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Daily Manifestation Challenge

Daily Manifestation Challenge, How To

Help! I’m Stuck! The DMC

November 12, 2011

What do you do when you feel stuck?

Seriously, what do you do when you are stuck like that guy in the picture?

You know, you feel like you are plastered to a wall and some chick in a red beret is just staring at you?

I will tell you what I do.

What? You don’t think I get stuck ever?

(Hold on while I LOL.)

Sometimes I get so stuck that I feel as if I have taught the same yoga class 678 times. At least.

Sometimes I feel so stuck that it seems my car could drive itself, it doesn’t even need me because it’s been to the same places so many times.

Sometimes I feel as if I have made the same mistakes over and over that I must be insane because only crazies keep doing the same things over and over and expecting different results, right?

Sometimes my thoughts feel very very stuck. Like Elmers. Like gum on a shoe. Like they are on a merry-go-round that ceased me merry a long time ago. They simply just go round and round.

And round.

There’s many days (fewer and father between lately) where I feel stuck. Where I feel down. Where I feel blue. Uninspired. Bored. Lazy.

You know. The gamut.

I did a scientific experiment that involved a lot of stuff, and here is what I found works best to get me unstuck and back to my Manifesting Self.

1. Laugh. I watch shows that makes me laugh (hint hint: Modern Family.) I hang out with funny people. I play with babies. I read funny books. I make dumb jokes. I sing out loud. When I laugh I feel the most “me” and it is from that space that I can move forward and get unstuck. From that place I can create. From that place I can take myself less seriously.

2. Hang out with people who inspire me. See earlier Daily Manifestation Challenge called “Who You Hanging With?” Who inspires you? Are you surrounding yourself with these people. Make a list in the comment section below. And, if you aren’t hanging with them yet, I suggest you make a date. It’s kind of a no-brainer but when you hang with people that excite and inspire you, it rubs off on you! It’s like a rope that they throw down the hole to pull you out of that ditch you are stuck in.

3. Make vision boards. They don’t even have to be proper Vision boards (like there is even a such thing as a “proper” vision board) but something where you are visualizing your desires and dreams and the things you want to manifest into your life. Visualization is key! Can you visualize yourself being unstuck? This is a profound question. If the answer is no my advice is to keep trying. Keep practicing. Repeat this mantra: I can manifest anything I put my attention on.

(Ahem. What are you putting your attention on anyway?)

4. Take a class. This weekend I am taking a class purely by chance My friend Juliet offered me a ticket to a wine and cheese class. Yes, I know. It had my name all over it. But you know what? It made me realize how much I love learning and miss being in school or taking class. Keep learning and studying always. Forever.

5. Do yoga. Or something. Anything! I am a yoga teacher, so yea, I do the yoga. But do whatever. Hike! Walk on the beach! Get connected to nature. Go watch the sun set or rise. Something that gives you a connection to something outside of yourself. Get your blood pumping and your adrenaline going. I notice I get majorly depressed when I am stagnant too long and yet the longer I am stagnant the harder it is to get motivated. Catch 22? Why, yes! But most of life is. Get used to it.

5. Do things that make you feel good.To quote my own poem, “How To Make A Life”

Let your joy be contagious and spread through

Your home, your job, your children.

Let it spread through the world

Like a virus so that when you forget it,

Every so often, you’ll catch it from someone else.

Whatever brings you joy, do it. Be it taking a bubble bath, curling in bed with a good book, cracking open a nice bottle of Cab, buying a nice smelling candle, painting, calling your friends in New Jersey, playing with your toddler, yoga. Whatever it is, just do it.

I want to coin that phrase “Just Do It” but I swear I have heard it somewhere before?

Today’s DMC is about being stuck and getting un-stuck. In the comment section below, list your experiences with being stuck. List what you do to get out or what you would like to do next time. List ideas you may have. Hey, I need them as much as you do, Dear Manifesters!

