I feel it is very timely, given that many people around the world are making drastic changes to their lives, their work, and their relationships.
In a nutshell, here are the main points to be able to make changes:
- Identify WHAT you want to change; CREATE a plan! Even if you don’t know what all the steps are, make a plan to START!
- It takes re-training of our minds, our perceptions, our emotions and our spirit to make this all happen. The old Neural Pathways which no longer are serving us can be changed by overlaying new thoughts and actions, which create new Neural Pathways!
Remember that thoughts become things by setting our intention, and by taking action! - Don’t feel you have to do it all by yourself! There’s many resources available, many are online! Do reach out!
- Any starting point is a good one! We get to pick a point which feels the most meaningful to us, even if it doesn’t seem important to someone else!
- Baby steps help get us started and keep us going when it all feels overwhelming!
Plus a couple of steps I’d like to add to the list: - Don’t underestimate the power of quotes! They can help us to find the inner strength we need to take those first steps!
- “We are exactly where we need to be in order to be able to move to the next step.” This is something I had to remind myself over and over again, for even in the hard times it certainly doesn’t feel that way.
Many time I cried and pleaded, to be removed from a situation which I found intolerable. Until I discovered what I was able to do, and what I was supposed to do, the situation didn’t change.
I had to learn to become open to new things I see before, or I didn’t wish to consider, because they seemed scary and unattainable. As I discovered, what seemed to be impossible for me to do became possible when I opened my mind to the possibility and then discovered I had somehow sprouted baby wings to help me fly to the next level!
The quote below is one of the quotes which sustained me during many long, dark nights of the soul, when I despaired, when I struggled with anxiety and depression. You can find the quotes on my Fine Art America site!
Reading and writing out positive quotes, over and over, helped me prepare my brain and my spirit by laying down positive feelings towards these thoughts.
I must admit, that at first I struggled to connect 100% with them, because of my own Inner Critic, and my self doubt, but with repetition I gradually became more and more comfortable with each thought.
I strongly suggest finding the ones which resonate with you, and surround yourself with them! These can become powerful tools, a great source of support knowing that someone else went through the same struggles and came out of it with that grain of truth!
“Every step is an end, and every step is a fresh beginning.”
Goethe
A few years ago I took many of the quotes which nourished and sustained me and created calligraphy collages, while other quotes I added to photos I took. This was my method of totally immersing myself in the thoughts and the essence of the thoughts, to be able to internalize the truth nuggets which my spirit needed!
“So, you wish to start thinking about making some changes in your life! …but how?
Whether it’s a New Year’s resolution or a decision at any time of the year, making something change in one’s life is kind useless without a plan or a road-map! It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all that needs to be done, and then to throw up our hands in the air in disgust, and tell our selves it’s no use!
Please don’t do that! We all have issues, and we all have things we’re working on, even the people who seem practically perfect on the outside!
Comparing our self to anyone else isn’t fair either, since we can never know what another person’s struggles are, and since we’re all different on the inside, our time-table will be different too!
Here’s more on the subject with a little excerpt from the book
“How to Heal Your Life on a Deep Heart Level“:
Making Lemonade out of Life’s Lemons
The wholeness and freedom we seek is our true nature, who we really are. Whenever we start a spiritual practice, read a spiritual book, or contemplate what it means to live well, we have begun the inevitable process of opening to this truth, the truth of life itself.
Jack Kornfield
Making lemonade out of life’s lemons and becoming a lemonade maker is partly a state of mind and partly learning some new tools.
It takes re-training of our minds, our perceptions, our emotions and our spirit to make this all happen. When we realize it is up to us, that no one else can do the work for us, then the work that it takes can seem like a lot and we can become overwhelmed.
It is do-able if we tackle it in smaller increments, and then the successes we achieve will help us to move forward. Never try to rush this progress, for even when it feels like nothing is happening, much to our surprise, the dormancy of winter changes, when a new Spring shows her face from behind a corner, and the lessons quietly learned in this time period push new juices through our veins.
