What did I learn today? Lessons on the Journey to Unconditional Self Love

  Do you know what your  emotional triggers are?  Emotional triggers are reactions to events which usually cause fight, flight or tension. They are unresolved  issues, matters and challenges which we carry around sometimes unconsciously. We sometimes bury them, deny them, ignore them for fear of hurt, retribution and rejection. We all have triggers, it really is about how we deal with them when they come up, oh and come up they will! When we are triggered, many times we feel that we are being attacked. With that belief the natural response is fight and flight. That signals to us that we are protecting ourselves and what we care about. Many of us walk around carrying challenges and issues from way back when. With little resolution of these issues and challenges, when we are triggered the natural reaction is to protect ourselves. Many times the reactions are habitual or addictive. I have been paying attention to what triggers me, I have self analyzed that my triggers a...

 Something Feels Different and I think its me - Maryaam Hasnaa Taking responsibility for our actions - Taking responsibility for how you respond to actions around you. - This is one of my most impactful lessons. The moment I start externalizing, focusing on others, what they did, what they said and leaving me out of the equation, I know I have given away my power. No amount of denying or avoiding will make our responsibility go away. We all have the ability to respond, this is part of what free will is. There will always be situations that we have absolutely no control over. What we would be in control of is how we accept, acknowledge and respond  When we give that up, we give away our power When we own our responsibility we can make choices from a place of knowledge and power. Taking responsibility eliminates the need to control every aspect of our lives as we know we can respond from a place of power and awareness Peace Have you read any of Akosua's work? What Did I Learn T...

Quite often out of fear of losing business or the desire to win more business, people will undercharge for their services. This is a classic situation where they end up doing much more than they’re paid to do. But, somehow, in a desire to prove themselves, these people still feel that they are not doing enough in relation to how much they are being paid. This can set a precedent which could be hard to remove. Morton Patterson I had a penny dropping moment this week. It is now true for me that we teach what we need to learn. Over the past few days, Unveiling -Looking into the Mirror of Self, the online course that I have the absolute pleasure and privilege to facilitate, focused on Self Value. I have been having challenges with being paid on time and receiving monies for speaking and coaching engagements over the past few months. Confessions on the Journey -  I would either be scared to call a price because I thought I would lose the client or deal, or I would accept less or not...

  When we let go of our need to arrange and control how things will work out and are instead open to all possibilities, it makes room for new ways of achieving our goals that we might not have considered otherwise. The Universal Laws What will it take to choose you first? What will it take to be the number one on your list? What will you do when it comes down to choosing you? What do you feel when you put you first? What is the commitment that you keep or not keep with yourself? Why do you break commitments to self? One of the best lessons I have internalized is the list of what comes first in a world of value: God First. You. Spouse and Family. Friends. Work We live the other way around, we put work first and then wonder why things are nor running smoothly. God first, then YOU! Without YOU, there will be nothing else. It really is just that simple. Peace

On its most practical level, liberation is about learning to respond rather than react . Maryam Hasnaa  Doubt never leaves. There is a popular myth people believe, that the more successful you are, the less doubts you have.  The irony is that the more success you find, the greater your doubts grow. So self-doubt becomes a part of your daily monologues as you constantly leap into new and scary territory. Doubt usually stems from fear of failure, or the probability of it, which then leads to feelings of isolation, criticism, or lowered self-worth in the face of friends Self-doubt stems from the potential attack on your identity. Our egos don't want to disrupt the pattern or perception others have of us.  Self Doubt has resurfaced for me in a huge way as I navigate into new undertakings. The ways in which I have  navigated these feelings of doubt by focusing on affirmations:  1. Don't let the doubt fool you 2. It takes determination to fool proof the distractions 3...

  Part of building better, stronger relationships requires us to be more honest with ourselves and the people we care for. E.B Johnson Living peacefully in this world requires us to have solid, compassionate and honest relationships - starting with self. The first relationship we must have, work on, be comfortable with is with ourselves- this is where it all starts. Fostering and caring for ourselves takes time, effort, commitment and discipline. Without these pillars, every other relationship that we have will continue to reflect the lessons and work still required with self. Ask yourself: 1. Do you prioritize time with self? doing something you like, resting, getting to know what you like and don't like? 2. Do you show self compassion? How do you speak to yourself in challenging times, when in doubt and when you encounter uncertainty? 3. Do you question the beliefs and values that you were given? Are they serving you on your own journey? Or are they in your life because it ...

