Resources

Resources

Here you will find activities that can help you to better see, experience, and appreciate your own inner gifts and help others to better recognize and use their gifts too.

Do you have the intention to live more richly by using your gifts? The tips and tools you will find here can anchor those intentions and help you to have valuable AH-HA experiences of discovery.

Are you aiming to be a more and more conscious parent?
For the youth in your life – if you are a parent, grandparent, teacher, or child care worker – you can also find here valuable resources to help build inner strength and self worth in children of all ages.

Upon waking or before you begin your work day, remove an ice cube from your freezer and place it in a cup, saucer, or bowl. Set the container in a place where it will remain undisturbed.

See the ice cube as representing fear, your own fear in all the ways it shows up, as well as fear in the world. You may wish to use a cube for each fear you identify.  Silently or out loud say, “This represents fear. I am willing to allow my feelings of fear to soften and melt away today.” Go about your day.

Later in the day, bring your attention again to the container. Notice the water now in the liquid state. See it as representing fear transformed. In your own way, bless the water. Use this water to nourish a plant in your home. Or, go outdoors and pour it onto a place where, symbolizing your intention of contributing to healing on Earth, this modicum of water can nourish some living thing.

Releasing Regrets and Resentments

While I was undergoing chemotherapy, I used ginger to help settle stomach upset. Before sipping ginger ale, I stirred out the bubbles.

Have you ever noticed how a carbonated beverage can look flat, but when you give it another mix, more bubbles appear?

Perhaps because I was seeking healing on all levels at the time, I saw a connection between hidden gas in soda and stuck emotions in me.  Just when I thought I had worked through an issue and arrived at a place of calm, some triggering event would stir up more bubbles of anger and hurt.

Unfinished business in all of us is a bit like hidden CO2 in seemingly flat soda. We often can’t see it, but it’s there, kind of hidden. Triggering events can stir up unresolved regrets and resentments in us just as the swirl of a spoon can stir up some bubbles in a beverage.

Instead of berating ourselves when old issues resurface in us, we can see these emotional stirrings as blessed opportunities to release more stuck “stuff.”

We can use this bubble metaphor to our advantage for life-long healing and building inner strength and self worth.

Consider starting and/or ending each day by using a ritual to express your intention to clear yourself of accumulated distress. With a bottle of bubbles in hand, go outdoors. As you take in a deep breath, imagine stored upsets moving into the flow of that breath. As you expel that breath, blow through the bubble wand. Visualize the negative energies entering the bubbles. Watch those bubbles float away.  Repeat.  Notice that you feel lighter. Cross your hands over your heart. Welcome the flow of compassion. Express gratitude. Smile and open yourself to joy.

Consider using a calendar as a way to cultivate compassion and practice self-forgiveness every day. Begin by clicking on the link below and printing the calendar page. Try this practice for one month and see if you wish to add this activity to your “tool box” of things that build inner strength. Here’s how to work with this: For 28 days, date each box and write in that box an “I forgive myself for….” statement about a judgment you have made about yourself or another person. Many of our judgments are based on limiting beliefs and misbeliefs that we somehow entertained and “bought into” many years ago, most likely in early childhood.

For example:
I forgive myself for judging myself as not good enough.
I forgive myself for buying into the misbelief that I must be perfect in order to be worthy.
I forgive myself for taking in the misbelief that unless everyone approves of me, I can’t love myself.
I forgive myself for judging myself as weak.
I forgive myself for judging my boss as a jerk.
I forgive myself for judging my spouse as lazy.
I forgive myself for judgment myself as stupid.
I forgive myself for buying into the misbelief that people who love me should be able to read my mind.

When you complete the calendar, simply throw it away. There is no need to hold on to what you want to let go. If you wish to continue the practice, simply print another form and start again. Over time, this practice can be deeply healing and helpful as a way to build inner strength, self worth, and peace. Click to download A Forgiveness Calendar PDF

IMAGINE LIFE’S GIFTS FILLING YOUR CORE

Every morning for the past year, I have visualized myself being nourished with The Twelve Gifts in my body, mind, emotions, and spirit and then sending that loving energy out to all the areas of my life.  Because this ritual feels so powerful to me, I have created “LIKE A TREE,” a short, animated video in order to share this idea with others in an experiential way.

I hope you will take a few minutes to watch “LIKE A TREE.”

If this video resonates within you, view it often. Or, create a similar visualization for building inner strength in your own imagination. I’d love to hear about your way of doing this. What do you envision? How do you see strength, beauty, courage, compassion, hope, joy, talent, imagination, reverence, wisdom, love, and faith filling your core?

Feel free to share both this video and the suggested activity in it with others. Thanks for sharing!

Like_a_Tree_Video

Like a Tree Template

The Twelve Gifts of Birth i Nurture the gifts in your child and you

This is another place to visit for inspiration about how we can nurture the gifts in children and in ourselves, but especially in children. For example, on this site you'll find ideas for Love Bricks to build into your child's foundation. Let's help the children we love, and all children, to know that they are valuable; that they matter; that they can make a difference; and that the future needs them to develop their talents, follow their dreams, and help make the world a better place for all.