100 Days of Wisdom: Wisdom Day 36 — Wisdom in the Step-by-Step Change that Leads to Transformation

Wisdom Day 36

Read about the 100 days of Wisdom™ Project by Tonya Marie

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“One of the most pervasive beliefs I see that stops people from manifesting their dreams is that change and inspiration is this huge quantum moment that happens all at once. It’s just not true. Change happens one day, one moment, one step at a time. It’s 10,000 small steps that add up to a big leap.

The good news is that all you need to do right now is take one step. The tough news is that there’s a BUNCH of these small steps that you need to take to make the transformation you are dreaming about a reality. Sorry.

It’s not the best news in the world, but what’s rad is that all you need to do is focus on the next step. Not the third step, or the 100th step, just the next one.” ~ Mastin Kipp, TheDailyLove.com

Mastin’s daily dose of wisdom reminds me that the transformation of tomorrow is built out of the moment-to-moment change along the way.

There are countless examples in nature that make the same point. The incremental change of a seedling planted in fertile ground that yields fruit in due season. The incremental change that takes place over nine months in a mother’s womb and leads to the manifestation of a newborn baby. Or the incremental change that takes place in a chrysalis in about ten days’ time that leads to the manifestation of a Monarch butterfly. And every developmental step along the way is critical to lay the proper foundation for transformation.

100 Days of Wisdom: Wisdom Day 35 — The Wisdom of Loving Who You Are Right Now!

Wisdom Day 35

Read about the 100 days of Wisdom™ Project by Tonya Marie

Follow me on Twitter @WisdomWhispers and hashtag #100daysofwisdom for more reflections on life, love and the wisdom of Spirit!

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“[O]ur true nature is not some ideal that we have to live up to. It’s who we are right now, and that’s what we can make friends with and celebrate.” ~ Pema Chodron, Wisdom of No Escape

Living up to the “you” you think you should be, or the one that others think you should be, is exhausting. Thankfully I have  discovered the wisdom in letting go of the idealized me (the one that never existed and never will) and befriending and celebrating the “me” who I really am, the one I was created to be.

Sharing love and light with others first requires that you recognize and cultivate love and light within yourself. So simple. But far from easy, especially if you feel you’re not measuring up to that mythical, perfect person known as the ideal you. But in each moment you can choose to affirm your true nature, the authentic you, the love and light within you … the one just waiting to emerge and thrive.

AFFIRM:

I embrace and celebrate the perfection of my imperfection. I love, accept and celebrate my true nature as a wonderful, beautiful light who is emerging and thriving in every moment.

Having trouble saying that affirmation with confidence and conviction? Check out these 17 ways you can learn to love yourself right now from abundancetapestry.com.

[#OWNAmbassador]

Wisdom in the Whisper™ and WisdomintheWhisper.com by Tonya Marie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.wisdominthewhisper.com.

Wisdom Lesson 16: Who you are is enough (and all you’ll ever be … if you’re lucky)

“You do not have to do anything to be loved, and being who you are does not let others down. This needs to be repeated, and often. Simply be who you are, and love what is before you.”

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening (8/25)

As I make my way through Mark Nepo’s Book of Awakening one daily entry at a time I become more and more convinced that he wrote this book just for me!!!

To be sure, however, he wrote it as an expression of his awakened self; but it’s his intention to bless the spiritual journey of others (like mine and, perhaps, like yours) with the wisdom and insight he’s gathered like breadcrumbs along the way that often moves me to knowing tears. With each passing day and entry I draw closer to my “self”. And because of this I feel this book was tailor-made to be one of the brightest flashing beacons of light intended to show me the way back “home”.

Today’s entry was no exception.

Today’s entry is titled “Love Is in the Being”. I take this to mean it is not what I do that earns love but who I am — the “me” behind the mask of personality and the illusion of fear — that is love and loved just because I AM.

The entry offers that we should not be distracted by others’ expectations of who we should be (or shouldn’t be) or what we should or shouldn’t do because “[b]eing who we are doesn’t let down others.” Or at least, it shouldn’t. And even (and especially) if it does, we don’t do others or ourselves any favors by dimming our light and playing small to promote their comfort. That reminds me of another saying:

“Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”

Real love encourages the real you to SHINE; it doesn’t dim your awesome glow. Real love lets you exhale and lean in, it doesn’t require you to hold your breath and complete a laundry list of “to dos” before you earn your keep. In fact, real love doesn’t keep you, it lets you fly. Real love is the wind beneath your wings not the harness that keeps you tethered below the heights to which you were predestined to ascend.

Of course, love also shows up in the compassionate recognition of what others require and desire. But “the displeasure of others is no reason to muffle your love,” says Nepo. Selah [pause and think on that]. And most importantly, we cannot expect others to love without limits if we continually place limits on our own full and loving expression of self.

If your self-critic (yes, the one in your head that won’t shut up about all the ways you’ve “failed” at life) is a meaner son-of-a-gun than the meanest person you know than any perceived lack or limitation that shows up in your life is more likely a reflection of how you feel about yourself than anyone else’s opinion anyway. So start there; with the brightest and darkest parts of yourself. Love them completely. And require everyone who enters your space to do the same.

Remember, love is in the being. Because you are, you are loved. You are more than enough. And all you’ll ever be (if you’re lucky).

Wisdom in the Whisper™ lessons and WisdomintheWhisper.com by Tonya Marie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.wisdominthewhisper.com.