Being a creative and free spirit, it is easy to feel restless and bored. And blue. And yes, sometimes uninspired.  I am always looking for ways to keep blossoming and to keep my ideas fresh. I really don’t like feeling this a whole lot:

Keep on manifesting your life,

One laugh a time,

ManifestYogaJen

Daily Manifestation Challenge, Gratitude, Inspiration

Thank U. The DMC: Daily Manifestation Challenge.

November 3, 2011

Thank U.

U as in Universe, yo.

Yo as in Yoga, you.

You as in You.

What can you thank the Universe in advance for today?

Today’s Daily Challenge is a Thank You Card. To the Universe. I mean, it’s the polite thing to do, right?

Today’s Daily Manifestation Challenge can be truly challenging for many.

Being able to visualize that what you want is actually and most definitely on it’s way is not always easy. Make a list (I am a big fan of lists lately) in the comment section below of the things you can say “Thank You” for, even though they may have not arrived yet.

Here is a mantra for you from Dr. Wayne Dyer, my greatest teacher: “Whatever I need in the form of assistance to guide me in the direction of my life is not only available, but is on its way.”

Thank the Universe in advance for what you are manifesting!

Instead of asking for what you want, try thanking the Universe in advance for it. A sweet little trick I have been playing on myself. And the joke is definitely NOT on me because everything I have been thanking the Universe for, both quietly and loudly, is showing up. In big ways.

Maybe not always in the way I thought it would look. But that’s ok. I have been working long and hard hours on practicing non-attachment to the outcome. Some of that long and hard work consists of laughing and watching Modern Family while I sip a glass of Cab, but someone’s got to do it.

Be comfortable with the fact that it may not show up exactly as you had planned but the feeling of what you want to receive will. This is the ticket, my dear Manifesters. This is the ticket that will get you into the The I-Love -My- Life- Club as a VIP member.

Be in that feeling right now and start seeing what shows up for you.

Here is my list for today.

Dear Universe, I am sending you this card as a thank you for all these things that you are sending my way. I am truly grateful. You are, like, totally the best U! I mean it. You always come through for me. I love you.

So thank you for:

My book being published and inspiring millions.

This blog being a viral sensation. People are inspired to take action on their lives and manifest what they want, one laugh at a time.

My Manifestation Retreats/Workshops continuing with their success all over the country. And world! And beyond!

A cure for Prader Willi Syndrome (my nephew has this.)

My meeting going amazingly well in NYC next week ( will share what I have manifested after said meeting.)

My healthy baby when he/she is born. My family thriving.

My column in The Oprah magazine being a big hit.

Wayne Dyer and I collaborating.

(There’s more but I want to hear yours.)

List below all the things you are thanking the Universe for. In Advance!

Manifesting Your Life,

One Laugh at a Time,

ManifestYogaJen

P to the S, dontcha worry! The next Gratitude Challenge is all about what you are grateful for that is right there, in front of you. Speaking of which, Modern Family is on. Thank you ABC. Thank you.

 

 

Daily Manifestation Challenge, Delight

What Brings You Joy? The DMC.

October 29, 2011

Today’s Daily Manifestation Challenge is all about Joy.

What brings you the most joy?

(I picked Almond Joy because my dad was obsessed with them. brings me joy to think of my dad.)

Why, you ask? Why list my joy on this here website?

Because when you think of these things you start to inhabit the feeling of that which you are thinking of. Works like a charm. Works like an Almond Joy. Works like a vacation (Almost.)

Are you doing things everyday that bring you joy? (If the answer is no, I want you to shut the computer and start. Right. Now.)

This is one of my missions in the world. To provide a space where people have more joy in their lives and truly feel that they deserve it!

So, what is it that brings you joy? As you answer, see if you can allow yourself to be in the feeling of what you are thinking about.

By now you know that Modern Family brings me joy. 

My husband brings me joy.

Often, a good glass of wine brings me joy. Especially when I come home and my husband has a candle lit and said glass of wine sitting next to it for me. Especially then.

Belly laughing and smirks, sleeping in my own bed and also in fancy hotel beds, these bring me joy.

Seeing how far my sister has come brings me great joy.

Music brings me joy.

