Are you stressed out most of the time?  Overwhelmed by everything in your life?   Is your mind constantly going a hundred miles an hour?  Do you have a short fuse? Full of anxiety? Do you feel like you are merely “surviving” the day?

 

I spent a good chunk of my life this way.   I was focused on my problems, meditating on them constantly.   I was always thinking about tomorrow and how I was going to get through it.   I lived in chaos. And you know what? It kept me from living in TODAY.

 

I felt like I was all alone and it was on me to figure everything out.  I thought it was my choices or actions that drove my results. I was SO wrong.

 

When I gave God control of the steering wheel 7 years ago he started changing me.   One thing he showed me was that I was living out of “what if’s” and my own vision of the future.  I was trying to control things I had no control over. I was constantly creating scenarios in my head and I was giving my problems all the power in my life.  

 

“You will show me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”  – Psalm 16:11

 

Do you know that something like 98% of what we worry about never even happens??   We waste so much time with our focus on the fear of “what if”.

 

“Worry is like a rocking chair.  It will give you something to do but it won’t get you anywhere.”  – Proverb

 

In doing this I was missing out on life!   I was so stressed all the time I couldn’t enjoy time with my son or time with friends.  

 

I couldn’t loosen up.   I had a short fuse, I’d get offended easily, I couldn’t really focus on any one thing.  I spent a lot of time drowning in my own misery.   

 

And for what?   The fears I created in my mind that weren’t even reality!

 

We’ve all heard the terms “Seize the Day!” or “Live in the Moment!”.   But do we ever really think about what that means? It sounds good right?   But we never actually do it. Maybe we’ll do it for one day and we love it but then we revert back to our old stress filled routine.  It has to be a determined action every single day.

 

We weren’t made to live like this.   I’m so happy to tell you I no longer live this way, but it took time, awareness, and a lot of mind control!  That isn’t to say I don’t have to work at it harder some days than others, I do have my moments.   But it’s all about being aware of it and taking steps to shift your mindset.  Don’t be hard on yourself, you won’t always be perfect, we are human after all.  

 

“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”  – Leo F. Buscaglia

 

Take a look at your life.   How many of your worries actually come to fruition?   Things always work out and they rarely go the way we think they will.   We always get through them!   

 

Worrying does absolutely NOTHING good for us.  It doesn’t change the outcome, it doesn’t make things better, it only destroys our NOW.

 

Look back on your life and all the things you’ve worried about.  You made it through just fine right? You’re still here?   

 

So how about we live by faith that no matter what comes our way, we will get through it?  We will be ok. We make things so much worse by trying to control the outcome. Newsflash…we don’t have control of anything!   We just think we do. 

 

I love this section of Scott Stillman’s book “Wilderness – The Gateway to the Soul”:

 

“Yet as humans, we continue to ponder every decision, every possible outcome.  Must we plan out every detail of our lives, year by year, day by day, minute by minute?  If every waking moment of our day is pre-planned, where’s the room for instinct? We are losing one of our most fundamental skills.  Imagine if human beings lived by instinct rather than logic. How would this affect our world?”

 

This instinct he refers to is our heart’s guidance.   We all have it but we’ve been trained to listen to our brains instead.   We are living out of logic instead of heart (instinct). We’re too scared to trust our God given instincts.  Do we really think we can do a better job than God? Because of this we are a very unhappy, confused, tormented world right now.

 

I often think about what if everyone in the world followed their hearts?   Every single person including YOU were made for a reason, for a purpose, and unfortunately most people will never experience that greatness.   

 

We all have Oprah’s, Ghandi’s, MLK’s, Mother Teresa’s, and Michael Jordan’s in us!   The difference is they tapped into their hearts, they didn’t give up. They kept believing and they took action even in fear.  They didn’t let anything stop them!

 

Living in the moment is all about allowing life to flow.   Hard things are going to happen every single day but worrying and panicking and trying to control them will only steal your joy from you.   It will steal your life from you.

 

When problems come your way, learn to flow with them, accept them, breathe and believe that everything is going to be ok and trust that your inner guidance will help you through.  If you do this you will become a calmer, happier, more balanced human and you won’t miss out on life’s precious moments because you wanted to spend all your time worrying about things you never had the power to change in the first place. 

 

If you came from a worrying family like I did, it will take some time to adjust your behavior but it will come.   Become aware of when you’re worried or stressed and how you react to problems.  Then shift your thoughts to belief in the outcome.  Belief that you are taken care of and that it will work out. Don’t allow those fearful thoughts to come in…they are no longer welcome.   

 

I’ll leave you with this quote:

 

“Always listen to your HEART. The wisdom of your heart is the connection to your authentic power – the true home of your spirit” 

― Angie karan

 

Have a heart-filled day!

 

Much love,

Denise

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