My Christmas Wish For You!

Twenty-sixteen has been a struggle for many of us. Illness, death, financial struggles, employment setbacks all seem to have combined to create massive upheaval and chaos in our lives. The energies have been intense and not particularly pleasant for those of us who have chosen to become more than we are at present.

You may feel that all is lost and there is not much hope, but understand these are exciting times we reside in! It is through pain and struggle that we become so much more. Life is not lived on the mountain tops, but in the valleys and slogging up and down the sides of the mountain. Yes, the view from the top is great, but is is only the pain of the journey that allows us to see it.

As I sit here in the quiet of this Christmas morning, I feel the pain and struggles of humanity. While I know this too shall pass, it doesn't make the process any less comfortable. We will continue to struggle in the year ahead, but I do believe 2017 is a year we will begin to see significant change. The more we allow ourselves to go with the process, the more quickly and easily the process becomes.

My wish for you in the coming year is that you learn to appreciate the process! Understand change only happens through great pressure. Many of us undergo the adjustment kicking and screaming because we are being removed from our comfortable ruts. Becoming better is not easy or pleasant, but it is required if we desire to live in a better world.

Merry Christmas! May 2017 be the year you break out of the dark cocoon of your imprisonment and learn to use your wings!

~CSE

Rethinking Money And Energy Exchange

As I reflect on money this morning, I realize how seriously warped my ideas about money are. It has nothing to do with greed or taking advantage of other people. Rather, my thoughts flow to memes I have incorporated into my being that limit the money and other blessings I allow to flow into my life. I realize I am my own worst energy block when it comes to receiving! 

The first meme that has created havoc in my life is the idea you have to put effort out in order to gain money. The meme in and of itself is not a bad concept. Life is about putting energy out and gaining it back in a never ending cycle. Energy exchange. That is the way it works. What is messed up is energy exchange as it relates to physical money. We have been taught that only certain actions are worthy of receiving money. The fact of the matter is, each and every one of us expends a good amount of energy doing things for other people, animals, the environment, etc. that we do not get paid for--often actions that are extremely valuable to life on planet Earth.

A good many problems in our world are the direct result of believing only certain occupations are worthy of receiving money for. If the energy you put out is not on the list of jobs that can earn income, you are considered lazy and good for nothing. Ironically, much of this can be the exact same energy output as what we actually do every day. For example, you get actual money for taking care of elderly people in the nursing home. However, take care of your elderly parent in your home fulltime and get nothing back in return (except the knowledge you are providing for someone you love). Is this right? Is this fair? Granted, it all needs to be done. My point here is, we expend positive energy and should receive positive energy back. We allow society to dictate what we can receive back. Blessings blocked!

Our beliefs about income earning jobs are also warped because we value certain jobs much more highly than other jobs. That's why workers at places like Walmart and McDonald's get paid minimum wage and high level managers at corporations get paid millions of dollars. The basic idea here is that "brain power" should be much more highly paid than manual labor. After all, anyone can do physical labor. Not everyone is intelligent. Right?

I'm going to call BS on this idea right now! We are all gifted in our own ways. If we are putting our energy out in the world in positive ways, shouldn't we expect to see it come back to us as a liveable wage? We need to become a people so conscious of our actions that we value the contributions each of us makes to society, even if those actions are currently deemed selfish--like taking care of an older parent or our children! We need to understand that taking care of our own families often has even greater value than taking care of people outside our families because we are also loving, valuing and honoring the ones we take care of! We need to understand that flipping burgers at a restaurant has value! We need to understand that collecting others' trash has value! Even a simple smile has the power to make another's day better! We need to be a people who understand what REAL value is!!!     

The next meme that has created problems for me is "Do no harm". While this, too, is largely a good meme, I am one of those people who takes it to the extreme. I want to be sure that the energy that comes back to me is good, untainted energy. I am very conscious of my actions towards others, animals and the planet. What creates problems for me here is my prejudgment of situations and potential outcomes. 

For example, in my part-time retail job, we are encouraged to have our customers apply for credit. For each person we get to apply, we get a couple extra dollars on our paychecks. I have very definite ideas about credit and indebtedness being the very institution that creates modern-day slaves. Consequently, I do not get all that many credit applications. I do, however, find it interesting how several of my young, high school aged coworkers get lots of credit applications. I attribute their success to the fact they do not prejudge the impact applying for credit is going to have on the other person's life.

