Note to God: Weaving Wisdom Out of Pain (Post written on: Oct 21, 2015)

Post written: Oct 21, 2015, and for whatever reason I kept it as a draft until now.

Themes: Finding the positive outcome of painful experiences; choosing thoughts deliberately empowering yourself through self-awareness; giving yourself time to heal and allowing time for the processes of life to happen organically; releasing pain from the past; moving forward in your life.

Dear God,

I have asked you, the Universe/God, this morning, out of curiosity and because I would love to use this as a moment of learning and even deeper clarity and well-being: what is the meaning and reason behind my little shin cut from Friday afternoon? It happened so suddenly, mindlessly and pointlessly. Ridiculous! I’d like to better understand and fully absorb, in the most resourceful way possible, what this means and what are you trying to tell me through it? 

Nothing happens in vain; everything has a reason for being and for happening.

First thoughts:

Realization of how much I don’t want to feel hurt or pain. It feels so OFF to be hurt physically. I don’t want a single hair on my body to be hurt or injured.  I extrapolate this one step further – I can also hurt myself not physically but in other ways – emotionally and with my thoughts. This type of self-inflicted pain (I was stretching but without paying much attention to where my feet were placed). 

Pain is not only physical - it can be generated from within with the THOUGHTS we think. 

Hurtful thoughts are ones that lower our mood, deflate our spirit and bring us down.

If they are thought on a consistent basis they can turn into resistance (manifested through ailments and low energy) and can hold us back and away from moving closer towards our goals and desires. It is like creating a roadway deviation or an accident which then creates a traffic jam and thus slows you down on the road to achieving your dream. Nonetheless, there is still always hope because this implies that you are still on your way to your destination (Feelgood-Ville) however, moving more slowly and possibly even feeling other un-resourceful emotions now such as frustration, doubt, and fatigue.

You and I, we can always turn such thoughts around. We can question them, we can shed light on them rather than ignoring and planting them deeper in our psyche. We can bring them to the surface like picking a ripe tomato and analyzing it. If it's a rotten tomato - let it go! Throw it away! Free yourself of all the rotten tomatoes in your life and you will only ever need to eat delicious, fresh, organic, plump and nutrition tomatoes :-) i.e. you will only ever need to focus on and entertain beautiful, uplifting, positive and empowering thoughts.

Moral of the story:

Choose predominantly and then chronically, exclusively powerful, empowering, resourceful, loving thoughts.

Thoughts that move you closer to what you want and desire. Take the faster road, traffic-free and unencumbered, to reach your desired destination, and also notice that you enjoy the journey more because you are flowing, driving at your desired speed, possibly enjoying a beautiful, spectacular scenery! If you have not been used to being mindful or aware of your thoughts, then perhaps now is the time to start. No better time like the present. All we truly have is this moment right NOW. What are you thinking right now? What are you habitually thinking? How are you thinking your thoughts? How are you interpreting your experiences? And subsequently, what meaning are you giving to all these experiences?

Increased Thoughts Awareness:
As you begin to pay more attention to how and what you are thinking, you can decide deliberately, consciously, eagerly what thoughts will help you feel better and move you closer to what you want.

• Key Question: What do you want to feel? What do you want to think?
• Stop the negativity, stop the self-criticism, stop the comparisons to others, stop the self-doubting, the hesitations; stop the judgments, criticism and fault-finding. 
• You are GOOD, you are PERFECT, you are all that is so make peace with it, embrace it and know with all your heart that embracing things as they already are will not hold you away from what you want and all you ARE becoming.

Allow the Healing Process. Life Does Go On!

Healing takes time and progression; there is a certain order to things that we cannot micromanage. As with the external, so with the inner healing. Whenever we experience internal emotional pain we need to fully acknowledge and appreciate that there is a grieving process and then a healing process (the more significant or deeper the hurt, the longer or more delicate the healing is required). Do you allow yourself to grieve and heal properly? 

Sometimes we don’t properly grieve & heal because it is too much to handle and too painful. We want to be strong rather than ‘weak’, or we simply don't want the hurt feeling. Unfortunately, this does not make the emotional hurt disappear. Rather it remains embedded in the psyche as recurring thoughts, attitude, or expectations. If you want to move forward in your life and release past hurts, acknowledgement and proper healing is essential.

A bruise or cut needs to be treated and allowed time and space to repair - blood has to clot, new cells have to form, old cells slowly begin to harden forming a thin layer of old dead skin cells…then it becomes itchy until eventually the scab comes off. At this point there is vulnerable, virgin skin beneath that is exposed. 

That patch of skin won’t ever look the same; however it will be brand new, repaired and no longer hurting. Soon you forget about it and go about your daily life as if nothing happened. You only remember if you bring your attention to it. You realize that the injury is quite inconsequential in the big scheme of your life for other things have come to pass and now take your attention. 

