You Are Enough – an introduction

Do You Choose Safety over authenticity? Most of us do. For many years I did the same – I ran from my natural gifts and pursued a path that was not my own. I was in the heart of the club scene in the underground of East London with drugs, gangs, loud music, and notoriety all becoming a part of my life at that time.

For years, I pushed my true self deeper and deeper down, creating a vacuum of emptiness – a black hole within me. I constantly put myself in the path of danger to dull the pain and unhappiness that festered inside of me, until one night, when a near death experience jolted me from my insatiable desire to fit in, and changed the course of my life forever. 

I finally drew a line in the sand. From that point on, I refused to live by anyone else’s terms but my own. I realized my life literally depended on it.

I was now intent on rediscovering the peace and spirituality of my childhood. While other kids in London’s East End were busy watching cartoons and playing with their friends, I spent every moment I could with my grandmother…surrounded by soft lights and incense in her meditation room. I decided to embrace my differences and sought to understand and develop my gifts…those differences and gifts that I first saw in my time with my grandmother as a child.

What Does “You Are Enough” Mean?

“You are enough.”

That short phrase is one of the most powerful I can think of. So powerful that I used it as the title of my new book. Yet, I wonder if you’ve ever really thought about what it means to simply…be enough. 

Society places a great deal of importance on outward success – success in the form of possessions, a big bank balance, perfect relationships, glowing, radiant health, and a secure, high-paying job. Yet, even those that have outwardly achieved immense levels of success still feel as if there is something missing from their lives. They feel as if they ARE their possessions. Their profession is their identity. They depend on their bank balance for validation. 

These feelings of emptiness, dissatisfaction, and sadness occur because those external things can never take the place of your authentic self. In fact, all of the external trappings of success are actually examples of what “you are enough” does NOT mean.

You are far more than your external accomplishments, my dear friends. But from the moment you were born, you have been conditioned to be a unit of production. You’ve been separated from your emotions, been told that you’re too sensitive, that you shouldn’t become angry, that you have no reason to be sad. Your humanity has been denied and you learned that your worth is based on what you can provide. “Work hard!” they said and all will be well. In following that advice, your emotions were disregarded, and you were, essentially, mechanized.

Three Easy Ways To Stop Fear And Worry

Fear is one of the strongest responses our physical bodies possess. When you fear, your heart begins beating faster, your blood pressure rises, your palms start to sweat and you may feel intense anxiety. This physical response is part of the “fight or flight” mechanism that our brain and body uses to deal with danger. This extreme response is warranted if, say, we were being chased by a saber-toothed tiger. In today’s world, we rarely experience life-or-death situations such as these, but still, our bodies have held on to this response.

Many times, our negative cycle of fear and worry can bring about this response, and it can be miserable! It can last just a short period of time, or it can last for many years. Experiencing a high level of fear and worry over an extended period of time can actually change the very chemistry of our brain. For this reason, it makes sense to learn skills and techniques that can help calm our mind and body when we get too far “in our head.”

Aside from the negative physical and biological effects of fear and worry, there are myriad psychological effects as well. For instance, worrying about the future and worrying about things you simply can’t control can eliminate any positive feelings about the life you’re living right now! You get so worked up about what could happen, that you miss what is happening right before your eyes. This will greatly reduce the happiness, joy, and peace that your life should entail.

7 Benefits Of Helping Others

There are simply endless opportunities that we have daily to help others. It feels good to us to help, and it feels great to the recipient, too! Scientific studies have shown that giving of our time, energy, or money greatly helps boost all of those feel-good chemicals our brains just love.

Here are seven real benefits – backed by science – of how contributing to the lives of other people can help us find peace.

1. A Longer Life – If you want to enjoy a long, healthy life, start volunteering! Find out what kinds of things you can volunteer for at your childrens’ school, make scarves for the homeless, or help deliver food to those who are home-bound. Studies show that the people who contribute in these ways will actually lengthen their lives due to an increased ability to handle stress, a reduction in depression, and an increased immune system strength. The caveat is that you can’t just do it once – it needs to become a consistent part of your life in order to reap the health benefits.

Four Ways To Find Purpose In Challenge

“If life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” so the old saying goes. Easier said than done, perhaps? I don’t think so. You see, life’s trials can be seen as horrible events that make you question, “Why me?” Or, those same trials can be seen as great opportunities to grow, expand, and evolve in ways we may not have thought possible.

So the question is: how? How do we harness the power of these challenges and turn them into amazing opportunities instead of allowing them to suck us down into the mire of negativity where we know we’ll get stuck?

Of course, everyone’s experience is going to be a bit different, but there are some basic “guidelines” to follow in order to learn to persevere in the face of adversity! To that end, here are four ways to see the opportunities among the challenges.

