 Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Decorations of ghosts and vampires pop up on windows and doors. Chocolate and all things sweet and delicious tease you as you walk through the store aisles. And scary movies on tv lure you to the couch to curl up with a big bowl of popcorn. But there's one thing about Halloween that makes it extra fun: COSTUMES! On Halloween, you get to dress up however you want. In the past, I've been a devil, a marathon runner, and even a sexy witch! Halloween is a time where you get to revel in your creativity, and you witness the creativity of others in their choices of costumes. Looking at it this way, you can look at Halloween as a spiritual practice, or maybe an annual spiritual ritual. You have an infinite number of choices for what you want to look like for Halloween. Do you want to be a ghost? A vampire? Or do you want to put some cat ears on your head? Maybe this year you don't want to dress up. The only thing that can limit you is your own imagination and your saying yes to the creative spark within you. You see, Halloween may be only once a year, but it gives you a lesson that you can apply every day for the rest of the year. Every day, you get to choose who you want to be, and how you want to show up.
The spiritual lesson in all of this is that you are always at choice. There's a lot of energy that goes into what you want to be for Halloween. What if you can use some of that energy and channel it into what kind of life you want to live, and what kind of world you want to create? And here's the key to having a great Halloween and a spiritually fulfilling life. Do you want to know what it is? Lean in because this is the secret of the Universe right here... HAVE FUN! Yes, have fun! Having fun, living in joy and from a place of fulfillment are all part of a daily spiritual practice I encourage you to embrace. For your coaching assignment for this week, the task is simple. Have fun! And if you do decide to dress up for Halloween, be a little audacious and try on something outrageous that you may have never considered wearing before. Halloween is special in that it's a day where you have permission to step out of the box, and people love you all the more when you express your boldness. Abundant Blessings and Happy Halloween! ** I'd love to hear your thoughts about today's article. Please feel free to leave a comment below. A little about me... My unique ability is helping people figure out what’s really holding them back and to fully support them in a safe and sacred space, with the result of people feeling excited about life and believing they can claim the driver’s seat of their lives. I've been called the "Aha Whisperer." If you’re feeling the need for support in creating a life filled with more spaciousness, purpose and joy, I offer a complimentary life coaching consultation that may provide you with the insight and resources you need in this moment. To learn more about this, click here.  Have you ever decided to make a change in your life and then, for whatever reason, found it really hard to make the change long-lasting? If your answer is yes, you're not alone. When I work with my clients who want to create a new habit, one of the metaphors I often use is a rocket ship blasting off from planet earth into outer space. In the language of metaphor, imagine you are the rocket, and outer space represents the destination of your new habit. In order for the rocket to make it to outer space, it needs enough fuel and energy to get it going. At what stage do you think the rocket uses most of its fuel? If you guessed at the very beginning, you are absolutely correct. In the very first few seconds and in that first minute, the rocket needs to expend enough fuel to counter the force of gravity that keeps it on planet earth. Gravity is strong, and so a lot of fuel and energy are needed. Sometimes it seems like the rocket might not even be moving at all, even though all the work of fiery power and billowing smoke is present. But then, at some point, the rocket moves an inch. Then it moves a foot. And then it moves a few yards. Soon enough, the rocket gains momentum and moves with more seeming ease into the sky. The rocket blasting into outer space is an apt analogy for when you move to create a new habit for yourself. When you decide you want to create a new habit in your life, you’re charting a new destination (outer space) for yourself. The new habit could be meditating for 10 minutes every morning, or eating more vegetables in every meal, or cleaning out your email inbox at the start and end of each day, or going to one networking event each week to meet new people, or whatever you choose. After you decide on your new habit, your next step is to start taking action. This is where the energy and fuel are needed. Say you decide to meditate for 10 minutes every morning. The action could be you setting your alarm to wake up 10 minutes earlier and you sitting down somewhere comfortably where you won’t fall back asleep. As you sit in meditation, monkey mind can show up and attempt to distract you. “Go back to your comfy bed,” it says. “Why don’t you just start tomorrow?” Yet, you persevere and stay committed to finish the whole 10 minutes. Your perseverance and your staying committed are your initial fuel being expended, keeping you focused and on track to the destination of a new habit of meditation. As