I began my day today with someone saying to me “you know you are awesome, right?”. It caused me to pause.  It was a take a breath moment.

I thought about the question and then I just embraced it and answered “yes I am”. It felt so good. In the past if anyone complimented me I always deflected or said something deprecating. It was not a good practice.  Learning to embrace the good parts of me and accepting compliments with grace and openness is what ignited major changes in my life. I would highly recommend that you practice this every time someone extends a compliment or validates your awesomeness. When you do it will transform the way you think and feel about yourself. This is a huge awareness to embrace so pay attention. It gets better.

One of my coaches asked me many years ago to list the people in my life that I admired and aspired to be like and to include the reason why. My list was quite long and many of the people were public figures, authors, actors, talk show hosts, influencers in my life and many more. The qualities these people possessed were diverse. My vision for myself was to be the best version of me by embracing the qualities that my role models possessed.

While reviewing the list of attributes with my coach he reminded me of Martha Beck’s “If you spot it, you got it” theory. He told me that if I can see these qualities in another, it means that they also exist in me. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to see them. He explained this as the law of reflection and that it was scientific to the letter.

He suggested that if I didn’t feel I possessed the quality I needed to look deeper into my self and ask what part of me was holding back its expression in my life.

This is where the real work started for me in terms of finding my awesome.

I had to figure out what I believed about myself that prevented me from seeing the quality in me and only in another. I discuss these strategies in my book Take a Breath so I won’t go into too much detail here. The point I am making is that you are awesome.  Do you believe it? Can you embrace it? How do you express it? 

Trust me on this, you would not be reading this article if you were not awesome.  You and I are connected through the laws of energy and whatever attracted you to me was an energy that is like itself.  Remember the laws of energy state scientifically that what you radiate you magnetize.  I radiated awesomeness and I magnetized YOU!!  Yes you are awesome and my wish for you is to have an awesome long week-end.  

I used the cover of my book to illustrate awesome… the view, nature, mountains, it all is so beautiful and amazing…. It makes you pause and realize that if you open your heart and embrace what is right in front of you, you can accept that it is also in you. Beauty, wonder, expansiveness, connection.  It is all there for you to embrace and radiate.

Sending love, light and blessing to all the hearts that are open to receive.

#awesome #connection #oneness #reflection #energy #love #longweekendfun #takeabreath #sharondeugo #blessings #heart #loveandlight

REFLECTION

I love this image.  A tree is mirrored perfectly in the quiet stillness of a beautiful lake. The reflection is identical to the real tree.

Recently, someone said to me, “Everything was just starting to turn around for me and then the pandemic hit, I can’t catch a break.” They followed up with a series of questions that included, “Why does everything in my life have to be so difficult?”, “What have I done to deserve this?” “What am I doing wrong?”,  “How do I change this?”. Although we are all experiencing the uncertainty of Covid-19, this person was taking it personally. 

The answers to these questions are best understood through the principle of reflection and the laws of energy as they apply to your life. The process of unpacking these questions has been the focus of my work as an energy practitioner and a transformation life coach for the past 20 years.  

I remember reading an article in Oprah Magazine many years ago by Martha Beck. In the article she used the phrase “If you spot it, you got it”. How I understood this phrase is what you see or judge in another is also in you. And if what you are judging is also in you, then it means that the person or situation is reflecting for you what needs to be dealt with in your own life.

The principle of reflection in transformation work is to understand that whatever you think, say, do, believe, and feel will be reflected back to you through the experiences and people that show up in your life. If you think about your physical reflection in the mirror, you can understand that you can’t change your image until you change the person (you) who is being reflected. The same holds true with your internal energy systems.

All of the energy that you carry is constantly seeking similar energy to connect to so you can experience it more fully. Understanding this principle provides you with the basis for answering the questions posed earlier. For example, if your life seems to be difficult or chaotic, rather than project outward to lay blame or find fault in others, go inward and ask what part of me attracts difficult or chaotic situations, experiences and people in my life? Is it a belief you hold that life is hard? Could it be a recurring thought that it’s a dog eat dog world? Once you find the source, you can work to change it.  

Now, you have an opportunity to change the energy of the old belief to one that will create the life that you want. What would your life reflect if you believed life is abundant and full, I am blessed and grateful for all the good in my life?

The principle of reflection means that everything in your life is a reflection of you.  Unless you do your own inner work to discover what is seeking to be changed, transformed or healed, nothing will change. Your life will stay the same until you decide to change and look at life differently. Changing your reflection internally means you have to change your “mind” first to begin the process.

If you believe life is difficult, it will be. However if you believe life has many blessings, with a few bumps along the way, you will definitely have a less difficult life experience.  

Covid-19 showed up in all of our lives. The question now becomes what is being reflected in this challenge that can transform, change and heal each of us moving forward? What has been triggered in you? What judgments are you making? What are you doing with your time? What challenges are you faced with and how are you dealing with them?  Are you finding new strategies to handle this crisis or are you repeating patterns and habits from the past?

If you take some time to uncover the answers to these questions I think you will begin to see that you have more control in your life than you give yourself credit for.  It is up to you to create the image of yourself, inside and out that you want reflected in the world. As you practice changing your “mind” you will notice that the people, experiences and situations you want most in your life will begin to be reflected back to you. Gandhi said it best when he said: “Be the change you wish to see in the world”.  Reflect light and it will be reflected back to you…. Reflect shadow and darkness and it too will be reflected back to you. The decision is yours to make.

