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Life Lessons and Dementia…

So I work at an senior citizen assisted living facility, and a lot of the residents I interact with daily have dementia, beginning, middle and end stages…

It’s never easy to see a resident who was once vibrant and active become more and more withdrawn and confused, but I can’t imagine the pain that the residents families must feel watching their loved one slowly become someone they don’t recognize anymore.

I woke up thinking about one of my residents who had a particularly rough day yesterday, she didn’t know where she was or how she had gotten the outfit on that she was wearing… and as I was trying to comfort her and explain to her where she was and what had transpired throughout the day, she said “I’m just so confused, I don’t know who I am anymore…” it just broke my heart.

Imagine waking up one day and being in a place that is unfamiliar, or thinking you’re in one place and someone tells you that your aren’t in that place, but you’re somewhere else and you can’t for the life of you figure out how you got there… this is only a glimpse into the world of someone who has Dementia or Alzheimers.

Imagine not having any control over you’re thoughts or whats going on in your mind… This situation actually made me reflect on the power I have right now to control my thoughts and what a blessing it is… it also made me think about how much I take being able to control my thoughts for granted.

In my quest to manifest the life I desire, sometimes the idea of me having to take notice of what I’m thinking and change a reckless thought can seem like such a chore… making myself get into the habit of saying affirmations out loud and to myself throughout the day to help guide my thoughts in the direction I want them to go is almost like a second job.

And it’s not even about laziness, but more so about the constant fight I’m in to get out of this old habit of letting my thoughts lead the way rather than me taking the lead. But I refuse to complain or consider it a chore to take ownership of my thoughts… after what I experienced yesterday with one of my favorite residents… I refuse to take it lightly that I have the power to decide what I will think and what I will not think, because some of us do not have that luxury.

This is dedicated to the nurse who traveled the world taking care of people, who was a traveling midwife who helped bring life into this world, who brought a beautiful and wonderfully successful daughter into existence, for the one who taught children in the New York City public school system, for the one who brought blank canvases to life with the strokes of her paint brush… this is in honor of the one who gave the best of herself to the world… she’ll never know the jewel she has given to me.

I pray she has a better day today…

If anyone has learned a life lesson from someone who has Dementia or Alzheimers, please share in the comment section below… Thanks for stopping by, sending love and light so bright!

Affirmations 101

It felt great writing this affirmation down, but when I said it out loud, I could feel the energy in me begin to shift… it felt good!

When I really want to make an affirmation real, I’ll write it on a piece of paper, fold it up and stick it in my bra (sounds weird but we all have our thing) and when I feel that piece of paper moving around in my bra throughout the day, I recite the affirmation in my head…

Also when I go to the bathroom, I’ll take the paper out of my bra, and read the words, or mouth them if I’m not in a private bathroom… I’ll say that affirmation out loud and recite it in my mind with feeling as much as I can throughout the day…

Within days something will happen to let me know the affirmation is really starting to get into my subconscious mind…

As I continue to say it and focus on it, energy gets to shifting and things start changing right before my eyes like magic…

I’m going to write this one down and carry it with me all this week and see what happens… this’ll be fun!

If you have any affirmation routines that work well for you, please share in the comment section below!! Thanks for stopping by, sending love and light so bright!

The Way My Bank Account Is Set Up…

I sang it as soon as I read it!

If anyone else is a “Grease” geek like I am and knows every word to every song from the movie, I’m sure you’ll find this meme just as hilarious as I did. As funny as it is, I am seriously trying to get away from this reality, because the way my bank account is set up right now… All I can say is that one of my main goals this year is to become more financially sound.

Paying off debts (luckily I owe very little), saving more, tithing regularly, having at least three months worth of bills saved up just in case, going on a vacation… these are all things I would love to accomplish this year.

However, the thought of not being able to go out to eat as much, or not being able to buy myself the things that I want, when I want so that I can save and get out of this deficit, sucks!

No pain, no gain though right?

This is one of the areas of my life that is tough, because I love my job, but I don’t make a lot of money, so saving thousands of dollars is something that could take a good while.

Saving is something I’m only used to doing when I have to move, or buy a car… I’m great at sticking to a budget when there is a tangible goal that I am trying to reach. I know having a rainy day fund is super important and the mature, adult thing to do, but it’s harrrrrrd!!!

