Expel, release, let go of that which you do not need Dear One – that which makes you feel ill or uneasy – the excesses in your life that are weighing you down, that are pulling you under. Keep those things that challenge you, enlighten you, brighten your mood, change your perspective, inspire, motivate and propel you forward. You will know the difference between them by how they make you feel.

You opened up to receive and in the process took in a big gulp of salt water into your lungs.  It happens.  Don’t respond by closing down. Instead, practice opening up to the experience of swimming and not the experience of the water. Do you see the different? One will cause you to float and the other to drown.

Be kind to yourself as you learn, and forgiving. Don’t beat yourself up about what you should or could have done differently and continue to drown. Allow yourself to move forward from wherever you are with trust, confidence and faith, and float.

Where would you be without challenges Dear One? Challenges push you, pull you, bend you, throw you, turn you inside out. And when you choose to take them on, motivate you like nothing else.

When you are challenged, when you choose to take on a challenge, in the process you push yourself beyond your own comfort level, you generate new energy, you discover creative solutions, you seek out help and make new connections and sometimes sever old ones. You generate passion and courage for yourself to do something that you have never done before, to face something that frightens you, to create something new.

Can you think of any other way to propel yourself forward like this besides a challenge?

It can be done. We know it’s possible. We know you can do it.  But do you? If there was no urgent need that threatened your comfort, your security, your pride, your sense of self, would you push yourself beyond your edges to grow?

If you decide that the answer is yes, then you will no longer need challenges to be a catalyst for growth in your life Dear One. You will instead let love, curiosity, passion, a desire to experience change and motion be your motivator and propel you to identify and confront your fears head on, to push you to grow, to show you what your limits are and catapult you past them.

Challenges are just a tool Dear One. And an effective one at that.  Try to see them as such.  Let them serve you, not unnerve you.  And if you want to embrace change without the accustomed aches, pains, turmoil and tumult of a challenge, make a conscious decision to push yourself forward when you are not challenged. Demonstrate to the universe that you are ready to learn another way, and you will be shown one.

When you find yourself on the receiving end of something so amazingly wonderful, so fantastically terrific, so unexpectedly delicious that you can hardly believe your luck, do you think to yourself, this is a once in a lifetime experience that will surely never come my way again? We’ll, if you do, you’d be right!

However, if you instead see these “once in a lifetime” experiences as gifts, as reminders, as demonstrations of the potential for greatness, joy, abundance and happiness that exists in every single day, hour and moment of your life, then you just might find them becoming not be so far and not so few between.

Your expectations have an enormous impact on your reality Dear One. You see what you expect to see. You see what you are looking for. If at your moments of greatest joy, you think that things could never be this good again – they might not be. BUT, if you instead use those moments to allow yourself to get over the moon excited because you now know just how good things can get, you will be opening yourself up to receive more of the same….and then some.

Change your expectations and you can change your reality Dear One.

Your life is not a story To be continued… Dear One.  Your life is a story of firsts, fresh starts, new beginnings.   With the dawn of each new day you get to start again, start over, start fresh…..from the beginning.  That is what is so great about it.

Don’t, Don’t, Don’t carry the events, feelings and choices of yesterday with you into tomorrow if you don’t want them there.  It is just as easy not to do this as it is to do this.  All that is required is a little bit of consciousness.  There is no rule that requires you to continue to carry all of your baggage with you from one day to the next.  What you carry with you is a choice.  And since you are the one doing the choosing, why not choose to carry over only your very favorite things?

Wonder what you’re going to do next.  Wonder what the future will bring.  Wonder how to love more deeply, passionately and without reservations.  Wonder what to have for breakfast – with curiosity, excitement, anticipation and enthusiasm Dear One.  Wonder without limits about all of the endless possibilities for your life. Wonder about all of the choices that are available to you.  But don’t wonder for too long or you will loose the benefit of wondering.

Wondering fuels your actions.  Wondering propels you forward, motivates you, expands your horizons.  But it is only good in moderation.  Think of it like gasoline for your car.  You only need enough gas to fill up the tank – then it’s time to go, until the thank gets low and you need to fill up again.  You don’t want to waste all of your time sitting around at the gas station when there is so much to experience out on the open road.  When your tank is full………go!

Let the story unfold.  Don’t try so hard to write it.  It has an ending that is so much better than anything you could ever possibly imagine for yourself – if you will only allow it to be so.

Giving up is nothing to feel bad about Dear One.  Did you know that it’s OK to want to give up from time to time?  That it can actually be good for you?  Giving up is the ultimate form of surrender.

When you have nothing left to loose – when you stop trying – when you stop resisting what is –  when you reach your point of surrender – anything can happen, if you let it.

Surrender does not need to be hopeless, devastating or an indicator of weakness.  It can be intentional, exciting and an indicator of strength .  Don’t give up and expect the worst.  Give up and expect the best.  Give up control, fear, remorse, guilt, agitation.  Give up negativity.  Give yourself a break.  Try embracing surrender today and allow something unexpected to happen.

Smile Dear One.  Smile big and smile often because in your smile is an energy that you project to yourself and to the world around you.  Even if no one is around.  Even if no one ever sees it.  Keep smiling.

Laugh.  Laugh out loud every chance that you get.  Don’t hold back.  Laughter is an elixir for you and it really can cure what ails you – because you are never more open then when you are laughing.  It is like standing outside in the rain and trying not to get wet.  That is what laughter is like for healing.  You can’t stand in the rain without getting wet and you can’t laugh without allowing wellness.

Smile and laugh today Dear One and you will be doing more for your health than any pill or doctor ever could.

When the sun comes up in the morning, you know this is a part of a cycle.  When the sun sets in the evening, you know the cycle will continue.  You do not wonder when the sun disappears at the end of the day if it will rise again.  You count on it and act accordingly.

Whatever else is going on, there are certain cycles that play out in your life, over and over and over again.  Look for the other cycles in your life.  Are there cycles in love? prosperity? friendships?

When it gets dark in the evenings you adapt to that stage of the suns cycle.  You have learned to accept and adapt to periods of darkness.  You behave differently then you might when the sun is bright.

Witness the other cycles in your life and take note of how you adapt to darkness vs. light.

Try not to fret their passage.  Things will always change and change and then change again.  You can fight it, fear it, dread it or hate it or you can smile, accept it, embrace it and adapt, with the eager anticipation of waiting for the beauty of the next sunrise, knowing that things will change again.  The choice is yours.

The day does not require you to be brilliant, or funny, or witty, or charming or thin Dear One.  The day only requires that you do your best.  And that does not mean being better than anyone else or even better than you used to be.  It means doing the best that you can do, today.

Simply let go and allow yourself the freedom to be who you really are.  You’ll know it by how you feel.  Do that which comes naturally to you, and use your best judgement, all that you have learned to get  you to this place.  Living in the moment does not mean that you abandon all sense of reality.  It means that you use your reality to create a new reality – a better reality for yourself and for others.  You see it is not about right or wrong – better or worse – success or failure.  It never has been.  It is simply about the journey – having the experience.  And the sooner that you can except that, the sooner you will realize that it is of no benefit to you to ever be anything other than yourself.