5 Reasons Our Moms are Incredible
“All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” —Abraham Lincoln
Everything that I am and ever will be started when my mom and dad made the decision to have me and that’s still something I have trouble comprehending. Then they took on the task of raising my four siblings and I, no task for the faint of heart.
My parents raised us together, but in the spirit of the holiday, Mommy gets all the glory in this post…and yes, I do still call my mother Mommy.
At my age, my mother was married, had 3 children, a career as an LPN and a house. She went to Nursing school with 2 toddlers at home (a feat I can’t comprehend…finals are hard enough without gurgling gremlins in the background!)
Over the years, I’ve inherited Jennifer’s goofy approach to life, her courage and her strength. She’s a heck of a woman
and I’d be doing her a disservice if I didn’t say that I was too! Following her example, I have never let anyone tell me that I was less than. I’m a bad bitch…just like mommy! Anyway, enough about my mommy and me…Here are 10 reasons we all have incredible moms!
1. They made the decision to allow a person to grow inside them, distorting the appearance and function of their bodies for 9 months. That’s actually crazy. And my mom did it 5 times…I still don’t understand why. They got it right the first time.
2. They spend a considerable amount of their energy on us from the moment we took up residence in their womb until….indefinitely. Seriously, even after we move out, our moms think about us all the time. That’s some dedication.
3. They are excellent kissers. Nothing better than getting a kiss from your mom. You’re never too old for it!
4. They let us abuse them through our teen years…and they still become our friends as young adults. Who else was a complete ass-hole throughout their teen years? It wasn’t until I spent a little time a way that I realized that being an adult was a dumb life goal and my parents are, in fact, smarter than me.
5. They knew, without a doubt, that they loved us the very moment they saw us. They can never know how much of a jerk the bundle of joy that they’re holding might grow up to be. But they don’t worry about that and instead become the world renowned teachers of unconditional love. That’s beautiful in so many ways.
There are thousands of reasons mothers are incredible and it warms my heart so much to have been blessed with such a loving mother. She always supports me in everything I do. Go tell your mom that you love her! You can never say it too much.
With love,
Keyara
Take Control of Your Life
“My life didn’t please me, so I created my life.”
― Coco Chanel
What I am about to suggest is a bit unconventional. Maybe even a little violent. Don’t let that scare you! It’s for the better.
We all have this little friend. He’s called wish. We let him enter our lives and stand between us and our dreams. ‘I wish I travelled the world,’ and ‘I wish I had better relationships’. Get wish out of there! Let’s kick wish’s butt and take our dreams back! This is not a subtle call to action. I am suggesting we excommunicate wishing from our lives if we want any semblance of control back.
Wish has many aliases. Hope, maybe, hopefully, want, and possibly are his known aliases, though there are definitely more. He hides near your dreams giving you the comfort of having aspirations and the safety of not being ridiculed by yourself or others for thinking you can do something that you’re not already doing. Tweet this: Take the safety off of your life and blast into an unrecognizable life that is your dream. Live your dream.
Let’s say you have an idea for a big project, but you never started it because you don’t have time or you don’t have money. Everyone starts somewhere. Start. If you want to change something about yourself, change it. No one can do it for you. If you feel sorry for yourself, stop doing that! You are stronger than that. You are better than that!
So are you with me? Let’s kick wish’s butt! Meet me at the corner of ‘I’m ready to live my life’ and ‘What limits?’ ready to fight. Wish is a tricky one because he pretends to have your best interests in mind. Don’t believe it! Everyone is certainly not invited. Everyone doesn’t want to live their dreams and that doesn’t make them weaker and it doesn’t mean they are limited. Living a dream life is not for everyone and should be forced upon no one. If you’re ready to fight for the life you do want, here are 3 practical tips to get started.
1. Don’t be hard on yourself.
You have made an incredible decision to live the life that you want. When there are setbacks, don’t let them get you down. Laugh at them and keep it moving. Your dreams are waiting!