Life has many ways of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen all at once.
Paulo Coelho
When I say we need to do the work for ourselves, in no way do I mean that we are going to do this all by ourselves. There is a fine distinction between the two.
We all need help and support, which comes in various forms, both through reading and by talking to and learning from other people. Help can come from many varied and sometimes surprising sources, and I have found that the Universe can sometimes bring someone into my life to tell me something I need to hear in that moment, if I’m open to looking past some sources that might initially seem out of the square box.
A mind is like a parachute. It works best when it is open.
Frank Zappa
However the end of each day, we all need to pick and choose the lessons that we feel are the most appropriate for ourselves, to then absorb and learn, to be able to internalize our healing. No one can do this work for us, while we sit back and allow it to happen; we need to participate very actively in our own process, which can be a slow, kind of ‘dripping in”, a percolation and requiring repeated applications.
But, how do we get THERE from HERE, when the “Think Positive” adage seems to feel and sound hollow?
There are actually many facets to becoming a Lemonade Maker, each one allowing us to approach from a point we feel comfortable, and to gradually look and perhaps to incorporate them all in our own time. This means really that there isn’t a strict set of directions to follow, but rather, if we start with where we are at, with something that feels good, with something do-able, then we are making our start on this path.
Finding a First Step
Believe nothing because someone else believes it; but believe only what you yourself judge to be true.
Buddha
Finding something meaningful to remind ourselves that good things will happen is a very good starting point.
Taking that first step is important, and some of us who struggle with negative issues inside of ourselves or with depression, sometimes need to take that first step again and again, because our learning curve isn’t always smooth and upward! We need to keep the eye on the prize and keep putting one foot in front of the other. You can do this! It’s doable.
Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb – that’s where the fruit is.
Mark Twain
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear,
Nelson Mandela
but the triumph over it.”
“Everything you do right now ripples outward and affects everyone.
David Deida
Your posture can shine your heart or transmit anxiety.
Your breath can radiate love or muddy the room in depression.
Your glance can awaken joy. Your words can inspire freedom.
Your every act can open hearts and minds.”
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
Abraham Lincoln
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
Confucius
You can’t start the NEXT chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.
Unknown
There are so many different ways you can take your first step, you can start from any point in the book really that speaks to you, and where you feel most comfortable now. I know, I know, that goes against so much of what we hear – but if you can have one or two relatively easy transformations under your belt, won’t it give you courage and confidence to continue on to the harder ones?
I divided the book into what I feel are major portions we need to deal with: Beginning Steps, Body, Mind, and Spirit. While I put everything into what seemed like a logical order for me, you aren’t me, and let’s face it, life isn’t logical!
Feel free to start anywhere that feels right to you, and proceed from there. Start small, or start big… it’s all up to you and what you feel ready to do!
I’m not sure that it matters where we start, as long as we do!
Here are some additional posts to support you:
Not all storms come to disrupt your life, Some come to clear your path.
Reach out and talk about it! Don’t suffer in silence!
Just do your best with what you have, at this time!
By changing our inner dialogue, we change EVERYTHING!
Even after a setback or negative experience, we can create a “reset” button in our minds!
Do all that you can… the universe loves each of us and is working things out on our behalf!
Baby steps serve a purpose to allow us to keep moving forward!
Affirmation: Today is a new day! I can do this!
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Blessings!
Thank you for sharing this post and for following me!
Tamara
https://tamarakulish.com/ Archived Posts: https://tamarakulish.com/archived-posts/
My books: Developing Happiness When You Can’t Find It and How to Heal Your Life on a Deep Heart Level are available in paperback and Kindle. Audio book available!
Guided Journals help you work on a particular issue by answering questions to help see patterns and to find solutions:
Removing Inner Blocks, Anger Journal, Guided Anxiety Journal Joy & Mindfulness Journal My Boundaries Journal My Inner Thoughts Journal
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