Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Liquid sunshine



It's Nirvana here, I tell you. Even though it's February, the temps are in the 70's, and it's sunny most every day. There is an orange tree in the back yard here that produces edible oranges. After being washed and cut open, the ripe ones are juicy and bursting with life. It's like drinking liquid sunshine. My body feels so light and incredibly healthy afterwards.

I step off the patio to stretch out in the yard in the morning. The skin feels amazing on my bare skin. I run with Sparky, then lay out in the grass on my back soaking up the earth's energy. Then I do some morning stretches while still barefoot in the yard.

There's a wild Asian Pear Fruit tree in the yard as well. The fruit is oval and peach, an inch and a half long. Tastes like a cross between a pear and kiwi fruit. It's delicious, but the oranges are my favorites.
 
The orange tree in the sunny back yard...













Glistening oranges, sweet and full of life.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Positive affirmations and manifesting

Life has changed so much for me the last several months. I honestly am still pinching myself. I got myself out of a living situation that was not conducive to healing, as well as a location that was physically not the best for my health. I'm living in Florida now, which has been my dream for quite some time... I'm finally free of the cold NY and PA winters. I'm surrounded by a totally new set of people... no one in my life now knew me before, and no one from my past contacts me now except two sisters. There is a possibility that I can work again in the future, get my career back. My physical health has been coming back to me faster than I imagined! I'm going out and being social and living life more than I ever have since 2010. I didn't think for years that I could change so much by leaving, since my health was fragile up until right before I left PA. But... I did it! Friends, I did it.
The manifesting, self hypnosis, and positive affirmations I've been submerging myself in for some time have finally paid off in real life. I wrote out a collection of positive affirmations last year on note cards, stuck some stickers on to jazz them up, and bound them together with a whole punch and metal ring. I'd concentrate on one or two each week, or flip through the whole set occasionally. But that was just a start... just a stepping stone. The cards on their own did not do the trick for me. I needed more.  I could tell that the affirmations just weren't sinking in and applying themselves in my daily life. So I found some positive affirmation meditations and self hypnosis recordings online that I could listen to while falling asleep. This way the affirmations could sink into my subconscious more easily as I drifted from that world between wake and sleep. Effortless!

Another fun habit that really flipped my world upside down was visualization. I skipped ahead in time and let myself fully feel in 3-D the amazing feelings of gratification and enjoyment that went along with whatever it was that I wanted to achieve. I would be in that moment with all my senses to the point that I was all but there.
 
Visualization is enjoyable any time of the day, but it seems easiest for me while falling asleep. One of my favorite guided meditations I listened to often as I fell asleep asked me to picture something difficult that I had already achieved, and then watch myself thoroughly enjoying the result of this achievement, visualizing it in vivid detail using all the senses. I would then place this image on the left side of my mind, saying, "It's already done." Then I would picture something else that I had not yet accomplished, but wanted to in the future. I would visualize myself as if in a real movie, relishing each sight, sound, taste, and smell. I'll give you a snippet of my image. I would be on the beach barefoot in Florida, doing an early morning jog, full of health and energy. The sun would be rising, and I would leave the beach and walk into my home where a yoga class would be setting up, waiting for me, as well as a guy and two tow headed, curly haired kids. Then I would place this image on the right side of my mind, while thoroughly enjoying watching it play out.
 
Next comes the cool part. Just switch the image on the right side to the left side, and say, "It's already done." And this is where your sleepy brain sighs and relaxes, and you fall asleep knowing that it indeed is already done.

Here are a few of my favorite affirmations that I wrote down on cards:
 


























































What self affirmation has helped you in the past?

Do you have any tricks to help yours stick?

I'd love to know!

~Affirmations are from the work of Louise Hay.