Walk-In Closets

As a woman, I have always dreamed of a walk-in closet.  You know the ones that have built-in lighting and drawers that open with the push of a button and oh yes, the angels sing whenever you open the doors.   I recently obtained two fairly large closets in my new master bedroom and that alone was enough to send me into happy land for weeks.  

As I pondered reasons why it seems that a bigger closet is always on a woman’s wish list, I remembered the vast space it offers, all the choices and the ability to look at every single thing you own and pick the perfect thing that fits you just right.  My last closet was a bit small, to say the least.  My clothes were scrunched in so tight that they basically pressed themselves.    

Our closets are just like our minds to me.  Inside our heads, there is a full array of different colors, various lengths and numerous styles of thoughts to choose from.  Some thoughts we haven’t put on in 10 years and could probably send to an antique clothing shop.   Some we bought and stored away, never to be worn but the once.   Some are like our favorite, comfy pair of jeans-always there, beckoning for us to slip them on and chill out.  

Our minds can often be confusing and cluttered as well.   No order to speak of and in dire need of some sort of “cleaning out” session.   Because of the confusion, we often resort back to those same 5-6 thoughts that we are so used to.  Some times we will keep thinking them even though they don’t really fit anymore or they have a tear or hole in them.   We will hold them, almost obsessively, because we remember the moment we bought into them or the event we first thought them at.  

I suggest that we remember that in our minds there actually is that amazing and huge walk in closet that we always dreamed of.  It is already built right there in that beautiful little head of ours.    We can walk in, anytime and pick any single thought we want.  

Did I mention that we have an unlimited budget to spend any time we want on new thoughts?   We can select the absolute best, the most luxurious, and the finest made thoughts we could imagine to fill this closet of ours.   We can fill its racks and drawers up over and over again with whatever we choose.   

However, as curators of this magnificent closet, it is also our privilege to release and get rid of the old and tattered thoughts.  To pull them out, take a look and say goodbye forever.  

Take a moment today and see if there are any thoughts that you have been recycling for way too many years now.  See if you can set them in the throw-away pile.  While you are at it, go shopping for some brand-new, amazing ones.  I promise, people will notice the new look and so will you. 

Wishing you the courage to always challenge unhappiness,

Erin

Our Beautiful Storms

Nature has a way of mimicking what we feel in life.  As we received some incremental weather last night, I thought of the similarities in how our emotions play out.   Often in our lives, we see an emotional storm brewing and we pray that it won't come.   We feel the winds of change start to race against the landscape and we feel like they could easily blow us over.   Often, we are even surprised by this emotional storm.  We may have been experiencing some great feeling weather just days before.   And as we start to feel the changes coming and start to get a sense of what might come to pass, we feel an old, familiar anxiety creep in.

Almost inevitably, the storm hits and sometimes, it hits hard.   What were once dry roads along our journey feel slippery with ice and snow now.   We knew it was coming and now that this new cold environment is here, it feels awkward in a way.  We have to use tools to sift through the snow to keep at our regular lives.  Nothing seems as easy or as familiar as what once was.

But this morning, I saw this storm in a completely different way.   I saw it's beauty, its absolute utter beauty.   Yes, it is colder and everything is frozen but maybe that old environment needed a fresh blanket of snow, full of sparkles and grandeur.  

As I stared at the trees in my backyard and saw the inches of precipitation stacked on their branches, I felt a quiet peace come over me knowing that this storm had not truly ruined my backyard.  If anything, it enhanced its beauty.  Such is the storms of our lives.   Our negative anticipation and our anxiety filled shock are always worse than what actually happens.   We always make it through and afterward, we have a beautiful scene to behold.  

So, my remembering today is about enjoying my emotional storms in their entirety.   Enjoying the build up, not listening to others who are dreading theirs, watching the beauty in each moment as it comes, realizing that it is never as bad as I could make it with my thoughts, and most important, realizing that the relief is coming.   In fact, it is already here if I stay present with what I am in.  