Take a deep breath, pause and listen to the quiet stillness in your heart. Follow its guidance and begin to reflect the parts of you that are grateful, appreciative, inspired and passionate about your life. When you do, watch as your image begins to transform in the mirror…. 

I will continue to send love, light and blessings to all who are open to receive it.

#reflection #mirror #healing #change #transformation #covid19 #energy #takeabreath #principle #love #light #blessings.

For most of us, the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly brought to the forefront feelings of fear and uncertainty.  Fear on the emotional scale of energy is hugely contagious and can be dangerous. Fear creates a range of emotions from anger, frustration, anxiety, and depression to hopelessness, helplessness and panic. Experiencing this on a global scale within the collective consciousness of humanity can be overwhelming and I for one want to shift out of fear and into love. It just feels better.

In this blog I want to offer a perspective on how to transform fear into something that feels better and more manageable on an individual scale. If this topic resonates, I hope this helps. 

Have you ever noticed that no matter what you are experiencing, whether it is joy or sadness, there is a background feeling of fear about life? When you are in the feeling of joy, for example, has your mind ever taken you to thoughts like “this probably won’t last’, “this is too good to be true”, “I just have to wait and the other shoe will drop”, “I don’t deserve to be happy”? If you can relate to any of these thoughts, you know what I am talking about. 

What are all these thoughts about?  Where does this fear come from? When these questions surfaced in my own life I decided it was time to figure out what was going on. I began to research and do healing work to find some answers. There is no better way to get started on a project than to have a goal that will set you on a path to find answers to the deeper questions that will have you living a better life.

I began to focus my attention and work in the field of energy and consciousness. The first step was to get in touch with my own patterns and habits of thought and behaviour. My course of study in university was psychology/sociology so I knew the importance of connecting with data, information and courses of study that would guide me. I also knew I couldn’t do it alone so I began to do the work to find the human resources that would support me in finding the answers.  

In my book, Take a Breath, I share with you what I discovered about fear and why it plays like background music in our head.  To get right to the point the answer is simply because it is a choice that many of us have made based on beliefs we carry in our consciousness. These beliefs may not be obvious to you because they are in the background of your mind, i.e., subconscious. Subconscious beliefs are activated without a conscious thought on your part. They simply become a habit of thought and a pattern of behaviour because you believe that life is just the way it is.

What if I told you that you can transform fear right here and now if you make a conscious decision to just change your mind? This sounds pretty simple doesn’t it. I am sure you might even begin to think if it is so simple why isn’t everyone doing it. Well the truth is, it is simple. However it is not easy.  Changing habits and patterns based on subconscious beliefs requires you to understand that thoughts can be addictive much like alcohol, food and drugs.

To change the behaviour or addiction you must first be willing to acknowledge the habit and pattern. The transformation comes from a conscious decision to move down a different path. For example when you notice that you are thinking thoughts that are fear-based, rather than going into the fear, you can pause to acknowledge the fear. 

The word “notice’ suggests that you are conscious of what you are feeling. This is perfect. The word “acknowledge” means that you are paying attention and you are taking responsibility for what you are feeling. This is even better. Now is the moment to get really excited.

You have just given your self permission to be present with your feelings. You are self aware.  This is where all the magic exists. Present moment consciousness is where change happens. 

For example, if you notice yourself losing your joy, you can take a deep breath to slow the thoughts in your head so you can really hear what they are saying. Once you separate from the thoughts, you will realize that you are not your thoughts. The thoughts are energy moving through your head. Your conscious self can now observe your subconscious thoughts. This is so important to understand and to practice.

The breath is key here. When you take a conscious breath you are pausing the thoughts cycling through your mind. This creates the space for you to separate from the thought and bring yourself back into your body and right mind. In your conscious mind you can actually hear the voice in your head.

Once you are aware of what you are thinking, your conscious self can decide to either change your mind to hold onto your joy or you can lose your mind to the subconscious thoughts you created. If you choose the latter, it will result in the patterns and habits of thoughts I shared with your earlier continuing to play out in your experience. 

You will notice here that I am putting the responsibility on you. You can blame or project what you feel onto others or you can own your feelings. What you feel is real and it is personal to you. The key to transformation is rooted in this truth. When you own your feelings you are in control and you can change them based on what you want to experience versus what you don’t. However when you project your feelings outward you lose your power and ability to change because you are making someone else responsible.

Fear can be transformed when you take responsibility for what you feel. Know that to be true. You have the power to make it happen. Changing your mind takes practice, commitment and most of all, courage. To challenge old belief structures that have created your patterns and habits can be exhausting work. However you are worth that effort. Trust me, if you do the work you will uncover and discover the best parts of your self.  

We were all meant to live in joy, no matter the circumstances. Have faith, trust and surrender to this truth. It will change your life. When everything is said and done, if you let your background music change from fear to love I guarantee your heart will open to joy, love, calm, peace, and happy energy.  This is where you will begin to feel like you are on the path to living your best life.

Love is always the answer and when you are focused on love, fear has no place to nest.  Remember you can not change what you do not acknowledge.  You must acknowledge fear to transform fear.  Pay attention, take a breath, and love yourself enough to practice daily the work required to transform the fear to an energy that just feels better.

Blessings,

#takeabreath #conscious #healing #fear #transformation #change #love #self #magic #energy