What I usually fail to recognize when I prejudge a situation is that there are often consequences I do not anticipate. I do not know what others came here to learn! Maybe one of the lessons they signed up for was to face hardships when they got themselves into too much debt! The point is, when I fail to offer someone else a certain experience, I may not actually be helping them. I am also denying myself the blessings the situation may be able to bring me. 

Our world is seriously twisted in so many ways. We are here to help bring it back into balance. It is only by questioning the status quo that we can make the changes that benefit the whole. Money and energy exchange play such a huge role in our lives on planet Earth today. Isn't it time we rethought how it functions so that it is much more fair and balanced as well? By doing so, we have the potential to create a life of abundance and prosperity for all!

~CSE

The Blessing In The Struggle

There are times when I look back at things that happened in my life and think, "This would have made excellent material for a soap opera!" There was the time I spent in a cult, fortunately escaping before the leader got put on death row for killing other cult members. There was the time I lost my firstborn child to a terrible infection shortly after she was born. Then there was my divorce and all the years I spent as a single mom, going through the struggles of raising three kids on my own, two of whom had special needs. Yes, soap opera material for sure!

Even though I make the above statement in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, I definitely had my share of very real struggles. Oddly enough, I no longer see those experiences as struggles though. I see them as blessings.

Each one of those experiences gave me valuable insights into myself, other people and life. Having to wade through the muck forced me to look for new ways of doing things because my old ways of doing things were not effective in those situations. The effort it took to get through such experiences made me much stronger than I was before.

When I look back at all the experiences of my life--both positive and negative, one thing stands out. The high points always felt good (thrilling even), but their only real value was as respite from the storm. It was the low points where I actually grew, becoming a better, stronger, more capable person.

How you view your struggles is your choice. I choose to see my struggles as opportunities for growth and progress. There are blessings in the struggle when you choose to see them and use them to forge new pathways in your life.

~CSE

The Power Of Asking Questions

For too many years, I was a good little girl. I followed the rules. I listened to those in authority. I typically looked no farther than the information available in the mainstream. Then I had a daughter who lived outside the box. As she did not fit the mainstream mold, I was forced to look at new information. I began to ask new questions when the mainstream answers I received were not good enough. My heart kept telling me there was more to the story.

My questions led me to new information and then on to more questions. I went from researching topics in the healthcare field to religion and politics, asking questions along the way. The more I questioned, the more information became available to me. I began to realize there was a great deal I was unaware of before, just because I had failed to asked questions in the first place.

Why are questions so powerful? When you put a question out in the Universe, you are signaling to the Universe that you are open to new knowledge. Being open is key to allowing energy to flow in your life.

Think about this: if you believe you have all of the answers, you are not open to new information. After all, you know everything! What else could possibly be learned?

Asking questions opens your life up to new possibilities! Even when you are looking at the same thing you've seen for years, asking questions allows you to change your perspective enough to see something from a different angle. Often the changed perspective shifts what you see so you receive new insights.

Want to change your life? Begin to ask new questions about the things in it. You may just open yourself up enough to allow new blessings to flow in!

~CSE

Don't Settle!!!

I was very happy as a young child. I smiled a lot. I made friends easily. I was usually the one who came up with the game plan for what the group did. Life was good as I followed my heart and the blessings flowed.

As I got older, doubt crept in. People I loved and looked up to "put me in my place". It was not up to me to be in charge. My ideas were not the only ones that were good. While such ideas were true, they also made me feel bad about the choices I made. I stopped following my heart, no longer believing in myself. There were times I was still happy, but only occasionally.

The lowest point in my life was when I divorced. At that time, my life was not my own and had not been my own for a long time. I was a dedicated wife and mother who did everything for everyone else except me. By the time my husband left I felt totally empty and used up, a shell of my former self. It took me over ten years to build myself back up to the point I felt I was once again worthy to receive.  

Most of our problems in life stem from not loving ourselves enough to accept the love and other blessings we truly deserve! We are often broken and abused, and somehow we are convinced it is because something inside us is unworthy. This is a lie!!!

We are all beautiful, powerful and infinite beings!!! At no time are we unworthy to receive the abundance and blessings the Universe wants to bestow on us. What stops us is we ourselves!!! We are our own worst enemies.

Don't settle for second best!!! Allow yourself to follow your dreams and your heart!!! Be open to the blessings the Universe has in store for you!!! Be bold enough to ask for them!!! You are worth it!!!

~CSE