you continue this new activity of getting up and meditating each morning, there are moments it might feel extra challenging as other distractions show up. “I already meditated for the last 3 days. I deserve a break for this one day!” you might tell yourself. Or, “I have an early morning meeting to get to, and I won’t have time for the morning meditation,” could be another thought that pops into your head. You might have a co-worker that you told about your new pursuit, and they say to you, “Gosh, that sounds so hard. I can never do that!” And what your co-worker said makes you wonder whether your morning meditation is worth it in the first place. All of these distractions, whether they’re your own thoughts or what other people tell you, are a symbol of the gravity wanting to keep you from rising, to remain on planet earth so that you stay within the boundaries of the person you’ve always been. Your ego wants you to be the safe and secure person who doesn’t change up your routine. The ego thinks going into outer space is scary and unknown. In its own way, the ego is trying to protect you. The people in your life who question why you’re making any changes also like you for who they think you are. When you start to make changes to your life for the better, your efforts nudge others to look at their own lives and wonder why they aren’t making any changes themselves. Comfortability and playing it safe are like gravity, exerting its own force to keep you in place. That’s why you need to keep exerting energy in the direction of your vision, despite any distractions, even if it looks like you’re not going anywhere. Eventually, like the rocket, you’ll move an inch. The meditation becomes easier and ten minutes seem to fly by. Then you’ll move a foot. You start looking forward to your meditation and starting off your day this way. You’ll move a few yards. You can’t imagine not doing your meditation. You might even think about making it fifteen minutes instead of ten. And soon enough, you’ll have created enough momentum so that you’re soaring into outer space, on to your destination. With all this being said, I’m not making the argument that creating a new habit means it will be challenging and difficult for you. Creating a new habit could actually be fun, easy and effortless. What I am saying is, if you do happen to encounter those rough spots where it might seem easier to turn back to your old way of being, know that there’s a payoff when you keep on going. And the payoff isn’t just creating a new habit that now serves you. The payoff is also you expanding your own sense of what’s possible for you, because your sphere of what you believe you are equal to (known as your comfort zone) is now expanded. When you expand your sense of who you are, you create room in your consciousness for more good to show up. Your sphere of possibility has grown. Just as the rocket ship eventually moves with greater ease in space, you too get to experience a greater sense of spaciousness. So my coaching question for you today is this: what new habit are you open to creating in your life? Then, like the rocket, chart your course and blast away! Abundant Blessings and Namaste. ** I'd love to hear your thoughts about today's article. Please feel free to leave a comment below. A little about me... My unique ability is helping people figure out what’s really holding them back and to fully support them in a safe and sacred space, with the result of people feeling excited about life and believing they can claim the driver’s seat of their lives. I've been called the "Aha Whisperer." If you’re feeling the need for support in creating a life filled with more spaciousness, purpose and joy, I offer a complimentary life coaching consultation that may provide you with the insight and resources you need in this moment. To learn more about this, click here.  Years ago, in my early days of taking classes at my spiritual center in Oakland, California, my teacher made this odd statement: “I can tell you what you believe just by visiting your house and looking around.” I call it odd because at the time, I thought, how in the world could she know what I believe just by looking around my home? Yet, the more I considered her statement, the more I realized how wise she was. Think about your own home for a minute. If someone walked in and took a look around, what would they intuit about you? Do you keep your place clean and organized, or are there places of untidiness? What kinds of books or reading materials do you keep in your shelves? What kinds of food do you have in your refrigerator and your cupboards? What do you have on your walls, if anything? The spiritual lesson she was teaching in class that day was that your environment mirrors your thoughts and beliefs. If you valued living a healthier lifestyle, your kitchen most likely would reflect healthier kinds of foods. If you had a strong belief in relationships, your home might be adorned with photos of family members and loved ones. If you loved travel and adventure, you could have mementos of your travels speckled throughout your home. If you followed a religious or spiritual tradition, you might find an altar, a crucifix or a book reflecting this. Now, you might be asking yourself, how is this a spiritual lesson, that your environment mirrors your thoughts and beliefs? Well, it starts to make more sense spiritually when you