Home is a state of Mind

home mind choose

Home is what you make it. Most of us when we think of home remember

holidays family good times. Some of us think of home as the place we

could not wait to leave. Even before we remember the street where we

lived, we remember the bad times. Home is really a state of mind. Just

like you may have heard that poverty is a state of mind well so is

home. When you think of home, pay attention to your feelings. Are you

feeling good or are you feeling bad. If you are living home and want to

leave, it very important to check in with your feeling about home.

Leaving home to make a better life is not your best choice. If you

choose to leave a job it isn't always your best choice. The reason is

because wherever you go there you are. How you feel about home is a

state of mind. You choose to feel about home in memory or while living

there. It is what it is. You can only change your perception of home.

Regardless of what the relationships are like in the home, you can only change your experience and

how you see it.

Power Is In Surrendering

Surrendering isn't about giving up or feeling powerless. Surrendering is moving from a lower place in consciousness to a higher place. It is allowing inner guidance to lead you to a better place. It's a choice we make and best done when it is a conscious choice. We are always making choices but we aren't always aware of it at the time we make it. Being mindful of when you are choosing to lean into your higher self aligns you with Source. That shift in consciousness takes place at the point you become aware of your feelings even if you're feeling hopeless.

Surrendering can occur without awareness of when you are actually doing it. It is also at the point that our inner guidance steps in. The miracle is that we become aware of our good feelings that surface at the instant of surrendering. We only need to recognize that there is a power greater than we are at play in our lives and tap into it or rely on it to surface and do its work when we need it most.

Being in alignment with our higher power is a gift we give ourselves and it only takes the recognition and acceptance of that higher power that live in, as, and through each one of us.

Within You is the Power

Unlearning old beliefs is much harder than learning to create new ones. I have studied lots of new ways of thinking, how to make affirmations to place in visible places for me to remember what I want to believe now. I also read inspiring books and listen to my Ipod filled with talks from many great New Thought speakers. I can feel myself grow sometimes when I do the exercises and/or meditations recommended.

I now know how to get into the vortex and more importantly how to stay centered in contentment in challenging times.

So one might say I have power now. I do. And it was in me all along. I am empowered. What that means to me is I can create the life I want to experience. I know it works because I attract friends who think like me. And when I meet people who might challenge me, I rely on my empowerment to stay in the vortex.

Even as our book group, discuss heatedly I might add, what is the definition of subconscious and we have four or five opinions, I am learning new ways to see things. I especially am very aware how I no longer judge other when I disagree with the things they say. I've learned to honor where they are and appreciate them for showing up in my life.

So, why is it that I can wake up in the middle of the night and feel afraid. Afraid to speak to a group the next morning sometimes. Afraid to fly across the ocean to begin a vacation I have been dreaming of taking. I know it is what I've learned from the time I was able to hear my parents or more importantly feel their fear. Those old beliefs that I learned over and over again are still with me.

I will continue to learn all the new ways of thinking, practicing through meditation creating what I want my life to look like, especially in the middle of the night when those old beliefs surface. I will do it as long as it takes. Unlearning old beliefs that no longer serve me requires work and doing it is well worth it.

Take a Trip and Call Me in the Morning

Travel has always been a thing I love to do. My father said it was the gypsy in me and in him. It was at a drop of a hat that he would decide to go somewhere. No matter what time of day or night, once the decision was made to go, off we went.

I'm a lot like that but since I am married, my husband needs time to plan, to think about it. Me, on the other hand, needs only fifteen minutes and I can be packed and ready to explore the next state, country, island or town. No matter what it is, I find an adventure in getting to know all about it. I don't need to read up on it or check on the weather. Just say let's go and I'm out the door suitcase in hand.

I have taken a dozen or more cruises, a half-dozen trips to Europe and lots and lots of travel in the United States. Each one has been a journey to learning something new. I learn about the areas I visit when I get there. The best part of every trip is my learning something about myself. It isn't always something new. In fact, I am reminded of my abundance on every trip. I am clear about who I am and what I love to do. it is who I am but I'm aware of it more when on a trip. I like adventure. I like to explore. I have an insatiable appetite to know anything and everything I can about all the places I've visited or have yet to see.