This is the magnificent blessing and gift in the pain. The fact that life goes on, feelings pass, healing happens, and new things will take its place. You feel happy once again!

Rejoice!  All is well. :-)

Where does Inspiration come from?

Where does inspiration come from?

I've always been an expressive and creative person and yet recently, in the last 1-2 months I have been experiencing myself as going through a new, enhanced phase of self-expression and creativity. Specifically, I've been more impulsed and motivated to make short videos on positivity, Life Coaching, NLP, wellbeing, gym workouts, and selfies that are linked with some positive message (mainly on Instagram).

Some days I feel like an fountain bursting forth unlimited ideas, concepts, lessons learned, and insights. Other days I will feel myself quieter and calmer...either I want to write a post however no tangible subject that I'm 'feeling', and other times it is just a matter of being too busy with work and life basics.

Ultimately, anything we create and generate requires energy. Indeed, everything in life and the world is energy in one form or another. So when we create anything we are transmuting a preexisting unseen energy, energy that is sourced from ? - Within or from the external world? This strikes me as a more metaphysical question which I don't intend to unravel just right now.

All in all, I've noticed a steadily ascending curve of production and output, which I feel is great. The moment of creating something new, visual or written, that I can share with the world gives me a thrill, sense of accomplishment and personal pride. Truly our global digital age makes it incredibly possible to share content worldwide over across different age groups, nationalities, languages, backgrounds, etc.

So as I continue to create, produce and desire doing so, I naturally wonder: Where does one's passion, drive, enthusiasm or creativity come from? Do we come with a set amount or quatity of "creativity cells" or creative quota, or quotient which we expire once we reach the bottom of capacity?

Or is creativity unlimited, infinite, boundless, eternally multiplying, abounding and able to be increased when we choose?

Can anyone become more creative if they choose doing so?

What are the advantages of being creative - how does it serve us?

These questions only scratch the surface of a meaty topic, a topic for introspection.

It seems to me that if you are creative you will also be more adaptable, flexible and visionary. These 3 key resources are intrinsically linked to any person's success. The creative mindset coupled with these other qualities better enable us to surpass obstacles, take on more new life experiences, be ready for more progress, advancement, promotion; counter challenges with more of a 'can-do' attitude, and it appears to prime you for a life of optimal levels of satisfaction.

If we can be creative and we can adapt to almost any situation.
Being creative, we can be flexible in working our peers and successfully maneuvering all of life's negotiations.
If we are creative, we can indeed visualize and be visionary in creating the life we want and the circumstances that we'd prefer.

With Creativity you can innovate solutions, think outside of the box, stretch the limits, and create something new. This is where entrepreneurs come from; this is the source of all genius inventions that ever were and ever will be.


In closing: It seems that Creativity is quite a powerful asset. How creative are you willing to be?

Timeline Legacy Process - Empower Your Decisions, Empower Yourself, Empower Your Life

Recap - This week's Self-Empowerment Videos:

Early this week I made a video introducing the notion of taking "The Path of Least Resistance" as a type of framework or Guiding Question you can ask yourself when you are making a decision or find yourself in a troublesome or challenging situation. As I finished that video I touched on the idea that decision-making becomes easier, more efficient and straightforward when we take stock of the broader context or circumstances that the decision will affect. Once you make a decision you then check the Ecology - you check if it is a realistic, viable and workable course of action given the practicalities and realities of daily life, existing commitments and the people in your life.

I then shot a follow-up video on making more powerful decisions by going through the Timeline Legacy Process, a Neuro-Linguistic Process, that is designed to help the person get clarity on where they see themselves in future years. You can do it yourself in the privacy of your home, and it may be easier and more powerful if you have a skilled NLP Life Coach who can take you through the process. 

Here it is in a nutshell:

Timeline Legacy Process - NLP Technique

You stand in a spot with enough space for you to take 4-6 steps forward (depending on the time increments you choose). You are facing the direction of your imagined future. You are standing in the current day (your 'today'). In other words, your future literally lies ahead of you.