When my yoga classes sing out loud, JOY!

When they dance… even more joy.

The blog 365 to 30. Joy joy joy!

People sharing with me what they are manifesting into their lives and the comments people leave here fill me with joy.

My friends successes bring me joy!

How when I go to the bank or Whole Foods near my house or other places I frequent, people know my name and I know theirs. It’s like Cheers. But better. I love connecting. It brings me joy!

Leading Manifestation Yoga® Workshops and Retreats! So. Much. Joy. Can’t. Handle. The . Joy.

All things Italy bring me immense joy and pleasure.

I also ask you this: What are you doing to bring others joy? To spread joy in the world?

I am going to add a poem i wrote last month because the last lines refer to joy. Read them carefully.

How to Make a Life

how to31 Manifestation Yoga | How To Make A Life

First: Take everything you’ve ever learned and everything

You’ve yet to discover and place it in a box labeled Thank You.

Second: Take a picture of your face and remember

That in ten years time you will be amazed at how gorgeous you were.

Be amazed now.

Third: Find someplace to live.

Make sure it has the ability to let light fall

Across the room in such a way that every so often,

You’ll stop and mouth the words “Ah, sunlight.”

Before you finish dusting the books.

Don’t let the books get dusty.

Open them and reread your favorite sentences

Or give the books away.

Fourth: Fall in love.

Touch. More than you think.

Have a child if you want one.

If you don’t, don’t.

Let your child out into the world

Discovering for themselves just how magical

It is. Or it isn’t.

It’s theirs to decide.

Give your child a lot of books.

Fifth: Get a job.

Remember this job is not who you are.

You get to open the silk door of You,

And decide, over and over, as many times as your socks,

Just who you are.

Your job will feed you and your children if you have them.

If you forget this step,

You will be reminded of it if you ever lose your job.

No, my job cannot be who I am

because here I am still standing in line at the post office

tapping my feet,

and yet I have no job but still, I am.

I am.

Sixth: Do yoga.

Let your body discover what it’s like to move

without your brain holding it’s hand.

Tell your brain to take a hike.

Let your body believe fully in it’s own powers.

Let every person you’ve stored inside your muscles out every so often,

to breathe.

Lastly: Do things that make you feel good.

Let your joy be contagious and spread through

Your home, your job, your children.

Let it spread through the world

Like a virus so that when you forget it,

Every so often, you’ll catch it from someone else.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now go Jump for Joy! But first, make a list below.

Contests & Giveaways, Daily Manifestation Challenge, Inspiration

Your 3 Words. The Daily Manifestation Challenge.

October 27, 2011

Today’s DMC is a fun one.

What are the 3 words that inspire you most today?

I challenge you to keep these words with you all day and fill yourself up with them.

In the comment section below list your 3 words. You must list it in the comment section below to be added into the contest to win a spot at the “Manifesting Your Top 1% Workshop” with author Alissa Finerman and myself November 19th.

(I loooooove contests.)

If you are so inspired, for “extra credit”, write a poem below with your 3 words included. You will not be graded, judged or tested on the poem. You will only be Loved.

I ask not that you concern yourself with if the poem is “good” or not. I am simply challenging you to envelop yourself in your words and allow yourself to be creative. You know that old adage: If only the best birds sang in the forrest, it would be an awfully quiet place? (Or something like that.)

My 3 words of the day are: compassion, inspiration, creativity.

 

Notice how every cell in your body becomes infused with these words and how doors start to open where once there were just walls. Eat your words! Breathe your words! Live your words. Your words become your world.

Or something like that.

What are your 3 words to live by today?

 

Daily Manifestation Challenge

Daily Manifestation Challenge: Weekend Edition. FEAR.

October 22, 2011

“First you jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down.”                                                                ― Ray Bradbury

Fear.

We all have it.

It helps us.

Sometimes.

When you’re in a dark alley and you see a man with a long trenchcoat running towards you with a big knife and your adrenaline kicks in and causes you to fly away as if you had wings. Totally helping you.

Good fear.