2. Ignore the haters.
People who are committed to wishing and living a life of dreaming their dreams are not often supportive of your leap to living your dreams. You have to understand that they are not ready for this type of life. The change only can happen from within. Let them keep making noise while they watch you live.
3. Dream big.
Don’t limit yourself once you know that you are actually going for that fancy life in your head. You deserve every bit of it and I’ll tell you why. We are all destined to experience a lot of pain in life. Sorry to be a downer, but there’s a good side to this! Your happiness, your excitement should be enjoyed fully, without remorse! We all have bad times. We all have good times! You can create the experiences you want more of, so get going! Do you want a life full of not bad experiences? Do you want to make yourself miserable? Do you want to amaze yourself everyday? It’s totally up to you! As for me, I’m living my dream life!
With love,
Keyara
Why Self-Love Has Nothing To Do With Arrogance
“Our entire life – consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are.” –Jean Anouilh
We all know that person. We see them coming and we look for any excuse not to engage in conversation with them! Arrogant people are simply not fun to be around! They celebrate themselves for even the smallest success, and they rarely notice or acknowledge the successes of others.
That’s not love. The simple and sad fact is that these poor souls do not love themselves. Why do you think they are campaigning so hard for the love of others? They suffer from a lack of something, which is frankly not our jobs to diagnose. That doesn’t mean don’t care, just try not to assume.
Let me break it down. Love comes from a place of acceptance and content. Arrogance and conceit come from a place of insecurity.
The journey to loving yourself is a journey to the accepting and allowing yourself to live without constant judgement and critiscism. You will be successful in your pursuits. You do not have to be your own controlling boss, but you can be your own supportive friend. If you wouldn’t say it to a friend, do not say it to yourself.
You’re beautiful, powerful, and unlimited. And the funny thing is, you know that! I am preaching to the choir. Allow yourself to be who you truly are. I know you can.
With love,
Keyara
Read more at these blogs:
Guest Post: Can NLP help you reach your potential?
Hello All! Join me in welcoming Pip Thomas to AYL!! Pip has written a piece on creating your own reality through the use of a therapy method called NLP. Take notes, because this life is yours and you have the power to be exactly who you want to be! Follow Pip on twitter and/or Facebook! -Love, Keyara
“To believe that someone else is responsible for your emotional state is to give them a sort of psychic power over you they do not have…we really do generate our own feelings. No one else can do it for us. We respond and are responsible. To think other people are responsible for our feelings is to inhabit a billiard ball, inanimate universe.”
― John Seymour, Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming: The New Psychology of Personal Excellence
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a method of coaching that helps us to examine our personal language patterns and thoughts. It deals with the individual way in which each of us takes in and processes information of every kind, and helps us take control of our thoughts and emotions in order to make them work in a positive way for us. This self-analysis can inform how we develop our communication and thought practices to get us what we want in order to move our lives on and take steps towards happiness and fulfillment.
While it may sound whimsical to some, NLP is actually a very powerful tool, and is used by many people, both in their personal lives and in business. You can find your own version of happiness through NLP. For many, finding happiness and life satisfaction is about reaching their full potential, and here are some ways in which NLP can help you achieve that aim.
Using NLP to ditch the hang-ups that hold you back
One way in which NLP can assist in your quest to fulfill your own potential is by helping you to identify and overcome limiting beliefs and behaviors. For example, you may hold a belief about money which is stopping you from pursuing that job that will give you the pay you need to lead the lifestyle you want. On the flip side, you may be pursuing money for the sake of it without thinking about how much you really need to live. By learning what questions you need to ask yourself, you will find that often the obstacle stopping you from fulfilling your potential is not what you thought it was.
One of the most powerful tools which NLP employs to help you to overcome the fears which prevent you from achieving your maximum potential is called anchoring. It’s a technique which teaches you to focus on something which produces a positive emotional response to help you to quickly access that emotional state in order to deal with stressful situations. One of the most commonly-held fears is public speaking, but anchoring can be used to deal with any sort of phobia or stress trigger.