  Reality check: You can’t lose your ego, so don’t try to kill it. The Mental Break On an online course I participated in last month, a question was asked "How do I kill the ego?" I thought about it for a moment because I truthfully never thought about the option of killing the ego. It came to me at that moment that the ego can be useful. The ego is the part of us that lets us know to wash our face in the morning, to take the spinach out of our teeth when in a full room, it allows us to know that something may be off. The false ego is what we need to pay attention to. The false ego is that part of ourselves that focuses on competition over collaboration, it looks at external validation, it says to you that you must win, must be better than others, must have the last word, must show only the best side of ourselves to continue to be liked, appreciated and accepted. The false ego feeds on anything other than love, it feeds on separation. So the question meant to me is how do...

  The approver is within . The Naked Poet When we are under siege by what we think are worst case scenarios we tend to as questions that are debilitating. Why me? What's wrong? Who's to blame? Who's fault if this? Those questions in times like this don't assist us, they pull us down the rabbit hole of negativity, fear. doubt and worry, of which many people have perfected. As they do their worry, doubt and fear becomes bigger. We want to be asking a different type of question What is in me that is seeking to emerge? What kind of person do I want to be? What am I to give birth to? The still small voice will emerge when you ask empowering questions Peace Akosua

 Love is hard to define - because Love is destroyed by defining it . Ginormous Budda Labels - How do you use them on yourself? What do you call yourself - consciously or unconsciously? What do you attach your I AM too? Part of living in our power is how we do or do not label ourselves. Some of us label ourselves with limitations. Some of us label ourselves and have outgrown the labels.  Some of us accept the labels that have been placed upon us bu others. The challenge of remaining living within those labels when you have outgrown them involves limitations. The limitation of sometimes living down to the labels - diming your light to fit in, doing what is expected of you because of the label given or accepted can lead to resentment or even guilt. How do you see yourself? How do you call yourself? How do you respond to calls? What labels do you live up to or live down to? Be careful when you label something, including yourself that you don't destroy something else. Peace

  You move different when you understand your power - Virgo Goddess How do you define power? My best definition of power is  faith in a higher  power , a consciousness, offering a sense of peace, contentment, confidence and hope. As you can see my favorite definition has very little to do with money, status, titles and positions.  Power to me, comes from a sense of knowing that you have something inside of you, sometimes you may not even be able to describe it. That something brings a sense of confidence , a sense of hope that a situation can never make us feel helpless inferior and out of control. That power reflects in our actions, in our behavior, in the way we show up. When we face challenging situations, we can tap into that power source. With that we can remain conscious, we can remain confident and we can remain hopeful. These are some of the ways in which we give away our power: 1. Thinking that we do not have any, feeling powerless. 2.  You re...

  Optimism is usually defined as a belief that things will go well. But that's incomplete. Sensible optimism is a belief that the odds are in your favor, and over time things will balance out to a good outcome even if what happens in between is filled with misery. And in fact you  know  it will be filled with misery. You can be optimistic that the long-term growth trajectory is up and to the right, but equally sure that the road between now and then is filled with landmines, and always will be. Those two things are not mutually exclusive." Who told us that all the roads on the Journey of life will be smooth and bump free? And even if you knew or remember who told you, why did you believe it given what you know? What if the blessing, what if the growth, what if the joy is found on the rocky bumpy road? What if? And if it is, we can rest easier that the bumps and rocky roads are designed with us in mind, designed for us to grow, to learn, to live a life that is filled with ...

  I look at the human life like an experiment. Every new moment, every new experience, tragic or otherwise, is an opportunity to gain a more accurate perspective and helps lead me to clarity.   Steve   I had a penny dropping moment yesterday. You know that moment when that thing which was fogging up your mind and thinking becomes so clear? The AHA moment as Oprah calls it. The moment I realized that when I focus on what I think and acknowledge those feelings I get a clearer picture on my feelings in that present moment. When I become aware, I can ask myself "what are the thoughts behind this feeling? Are these thoughts helpful?"  As soon as I realized that getting aware and curious about my thoughts helped the way I showed up, so many things shifted most importantly changing the unhelpful thought in that particular moment. When I am not aware of my feelings of self doubt because they have become habitual, I take that feeling with me into situations and it colors...

