We have all heard the saying, "the truth shall set you free".  And, I wholeheartedly agree that that is true.  When we can figure out what the truth is and have the courage to tell it, it will most definitely set you free.  I am on a truth quest in my life right now.  From as early as I can remember, I was very in touch with my truth, as children often are.  And, as the youngest, with two older sisters, an extrovert, and a Libra (we balance everything), I was confident in telling the truth.  Until the bad things started happening... until I told the truth at a party in front of people and embarrassed my parents, or told the truth about a family situation in my extended family which lead to marital tensions, or the worst case, when I told the truth outside an ice cream shop that lead to the immediate divorce of a new marriage.  The truth, as simple as it always seemed, seem to be very complicated when other people had to hear it.

I co-created a group called Being Present to Serve, which focuses on how to manifest money by just showing up, being present to what is in front of you, and finding a way to make the situation 1% better.  The group has been very successful and as I reflect on those concepts, I realize that the reason it is so successful is because it has the key ingredient to everything - connection.

When people talk about Near Death Experiences or healing themselves from life-treatening diseases, they have a single theme that runs through their experience - connection.

2016 has been quite a year. After September 11th, I decided to take a leave of absence from my very successful consulting work to study International Conflict Resolution.  I felt like I had to do something to make the world a better place - I was feeling completely disconnected from everything.  After a very painful few months hearing about every conflict around the globe, I was completely depressed and felt hopeless.  I could not see how I could stand up against governments, personal interests, and groups who did not care about doing the right thing or helping one another.  I was so upset, that I literally gave up.  One of the things I teach is the power of giving up.  I love the line from Nothing Stays the Same by Carly Simon, "there is more room in a broken heart".  From the place of being broken-hearted, I made a decision.  I decided that I could not take on the problems of the world, of any one group, of my country, my state, my city or my county, but what I could do was be the beacon of hope, love, light and peace in my tiny, seemingly insignificant, circle.  And, that maybe, if I was good or helpful to one person in that circle, they would go on to cure cancer or broker peace in the middle east.  From that moment on, that became my mission.

I went for my daily walks in my very non-reach-out-and-touch-someone neighborhood and widely smiled and said "hi" to each person I passed- most of whom were engrossed in phone conversations, their ipod (it was a while ago), and; most of whom completely ignored me.  I waved at passing cars (also, not done in that neighborhood).  I baked cookies for neighbors for no reason.  And, I found ways to be kind to my family and friends.  And, that was it.  From there, I was given opportunities to serve on boards in the county and eventually, represent our state in creating policies of inclusiveness.  It all started from being kind to my family and friends, and friendly on walks in the neighborhood.

This holiday season, if you are feeling sad, alone, unsettled in any way, I ask you to try something new.  First, love your broken heart - they are the biggest gifts for creating change that you could ever ask for.  Second, go do for others.  Whatever you can - drop quarters near gumball machines at the grocery store, leave a treat on your neighbors doorstep, pick up the phone and call someone who had a tough year and let them know you are thinking of them this holiday season.  As I posted in the quote, sometimes the smallest thing you do, make the biggest difference to someone else.  In my experience, I found the cure for my saddest moments came from being of service to someone else.  The world needs you right now.  The you, that you are, in this moment.  Not the successful you, the thinner you, the happier you, it needs the broken-hearted you to sit and cry with.  And, if you are loving life right now - reach out and touch someone too!  Because it wasn't that long ago that you were broken hearted.  Pray for others to have the thing you want the most - if you wish your parents were still with you this season, or your spouse, or that you had your health, then pray that all the people around you that "seem" so unbeliveably happy, have good health, and enjoy the time with their loved ones.  It is amazing the power of connecting - the power of giving to others that which we desparately want.

From my heart to yours, happy holidays.  And, on December 25th, when Christians will be celebrating Christmas and the Jews will be celebrating Hannukah, know that over 1/3 of the world's population will be in a place of peace and prayer... regardless of what your religion is, what a great day to join in the feeling of peace, love, and hope.  Together, we can add to the world frequency of love and peace and intend 2017 to be the year when things get better for all.