For many years of my life I lived under its guardianship. Fear watched over me. Helped me make my choices. Was my voice of reason.  Helped me stay in the same job for 13 years, live in the same apartment, eat the same foods over and over again. It helped me stay in a rut. It helped me stay depressed.

Bad fear. Cape Fear.

Lately the word fear has been popping up more than usual so I though I ought to pay it a visit.

I was in a yoga class last weekend with my mentor and teacher Annie Carpenter, and she had us all in navasana (boat pose) for a verrrrrrrrrry looong time. We all started to shake. I started to get angry. Then she started talking about fear. She asked us to identify a fear that we had previously had in our lives which we had conquered. Still in boat pose.

Then it hit me like a ton of navasanas. I had conquered my fear of gaining weight.

There I said it.

Of course, it was not simply a fear of just gaining weight, but to simplify it, I’ll call it that. I was, for many years, in the throes of a bad eating disorder.

Still in boat pose, I realized I had transcended the darkest, hardest years of my life. I felt like I could stay in navasana forever with this newfound realization.

Annie was saying how fear protects us at times but when it stops us from playing and living then it no longer serves us. Or something like that.  We were still in still in boat pose at this point…and here I was lost in my own newfound revelation, so I wasn’t exactly getting everything word for word.

 

I became severely anorexic when I was 17 years old after a doctor told me that if I wanted my breasts smaller, (they caused me a lot of unwanted attention and discomfort back then) I should just lose five pounds. (If I could go back in time and shake him uncontrollably for saying that, I would. Although I know it really wasn’t his fault. Even if it was a crappy thing to tell a teenage girl.) That was the exact moment I went home and made a list of all the foods I would and would not eat. Up until that point I had never exercised and I ate cheese steaks and TastyCakes. A lot. I’m from the Philly area. It’s what we do.

I quickly lost five pounds. Then 10. then 20.

Then I kept going.

Many years of my life were lived under a blanket of fear. I exercised four hours a day.  I was terrified to gain weight because I finally felt I could control what was happening around me and inside of me through my weight.

Cliché? I know.

I had a fear that people would stop asking me “Are you ill? ”  It made me feel like I stood out. Like I was special. When someone told me I looked “healthy,” I panicked. (I know that this is hard to believe for the people who know me now, especially my students. I am so at ease with my self these days. Most days.)

Well, here I am in boat pose still in Annie’s class last Sunday at Exhale in Venice, realizing all of this. I am at ease. I have released a huge debilitating fear. Finally. For the most part.

Of course, during times of stress, the eating disorder rears its ugly head. I never worry about what truly is the matter, such as, let’s say: getting married or letting go of a waitressing job I had for 13 years or my nephew having Prader Willi Syndrome. But rather, it becomes simply “I am fat.” My brain takes the path of least resistance, what it knows best. Much as the body will do. That is the old tape it knows.

This happens rarely these days.

I have, for the most part, conquered this thing that had such a clutch on me.

So here I am in boat pose, shaking like a dog, and I realize I have conquered this fear. This is huge. Finally we come out of the pose and I get a little teary-eyed. I start to feel sad for all the years I let this fear rule my life. What was the fear truly of?

It’s so dark and ugly. I mistakenly thought my self-worth was my appearance. Now, as a teacher of yoga, with so many beautiful young girls coming to me, I recognize the same thing in them. I know them immediately. Perhaps they recognize me as well. I somehow got programmed to believe that what I looked like signified who I was. Inside.

There is nothing farther from the truth. Nowadays, I feel such a deep love for who I am inside that it never even crosses my mind to think people even notice my weight or my face. How can it be so complicated? I am not, nor was I ever, a shallow person. I know better. And yet, for 15 years I battled this idea.

I was also terribly afraid to deal with life. With feeling or loss responsibility or death. When my stepfather died, 10 years after my father had passed away, I just ran. I went out to Cooper River Park in Pennsauken, New Jersey. and ran for over two hours straight. There, all better.

Not quite. It never works that way. Even if we want it to.

The pain and the feelings are still there, we have just distracted ourselves. Maybe fear is just a big distraction?