What is it in me that loves to travel? In planning our upcoming cruise for Thanksgiving, I observed the "high" I get once the trip is planned. I tend to start thinking about what I'm going to take with me. I gather. in mind first, all the clothes I want to take. Then I decide what I don't need to pack. This part of the adventure is exciting. It stays with me until maybe after I'm home two weeks.

So this change, this high I get when traveling isn't a negative thing. I don't believe it is and I'm claiming it now to be an attribute of mine. It's part of my personality to want to learn something new, meet new people and learn about other cultures. If I'm not going away from home and eel the desire to explorey I find something local like a new path to hike or a town to visit. Am I addicted to travel? I don't think so, although I am fully aware and into the up feeling I have when I'm about to take a trip. If it is an addiction, then I call it a socially acceptable addiction. It's like years ago when it was socially acceptable to have a martini at lunch while doing business.

Well addiction to me is when you are engaged in something that is harmful to yourself or to others. Travel has only made me a better person. I've learned to accept others and their way of living. I've learned to appreciate what I have in my country. And I'm definitely a more interesting person to those around me when I share my stories.

I Am More than my Hair

Hair has always been an issue with me. I didn't like it when I was a child. I didn't like it especially when it rained and it got all frizzy. As an adult I had my hair relaxed and once I started, I never went without it being relaxed but for three times when I cut it so short there was not much there. I don't remember if that solved my problem of liking my hair or not. I grew up in a family where hair and the shade of your skin determined your acceptance and level of beauty. My grandmother called my mother's hair and my brother's hair” Jesus grass” because it was straight like hers, hair that didn't need any relaxing and hair that didn't frizz in the rain. My playmates in the neighborhood referred to hair that frizzes as "going back". It was not a good thing. On the other hand some of them said I had “good hair” yet classmates at school continually asked me about my curly hair.

While I always thought I didn't have "good hair" my friends as an adult, my white friends and ultimately my own mother always thought my hair was good because it was thick, curly and capable of being styled to whatever was the in look except when the Twiggy look was in.. To them “good” was hair that had body and hair that could be curled or was naturally curly. .

I spent more time comparing myself to others and of course doing that I never came out okay. Comparing others is a form of judgment and when you judge others you are never right. In fact, you are always on the side of error. Seeing others and measuring their worth based on their hair and color of their skin kept me from achieving a lot of things early in my adult life. Not feeling okay about who I was found me standing still waiting for approval instead of moving forward creating the life I wanted. I've achieved a lot in life just later when I learned to love and accept who I really was, a divine being having a human experience.

You are what you think you are

Judgement gets you nowhere. I spent many years judging others when I felt like I was an outsider. I used to think everyone was better than me. I compared myself to others every opportunity I got. And of course, I never measured up because we are all the same with the same issues. Mine was around the color of my skin and how I thought I was treated because of it. We play terrible tricks with our mind when we are coming from a place of victimhood or blame. I can remember blaming classmates, neighbors, a stranger in the mall for treating me badly. It was so unreal. When I look back on it now, I see my whole way of thinking was distorted. And that's putting it mildly.

Now I realize that most of my bad feelings came from my misjudging. I had a distorted view of what I looked like. Even worse I had a distorted view of what I thought other people were thinking about me. How egotistical was that to think that others are spending their time thinking about you. You couldn't tell me otherwise then.

Fortunately, I developed confidence and a good self image. I have to admit sometimes it comes back and shows its ugly head. I have tools now to keep me centered in who I am. I also learned to not judge others by the way they look. Thank goodness I changed. Now when I think I'm not as good as the next person, I see myself by first looking at what I accomplished instead of when I failed. I then realize that the person I am looking at also succeeded at things and failed as well. We are all alike.