1. You take a step forward and place yourself 5 years into the future. You are 5 years older; what is your life like? What work are you doing? Who is in your life? Where are you living? How do you feel? What have you accomplished as you had wished?
2. Take another step forward and imagine yourself 15 years in the future. You are 15 years into the future and you can ask yourself again what your life looks like, who you are with, what work you are doing or are you retired? What kind of an income do you have? Etc. 
3. Take another step forward and see yourself 25yrs older. You can ask the same questions and gauge where you are emotionally, mentally, physically, professionally and spiritually.
4. Finally, you will take a final step forward and this time you are moving into your post-death experience. This is after you have passed away and left your mark on the world.  
5. Turn around and look back on your life. You can close your eyes (or not) as you mentally re-run the events of your life that you just experienced on your timeline. 
6. What was your legacy? What was your contribution to the world? What mattered most? Which people mattered the most? What was the most important or valuable aspect(s) of your life experience? 
7. From that whole life experience what message would you like to send back to yourself to the you that is living in the current day (the day you are doing this exercise)? Once you identify that message, send it back to the you in the present day. 
8. Once you've sent the message you will walk back through your time i.e. going back in time. Ensure that you are taking steps back so that you are still facing your future yet walking backwards.
9. Once you reach the current day (today) you will once again be standing in the original position facing your future. Now you will receive the valuable message that the future you sent to the current you. Close your eyes and receive this message.
10. Once you are sure that your internal self has received and absorbed the message you can acknowledge this in a subtle way (rub hands together lightly, open your eyes, or nod your head) and you can continue with your day with this new knowledge you've received from the future.

 [Source: Thank you to Mindbridge NLP Trainings where I received my Life Coach and Master NLP Practitioner Certifications, and who taught me these modalities through their course materials and classes. It was an exceptional experience.]

 

Timeline (TL) Legacy Process - Elucidating Values

The Timeline process is designed to generate new ideas and clarity around the things that really matter to you in the long-term. This long-term perspective can help us identify, fine-tune and reconfirm our deeply-held values, or criteria. Values are the guiding stars of a person's behavior, attitudes and fundamental way of seeing the world. They serve as parameters for action (or inaction) and can certainly influence the meaning we ascribe to situations and experiences.

Since our Values shape our Identity, and our Identity is integral to a firm and secure sense of self, our confidence and place in the world (ego). 

Values and Identity are inextricably linked.

Thus, it is natural that we protect, defend and cherish our Values. We have seen this evidenced since the beginning of time when civilizations and individuals have defended their religion, independence, gender equality, racial non-discrimination, and suffrage (right to vote).

Living up to our Values reflects congruence, or internal alignment, generates more personal clarity, and reconfirms our identity (Who I am, What I do, What I believe). In other words, the world makes sense and you feel secure in your place in the world and life. Living your highest, deeply-held Values will ideally reflect you at your best and enable living the life you love.

Thus, supporting your Values with the corresponding actions, thoughts, ideas, people and situations will further boost levels of optimal living and personal satisfaction.

This is why congruence and internal alignment are key.

Once you've gone through the TL process and learned, discovered and/or reaffirmed your Values

you can better understand what really matters for you in your life; which activities, people and situations will benefit your overall happiness and reflect you at your best, and living optimally.

It allows you to live with more ease, wisdom and peace; You don't sweat the small stuff (and it's all small stuff?) and to envision Your bigger picture, the great things in store for you, and the amazing possibilities you can create for your future.

Thinking about the future can be frightening or intimidating to some of us, especially when you haven't thought this way before. Perhaps no one has asked you where you see yourself a few years down the line. Or you draw blanks when you try. Or you think that the Greater Powers of the Universe will decide how things play out and you don't have much say in the end.

Regardless of where you stand on this spectrum, going through the Timeline Process will definitely give you feedback you can work with; remember - there is no such thing as Failure only Feedback. You will have more self-awareness and once you begin the process you might find it exciting to discover that you can in fact design your future with your thoughts.


Have fun with it! Use your imagination and ask yourself some powerful, creative 'creation' questions:

- What would I like to see happen?
- You don't know the answer, but imagine if you did know, what would that be?
- If anything were possible what would you see happen?
- Where do you see yourself thriving the most?
- Do you know anyone who already has the life you respect or admire? Which qualities or aspects would you like to have in yours?
- What are you doing when you're at your best?
- Where do you see yourself most in love with life?

In Closing...

I hope you've found this beneficial and relevant. Life is fun, life is amazing, life is a miracle and we are all co-creators in this experience. There are such beautiful and magnificent possibilities before us if we can only envision them, imagine them and then see and feel ourselves attuned to those potentialities. We are only limited by our thinking (Zig Ziglar's Stinkin' Thinkin'); we are only limited by our imagination.

One of my next posts & videos will focus on another NLP process: Fun and Magic with the Reframe Technique.
Here is a taster...

Feeling Lonely? Let's Reframe that!

Comparing yourself to someone else/to others? Let's Reframe that!

Frustrated by your lack of progress? Let's reframe that!

Feeling stuck in a rut? Let's reframe that! 

Themes to explore: context of situations, all things being relative, things have meaning we choose to give them, and more.

Thanks and focus on empowering, resourceful thoughts. Life is a product of the quality of our thoughts.