My sister said something savvy tonight. I love my sister. She said, “Ha. An article on fear? I could write that one in my sleep.”  (She could.)

As much as she has an innumerable amount of irrational fears, she is fearless when it comes to her son Blaise, who has Prader Willi Syndrome. She says that you find the courage somehow.

I get it. I have found courage through my own yoga practice, through my teaching yoga, through the amazing man I married, through my nephew Blaise.

I still have many fears and am working through them daily. Sometimes they feel so real, as if at any moment the fear will come true and I will be homeless, my family will perish, I will be without a job, people will hate me, that I will have to go back to waitressing. I will go completely deaf. A fear of the Future. The abnormal fears. They run the gamut.

But sometimes, when I am in navasana in Annie’s class, or teaching my own class, I look up at the sky and shake my fist and say “Eff you Fear! You ain’t real!”

And anyway, as the amazing Wayne Dyer says, worrying is like saying little prayers for the things you do not want.

And of course, in a sense, it is real. But as Martin Luther King Jr said…….

Normal fear protects us; abnormal fear paralyses us. Normal fear motivates us to improve our individual and collective welfare; abnormal fear constantly poisons and distorts our inner lives.

Our problem is not to be rid of fear but, rather to harness and master it.

This Weekend’s DMC (Daily Manifestation Challenge®): In the Comment Section Below write down a fear you have and then tell it to buzz off! Extra credit: add something you are FEARLESS about. Where is Fear Running Your Show?

WHAT ARE YOU SO SCARED OF, ANYWAY?

(This is a variation on an older post I wrote originally on Elephant Journal)

Daily Manifestation Challenge, Inspiration, poetry

Your Story.

October 21, 2011

Imagine a room.

In that room place a typewriter on a desk

and sit a chair at that desk.

Sit down on this chair and type out the words:

Prologue.

The click clack of keys

takes you back to before

you were who you think you have always been.

Imagine you write the words:

This is the story of an amazing life.

Scoot the chair in a little closer.

There, now you have better light.

Tuck your feet under you and continue.

Imagine a door to the room.

The door opens and someone asks you

if you have finished your story yet.

Without looking up from the typewriter:

I am starting over

you tell them.

Chapter One.

This is the story of my life.

This is the story of an amazing life.


I wrote this poem today to go in conjunction with todays Daily Manifestation Challenge® which is ” what story can you stop telling yourself that isn’t true?” ~JP 10/21/11

Daily Manifestation Challenge

Storytime! Friday’s Daily Manifestation Challenge.

October 21, 2011

Once upon a time……………

How many times a day do we make up stories in our heads, either about ourselves or the people around us or the world we live in? Even stories about our future, about events that have not even occurred yet?

I estimate that I do it at least 10 times a day. Maybe 20.

Hint: Don’t believe yourself. Listen to your story, but don’t believe it because it’s mostly fiction.

An Example:

Someone walks out of my class early and I tell myself a story that they hated me and/or my class.

Possible reason: They had a doctor appointment. They had gas. They had to pick up their child. They forgot to feed the meter. They needed to tweet. They had to go to work. They decided yoga sucks. Class was too easy/hard. They felt sick. They thought planking was a fad not a real yoga pose. They forgot to take their meds. They had a date. They were hungover or wanted to develop a hangover. They had to be on set ( ok, I live in Los Angeles.) They had to get down to the unemployment office. They had to go fire someone. They are Brad Pitt and their 6 children were calling.

Even if the “story” I make up is true, which I doubt, but even if so… so what??

Drumroll please…. It’s not personal anyway!

So today I have decided to not make up any stories in my head about what I assume.

I have decided to no longer make up stories about my future based on fear or based upon my past.

Can you stop telling stories such as: you won’t find a husband because you are 41, you are a bad writer and won’t ever finish your book, you are fat, you are broke, you are ugly, no one loves you. I can go on.

I won’t go on.

You get it.

So today, my Manifestation Challenge® is this:

Get through the day without making up something about yourself that simply is not true. What story can you stop telling today? Please share in the comments below.