Poof! It's Gone!

In the past month or so, I have been holding a question, a "problem".  

"Why is it that after I deliberately manifest something I want and start to celebrate it and more importantly start to share my good news with others that I care about, does my manifestation basically disappear or eliminate itself?" 

This was truly troubling me.   After all, I followed all the rules of Laws of Attraction.   I would get very clear on what I wanted, I would focus upon it, I would feel happy, move downstream and allow it to its fullest.  If I got stuck on a particular bad feeling that I knew I didn't want to focus on,  I would use the tools that I know and love (EFT, The Work, visualization) to release those deep, old negative beliefs and sure enough, every single time, my manifestation would come.  

So, I should be ecstatic right?   Well, I was.  I was so excited.  I would start to live mentally in this new reality that I created.  Still not seeing a problem in my methods?  Me either.  Until...poof...my manifestations started to disappear! 

Some examples of this recently include buying a house and also losing weight for me.   The house thing was interesting because we have been looking for a long time but after Iain was born, we started getting serious.   We needed more room...STAT.  We had gone back and forth in possibly buying the house we rent right now and finally decided for real that we wanted to purchase somewhere else.   We needed something else.   So, off on the hunt we went.  We searched and searched and there have been times of stress for sure.  I got a bit “sideways of it” as Abraham would put it.   Like I mentioned, I really got centered, released my heart out on some old beliefs and focused back on feeling good and...poof...there appeared a perfect house for us.  It was exactly what we wanted and needed and was an amazing, almost unbelievable price.   Right neighborhood, right layout, right everything.   We were so pumped.   We got the ball rolling and we were a couple weeks from closing.  I finally believed it (this is an important statement here for what comes about) and decided to tell everyone.  I mean, everyone!   I asked for moving boxes on FaceBook, we called our parents, I told all my friends, I sent links and pictures of the house to so many and anyone that wanted to hear about it...well, I told them all about it and if they wanted to...I would drive them by the house!   We even told Lilli which was a biggie because she has been wanting a new house as much as we have.   Side note:  Lilli didn't believe us.  She thought we were teasing her.  Kids are smart that way.  :) 

Then, out of the blue, the realtor comes and tells us the seller doesn't want to sell his house anymore and we can sue the seller if we want to but he doesn't have any money anyway.   What?   Ah, guess we will stop packing now? 

The other example was starting a new diet.   I found this awesome eating plan that really seemed to work for me.  In fact, I "stumbled" upon it after wanting to manifest a way to get fit that fit with my schedule and would work semi-quickly but not take up a lot of focus.   With a new baby and trying to keep everything else going, I didn't want to have to eat 6 times a day in a certain way.  I found an amazing plan (The Warrior Diet) that is truly healthy for you whether you lose weight or not.  So, guess what I did.   I told everyone about it!   I made sure people knew that I was working out and that I was eating right and that I was losing weight.  It felt so good to share it with people and get their feedback.   And sure enough, about a week into telling people about it...poof....I suddenly stopped eating the way this plan was asking.  Why?   I don't really know.  It was working...really well actually.  I felt great, I had more energy,  and it wasn't at all difficult to follow.  In fact, I actually liked the days better when I was on it.   So, why all of a sudden was I leaving it by the wayside?

So, what exactly was going on?   Well, I had recently learned that as long as you hold the question in your heart, you can never have the answer.  Only one can exist.  So, I dropped this question and decided to just focus on being happy.  Then...poof...guess what?  It hit me!   Now, follow me here.  

The fact of the matter is that I never truly believed that the house would be mine.   I never truly believed that I already got healthy and lost the weight that I wanted to.   If I already knew these things, I wouldn't need others approval.  Needing that approval and validation meant that I needed someone to agree with me that what I wanted and supposedly had was indeed true.   This is key.   The energy I was putting out was that I didn't really have the house until everyone else saw it.  Until they were excited for me.  Until I was validated by them.   I wasn't really losing weight until I told everyone else and they told me it was true and told me that I looked better than before.   In addition, since everything is a projection, that meant that I couldn't have what I want until I got approval and validation from myself.   That I didn’t believe that I was safe and beautiful just the way I was in my old house and old figure.   