NLP can help advance your career
In business, understanding our own beliefs and how they influence the way we conduct ourselves professionally can be a powerful tool. NLP can help us understand how we communicate with colleagues, employees, and our superiors, and can equip us with valuable linguistic techniques which give us the empathy to be able to get the most from our staff and ourselves. Interpersonal communication and team building can be improved if we firstly examine ourselves. If you are a leader in your organization, developing your communication skills can make you more approachable and open to ideas from your peers and reportees.
If you aspire to become a leader but feel that there is something preventing your progression up the career ladder, NLP can help you to uncover this barrier and work out ways of removing it and moving forward. Maybe it is your own lack of self-confidence that is the issue? If so, the NLP technique known as re-framing is really useful for helping you turn negative views into positive ones. For example, you might be comparing yourself unfavorably with a colleague and convince yourself that you’ll always be passed over for promotion – but instead of telling yourself “I can’t compete with John as he’s such a natural communicator” you could change, or re-frame, your point of view to “I have an opportunity to improve my communication skills and then nothing can hold me back”. Never forget that great leaders aren’t born – they develop from experience and motivation, and NLP is great at keeping you motivated and as a method of reflecting on past experience.
Unleash your potential now
NLP can show you that reaching your full potential is no less than you deserve. Soon, you can be using NLP to create self-belief and think yourself successful. Imagine what you could achieve if you truly believed that you deserve to have anything you want, and how unstoppable that would make you. NLP is the way to a powerful mental attitude, not just a positive one!
Whatever you feel your full potential looks like, NLP is a great start in discovering your personal barriers and finding ways to make them disappear and clear the way to personal and professional fulfillment and happiness.
Read more about NLP!
16 Quotes About Your Unbelievably Incredible Abilities
I have some fantastic news for you! You are one incredible human being! I am here to prove that to you. Sometimes I hear things like ‘If everyone is special, no one is special’, or ‘Positive thinking is nice, but it doesn’t change anything’. I’ve heard it all. Regardless of those assertions, I still hold the same belief! Every single human is uniquely powerful.
Let me clarify further. Think of platinum or gold. Every single piece you find is valuable. Just because every chunk of gold is valuable, doesn’t mean none are. They are all precious! We’re all products of human evolution with a brain so incredible that we are still at the frontier of understanding it. Don’t limit yourself. Please do not put limits on your abilities. There are human limits, but way more that are self imposed than by true physical and mental boundaries. You know this stuff, I’m just reiterating the truth! Here are 16 quotes that nail in the point that you are truly powerful!
1. Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. ~Norman Vincent Peale
2. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
3. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. ~Alan Kay
4. Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else. ~Les Brown
5. Go where you are celebrated – not tolerated. If they can’t see the real value of you, it’s time for a new start. ~Unknown
6. Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them. ~Marcus Aurelius
7. All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come. ~Victor Hugo
8. Man’s greatness lies in his power of thought. ~Blaise Pascal
9. Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power. ~Lao Tzu
10. No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. ~Buddha
11. The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. ~Joseph Campbell
12. Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other. ~Abraham Lincoln
13. If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams. ~Les Brown
14. Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’! ~Audrey Hepburn
15. Change your thoughts and you change your world. ~Norman Vincent Peale
16. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.
~Marianne Williamson
With Love,
Keyara
P.S. Don’t be a stranger! Drop me an email or even a comment on a post if you ever want to chat! I love getting to know the incredible people who drop by the blog!
Further Reading:
37 Inspirational Quotes That Will Change Your Life
14 Inspirational Quotes for 2014
How to Live More Authentically in 30 Days!
“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.” -Thomas Jefferson
Are you ready to shed those fears! To increase your love-stamina? To increase your emotional strength?
Join me in the month of April and we will increase our capacities for self-love and understanding and shed our fear of opening up to the world!