It’s StoryTime Kids!

Here’s a little poem I wrote for this Challenge called “Your Story”.

(This is an edit from an earlier post which felt relevant for a Daily Manifestation Challenge.)

Daily Manifestation Challenge, How To

Live Your Life As If You Had 6 Months Left. The Daily Manifestation Challenge.

October 19, 2011

A couple weeks ago I was listening to my teacher Wayne Dyer in the car as usual (it’s either him or hip-hop. Go figure.) I was stuck on the 405 as usual, headed to Equinox Southbay.

He said we should live our lives as if we had 6 months left to live.

Whoa Nelly!

I immediately felt better in my gridlock.

Hey Traffic, you don’t bother me anymore! Screw you!

I am not trying to be Debbie Downer here or Ms. Morbid. It’s not a death sentence I am suggesting.  It’s your life sentence, your dharma. Wake up.

How would you live? What would you do? Who would you be? 

Dr. Dyer said that 6 months is a good time frame to work with because at the end of life many have said that the whole thing feels like it was 6 months or the blink of an eye.

Scary! 

(Don’t be scared.)

Take the challenge.

How would you live? Who would you be?

I know for me, I wouldn’t care about what other people thought.

I would be fearless.

I would finish my book.

I would tell everyone I loved how much I love them. Every day. A hundred times a day maybe. I would kiss more and never fell guilt again. I would call my grandfather again and again.

I would forgive anyone I hadn’t yet.

I would never ever beat myself up or judge myself harshly again. 

I would publish a book of my poems. Finally. ( What have I been waiting for?)

There is a whole life inside if me waiting to be lived and as I write this Daily Challenge I realize that I haven’t exactly been living this way. So I am with you, dear Manifesters.

I am taking this bull by the horns. This sucker is mine!

Game on!

This is not a suggestion that you live without consequence, but rather with intention, with love, and with passion. Do what makes you thrive, what inspires you, what makes you come alive!

One of my favorite quotes is by Eleanor Roosevelt.

I usually joke that she shared it with me over a good glass of Cab.

“Jen, You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.”

Ain’t it the truth!

We wouldn’t give a flying hoot what anyone thought anymore.

Why we do now is still something I grapple with. We would be totally self-expressed.

So today’s daily Challenge is to live as if you had 6 months left. In the comment section below share with our readers who you would be, what you would do, how you would live. More importantly, go out and live. Enjoy every flippin’ moment and laugh more, especially at yourself.

Curse more. If you feel like it.

Don’t take sh*t anymore! ( I don’t need to curse more but I will continue on with my potty mouth as long as I please.)

This exercise can easily slip into cliche. Avoid that trap.  Stop what you are doing right now. Think truthfully about the answer/s.

Maybe you wouldn’t do damn thing differently. If this is the case, can we please go out for a glass of wine tomorrow night?

You know where to find me. I want to surround myself by people who are living this way.

Alive!