Ok, I’m done whining now… I know that in any situation it’s all about how you’re looking at it and what you’re dwelling on pertaining to said issue. I believe in affirming what I want, I’ve manifested money in the past, but it wasn’t a lasting thing…

I’m going to come up with some affirmations about having steady and continuous streams of income that last a lifetime… I’ll give an update once I come up with some affirmations that really feel good to me.

As hard as it may be, I know that the one thing I can control right now is my budget, I can make a budget and stick to that budget based on my current income… I will try to remind myself not to look at getting my finances in order as “harrrrrrd” because if I keep that mindset, it will continue to be something that I despise.

Maybe I should even come up with an affirmation about how easy saving and budgeting is, I believe in speaking things that are not as if they are.

If you’ve been successful with saving and budgeting and getting your finances in order, please share in the comment section below if you feel comfortable… or if you’re going through the same thing, let me know in the comments, sometimes it feels good to know that you are not alone. Thanks for stopping by today… sending you love and light so bright!!

A Better Way To Start The Day…

I woke up a few minutes ago,

And instead of letting my mind wander into the events of my upcoming day at work and how things might play out, I decided to say some affirmations…

Years ago when I first read the book “You Can Heal Your Life” I remember putting this routine into practice…

There were about four or five affirmations I had written down on a piece of paper and I kept that piece of paper next to me as I slept (I was single and sleeping alone in a big queen size bed at the time)…

Every morning when I woke up, before I would turn over to get out of bed, or start to think about anything that might give me anxiety about my day, I would say the affirmations I wrote on that paper out loud with feeling…

Change didn’t happen right away…

As I recall, it took a few weeks of being in this routine before I saw the things I was affirming actually coming to pass in my life…

It’s funny how things come back around…

This morning, I didn’t have any affirmations written down and my husband was asleep next to me, so I just whispered out loud to myself…

“I love, approve and appreciate you exactly as you are (insert your name here)… You are perfect, whole and complete…”

I also said on of my all time favorite abundance affirmations “I am an unlimited being, accepting from an unlimited source in an unlimited way and I am open and receptive to all of the good and abundance in the universe, thank you God…”

And “today is one of the best days of my life… I lovingly forgive and release the past, I am free…”

As I whispered these affirmations out loud, I smiled and felt a good feeling about them…

These are the moments that count…

The moments of intentional motion and movement into a new way of thinking and being…

these small moments mount up and make change possible…

I am proud of myself, for making the effort to move my life in a different direction…

I am a seeker of knowledge and I would love to hear about other successful morning routines, maybe there is something that I could add to mine to make it even better, please share your routine in the comments below, thanks!

Find Your Balance

What is a mistake but an opportunity to learn and to gain knowledge and understanding from our experiences… If we always got it right the first time around, there wouldn’t be much to look forward to in this experience we call life now would there?

Perfection is recognized by lack of flaw and therefore cannot be experienced or realized without the existence of a mistake. We could never fully appreciate the sunny days if we were never inconvenienced by the rain, and just as well, to know the purity of goodness we would have to understand the depths of evil… but instead of looking at how two opposite ideas compete against each other, maybe we should begin to look at how opposites might compliment each other or how two opposing forces may balance each other out.

If perfection needs flaw (or lack there of) to exist, that means that flaw or a mistake needs the idea of perfection to exist as well, one cannot persist without the other. So how perfect is perfection and how flawed can a mistake really be if neither of them can be comprehended without the reality of the other?

I try to use this same train of thought when it comes to dealing with mistakes I’ve made… Acknowledging my mistakes, looking at them as a part of what makes my experience in this realm balanced and not as an opposing force or a stubborn stain on the fabric of my life that just won’t come clean.

In this life there will be times when I make miserable mistakes and there will be times when I make pure perfection… but what’s most important is understanding that balance takes precedence over all opposing forces or duality I may encounter at any given moment. And there is still duality in dualism, the opposite of two is one… and when we are able to balance experiencing the something-ness of life as well as the nothingness of it… just us with ourselves, closing our eyes, focusing on our breath, without wanting, needing, competing… that is when we ourselves are whole and complete exactly as we are… finding balance.

I am a work in progress, trying to find balance in different areas of my life, I try to meditate daily… what methods do you use to bring balance into your life? Please share in the comment section below!