What is #LovingMe30?
The Loving Me 30 day challenge is like P90X for the soul! It’s a very intensive 30 day workout that will shed light on who you truly are.
Think of it like removing the fat from your muscles. The fat is the unquestioned beliefs that we hold. The muscles under it are our true selves and our purest intentions. That’s what we want to see!
Each day will have 2 big steps–
1. Soul cardio – a difficult and awakening question
2. Soul strengthening – a difficult and awakening task
Soul Cardio
What I define as a difficult question is a question that you initially don’t have an answer for. The reasons for that can vary, but for me this is usually caused by there being a deeply held belief that is being challenged.
Soul Strengthening
What I define as a task that the mere thought of completing gives you a nauseous feeling in your gut. If the feeling isn’t there then you haven’t pushed on a limit. Just like strengthening in the gym, you have to push just past your limits to grow.
These tasks are going to look different for each and every person. You can’t go bench pressing 200 pounds on your first day. Something that will be gut wrenching for me, can be easy for you and vise-versa.
Precautions
I’m not going to tell you to consult with your physician before starting this program, but be aware of your limits and honor yourself when enough is enough. I currently have 2 life coaches, life coach friends and I am a life coach. They are like my personal trainers and they will help throughout my journey. Make sure that you surround yourself with support. This can take the form of a journal, a trustworthy friend or just anyone who is supportive and non-judgmental of you.
Personal Training
If adding a professional to your support team is something you would like to consider, I would be happy to help. I personally have a few coaching spots open and I know plenty of life coaches who are accepting new clients. Send me an email if you would like a discovery session and/or recommendations for a life coach.
Congratulations!
You are already a champion! This program is designed to show you that everything that you need to get what you want out of life is inside of you. You are here to change the world: All of us are! No matter how big or small, we could do with more people in this world who know their own strength.
Let’s get strong together!!
With love,
Keyara
Make Today Count!
“You have nothing to be sad about, you are an extremely capable and amazing person. You can and will make it through absolutely everything that gets thrown at you. Make this day count for you!” -Keyara
With love,
Keyara
Click HERE to join the ‘Loving Me’ mailing list for daily inspiration for loving the most important person in your life! You!
3 Ways to Take Control of Your Beautiful Life!
Check out my guest post here! Thanks to Victor Schueller for the opportunity! Follow him on twitter @speakervictor!
With love,
Keyara
Click HERE to join the ‘Loving Me’ mailing list for daily inspiration for loving the most important person in your life! You!
Love Yourself: Are you Soulfully fit?
It’s easy to sell a fitness program. Most of us feel like we can stand to lose a few pounds. Hey, I’m no body builder, so I understand!
I’m proposing a new way to look at fitness. Physical health is important, I’ll admit. Emotional health is game changing. Stretching your spiritual muscles, strengthening your emotional core and gaining an endurance for loving and being loved can take your life to a whole new level of goodness.
Stretching
So, over the next few posts, I will be defining each component of soulful fitness. With that knowledge, we can all start to get and/or stay soulfully fit! Let’s start with stretching.
In the gym, we stretch to protect ourselves from injury. Well, I stretch because it’s a break from actual physical work, but we can talk about my laziness some other time.
Before engaging in exercise for the soul, I propose honoring yourself in some way: affirmations, meditation a prayer, or whatever you normally do to find your center or connection to your source. If you don’t have some way of doing that in your soulful gym bag, or if you are looking for suggestions, I have an affirmation that I will be using before engaging in anything that stretches me to my emotional limits.
I am a champion.
I am a champion. I face my fears each and every day. Today, I commit to pushing myself to my emotional limits. I respect and honor myself and I will listen to my heart when it says enough is enough. Life is waiting for me on the other side of my comfort zone. I intend to meet it there.
Your life is waiting for you. Are you ready to meet it?
With love and joy,
Keyara
Awakening Your Light 