Let’s bring in honesty. Let’s agree that whether you are listening to Osteen’s optimistic sermons or believe in Karma, having a positive image and opinion of yourself works to your benefit – and therefore everyone around you.

For too long I have been under the illusion that belittling myself was attractive to others. It helped you attain greatness. Meanwhile, I was swimming in self doubt and eventually, self loathing. This path leads to destruction, despair and depression. Wallowing in your flaws and asserting their existence only perpetuates them further into your life. It is totally useless.

At first, I had to make believe I was worthy. I have been saying affirmations for more than a dozen years. I am pretty thick headed.

Lately, I have had a shift. I feel I deserve to go ahead and claim my gifts.

1. I signed up for a 30 day clearing group/workbook. Everyday, we move towards our goals and encourage each other
2. I am starting a Life Challenge with two close friends and a sea of fellow women    change seekers on FB.
3. I am working with others on improving.
4. I am checking in with mentors.
5. I am joining up with communities socially to learn, support and be open to receiving too.
6. I hired a writing coach and sent in some samples, beginning in earnest, this week. This was a huge step for me as it meant I was ready to share, prepare, re-write and commit to taking this seriously and concentrate exclusively on this as a priority.
7. I just joined a 6 week meditation course with Yoga International to deepen my practice.

If you are dying to do something – write, meditate and pray on it. The answers will come.

For so many years I have dreamt, educated myself, marinated and desired to believe in myself. I have worked hard to get to this place.

I know the better you feel about yourself, the better the world looks and the more you attract the best people into your life. It gives you confidence to follow through on your passions and pursue them in earnest.

This year is my year and I am going to make it happen because the Universe is on my side, the time is ripe and I feel motivated and driven!

I  am worthy. I do deserve to be accomplished and a success in my chosen field!

So do you.

On the road to wisdom and inner beauty, you learn to keep a nurturing set of tools in your memory file. Meditation, painting, coloring, physically removing yourself into a quiet space, cooking, gardening, writing, reading, walking, yoga, observing nature and daydreaming are examples of instruments, dalliances and pastimes you can use to recharge your inner sanctum.

Here is what taking time out for yourself can reveal:

1. Whether you choose or need to do it, a feeling of accomplishment exists once you can cross it off the list.
2. Your personal perspective, attitude and response, creates your world vision.
3. Make it a mission to learn from every mistake, circumstance and choice.
4. Vulnerability is the most courageous, ground breaking best kept secret and tender portal towards creativity.
5. A shift occurs, a miracle happens, when you let go of time, approval from others and distractions.

Syncing with your soul opens up all the doors and windows.

The Portal

This coming up year I am taking a see through, plastic OXO square container and making it my Happiness Jar.

Overtime, every happy, serendipitous, lucky, special or unexpected kindness or moment that happens to us will be documented and placed inside this space. 

I am cleansing and labeling it today. I will position it in the middle of our kitchen peninsula. I will have a small pad of paper and a pen next to it handy so we can record our gratitudes!

2017 – We are awaiting!

You might want to follow suit just to try it out with me and hop on the happy trail journey!

This year, I grieved.

I was outraged.

I held my tongue.

I spoke out.

I was confused.

I yelled.

I complained.

I criticized.

I judged.

I voted.

I cried.

BUT

ALSO

I realized and will continue in 2017 to know:

I am loved, all is well.

I am the best version of myself today.

I write.

I garden.

I cook.

I touch.

I enjoy.

I walk.

I counsel.

I shop.

I care.

I clean.

I play.

I listen.

I meditate.

I guide.

I harvest.

I create.

I paint.

I repurpose.

I compost.

I organize.

I recycle.

I read.

I encourage.

I love.

I decorate.

I post.

I understand.

I entertain.

I exercise.

I believe.

I observe.

I express joy and enthusiasm.

I am a gift to all that know me.

It’s a gift to have more than one choice available. We live in a world of a myriad of decisions and a multitude of options. You can change your mind or re-select anytime.

That is freedom.

There are war torn victims, refugees without shelter and starving stomachs all over the world. I find myself asking what is it I can do? I have had this concern since I conceptualized it as a young child. Perhaps that is why I am such a worry wart.

In my own luxurious world, I give, grieve and write what I can. It is a both a curse and a blessing to be sensitive, to find significance in the minutest, to have your soul touched by every wail. How does one stave off the haunting images of suffering? I refuse and cannot even if I willed it, put armor or ice around my heart.

My dream of interviewing, researching and annotating human stories via historical events has never gone away. Too late to become Christiane Amanpour. Too green to be Isabelle Allende. I just have to be true blue Cecilia Steger and return to the authentic me, over and over.

This coming year, in 2017, wherein the world is shaking up and down and all around, I will find my voice, I will seek answers, I will report back, I will do what I can to strike a chord in you too. A selfish act. I do not want to be alone in my anguish nor do I want to be isolated.

“This is my country too,” a woman screamed at the electoral college vote yesterday, while those around her chanted, “SHAME” in unison, responding to the outcome. You know how it went down. Right?

Mark Twain has been attributed to remarking,

” History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”

Forecasting the future is a bit like predicting the weather and I see the storm coming. What I do with that early information is prepare, share and warn others. It seems like the most decent thing to do. Doesn’t it?

In the Tibetan Buddhist practices there is a meditation named Tonglen. I know I have posted about it before but it is worth mentioning once again. You breathe in all the pain of the world, and you exhale love, solution and peace. You take in the dark, dusty truth and you send out light. 

There is a profound bliss in returning to your first stifled vocation. There is a certain release I feel in my shoulders.

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
 – Aldous Huxley

Are the things that happen to you related?

Everything is determined by your actions, values or beliefs which ultimately determine your choices.

What does the underlying pattern of your life look like? What keeps popping up? Is there a flow of learning? Can you connect the dots?

If you ask for help, listen to your higher self, intuition or soul: you will be making the right decisions for you and only you, perhaps.

Leave your ego at the door, as they say and check in with the stuff your best self is made of.