Insightful Inspirations

BALBOA PRESS

Contents

How to use this book.....................xiiiUnderstanding............................1Perspective..............................3Choices..................................5Support..................................7Influences...............................9Effort...................................11Power....................................13Allow....................................15Feel.....................................17Pause....................................19Reveal...................................21Boundaries...............................23Break Through............................25Fun......................................27Self-Care................................29Validation...............................31Duplicity................................33Do Nothing...............................35No Expectations..........................37Communicate..............................39Pretend..................................41Mindful..................................43Patterns.................................45Self-Talk................................47Weight...................................49Organic..................................51Activate.................................53Ground...................................55Flawless.................................57Isolation................................59Heal the Past............................61Attitude Check...........................63Craving..................................65Answers..................................67Know.....................................69Listen to your Body......................71Reflexes.................................73Packages.................................75Shake it off.............................77Illusions................................79Strength.................................81Intention................................83Needs....................................85Spontaneity..............................87Ego......................................89Creation.................................91Competition..............................93Savor....................................95Endure...................................97Completion...............................99

Chapter One

Release the need to know

Are you driving yourself nuts inhaling information in the effort to "know" something? Are you trying to dissect information and understand it better? Do you think you will find "the answer" and be done seeking? You might be trying too hard.

Think of it this way—you wouldn't try to get to know your new pet by dissecting it. You would embrace it as a whole being. Snuggle with it, communicate with it, and experience it. That is what the world is asking you to do. Snuggle it, embrace it, and experience it as a whole. Drill down if you must, but know there is always another layer to uncover that is part of the whole.

Insightful Inspiration: Release yourself from the need to understand. Balance out your need to know with the acceptance of what you already do know.

Questions to Consider:

• What are you trying to "understand" better?

• Is it creating ease and fun in your life or chaos and struggle? If it is creating chaos and struggle, can you let go of it a little bit?

• If you can't let it go, explore why. What is it that you are telling yourself will happen if you don't "know" this?

• What are you telling yourself will happen when you do "know it"?

Perspective

Everyone sees things differently

We spend a lot of time in relationships trying to see each other's points of view. We spend time convincing others to see our side of things. We try to understand where someone else is coming from. But no matter how hard you try and see another person's point of view, you are still seeing their point of view from your point of view. It is impossible for you to truly see their point of view.

Maybe your significant other wants to spend money going on vacation and you want to invest it in your house. What are your different points of view bringing to light for both of you?

Insightful Inspiration: Stop trying to convince everyone else to see things your way. Realize your perspective is different from those around you and that it is okay to be different. Embrace who you are and how you think. This is your gift to the world. Share it with an open mind and open heart and encourage others to do the same.

Questions to Consider:

• Are you spending energy and time trying to understand someone's point of view or have them understand yours?

• Can you see the wisdom in the search for a compromise?

• Why is the universe presenting you with this difference of opinion?

• What is it trying to get you to see differently?

Choices

Choose freely

We want freedom to choose and options available, but sometimes all of those options cause stress. The question becomes: is it more stressful to have options or NOT to have options? We wish we knew the BEST choice at all times. But the best choice is whatever we choose because it leads us to lessons that help us grow and learn.

Insightful Inspiration: Embrace the fact that you have a choice, but go easy. You're on the right path no matter what. Sometimes not making a choice is a choice!

Questions to Consider:

• Do you feel that you don't have enough choices or you have too many?

• How can you give yourself more choices? Get creative.

• If you have too many, are there choices that are there because you want to weigh all of the options? Do you really need them all on your list?

• Do you have to decide right now? Can you wait until things get a little clearer?

Support

Release the worry

When you worry about someone or something, you are energetically saying "I don't trust you to be okay." You are sending them concerns about who, what, where, and how they are. Worry supports the person or situation in a way that causes it to be more out of balance.

Rather than sending worrisome energy, try sending more supportive energy to the situation. Send the energy of support in getting what is needed out of the situation. Send "you are perfect and powerful the way you are and I trust you to be okay" thoughts. Energetically it is the difference between telling someone "you can do it" and "I HOPE you can do it." Which one is more supportive? Imagine how that would feel if someone did that for you—stopped worrying and started to cheer you on.

Insightful Inspiration: Face your fears head on and see if they are serving your highest good and the situation you are worrying about. Notice how things shift when you bring awareness to this energy and support it rather than worry about it.