I started to feel like things were getting hard.  And, if you know that feeling, it is not a good feeling - it is icky.  And, I am all about Easy.  I kept asking myself, "how could this be easier?" and while I came up with a long list of ways to make it easier, none of them sounded fun, and they were all work!  Totally the opposite of what I teach, 0% effort, 100% return.  I knew hard wasn't right, ick was definitely nor right, "I have to get this done" was the wrong path.  I came up with my how to make it easy...

Here are my top five ways on how to make anything easy:

1.  Ask yourself, "what if this was easy?"  - I know it sounds simple, but it is so often forgotten.  I remember once I talked to a wise spiritual woman and she illuminated for me that all the forgiveness work I had done towards my ex, actually now needed to be directed to my ex's new girlfriend.  I deflated.  Years of work and now I have to start all over again :(  I was telling my friend about it, and she said, write a forgiveness letter before bed and set the intention that when you wake up, she will be forgiven.  That's it, I thought?  That's easy!  Guess what... it was!

2.  Let your subconcious mind figure it out for you- You know how they always say your mind is a powerful thing... well, it is!  And, it is a problem-solving GENIUS!  It can find solutions you would have never thought of - all you got to do is give it a good problem to solve.  Try some of these - "Mind - how can I LOVE what I do for a living?".  "Mind - show me how to bring $10,000 easily and effortlessly in my life?"  "Mind - show me the best way to handle this very delicate situation."  And, guess what, it will.  All it requires is for you to ask your mind to show you instead of getting wrapped up in your mind to find the answer.  Here's the difference - use the mind as an external tool that you delegate solving the problem too, instead of sitting inside your mind and thinking of possible solutions.  You know how when you can't remember someone's name and then you walk away and do something else and voila, you remember thier name.  That is because your sub-concious mind was working on that "problem" the whole time, while your concious mind was rocking out to Taylor Swift!

3.  Command it into Being (i.e., say it IS so) - Deciding is one of the MOST powerful things you can ever do.  You can decide things work for you or they don't.  You can decide people like you or you can decide they don't.  You can decide money easily flows into your life of you can decide it doesn't.  Deciding is powerful.  Remember when you made an important decision.  Remember how it felt.  When you truly decide, you decide.  You don't think what if, or should I have, you decide and you move forward confidently.  Many of us decide and 30 seconds later, un-decide, then 30 seconds later decide differently.  DECIDE that whatever you are working through will be easy, will come to you in an unexpected magical way, and will be taken care of for you!

4.  Let it GO (or, Let Go and Let God)!  Do you remember a time when something really "bad" happened to you and now it is one of the best things that could have ever happened to you?  That happens all the time.  So you are in a yucky job, or your health isn't great, you know what, thinking about how terrible that is, just makes it worse!  Hand over all the ickiness of the situation (and you can call it icky) to your higher self / higher power / Universe /God and say, "Take this icky mess, I am done with it and transform it into something awesome".  To transform your hard stuff into easy stuff, you have to let it go and separate it from yourself.  The hard stuff is not true.  It is not you.  And, it is not what the Universe wants for you.  It is not  your karma.  It is not something you deserve.  It is something that is happening and can be transformed perfectly, in perfect timing, in the perfect way - but you gotta hand it over first!

5.  Nurture your JOY!  Want to make it really easy?  Go do something FUN!  Yup, you heard me.  Stop working, stop typing, stop jornaling, stop thinking and get up, move your body and do something you LOVE to do!  Paint, draw, spend time with people you love, watch an old movie on tv, take a nap, go for a walk, get yourself a yummy cup of hot cocoa (or better yet, a cupcake) and make yourself happy!  Your vibration is EVERYTHING.  Want it to work out quickly - douse it in joy and it'll happen quicker than you can imagine! 

We are doing Joy Challenge again this year!  If you want to join us for our 2017 Joy Challenge on how to make it easy with 0% effort, 100% return, you can sign up here!