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Every winter my life slows down. It is a welcome slowing in comparison to our very busy summers that bustle with markets throughout the midwest. We find ourselves home on the weekends now, sitting by the woodstove more, eating fresh bread right out of the oven with homemade butter, playing board games we received for Christmas and relaxing together (long exhale). This time is precious to me. Time slows for us in the winter and just for a few months there is nothing we have to rush to, nothing we have to leave the house for, nothing we can't drop if we all feel like one more round of skip-bo. Yep...these are the good times.
And every year, in preparation for this slowing of time, I order myself a stack of books for Christmas...usually a mix of heavy fiction and self-improvement. Afterall, this is the time to work on my internal world a bit more.now that I have the time. At the top of my stack this year was a Jen Sincero favorite, "You are a badass: How to stop doubting your greatness and start living an awesome life." I have read this one before, but there are so many great reminders in this book on living your life exactly the way you create it...well, I had to give it another go.
It is based on the premise that we live in a world of limitless possibilities and anything we are wanting is already available to us. It is out there already, waiting for us to swoop in and claim it. It requires a little bit of stepping out of your comfort zone...but, hey, if you really want to be a rock star in this life, stay with me.
"The moment you have the audacity to start believing in the not-yet seen, your reality will begin to shift" -Jen Sincero
I have been a big fan of manifestations ever since I was introduced to the possibility that we actually can create whatever life we are wanting. You know, The Law of Attraction. Think good thoughts, and you will attract good things. Think negative thoughts...and well...your experiences will have a tendency to match that, too. Change your thoughts, change your life. So living a life full of possibilities requires that you first know which, out of those possibilities, you want. Exactly what kind of life do you want to create? It sounds easy, but the more clarity you have around the details, the better.
"This is about getting mighty clear about what makes you happy and what makes you feel most alive, and then creating it instead of pretending you can't have it. Or, that you don't deserve it." -Jen Sincero
When I first started here, I was a bit wishy washy. I had to unravel some old patterns of what it meant to have desires. What it meant to want the best kickass life possible and how that might look to others when I got it. It meant passing on friends that brought me down or had that constant negative vibe hanging over their heads. It meant keeping certain family members at arm's length because, well, they were just toxic. And it meant having faith in something different, something a bit more foreign. And it meant...well, putting me first and ready for this? Loving myself...completely, unconditionally, fiercly. This is no easy challenge. But the alternative was to stay in my lukewarm life that had these little bursts of awesomeness, but never becoming a full blown badass.
So I started visualizing. Visualizing like my life depended on it (and my new life did actually depend on it). The key, here, is to visualize your desires like they are right in front of you, happening to you right now and then feel how you would feel if all you wanted already existed. Write it down, meditate on it, if that is your thing, but feel it in every fiber of your being. What does it feel like if you already have love? Have all the money you desire? Have a dream vacation planned? What does it feel like if you scored that new job or bought that new car? Feel the happiness inside as if you already have all of these things that are in your reach. Live your life with that feeling and revisit it throughout the day.
For me, I have a list of all of my mainifestations sitting by my coffee cup in the morning. After I pour my first cup (I have priorities, after all), I sit by the fire and not only read my new life happenings, I visualize them as if I already have achieved them. Then...I get going. Sometimes my 'get going' is meditation, sometimes it is business related (how my already amazing body care can be even better..and then developing new products), sometimes it is family related (how can I spend more time with my kids and still be patient and then being present with them), sometimes it is related to love (how can I find it in this small little town and then signing up for a dating service) and sometimes (more often than not) it is just all about me (how can I be more loving, more relaxed, more open to what is around me and then practicing it). It all requires action. And sometimes that action is me doing something or sometimes, more often than not, it is letting the Universe (or God, or your source, or whatever you call your invisible superhero) do it's thing and me getting out of the way.
"All of us are connected to this limitless power and most of us aren't using but a fraction of it" - Jen Sincero
The key is to want something badly enough, visualize it, decide that you will get it, and then the rest is a cake walk....even the things that you currently think are out of your reach. It all falls into place. And Jen (we can be on a first name basis, right?) does this so comically, so to the point, so, yep this makes perfect sense, that it may take you all of a few days to devour this little gem and put the steps in place to just leap right over them. It is that fun.
So...tell me readers...are you ready to create a life you totally love? Ready to step into the throws of greatness and be the badass you know you already are? This book. This will get you started. Read it. Inhale it. Tell me how much you love it. By the time you are done. I will have another kickass book for you waiting to be consumed. Enjoy!