2018 New Year's Affirmations

I stopped creating New Year’s Resolutions about a decade ago when I didn’t feel like they were getting me anywhere.  We’ve all heard the stats on how long it takes people to fall off and break them.  But on a regular basis, I carve time out to goal set, vision and make my desires known (either on paper or through the spoken word).  No matter what you call it, I still see a great deal of value in doing that, particularly at the start of a new year.  So this year, I’ve decided to create a list of 7 New Year’s Affirmations, instead of resolutions.  I hope they will motivate you to create a few, too!  In no particular order of importance:

1.       I am neither too fat, nor too skinny, nor too black, nor to “other”, nor too young, nor too old, nor too “anything” to do what the Creator is calling me to! 

As someone who has struggled with insecurities about weight, complexion, hair, status, and so much more, I am often tempted to make plans contingent upon becoming a “better” me in some way, shape, or form.  No more waiting.  Now is my time, in the package I am in!

2.       I don’t control all of the circumstances but I’m in control of all my choices!

The Creator has endowed me with the power of choice.  It doesn’t matter what’s going on around me; every moment offers a choice for how to manage life’s challenges and successes.

3.       I live in exceeding abundance of divine magnitude.

There is no limit to what I can accomplish. Point blank, period. Lack of any kind (time, energy, resources) cannot dictate whether or not I accomplish my goals, this year. I have it all!

4.       Forgiveness flows through me and to me.

This year, I have learned how to forgive in a way that I never forgave before.  I learned to feel empathy in a way that I never have before.  I learned these lessons through the generosity of spirit and love that others displayed towards me.  I have to pay it forward from here on out.

5.       Feminine energy is a superpower!

I vow to use my power for good and not for the downfall of mankind.  Where invited to, I will teach the women I encounter to harness their power and do the same.  I am a powerful being!

6.       I’ve got something that the world is waiting on.

How long am I going to deprive them?  The thing that I am waiting to do, is going to have a ripple effect on the entire universe.  What am I waiting on?  Just do it, already!

7.       LOVE OVER EVERYTHING!

I truly believe love has the power to heal any broken thing.  It’s the anecdote to all spiritual and emotional pain.  Let love be the answer to life’s toughest questions. Love is wealth.

Dear Younger Me...

A while back, a friend asked me to create this blog entry about what I would tell to the younger version of myself.  I thought long and hard and had a really hard time coming up with just the right words, worth reading.  I guess that was the first mistake I made…overthinking it.  I tend to spend far too much time worrying about how people will “take things” before I just express what I’m truly thinking or feeling.  Maybe that’s why my blog entries are so few and far between.  I talk myself out of 70% of them.  Truth is, the spirit of God speaks to the hearts of man, and each person receives what I share in a way that speaks specifically to them, so my fear is unfounded, as fear often is.  But I digressed – back to me! 

I spent a lot of time after law school fantasizing about what it would be like to go back to undergrad with the knowledge of the world that I have at the present.  I wondered which guys I would’ve avoided, and which ones I would’ve entertained.  I wondered what I would’ve “majored” and “minored” in, both literally and metaphorically.  I wondered what I would’ve done after college, instead, and how that would’ve shaped who I have become, versus the path that I actually took.  This way of thinking often leads to regrets and unrealistically fantasies of how much better my life would’ve been if I made better choices – mostly better financial decisions!  But while moping down “what if” lane, I’m often snapped back into the reality that is present, and I think about how truly blessed I am in every way imaginable. 

I think about how I am heavy-laden with graduate school debt, and yet there isn’t a single day that I go without my basic needs met, while still acquiring a lot of my luxurious “wants.”  I think about how amazing my work culture is, and how I would not know how to appreciate it the way I do, without all of my less than favorable work environments in the past.   I think about how my daughter is my life-line and makes me a better person every single day, as I revel in the joy of being her mom.  What really gets my praise party started is when I think about the absolutely, amazing man and father that is my husband.  It is like God handcrafted him just for me, and there is no way I would be able to actually appreciate that without all of the mismatched relationships of my past.  Talk about a paradigm shift!