-Jennifer (9 Apr 2015)

Journey of Learning to Love Myself - Short & Sweet notes - Sept 2013-March 2014

Friday Sept. 13, 2013:

Universal principle for today: 

"The events in my life reflect who I am."

- Whatever catches my attention is trying to tell me something.

- Overheard conversation catches my attention - I'll take the words as a personal message from the Universe.

- I want to find the world that is inside me.

Sat. Sept. 14, 2013

Meditation-Sutra-

"The people in my life reflect aspects of myself"

- Friends and family serve as a group picture of me.

- Each stands for a quality I want to see in myself or want to reject, yet in reality, I am the whole picture.

- I gain most knowledge from those I intensely love and dislike.

- One reflects my highest aspirations. The other my deepest fears.

Sept. 19, 2013 - Coincidences

- Marcus Smith and Holly on Inner Fight podcast last night, and earlier in the day I researched MS and found out his wife's name!

- Yesterday I read about different astrological historical patterns, and now today Elliott Hulse talks about past traditions and different ways of raising families, different family prototypes.

Sept. 20, 2013

Last night clubbing with my friend I met a guy is also a traveler and freedom-loving person like me. 

We are probably attracting those most like us.

Sunday Sept. 22, 2013 - All these coincidences 

Thank you so much for all the ways the Universe works. Today I'll pay attention to the coincidences. Nothing is random. Everything has a purpose.

Sept. 23, 2014

Thank you so much already, so lucky + happy!!! Yahoooo... :-) <3

Sept. 26, 2014

My life is amazing. I desire to fully follow my path filled with joy, love, wisdom and health. I am always prosperous. I am always growing and tapping into my fullest highest potential. I want to express my creativity every day!

Tue. Oct. 15, 2013 - Such a marvelous, magnificent & magical day.

Things I love: My family <3

1- Sleeping deeply and fully to awaken refreshed

2- Spending time with friends

3- Nature, animals - their beauty - I really love it all.

4- my iPad

5- YouTube

6- My very healthy and loaded bank accounts!

7- Seeing new movies @Cinema - what a treat!

8- Fun music

9- Love to laugh!

10- I love and adore exercise

11- I love the way the cute guy at the gym makes me feel - I feel excitement, attraction, curiosity, sensuality, desire + passion & HOPE

I love the feelings he evokes in my inner self and I intend to channel these feelings and go general as it is the same excitement and vigor of love I have with my future BF and life partner.

I love the feeling! Yay! <3

Sometime between Oct 15 & Dec 13, 2013...

I want to hang out, have fun and love all with my heart & soul this blessed week! And then always :-)

<3

Dec. 13, 2013 - Goat cheese, 1 tsp = 7g

Jan 25, 2014 - Thank you 4 the food - amazingly delicious!

Feb. 7, 2014 - The woman's cycle & Exercise

Day 1 to Days 14/15: Hi-intensity exercise most beneficial; Lo-Carb diet; Less amino acids.

Day 14- end Month: Longer, slower aerobic exercise; less weight-training.

As per expert: Stacy Sims

Feb/Mar 2014 - Knowledge is one thing. Application of it is another.

March 12, 2014

I love who I am. I approve of myself. 

My life is full of love & wellbeing + I attract even greater, more magnificent, jovial love towards me. Thank you, God!

I deserve love in all its glory and splendor & I receive it constantly. I love this feeling of being loved and cherished.

March 13, 2014 - Dear Jen, Good morning!

You deserve all the love, well-being, abundance this time-space reality can offer and it's all yours! :-) 

Live a lot & love deeply.

Believe in yourself :-)

December 2013 - Mom visits Dubai. God's gift to us :)

March 2014 - Love is with me :-) Yay

Pool morning, rest day. Sunshine :-) Win!

Notes from Positive Audio Book "Beyond Positive Thinking" by Dr. Joseph Anthony

Only you can create what you want.

We are creative being and we always have the capacity to build more!

Creating on the conscious level > Make more choices

Right thinking is based on your personal truth > Never settle into self-satisfaction.

Live in present moment yet also important to grow from where we are.

Trust the power within you - Trust your instinct.

Current Sources of dissatisfaction i.e. motivation:

-          Body/Physique improvement

-          Financial growth

-          Career Achievement – Creating something new, being recognized

-          Learning more, get smarter.

Life is a game.

What game am I playing? I choose to play happiness, abundance and faith.

How can I feel more motivated and excited about my work and daily work???

I’m asking for more motivation, inspiration – PUSH to move myself with positive, healthy reinforcement. I want to be guided and pushed through by my INTERNAL POSITIVE DESIRE! Not fear, tight deadline, stress or external pressure…