What I love about the Laws of Attraction is that they are very clear in such a basic form.  You get what you focus on.  That is it.   My focus turned from knowing that I had the house and was eating right to pretty much doubting it.   I was focusing on getting others to know it which HAD to mean that I didn't know it.  You don't need approval for something that you don't have any doubt in.   I will type that again.  You don't seek approval or validation of something that you already have confidence in.  Period.   So, I was focusing on a lack.  A lack of confidence that I was okay without dieting, that I was okay if I stayed in this cute little rental house forever.   I didn't believe that it was okay to stay where I was.  So, I was putting out the energy that my happiness would be found in a new house and a new looking me.  The old version wasn't good enough.  And...poof...my focus came true.  The house fell through and I wasn't following this great eating plan anymore.  

Have you ever noticed that someone that truly has peace inside doesn't really talk that much?   They don't seem to need to tell their story to everyone.  They always seem to do a LOT of listening.  If you ask them about something, they will tell you with a smile, but they don't seem to care if you approve of it or not and it is never the first thing they lead with in a conversation.   I love being around those people. 

So, was all this my fault then?  Nope...finding blame in anyone or anything is counter-productive for me.   These disappearing manifestations were a gift.  There were nothing less than a wonderful way to remember who I am.  Someone who already knows how amazing she is, who already knows that I could live in a cardboard box and be happy.   I have always said that I could be happy anywhere and now I understand that in a much deeper way.  

The coolest thing is when you really start to notice that there is nothing really happening in your life except ways to remember who you are.  To remember that you are already perfect.  You aren’t here to “learn” anything.  You already know it.  You are love, you are safe.  You are nothing less than love.  And any time you feel anything less than that, you are moving in the wrong direction.   You don’t have to learn it.  You ARE it.  You just get all these wonderful chances to remember it.   How cool it that?

Well, where do I go from here?   Can I still share my news with others when something that I want comes?  Of course!   I just won't make anyone's approval of it be the deciding factor of if I am happy with it.   Can I still be happy when a manifestation appears?  Of course!   That is the absolute fun part!   The key is simply knowing that whatever you wanted wasn't the thing that made you happy in the first place.  YOU made YOU happy and then the "thing" came to you.  The fact that I feel good is enough and true and SO amazing.   The manifestation is just the icing on the cake!  And it is yum-my! 

Happy New Year! *Special Offer*

Good night, sweet ego mind.

"Confusion is the prelude to clarity."  ~Unknown

It seems as we begin and walk through this journey of life, we often “stumble” on what we would call moments of confusion.  Those moments when nothing seems to make sense and the things that we thought we knew start coming apart at the seams.  

As we open new doors to the truth that we always have known deep within us, things tend to get a bit crazy sometimes.  The key is to realize the “funk” you are feeling or seeing in your world is merely your ego mind trying to hold onto the world it has taken so long to build.  

The ego mind is the place in your mind that holds all your fear and doubt.   As you experience moments of “pain” in your life, you ego mind builds memory and starts to form beliefs about certain situations and people.  It does this to supposedly protect you.   And when you find yourself in a contrasting situation once again, the ego mind goes back into the data files and remembers what happened before and tells you to be fearful or paranoid of the new current situation no matter how inapplicable those old emotions may be to what is really happening now.

Freedom begins when we start to understand that the only thing that can ever cause us pain is our ego mind and these misguided thoughts.   But as we do that, we may start to feel a good bit of resistance.  It is a beautiful thing when we start to unravel old beliefs and just live in the present moment.  However, the ego mind isn’t a big fan of this and that is where the confusion comes in.  Your ego mind built all of these beliefs in an effort to do what it thought was best—protect you and it doesn’t want to let go that easily.   