extend the idea that it’s not just your home that mirrors your thoughts and beliefs. Your entire life is a reflection of what you truly believe. In my life coaching work, I meet a number of people who feel unfulfilled with (and sometimes loathing) the work they do. When I ask what’s stopping them from finding work that’s more fulfilling and meaningful, the usual response is, “I can’t leave my job. How will I pay my bills?” The underlying belief is that this particular job is the only source of income to sustain them, and that they wouldn’t be able to find something else that supports them in this way. This belief stops many from even looking at the possibility of other kinds of work. Inner beliefs have a direct correlation to a person’s real life experiences. In other words, your outer world is a mirror of your inner world. Whether in your work, your home, your finances, your relationships, your health or in other areas of your life, what you experience and how you experience it reflect your own beliefs. For example, if you spend time cultivating inner peace by meditating and reading uplifting books, most likely your life would reflect your ability to experience more peace in your daily life. On the other hand, if your inner world feels chaotic and ungrounded, more than likely your outer life would reflect some level of turbulence. That being said, if you’re not happy with what you are experiencing in your outer world, then the logical step would be to shift or change what’s happening in your inner world. Change your beliefs, change your life. I know it sounds simple, and possibly trite…a slogan that you can put on a bumper sticker. Yet, some spiritual truths are really that simple. And I get that it’s not always easy. One of the first steps to changing your beliefs is to see what beliefs might be there in the first place. Now, you might be wondering, “Well, how am I supposed to change if I don’t know what I believe?” If you’re pondering this question, here’s an exercise for you. Pick an aspect of your life that isn’t really working for you. It doesn’t have to be anything huge. Some examples could be that you’re finding yourself so busy that you don’t have time to exercise, or you’re having problems with that one person in your office. It could be anything. Then, spend some time asking the question, “What might be my beliefs about this situation?” With the example of finding yourself too busy to exercise, one person might respond, “Well, I’m so busy because I have to work. That’s why I don’t have time to exercise. And work comes first because I have to pay the bills. But if I hear myself saying work comes first, then I guess I’m saying that my health comes second. Hmm…I didn’t realize that’s what I’m really believing but that’s how it’s showing up.” No matter what comes up, see if you can have some compassion and non-judgment about the situation. Sometimes what arises might not be what you want to hear, but it’s still important to see emerges. Then, you get to see whether those beliefs serve you or don’t serve you, and whether you want to keep those beliefs around or not. When you consciously choose to let go of beliefs that no longer serve you, you can then choose to cultivate a new belief that better aligns with what you want to experience. Here’s the spiritual truth: whatever you truly believe, the Universe says yes. That’s because you and the Universe are not separate. All the Power, Love, Joy, Good and Possibility that is the nature of this Universe is your very nature as well. Infinite and abundant good is always available to you. Always. Yet, there's a caveat. This good is available to you at the level that you believe that you can accept it and receive it. This good is available to you at the level that you believe you are equal to it. Your home reflects your beliefs. Your life reflects your beliefs. Imagine if you elevated your consciousness and you in your inner world truly believed that Power, Love, Joy, Good and Possibility are your inherent birthright. Your outer world could do nothing but match the same high level of vibration of your inner world. Then watch your home, and your life, shift to align to that greater good. What a sight that would be to behold. Abundant Blessings and Namaste. ** I'd love to hear your thoughts about today's article. Please feel free to leave a comment below. A little about me... My unique ability is helping people figure out what’s really holding them back and to fully support them in a safe and sacred space, with the result of people feeling excited about life and believing they can claim the driver’s seat of their lives. I've been called the "Aha Whisperer." If you’re feeling the need for support in creating a life filled with more spaciousness, purpose and joy, I offer a complimentary life coaching consultation that may provide you with the insight and resources you need in this moment. To learn more about this, click here. |
About JoselitoJoselito is a spiritual life coach helping people create a purposeful, spiritual path to career and financial freedom. Popular Blog Articles Beware (Be Aware of) these 5 Unhelpful Money Stories How my body told me to quit my job How I was offered an all-expenses paid cruise after making my Vision Board Today I choose to live my GREATNESS You are not your stories. You are the story-teller. Your job is not your Source. Archives
September 2019
|
RSS Feed