Face Your Light

One of the few plants I have sits on my kitchen window sill. It has always loved that spot as it gets plenty of southern sun there. Every few days though I need to give that plant a full turn. As most of us know, a plant’s foliage cheerfully grows towards the sun. And unless you want a crooked plant you need to spin it every now and then. Plants turn their attention constantly towards the light to reap the full benefits of the sun. This natural process is very important for the plant to grow and reproduce.

We are born with this same innate tendency to turn our attention to light. It is natural for us to be drawn to positive emotion; joy, happiness, gratitude. But as we go through life we are constantly trained in noticing what’s wrong. We focus on areas of our lives that need improvement instead. We put attention on our children’s weaknesses, notice the annoyances in our friends, and criticize our spouses.

But just as plants need to focus towards the light in order to grow, so do we. Constantly putting our attention on negativity can hinder our growth towards living our best life.

Gratitude is a perfect way of bringing all our life’s gifts to our attention. It’s simplistic enough for everyone to understand and it’s easy enough to start today! When we consciously think about all that we have to be thankful for we retrain ourselves to notice all that is right, instead of all that is wrong. Even though gratitude is quite a simple idea, it isn’t effortless. It requires diligence and practice to create a gratuitous life!

So start an attitude of gratitude today and face your light!

Becky,
Sister of Soul

Soulspiration of the Week:

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~Howard Thurman

Join our Virtual Gratitude Appreciation Month Event!

You can win these fabulous prizes!

Thanks to all our wonderful friends, fans, and followers, it’s been an amazing year! To show our appreciation we let our creative juices flow and planned a fun “appreciation event” that everyone can participate in, regardless of the miles between us.

For our “virtual” Gratitude Event, we’ll be connecting via the internet and thanking you all with give-aways and fabulous prizes! Here’s how you can play and win…

On Saturday, December 5, 2009 we will be holding our “Gratitude Event” prize drawing. Winners will be drawn at random. You earn entries in the drawing by completing the “Gratitude Event” activities listed below. The more activities you complete, the more entries you receive in the drawing and the greater your chances are to win! All activities must be completed by midnight, Friday, December 4, 2009 to qualify.

GRATITUDE EVENT ACTIVITIES LIST

1. Become our “fan” on Facebook. Yes, all our fans, both old and new, earn an entry in our drawing.

2. Post a “Gratitude” comment on our Facebook Wall. Type, “I’m thankful for…” and then just finish the sentence. Very simple, very easy and earns you an entry in our drawing!

3. Use the “Suggest to Friends” feature of Facebook to recommend your Facebook friends become fans too. Then post a comment on the Soulspring Facebook Wall stating you did so, and earn 2 entries in our drawing!

4. Subscribers to our monthly Soulspiration e-newsletter receive 2 entries in our drawing. Not yet a subscriber? Register for your free subscription here. We’ll be announcing our winners in the December issue and it might be you! You don’t want to miss it!

5. Become an “official” Follower of this Soul Sisters Blog and earn 2 entries in our drawing. Just click on the “Follow” icon (in the middle left of this page).

6. Follow us on Twitter and earn 2 entries in our drawing.

So there you have it, a fun way to share, give, have fun, and win…all online! If you complete the entire Gratitude Activities List, you will have earned 10 prize drawing entries!

PRIZES:

1 First: Flip Ultra Camcorder
The easy-to-use pocket-sized camcorder, featuring one-touch recording and digital zoom. Capture all those amazing life moments! A $149.00 value!

1 Second Prize: Ipod Shuffle 4th Generation
The world's smallest music player! Take your inspirational music and podcasts with you wherever you go! An $80.00 value!

3 Runner Ups: Soulspring Journals
Our Soulspring Journal is designed to inspire, motivate and provoke reflection. What’s your dream? What’s your passion? What mark will you leave on the world? This journal helps to make your vision a reality! A $30.00 value!

Good luck ladies! Stay tuned as we announce the prize winners
in the December issue of our Soul-spiration newsletter!

Be Grateful for the Journey

As we go through life we tend to put our main focus on what’s waiting for us at the end. We rush through our weeks, just to get to the weekend. We can’t wait until we are done with school, so we can finally get that dream job. We wish our newborn would sleep through the night, so we can get back to a “normal” life. And, we hold out for that someday when we have enough money, so that we can be out of debt, then we can be happy. But, it’s the in between moments, that when put together make our life what it really is, and what it will be.

Think of the hundreds of thousands of still pictures it takes to make a cartoon. When all these pictures are put together in a precise sequence and transitioned at a high rate of speed, the result is a cartoon that tells a story. The cartoon has seamless movement. The images flow together so exactly that it gives the picture a natural and realistic look.

Now think about making a cartoon of your life. How will your “Life Cartoon” look? Will you recall all the details of your journey to give your cartoon that seamless flow? Or, will there be huge gaps between your major accomplishments, resulting in a severely edited version of your story?

It’s not too late to start adding material to your “Life Cartoon”. Open your mind, and heart and you will begin to notice all the blessings you have in the here and now. Being grateful for what we experience during the journey is one of the secrets to a happy life.