I like to look at the ego mind as a strong-willed 4 year old that has always been allowed to go to bed whenever and as late as he chooses.  The 4 year old's parents (you) have tried a number of different methods and even bribes to attempt to convince him that going to bed is a good idea yet, nothing has worked.  The parents "win" every now and then and the child falls asleep.   However, they can’t seem to get a consistent schedule and get the child's behavior to truly change which is what they really want.  

Deep down the child is tired and does want to feel better but can't grasp that sleep is the way to do that. He wants to keep playing (think fearful thoughts) and continue to do whatever he wants (your ego mind reacting to outer stimuli).  That is what he is used to and that is currently what feels good.  Of course, the real consequences for this little one is feeling much worse the next day and not being able to function like he wants because he is so tired.  

So, the parents (you) decide that a consistent bedtime is truly what is best for the child and for them and they say they are just going to really buckle down and make this happen.  They start a consistent pattern of putting him to bed at the same time every night.   Naturally, the child resists.  And when I say resist, I mean throws an all-out fit.  The child fights it as he feels like something he cherishes is being ripped away from him.  

The parents however, remain consistent and loving.  They have made the decision and they are going to enforce it.  They have come to a peace about it and truly know they are doing the right thing.   They might experience a bit of anger, regret and guilt as they hold steady and watch the child struggle with this new reality.   They might even waver a bit as they want to comfort and ease the resistance that the child is feeling (you feeding into old beliefs and negative thoughts).  

However, slowly this sweet 4 year old does start to accept the new reality.   He starts to have better days where he is not so tired and gets to play more and feel better doing it.   He understands now that the parents are not going to budge and even can see that all the resistance the child provides is actually painful in itself.  The 4 year old starts to trust the parents and realize that they truly know best.  And finally, the child accepts the new schedule and goes to bed (trusts the universe) with ease and even happiness. 

As I started on this journey, it truly helped me to try and see my ego mind as this 4 year old who has just basically been allowed to behave badly for a long time.  It might help to know that the beliefs you start to release will all be “cherished” a bit different as well.  It will hang on to some of them a little tighter much like a favorite toy of our 4 year old.  And some will be released with ease.   It all depends on what beliefs you have and how much you and your ego mind have enforced them over the years.  

My promise to you is that it will get easier as you go.  Once your mind is opened, you can never close it again.   The more your ego mind understands that it is the one that is actually doing the damage that it has been trying to prevent, beliefs start to unravel everywhere. 

Basically, you are re-training your mind to feel safe and trusting.  There will come a point where it starts to understand that you are NOT going to budge.   It will begin to see that your only priority is to feel good and that you are going to have to work together to achieve this.  

And soon, you will lay it and all its fear down and it will sleep peacefully through the night.  

Just Fall

I watched a leaf fall off one of my big trees in the back yard this morning.  It was truly beautiful to witness.  There wasn’t a gust of wind to force it off.  It was so quiet outside that I even heard it crack off the branch.  I watched as it softly drifted down and landed on its new home, the ground.  The whole experience felt so peaceful and there was a sense of knowing that seemed to encompass me. 

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More importantly, I noticed that the leaf didn’t have to think about falling or even try to calculate where exactly it was going to land.  It didn’t try to prolong its time on the tree, holding on to the branch trying to become greener.  It didn’t even do a Google search on the perfect time to fall or ask its numerous friends if they thought it was a good idea.  It...just…fell. 

It seems to me that people love this time of year; I know I do.  However, I often wonder why.  Is it seeing the beautiful colors as the landscape changes?  Is it the crispness in the air?  Is it the pumpkins being harvested and carved?   Yes, I am sure it is all of that but even more, I believe this love of fall can be attributed to the feeling of pure and natural change that seems to be all around us.

Fall time feels like change that isn’t necessarily asked for but just effortlessly happens.  So often in our lives, we resist change and long for everything to stay the same.  We hold tightly to our routines and schedules and get increasingly frustrated when something seems to start to move in another direction. 