Three Easy Ways To Change Your Inner Energy

The entire universe is made up of energy, and that includes YOU. This energy can be found both inside and outside you. Sometimes energy feels light and warm, expansive and uplifting. Imagine a spring day after a hard and cold winter. You turn your face up to the sun, letting its soothing warmth permeate your skin. It lulls you into an infinitely peaceful state. Sometimes energy feels dark and heavy, like the charged air before a violent thunderstorm. The sky looks ominous and foreboding. The light disappears and everything feels uneasy and menacing.

When you are filled with this kind of energy it can feel difficult to evade. All you know is that things just seem heavy, without joy, motivation, or inspiration. So when you feel this way, what can you do to get your energy back on track?

The first thing you should do is try to discover where the negativity is coming from. Maybe it’s your job, and you can’t quite seem to leave it at the office. If it’s a personal relationship that is the cause, the heavy feelings can pervade almost every other area of your life. Or maybe you’ve been feeling this way for so long that you simply can’t figure out where it’s coming from or what started it. You just know that you need change.

The good news is that you CAN change your inner energy! When you do, you change your life!

3 STEPS TO INCREASED SELF LOVE

Self love can be a tricky thing. All too often, we confuse self preservation with love. We feel that we love ourselves because we make the effort to exercise, eat right, and get enough sleep. While these things are certainly necessary to physical well-being, they can become unreliable substitutes for an honest and deeply based sense of love and caring for oneself. So, if you find yourself looking to others for love and approval, here are three steps that you can take to increase your level of self love. Remember, while you may be loved by others, the primary source of all the love in your life begins with you.

3 Ways To Choose Love Over Fear

Choosing love over fear becomes difficult when we feel as if we’re being blamed, attacked emotionally, or harshly criticized. It is in these situations that we tend to choose fear, possibly even subconsciously. If our identity or ego is threatened, we can’t continue our comfortable narrative about who we are and what we stand for. This reaction to fear creates conflict within us, and we over-react instead of simply being with that fear. We become defensive, and as a result, we can become hurtful to those we love the most. But if we can become more aware of our actions and reactions, and choose love over fear, we can live in alignment with our authentic selves.

Here are three ways to begin making the conscious choice of love over fear!

Courage to Live Your Design

Have your past trials and tribulations left you feeling broken or less than worthy? Do mistakes you’ve made keep haunting you, flooding you with the feeling that you’re never going to be “good enough”? My friends, we are all broken in some way. We are all imperfect. But in that imperfection lies our innate uniqueness. In that brokenness, we find our strength. In our imperfection…lies our divine perfection.

1. Look Past the Mirror – All to often, our definition of ourselves is limited to the physical. However, when we define ourselves by our bodies, we reject what’s most important – our hearts and our souls. Who we are and what gives us our true strength, goes far beyond what we see in the mirror. Our essential selves are, always have been, and always will be connected to the Divine. Each of us has infinite potential because each of us, in a very real sense, are a part of infinity.

5 Ways To Seek Out Support

In my years as a vibrational catalyst for others, I’ve seen so many people come and go, many of them never quite fulfilling the role they were meant to fill in this life. I’ve also witnessed as others soared to levels of happiness, peace, and success they never could have imagined. I’ve been inspired by the success I’m able to be a part of, and I know that one of the reasons for this success is the support I was able to give these dear clients.

We all need support. No one can live their life in a vacuum. Finding the right kind of people to surround yourself with, though, can be challenging. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be difficult, if you’re willing to do a bit of work to find the right tribe.

5 Steps To Better Breathing

As much as we may take breathing in and out for granted, if we’re conscious of our breathing, we can become healthier and happier people! By taking the advice of Jon Paul Crimi, one of the world’s foremost Breathwork specialists, you can decrease your stress, increase your consciousness, and begin to release many of the past traumas that reside deep inside you.

While we normally don’t have to think much about breathing, consciously breathing in a specific manner and with a particular intent can have an enormous effect on your life. In fact, many people find that in just one or two breathwork sessions, they feel better than they have in years, both physically and emotionally.

Here are 5 tips to help you with your own breathwork:

5 Ways To Heal Your Heart

The relationships we have with others – romantic or platonic – are one of the most sacred aspects of our being. In these close, intimate spaces, we are allowed to become a part of someone else’s life, offering them love and affection, advice and caring, nurturing and a listening ear.

But there are times when these relationships dissolve – for myriad reasons – and the heartache that results can be one of the most painful things to endure. Heartache can turn us into people we’d rather not be. To avoid this, I offer you these 5 ways to heal your heart, and return to love.