Go!!

~~~~~~~~

My friend Kate has a blog that I love called 365 to 30 where she does everything she has ever dreamed of or talked about doing in her 29th year. 365 days to 30. I highly recommend checking it out. https://365til30.com/

Daily Manifestation Challenge, Gratitude, Self Image

What Do You Love About Yourself? Daily Manifestation Challenge

October 16, 2011

Today’s Challenge is a Love Note.

To Yourself.

When I teach kids, special needs or not, and I ask them the question What do you love about yourself? it’s easy for them to answer. It’s like saying yes to cake or staying up late. A no brainer. They have a long list even.

It’s especially inspiring to me to watch the kids with special needs answer this. One of my girls, who is autistic and blind, answered ” my life!” when I asked her what she loved about herself.

She loves her life even though she can’t see a damn thing!

I know a few people I would like to have her hang out with. I would hire her as their teacher and have her show them what self-love and gratitude looks like, in the dark, with no mirrors or television.

I ask my adult students What do you love about yourself?

Dead silence.

Crickets.

Tumbleweeds.

What the hell did she just say? 

Or they pretend I was not talking to them.

Yes you. I am talking to you.

I am not suggesting that you to be conceited or arrogant or think yourself better than anyone else. Quite the contrary. Do you have any idea how inspiring and contagious and humbling it is to be around someone filled with self-love? They never come across as “cocky”.

There is an inherent difference between being arrogant and truly loving yourself. Just think of this: The guy you went out with and maybe even slept with who didn’t call you ever again after he said he would; he’s most likely arrogant. The person who looks at the reflection of themselves in the window instead of looking at you as you speak is arrogant and, frankly, kind of rude.

That’s not self-love we are talking about. These aren’t the people we look to and think Wow, I’d love to live my life like that. I aspire to be that way. The love they have for themselves is overflowing and now I love myself even more! 

I went and saw my mentor Wayne Dyer speak in Pasadena Friday night as his daughter Skye’s guest. She sings at his events. It was a dream come true for me and something I have manifested into my life. He spoke of the the God within each of us. One of the most profound things he talked about was the fact that the only place in the Bible where God is named is the Old Testament. And God’s name is….. I AM.

I am.

Wow.

God is in every single one of us then? 

Yes.

This is not blasphemy. It is finding the part of you that is birthless, deathless and never changing. Call it God, call it what you like, call it “I” even. It is the “I am” in you. In plainspeak, it is the most YOU part of you.

People are often scared to love themselves. I know, I get it. I didn’t love myself for a very long time and even went to great lengths to abuse myself, emotionally and physically.

It’s as if we have been raised by a pack of wolves and told never to love ourselves, at least not openly, or other wolves will eat us.

With children there is no stigma. I taught the kids at the Prader Willi Research Conference of Saturday and we sat in a circle and I asked ” What do you love about yourself?” There was a fight over who would answer first. They all wanted to tell me.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX1zlg_ERcw&feature=channel_video_title]

Can you imagine adults being this way? Authentically? Why not? What are we so afraid of? What the tribe will think? The wolves will get us? We’ll sound stupid?

Probably.

Some may not even be able to think of one thing they love about themselves. It takes practice and a willingness to see the parts of you that at first may not seem like the “best” parts. My hearing loss for instance. It used to make me despise myself but now I feel as if it has made me more compassionate and a healer.

One of the boys this weekend told me he loved his artwork. One said he loved his life. One loved her smile and her belly.

I am still waiting for the day where I say ” I love my belly.”

One of the boys had this tshirt on:

What makes you uniquely you and not Joe the Plumber or your mom or the person texting in the car next to you?

Today’s Daily Challenge is to make a list. You don’t have to check it twice. You just gotta live it! Each day write down at least one thing you love about yourself. No crossing it off, just adding on. For the rest of your life.

In the comment section below, if you feel brave enough and inspired, leave your “Love Note” as it were.

I love my injuries because they have allowed me to be a better yoga teacher.

I love my heart and it’s capacity to love.

I love my hearing loss because my other senses, such as my touch, are that much stronger.

I know it will get hard at times. It gets hard when you are out of work or in a bad mood or feel like you have gained weight or hurt someone or they have hurt you or you have gotten sick. I know it’s hard. Trust me, there are days when I yell and cry and scream “Fu*k you Ears!”

I curse. Get over it.

I am still spiritual but I do curse and drink wine and coffee. And I love that about me, Damnit!

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I Am that I Am:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I Am that I Am (Hebrew: אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה‎, pronounced Ehyeh asher ehyeh [ʔehˈje ʔaˈʃer ʔehˈje]) is a common English translation (JPS among others) of the response God used in the Hebrew Bible when Moses asked for His name (Exodus 3:14). It is one of the most famous verses in the Torah. Hayah means “existed” or “was” in Hebrew; “ehyeh” is the first person singular imperfect form and is usually translated in English Bibles as “I will be” (or “I shall be”), for example, at Exodus 3:12. Ehyeh asher ehyeh is generally interpreted to mean I am that I am, though it can also be translated as “I-shall-be that I-shall-be.”[1