Jenny
Sister of Soul

Soulspiration of the Week:

"The journey is what brings us happiness; not the destination." ~Dan Millman (Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives)

Love, Gratitude & Giving

It’s November and I’m excited! As anyone who knows me can attest, this is my favorite time of year. To me it’s the beginning of the holiday season; a time of love, gratitude and giving.

You see, I believe that love and gratitude are the most powerful of all emotions, easily trumping fear, anger and negativity. Is there any other time of year when love, gratitude and giving are more freely expressed than during the holiday season? I think not!

So while I try to do my best throughout the year to make love, gratitude and giving a daily focus, for the holiday season I intensify my efforts. Here’s how…

Practice present time consciousness. With every activity, instead of just going through the motions, I make a conscious effort to think about what it is I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and how it’s impacting the world. For tasks like wrapping gifts and sending holiday cards, this may seem like a no-brainer. But what about paying bills and running errands? While maybe a little more challenging at first, it is possible to find the giving, love, and gratitude at their core. This practice can actually make the most monotonous of tasks quite inspiring!

Believe in divine timing. They say there are no good and no bad experiences; they are all neutral and it’s our own thoughts and beliefs that label good and bad. Try to tell yourself that while you’re stuck in traffic and late for an appointment! Yet, you can certainly look back on any “bad” experience and find some speck of “good” that came of it. At this time of year I practice trusting in divine timing; everything is as it should be at this moment in time, and all will be revealed at the perfect moment.

Be thankful for everything. Instead of complaining about the cold, be thankful for the crisp air and frosty beauty. Rather than lament your busy holiday schedule, give thanks for the friends and family who want to spend time with you. As you roll out of bed each morning, start your day with a “thank you” as your feet hit the floor, and set the tone for a wonderful day!

Be of service. It would be wonderful to spend time volunteering or somehow serving the less fortunate this time of year; it’s what the season is all about after all. But what about the everyday simple acts of service, like allowing a hurried mom to go ahead of you in the checkout line, opening the door for a stranger, shoveling the walk for an elderly neighbor. They take merely a moment, yet when given with love the ripple effect from these simple acts of service is far reaching.

They say that the holidays can be a stressful time, and I admit it certainly can be hectic. Here’s my holiday stress-busting tip just for you: Place your focus on love, gratitude, and giving, and make this time of year your favorite too.

Kim
Sister of Soul

Soulspiration of the Week:
“The single greatest thing you can do to change your life today would be to start being grateful for what you have right now. And the more grateful you are, the more you get." ~Oprah

Life as a Daymaker

My sister-in-law, Ashley, was hired at Juut Salon in the Twin Cites back in February and to complete her training she needed to do a huge final presentation. The big day was last Tuesday! One day, four models, four looks; this was a big deal. To help her out, I arranged for my sister Kim and me to be two of her models. Who wouldn’t like a fun day of hair, makeup, and clothing?

A few days before the big event, while Ashley was prepping us she commented that David Wagner, the owner of Juut, was going to be at the Twin City’s Salon the same day as our visit. Not only is David Wagner the owner of Juut but he is also the author of one of my favorite books. Now, I was really excited!

About five years ago I stumbled across a book called, “Life as a Daymaker: How to Change the World by Making Someone’s Day”. I loved the concept so I purchased my very own copy without a second thought. As I read the book it soon became one of my favorites. Such an easy but powerful idea; we can actually change the world by making someone’s day. The author wasn’t talking about grandiose gifts or actions but more of just the simple day to day things. It all comes down to paying attention to the needs of people around you and meeting those needs whenever possible. Give a compliment, shake a hand, offer a hug, and exchange a smile. It’s these simple actions that can really change someone’s day for the better.

I decided to brush up on the content of the book before meeting David. What can I say? I like to be prepared for anything! While browsing through it, one sentence really stood out to me. In reference to focusing on your wild dreams he writes, “Working hard doesn’t cause burnout, not achieving your goals does.” Wow, that is so true. I just heard on the Dr. Oz Show last week that more and more people, especially women, are suffering from exhaustion. Most of us think that it’s just a busy schedule. But in actuality it’s more about what is in the schedule, than how full it is. If we aren’t being mentally inspired every day we just feel tired. So this is why it is so important for us to find our passion and live it every day! It affects every aspect of our life and those around us.

So what is your passion? What makes you feel more alive? Whatever it is, make sure you live it!

Tuesday morning I made sure I packed my copy of “Life as a Daymaker” to ask for an autograph. Not only did I get an autograph from David Wagner but he also posed for a picture with Kim and me. Needless to say, he definitely made my day!

