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A Beautiful and Loving Life

Guest post by: Jeannie Campanelli, Ed.D., CPCC

Article Overview: Is this the most beautiful and loving life you can possibly imagine and create? If it isn’t, this question becomes – what is the most beautiful and loving life that you can possibly imagine and create?

A Beautiful and Loving Life

As you transition into a new year,this time holds the possibility of inspiring deep reflection - with emotional honesty - about where you are right now in your life. While you reflect on what you consider a beautiful and loving life, I point you to begin with your internal state rather than external circumstances and the search for something ‘more'. The discovery of what is already here within you - and the inner confidence that is created from that - makes all the difference to the quality of your life and the difference you make to others. The paradox is that we are essentially spaciousness/stillness/presence when we fall back into ourselves, and we are human beings with minds, bodies, jobs, and families. In essence, as spaciousness, our true nature eternally rests in love and beauty. As humans, we get locked into the stories that the mind creates and feel disconnection and lack.

When we realize that we are not the mind (think of the analogy - we are the ocean, the mind is a bucket in the ocean), we can then use our mind as a tool to support the essence of who we are. We have the ability to take the mind less seriously when it creates chatter that is meaningless, critical, untrue, and part of the old conditioning built into our nervous systems.

We see clearly. We feel inspired to act rather than forcing ourselves to take action. A deeper meaning to our life unfolds and, from that place, love and beauty naturally arises into reality - from the inside out.

I suggest the following process as a way to support you in more deeply exploring this way of life:

1. Set aside a time just for you. Gather your materials - scissors, glue, bulletin board paper, magazines that speak to you.
   
   
2. Stop, sit comfortably, close your eyes, and search for the truth of who you are by falling back into yourself, into presence. Breathe into your heart. Let go. Be in the stillness. Say the words love and then beauty, imagining that you are dropping these words like pebbles into the ocean of silence that is your true self. Feel the impact.
3. When you're ready, open your eyes and move toward the materials you have gathered. Use inspiring music to set the atmosphere.
   
   
4. From this stillness, use your body as a compass to lead you to photos and words that increase your energy - even when your mind doesn't understand why - and cut them out. Imagine. Play. Have fun!
   
   
5. Now glue your chosen photos and words on your paper to create your unique vision board. Stop when it feels right to do so, and you're excited by what you see in front of you.
   
   
6. Share your vision board with a friend who can witness the loving and beautiful life that you've imagined for yourself. Invite feedback as to what they see.

The vision board is a powerful exercise that I've done time and time again through the years for myself and with clients. Personally, I am continually amazed when I create a vision board and then look back one year later to see what has unfolded.

This is a tool to integrate the essential self with the human self. From this place, action steps will emerge.

Now ask yourself again: What is the most beautiful and loving life that I can possibly imagine and create? Where are the areas in my life that don't feel beautiful to me? Where are the areas in my life where love is not naturally flowing? What is it that I can do to shift my internal state so that the life that is mine to live emerges with grace and ease? From presence, what am I inspired to do to create beauty and love today?

And begin! I would love to support you in deepening this unfolding, if you so choose.

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Article Tags: deep reflection, emotional honesty, internal state, loving life, vision board



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