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As I watched this leaf fall, I couldn’t help but think how amazing it would be if every change in my life could be that beautiful.  If every single movement could just feel like the next logical step.  I imagined what peace I would feel if I would just allow, trust, and perhaps even welcome what is next to come into my world without any resistance. 

I stood there in my backyard and thought about how many times I have looked back (after the fact) and been utterly grateful for a specific change that happened in my life.   Unfortunately, at the time it was all happening, I fought it tooth and nail.  In fact, I cursed every last piece of it.  And now, as I see where I stand and what I learned, I couldn’t be happier that it happened.  

This was so interesting to me.  What would happen if we just trusted in the movement of our lives and just let it all fall where it may?   What would happen if that peace and gratitude we feel much later on could be moved into the moment that change is actually happening?  My belief is that we would see the perfection of it all.   We would find that bliss we all seem to be looking for in ourselves first instead of looking for it specific events and answers.   We would stop waiting for all of the pieces to fall into place before we feel true joy and appreciation for our lives.   

I guess we would…just…fall.

What Is Reiki?

As most of you know, I am a certified Reiki II practitioner as well as a life coach.  I often get asked, "What exactly is Reiki?"   Many people have heard "something" about it but really can't put it into words.   Those that have experienced know how powerful it is but may have a hard time explaining as well.  The following information I received during my certification at the Healing Light Reiki Center and it is a great explanation for those that are wondering.
  
If the following interests you and you would like to schedule a session, please contact me at the below information.

Erin Ginkel
lovesingin@gmail.com
801.721.3469

Reiki (pronounced Ray-Key) is a technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing.  It is administered by "laying on of hands" and is based on the idea that unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive.  If one's "life force energy" is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy. 
A treatment feels like a wonderful glowing radiance that flows through and around you.  Reiki treats the whole person including body, emotions, mind, and spirit creating many beneficial effects that include deep relaxation and feelings of peace.   Many have reported miraculous results.   Reiki is also used as an excellent technique to open and balance the Chakra System.   The chakras are spinning vortexes of energy located within our etheric body through which we receive, transmit, and process life energies.  
Reiki is a simple, natural, and safe method of healing and self-improvement that everyone can use.  The existence of this Reiki energy has been verified by recent scientific experiments, and medical doctors are considering the role it plays in the functioning of the immune system and the healing process.   Many hospitals are teaching their nurses how to give Reiki to patients.   It also works in conjunction with all other medical or therapeutic techniques to relieve side effects and promote recovery.  Reiki is amazingly simple to learn.  Its use is not dependent on ones intellectual capacity or spiritual development and therefore is available to everyone.  It has been successfully taught to thousands of people of all ages and background!

BENEFITS OF REIKI

• Reiki leads us beyond what we know of ourselves.
• Reiki is a way to personal empowerment.
• Reiki can do no harm.
• Reiki exposes infinite reality and possibilities of our unlimited potential and assists us in becoming a greater part of the light. 
• Reiki raises the consciousness of the individual and allows us to access our inner depths.  Your sensitivity will increase, and you will also be more sensitive to the energy of other people, things and places. 
• Reiki is a call beyond self understanding.
• Reiki releases fear which is the absence of love and lets go of what no longer serves the individual's highest good.  Life focus shifts from survival to love of self and others.
• The Reiki student begins to experience expansion in the manifestation of love energy in the physical world.  It is love that allows the Soul to come in alignment with Universal Consciousness. Life begins to flow more easily, more in tune to clear vibrations of the Spirit.
• Fear and anger projections of the past are healed and lose their power.  Balance, confidence, and joy increases.  
• Reiki is available to all who wish to heal and to make a positive impact on the healing of our planet.

Personally, I have felt the power and the healing of Reiki and am so appreciative of the impact it has in my life.   There is many-a-story of beauty and healing I have experienced during sessions given to me and by me.  

In light and love...