Questions to Consider:

• Who are you worrying about?

• How can you shift that worry to support and trust?

• What are the fears that reside under that worry?

• Will you release the worst case scenarios in honor of trusting things will be okay? If not, why?

Influences

Surround yourself with support

There are many influences in your life. It could be something obvious, like what your friend said to you yesterday or a blog you read. But it could also be something subtle, that you don't give much attention to. You are responding to influences around you without even knowing it.

Surround yourself with love, peace, abundance, and the things you want to be influenced by. If you are surrounded by circumstances that support you to be stuck, hurt, or victimized, seek out new influences that support empowerment and success.

Insightful Inspiration: Surround yourself with influences that support your highest good. They may not always tell you what you want to hear, but you know they are influencing you in a positive direction. Also take note to how you are influencing others.

Questions to Consider:

• Are you surrounding yourself with positive influences?

• Are they supporting you in where you want to go in life?

• Are they helping you be the best you can be? If not, what can you do to shift the power this influence has in your life?

• How are you influencing people?

• Are you supporting them to live their best lives?

Effort

Balance the effort

People notice when you make an effort. They notice when you do your best. Even if they don't notice 100% of the time, the constant effort is appreciated in some way. If you are holding back, people know that too. Sometimes you make yourself stuck because you are waiting to put in your best effort until things are "better." However, things won't get "better" until you put in the effort. It is time to start enjoying where you are and making it work.

Insightful Inspiration: Notice how much effort you are putting into the situation. You get what you put into it. Too much or too little effort will throw the whole situation off balance. Show up for what you are committing to. If you can't show up for it, find what you can show up for.

Questions to Consider:

• What are you waiting to put effort into?

• Are you saying to yourself, "When I get xyz, then I will do more"?

• Are you trying to put too much effort into something?

• Why are you struggling with effort? What isn't working? How can you shift it?

Power

Take back your power

Be aware of when you are giving away your power. Be on equal ground with everyone you seek advice from, be it doctors, healers, therapist, etc. You know yourself best. Listen to your intuition first and foremost. Use external sources to broaden your influence, but use your inner strength to bring out your truth.

The attraction of someone else having all of the answers or someone to "save" us from ourselves is a tempting one. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just go to a guru and get our lives all straightened out? But that is not the point of all of life. Empower yourself to live your life to its fullest with the ups and downs being equal gifts in your life. The point of life is not to "fix" you or take away all your problems.

Insightful Inspiration: Take notice of whom or what you might be giving away your power to. Just because of their title, status, experience, etc. No one knows the answers for you better than you.

Questions to Consider:

• Are you giving your power away to someone else?

• Are you taking power away from someone else?

• What do you need to feel powerful in this situation within yourself?

• What is stopping you from giving yourself that power?

Allow

Release the need to be "right"

Don't push or force the issue to the surface before it is ready. You may want to rush through hard situations and push things through to the other side when things are "clear" again. You may want to force things to be done before they are and in doing so, you can make things worse or make them last longer than necessary.

Maybe you're trying to find a job and are pushing yourself into situations that you know don't fit. Or perhaps you are settling for a relationship because you don't know if you will ever find the person who meets all of your needs. Either way you are forcing the process to be done before it is ready.

Insightful Inspiration: Release yourself from the responsibility to make things "right" and see what purpose the situation is serving. Don't beat yourself up for where you are or how you got there. Allow it to show you why it has come up in your life.

Questions to Consider:

• What are you trying to force to closure before it is ready?

• What issue are you trying to rush?

• Are you making it worse by trying to "fi x it"? Perhaps you are supposed to just step back and allow things to change on their own.

• Are you over correcting and preventing things from swinging back into balance?

Feel

Let your emotions flow

If you block yourself off from your emotions or have a judgment about certain types of emotions, you are stealing away the power emotions have to communicate with you. Then these emotions stop working properly and get out of balance. You start feeling emotions at odd times or they come out stronger than is necessary when you do feel them.

For example, maybe as a child you were taught by example or words that expressing anger is bad. So now, any time you have anger you say "that is not me" and you deny yourself the experience of anger and the permission to feel the spectrum. Or maybe you are afraid to be happy because it is such a disappointment when the feeling goes away.

