I've Been Thinking...

As I stood in the back of my church on Palm Sunday, I found myself thinking a lot. Actually, I came into church already thinking, as I had just spent an afternoon with a friend who was struggling with cancer.

A year ago, my friend was the picture of health—laughing, debating issues of the day, and planning her future like the rest of us. She is my age, and like my friend Nancy whom I wrote about last week, there is no future left to dream about for her, either. So instead, we reminisced about the past.

The past made us laugh. It was filled with adventures and possibilities. Dreams and opportunities. I called her on my way home and said, “Thank you for today. There’s nothing like an old friendship.” “So true,” she replied.

They say that youth is wasted on the young. So is our health. So, whether you’re young or old, I encourage you to value your friendships. Value your health. (I hope you’ll register and join me in June for Move for Minds 2018.) Value the moments you have now to let someone know that you care about them.

Love is quite simply the most precious possession in existence. And my mission is to share the best insights I know to bring more love into each of your lives. Today, I want to share the most powerful way to create MORE LOVE in your life in 2018.

This beautiful insight comes from my dear friend Ken Page’s game-changing best seller Deeper Dating: How to Drop the Games of Seduction and Discover the Power of Intimacy.

If you want more love in 2018, try this life-changing exercise from Ken:

Think about all the people you know, from your nearest and dearest to people you may not have thought about for years. And just ask yourself these three questions:

• Who truly loves me?

• Who sees and treasures me for who I really am?

• Whom do I trust to have my best interests at heart?

Each of the people you picked is gold. They are your personal dream-team in life. The very wisest path to love is to nurture these relationships – by doing three things:

Practice giving more to each one of these precious people.

Practice asking for more from each of them as well (yes, it’s true, asking for more is an act of intimacy!)

And most of all: enjoy them. This last suggestion is perhaps the greatest act of life wisdom that I know.

Follow these 3 steps and watch 2018 blossom into the most love-filled year of your life.

In Deeper Dating, Ken teaches “micro-meditations;” small practices that take less than three minutes, but have the power to enrich your entire intimacy journey. This micro-meditation can be your foundation for a love-filled 2018.

Micro-Meditation: The Love that’s Already Yours

“Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see.” ~The Conductor, Polar Express

So, what's on your holiday list this year? A healthy dose of rage for the husband who doesn't even pretend to be civil around your extended family?

Insurmountable sadness for the child who has chosen such an alternative path of independence that he or she refuses to come home to celebrate anymore? Incalculable jealousy for the whip-smart size 6 sister who just received the ultimate career promotion all while being married to the doting husband and whose children both received full-ride scholarships to college? Perhaps it's a super-sized portion of guilt and self-pity as you polish off the last of the homemade Christmas cookies and gooey toffee by candlelight once the kids are tucked in snug as little bugs awaiting the arrival of jolly old St. Nicholas.

As you mix a strong vodka martini to attempt to drown your emotional landscape, allow me to share with you the one precious and unexpected gift I received this year that delivered such a profound ‘ah ha!’ moment that my own personal and protected list of transgressions have shriveled to almost nothing.

Not long ago, as the monster category 5 storm named Hurricane Irma was beating a path to our front door, I experienced what I can only describe as a miracle of consciousness.

Manifesting our heart’s desire doesn’t always happen instantly, magically, or effortlessly.

It rarely happens that way.

It can often be a long, circuitous route.

In fact, it’s normal, to sometimes get to the point where you say to yourself:

“It’s just too hard.”

“It isn’t meant to be.”

Blah. Blah. Blah.

And, then, it’s up to YOU to re-ignite your passion and persistence, to take daily steps to make your dreams come true.

Ready to feel better and heal faster?  Many scientific studies, including research by renowned psychologists Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, have found that people who consciously focus on gratitude experience greater emotional well-being and physical health than those who don’t.

This week has been so rich with ups and downs I must have meditated at least 3 times daily just to keep myself sane. My oracle cards were also on point so nothing really came as a surprise when Chaos and Conflict, Not For You, was followed by more of the same. I think I chose the card with the saying “ not my circus, not my monkeys” four times over 5 days.

In healing my own heart, I’ve found that there’s an evolutionary process that occurs as I move from awareness to appreciation. I’ve broken this process down into nine steps so that you can recognize where you are currently and then see where you can move to. I will be using my own life experiences as examples of how you can use these steps to open up, ask for help from the Archangels, and allow healing into your heart. By witnessing my journey from beginning to end, it is my hope that you can take what fits for you, relate it to your own present or past circumstances, and reach a place where true healing is realized. This is my process of self-love and forgiveness.

When you look at this picture, what do you notice?

Two people, hanging out on the beach in Puerto Vallarta?