The lesson in all this? 

Everything is a choice. Every moment a choice. And as long as we stay focused on the choices presented us in each moment, life will be whatever we dream and desire it to be... feel however we dream and desire it to feel.  

In the service yesterday, Pastor Randall Day mentioned this when delivering his Easter Gospel: Don't look for the living among the dead. And I smiled inside. Because this is what Living A Love Styled Life is all about. Don't look for the living among the dead. Instead, look forward to life... to the life you desire to live... to impact you desire to make... and to the way you desire to feel. My challenge to each and everyone of you this week is to lead your life forward.... to the future, as opposed to backward in the past. Remember, life is meant to be lived and lived well. Simply stay focused on how you desire to feel and be, and everything else will take care of itself.

Preparing For Greater

So you all know I'm a huge Seattle Seahawks fan! And saying I'm a huge fan might be a bit of an understatement. Case in point? Yesterday while watching the most epic game ever, I leapt from my seat in such joy at our huge win, that I brought my drink along with me... and as a result, it landed on everyone and everything around me within a five foot radius. It wasn't my proudest moment, but the excitement I felt toward this Hail Mary win was beyond anything I expected to feel that day.

I've learned so much from my love of the Seahawks... whether it's the truth that "it doesn't matter how you start, all that matters is how you finish", or whether it's the winning strategy of staying focused and zero-ing in on one win at a time " 1-0... every week, our goal is 1-0".  But perhaps this week I had my biggest takeaway to-date: Greater is coming!

You can prepare, and do everything in your power to achieve your dreams. And sometimes, no matter how much effort you're putting in, it seems as if your dreams are still no where near close to becoming a reality. The money is not coming in the way you desire it to, your relationships are still out of wack, the pounds still aren't coming off, etc. Even when you're doing the work... staying focused on how you desire to feel and be, staying focused on the why behind everything your doing, committing to a practice of silence and gratitude, etc. etc. etc. You can be doing all the "work" necessary to transform your life into A Love Styled Life, but yet nothing seems to be working. 

But here's where the real journey begins. This is your moment, your test (from yourself to yourself... not from some needy vindictive God) on how committed you are to really experiencing the life you dream and desire to experience. This is the time for FAITH... faith that everything you envision for your life, is meant for you!!

Sometimes, the manifestation will come as a result of your faith in the form of a Hail Mary or miracle (as opposed to the form in which you planned it to). Your job (and only job) in this scenario is to keep the faith and believe that GREATER IS COMING.

See what I mean, below:

So in the spirit of preparing for your greatness, this week's #StyleTruthChallenge asks: 

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO SHIFT IN YOUR PERSPECTIVE TO PREPARE FOR YOUR GREATNESS?

For this week's challenge, I want you to take a look at your words. And not just the words you speak externally (I'm not prepared, I don't know how to do this, I can't, I am committed, I am ready, I will make this happen, YES when you mean YES or NO, etc.)... but also the words you speak internally to yourself about yourself. What are you saying about your abilities? Your worthiness? Your dreams? Your desires? Where are you making yourself wrong? What about yourself are you making wrong? And how can you shift that perspective to one that serves you in experiencing everything you dream and desire to experience in your life?

Be sure to head on over to Instagram to participate, using #StyleTruthSundayChallenge ! Also...have a topic you'd like covered in #StyleTruthChallenge? Email me or leave a comment below (I'd love to hear from you).

Cheers to figuring it out and moving forward into your bespoke version of A Love Styled Life!

xo

ps... Ready to make your dreams a reality in 2016? I'd love to talk with you! Let's set up a phone call, book a 2 hour complimentary coaching session, and figure out if it's the right time for working together. Click here on the image below to schedule your complimentary discovery session today.