Insightful Inspiration: Let your emotions and feelings flow without judgment of how you "should" be feeling. You have put obligations on your emotions to be what you want and not what they are. Notice your feelings with presence and awareness and allow them to communicate without the need to understand or control them.

Questions to Consider:

• What emotions do you label as "bad?" • Is there is a feeling coming up in you right now that is very painful and scary for you to face?

• What is the underlying fear of that emotion or expressing that emotion?

Pause

Give yourself a break

Are you feeling overwhelmed or set off by seemingly small matters? Are you feeling like you don't understand how to get yourself back into alignment? What you are feeling is energetically overloaded and any additional thing will set you off . It leaves you feeling heavy and hopeless at times.

This isn't an exercise in ridding your life of negative energy. It is just about being more aware of all the sources that come to you so that when you are feeling overwhelmed, you know how to reduce the noise and get back to yourself.

Insightful Inspiration: Give yourself a break and then look at all the things that happened before the last thing that threw you over the edge. It isn't just that one thing; it is the compilation of everything. This includes the energy you surround yourself with in your home, your office, even your car. Everything has energy and if you are surrounded by it unconsciously, it can be draining.

Questions to Consider:

• What issue are you feeling overwhelmed by right now? Would you feel more capable of handling this situation if it was all you had to handle?

• What energetic noise is playing out in your life? For example, television, technology, or people.

• Are there places or situations that you feel more drained than others? Will you step back from those situations for now until you rejuvenate?

• What can you do to bring some stillness into your life right now?

Reveal

Be authentic

Are you hiding your authentic self from the world? Wouldn't it be a relief to be able to talk about some of these things out in the open and not have to keep parts of ourselves locked up? Not only is hiding parts of yourself hurting you, but it is hurting the people around you. You are teaching your loved ones that you have secrets from them, which makes them feel the need to have secrets from you. When you are an open book, you discover that we are all okay just the way we are and have similar insecurities and worries. You would also find your life to be easier and less stressful. Be yourself. Be all of yourself, embrace it, and find your freedom!

Insightful Inspiration: Stop hiding from the world assuming it makes you more lovable, acceptable, likable, and employable. Be you fully and proudly! You being who you are is your gift to the world. This doesn't mean you have to shout it from the rooftops. It simply means the next time you are presented with the opportunity to share yourself fully and freely, you give it space to be what comes natural. Remember, we are all insecure in one way or another.

Questions to Consider:

• Are you free to be who you are and say what you think, no matter what?

• What parts of yourself are you hiding from the world?

• Why are you hiding those parts?

• Are there places in your life you can feel safe trying to let more of your inner self show to the world?

Boundaries

Balance your boundaries

Check in with your personal boundaries right now. Are you in balance? Do you stand up for what you need but respect others around you in doing so? It is always good to have healthy boundaries and enforce them for yourself. You are in charge of your energy.

Sometimes boundary issues come up when we are trying to heal something from childhood. Either your parents didn't encourage you to have boundaries or downright made it a "bad" thing to have them. Are you stuck in relationship patterns you don't want to continue? This is a good sign you have something from the past to heal.

Insightful Inspiration: Check in with your boundaries. Things can get off balance and confuse your ability to be clear and intuitive. Rely on yourself to create boundaries that are more appropriate for you. Take notice where you are allowing the boundaries to be blurred.

Questions to Consider:

• Are your boundaries where you want them to be?

• Do you let people into your space too much?

• Are you aggressive beyond assertive? Do you keep people out?

• Are you keeping secrets from others because you don't trust them?

• Are you rigid in your expectations of interaction with friends and family?

Break Through

Release the struggle

Life is a challenge. We wouldn't have it any other way. How boring would life be if we knew everything that was coming or could easily overcome obstacles? The key is to acknowledge the challenges for what they are, making room for the unexpected. I know it is hard to see suffering and believe on some level that the person created it for themselves. Of course they didn't do it on purpose, but there is a part of their divine intelligence that wants them to have this suffering experience, something to learn from.

This same thing comes to you. Not because you want to suffer, but because you struggle with seeing life any other way unless something drastic comes along to change it. If we knew how, we could easily learn all things without suffering. But for whatever reason, we have set ourselves up to "learn the hard way" most of the time.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Insightful Inspirationsby LEANNE HOLITZA Copyright © 2012 by Leanne Holitza. Excerpted by permission of BALBOA PRESS. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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