    " I’m not limiting myself on what  love is supposed to look like.” Neicy Nash Do you have a definition of love?  A vision of what it ought to look like, feel like, smell like, take like? There are so many definitions of what love is, on the flip side there are also so many who chose not to define or put love in a box. This what I have learned - Love shows up in so many different ways.  If we define it in one way and it shows up differently what do we do? Deny it? Embrace it? Run from it? If we cannot define it, will be open to when it shows up?  To me, love is a feeling, a feeling that cannot be defined by words alone. You just know This goes beyond romantic love this is the agape love. Feelings about the moments, the people, the places. It is undeniable. I also learned that when we put logic on the feeling, a description, it may not translate well. Some feelings are just to be felt, enjoyed and accepted rather than explained with logic. Feel it, that ...

 I am allowing people to love me. I am allowing people to shower me with uplifting energy. I am cultivating intimate friendships. I am at peace Mani How do you receive love? Yes, I asked it. How do you receive love? Love shows up in so many ways , there are also many things parading out there as love. Love  can be someone offering to cook you a meal, to take you to buy groceries when your car is not starting, dropping off Sunday market for you, sharing their last block of chocolate, sending you a poem or a reading that you like. Giving you a compliment. How do you respond when love shows up in its many forms? A Course in Miracles says,   Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. Love is always around us, do we embrace it or do we find a way to push it away because it somehow doesn't look the way we want it to look or we are uncomfortable with how it showed up? What we focus on g...

  being close to me means honoring that I often need to disappear into myself, into spirit, into silence and not taking that personally . Source Nectar This quote sums up how I feel so well.  My challenge has always been communicating this to people who are close to me with such grace and having zero guilt attached to it. I must say that I am getting better at it. Confessions on the Journey! I would not know how or if to say what I needed, to say that I require some quiet and silent time. So what did I do? I would either pick a fight or indulge in passive aggressive behavior, or just disappear. All not very helpful actions while being around people, especially ones that care about you. My own actions got in the way of letting people in. Vulnerability and Openness takes  courage and self worth. It takes a great level of courage to speak your truth especially when it is not everyone's cup of tea and not considered "normal" There must be a soundness in knowing who you are to...

  "There’s many seasons to your life." – Erica Williams Simon Honoring  the season that you are presently in makes life so much easier to handle. When I want what I want when I want and don't get it, sometimes I am dishonouring the season. There is a time for everything under the sun it is said, a time for sowing and a time for reaping. The challenge begins when we want to sow in reaping season, or ignore that a particular reason has ended or started. We hold on or we resist. Some seasons are for work, some are for play, some are for rest, some are for pushing, some are for being still. Life will show you, life will guide you. The moment we relax and recognise the season, the flow never stops. What season are you in? Peace

 Long time it ah overdue - Erphann Alves Rest. Self Care. Relaxation. Stillness. Down time. Pampering of self. Meditation. Chillaxin. Rejuvenation. Make it happen, resist the temptation to delay it any longer It is an essential part of the journey Peace Join me in Unveiling- September 20th 2020  www.akosuadardaineedwards.com/unveiling

  Why do anxiety, stress, or negativity arise? Because you turned away from the present moment. And why did you do that? You thought something else was more important. You forgot your main purpose. One small error, one misperception, creates a world of suffering . Eckart Tolle What is more important than the present moment? What is more urgent that right now? Confessions on the Journey: The past few weeks moving back out in the world after being at home for the past few months brought on my feelings of anxiety and overwhelm. Having multiple tasks and demands after being silent for a while threw me for a loop. I confess that I just was not ready for it. I craved the quiet time, even after admitting that when the quiet time started, I was not sure how I would respond to being in one space physically and mentally. This morning, a dear friend of mine was chatting to me about her own anxiety and the effects it has been having on her and her relationships. As we were having the conversat...