Becky
Sister of Soul

Soulspiration of the Week:
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. ~William James

A Brick is usually not Small Stuff

I caught myself this week! All this talk about worry, fear, and anxiety this month . . . I should’ve seen it coming. I should have detected the signs . . . An upcoming deadline, and approaching meeting that I feared was going to have a bad outcome, friends having a disagreement, and a list of To-Do’s a mile long. I had developed a knot in my stomach and my shoulders felt a bit heavy; physical conditions that had it written all over them. And, my patience was wearing thin; I admit it, I was a tad bit crabby. It is all so clear now as I look back over the course of the last week; I was becoming consumed by worry and fear of not getting everything done, wanting to fix my friend’s relationship, and hoping for a certain outcome from the meeting.

Then, I got lucky and received “my brick”. I refer to it as “my brick” ever since this story was shared with me many years ago.

An executive was driving down a neighborhood street in his new expensive car. He was in a hurry talking on his cell phone. Suddenly, he saw children playing on the side of the road. He muttered something about “stupid kids” to himself as he slowed down.

Then, he heard a thud. Something had hit the side of his car. He slammed on brakes and jumped out of the car. He saw a dent in the car door and a brick lying on the street. The man turned toward the kids and shouted, “Who threw that brick?” Fixing that dent is going to be expensive!” He was furious.

A child, a young boy stepped forward. The child was shaking and he was crying. “I threw the brick. I needed you to stop. No one would stop to help me. My little bother rolled off the sidewalk and fell out of his wheel chair. He is hurt and I can’t lift him up. I need some help. Will you help me?”

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat; he bent over, picked up the child, helped him back in the wheel chair, and wiped off his cuts and scrapes. As he watched the older boy push his brother down the sidewalk, the man slouched back towards his car. He looked at the dent – and made a promised to himself that he would leave that dent in the car as long as he owned it. The dent would remind him to slow down and not be consumed by all the demands of his life, to be on the lookout– and to listen - to listen to the voice of God. The man thought, sometimes God whispers to our souls, whispers to our hearts. But He sometimes needs to use a brick to get our attention.

This week “My brick” hit me in the form of my kids. They were discussing something that had happened that day at school. Middle school kid stuff that I remember was so very hard to process at that age. At that exact moment “my brick” struck me. . . My kids were struggling with this and I had to help them makes some sort of sense of it.

I quickly pulled something from my mental file cabinet that I remembered from the best-selling book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” by Richard Carlson. I asked the kids if this situation would be just as important a week from now, a month from now, or a year from now. As they were both chewing on what it was I just said . . . I caught a glimpse of myself in the rearview mirror and something told me that I hadn’t just said what I said just for my kids’ benefit. I took those words to heart myself and realized that I had gotten caught up in the worry of things that were either out of my control, or may possibly never happen. Not so surprisingly I noticed the pit in my stomach was gone and the weight was lifted off my shoulders a short time later.

Pay attention, listen, and watch out for flying bricks.

Jenny
Sister of Soul

Soulspiration of the Week:
If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today. ~ E. Joseph Cossman

How To Overcome Your Fear: Stop It!

We’re often asked about overcoming fear and that makes total sense when you consider that fear is the most common obstacle to be conquered when pursuing a passion, dream, or goal. Empowered women know that when we succumb to our fears that we give our power away. That makes facing our fears and overcoming them an important skill to learn.

This classic Mad TV-Bob Newhart video offers some tongue in cheek advice for overcoming your fears and personal shortcomings. Bob’s advice; Stop It!

Good for a laugh and admittedly simplistic, there are still some nuggets of wisdom amongst the humor. Bear with us as we break them down for you…

1. Fear is based in our imagination: While our fears can feel very real to us, often times we’ve never actually experienced what we’re most afraid of. Only eight percent of our fears are actually realized, making ninety-two percent of the energy spent on our fears wasted. We can be disappointed, regretful and unhappy of the things that have happened in our past. At this very moment we’re currently experiencing the present, which hopefully isn’t too scary. That brings us to the future, where our fears reside. It’s what we imagine might happen that makes us most afraid. Our fear hasn’t actually happened; making it essentially non-existent! That realization alone can lighten our fears and lead to an important shift in power.

2. Are we making things too complicated: Most of us believe that overcoming our fears means following a complicated self-help regimen or difficult course of therapy. What if we challenged that belief and instead adopted a simple and straight-forward approach to managing our fears? Is it possible that five minutes of personal straight-talk, and a conscious decision and desire to “feel” our fear but live our best life anyway, is all that’s really necessary? There’s only one way to find out and that’s to give it a try!

3. Don’t go there: Playing the “blame game” doesn’t serve us, and certainly doesn’t lead to overcoming our fears. Reclaim your power and instead make a choice. The decision is yours; will you live a fear-based life or a fear-less one?

4. We all have fears: Life in general is the great equalizer, and nobody comes out of it unscathed as they say. Regardless of our sex, race, creed or hair color, we all have fears, issues and problems to overcome.

5. Nobody likes change: When you boil it all down, what we really fear is change. Whether good or bad, we would rather stick with our current reality than risk the unknown. View change as an adventure and live the life you want, not the life you fear.

So there we have it, and just like Bob, in less than five minutes. Only have a twenty? Never fear, that was at no charge!

Kim
Sister of Soul

Soulspiration of the Week:

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do”. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt