You Are Prepared

"You are not defined by your past,

you are prepared by your past."

 

-Joel Osteen

 

 

 

You cannot know what you are being prepared for, plain and simple, but I know it's great. What you are experiencing today, or have been through yesterday, may be the exact circumstance needed to propel you to unimaginable heights that would have been impossible otherwise. Coping with adversity gives us the opportunity to:

• develop skills that bring us closer to our one true purpose,
• meet amazing people who come into our lives just when we need them most and change us forever,
• learn what we are made of through perseverance and rely on new-found strength,
• cultivate faith and watch fear take a flying leap.

You don't have to live your life from the viewpoint of a victim any longer, you are merely being prepared.

 

While we can't see the process as it's unfolding- in other words, in the midst of difficulty we can't always identify the good that will result- we can trust that we are exactly where we are supposed to be at every moment. You have what you need to move forward, so keep going sisters and brothers.

 

I recently shared with a friend the frequency of my family moves as a child, on average every two to three years. At every new school, I was often singled out, made fun of, picked on and criticized for being different. At each juncture, I left behind close friends and familiar  surroundings accompanied by many tearful good-byes. While I wouldn't wish for anyone to have the same experience, I learned a great deal from having to adapt many times over. As an adult I intuitively know how to create a quick community of loyal friends out of necessity, I am friendly and empathetic to a fault because I've been on the receiving end of left-out, I have a grand appreciation and love of nature because of all the beautiful places I've lived (so hard to pick a favorite, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming...), I am self-confident because I've learned that I decide my self worth, not the bully down the street. The experience of being uprooted over and over provided me with depth of character, perhaps my biggest asset. I've benefited in more ways than I can even begin to list.

 

Our past does not ever limit us in what we can achieve. We cannot use any particular adversity as an excuse for not pursuing what we are being called to do. Quite the opposite, I believe in cultivating gratitude for our challenges, for we wouldn't be who we are today without them.

 

What difficulties have you faced and how have you grown because of them? What are you doing now that would have been impossible without a particular challenge? Do you have the courage to trust that you are being prepared each and every day?

 

If you lived your life from this simple premise- I am being prepared and not defined... what then becomes possible for you, my friend? 

 

I know the answer... everything. 

Healthy is Beautiful

Smile because you are beautiful.

 

 

There was a time in my life when I felt my beauty, internal and external, had been taken away from me. My illness, lupus, created a rift between who I thought I was (healthy, vibrant, free) versus the reality of my situation (I was sick, tired and scared). I mourned my former self, I yearned for her to return so I could feel whole and pretty again. At age fourteen, I was broken by my diagnosis, I knew life would never be the same. I gained weight from high dose prednisone and lost my hair from chemotherapy, I was devastated. I turned inward during my high school years, feeling robbed, hoping one day I would have my self back.

 

I eventually learned to accept lupus as a part of me, I had to make peace with the disease that I wanted to fight against with everything I had. I knew I was only fighting against myself, after all it was my own immune system creating the havoc, I was only creating more stress (and illness) as I resisted. Only by learning to live with my new identity was I was ready to move beyond lupus patient to lupus survivor.

 

As the years passed, I was less and less concerned about my physical appearance, which at the time was beyond my control. I became more concerned with my overall health, I became a vegetarian and started practicing martial arts, yoga and meditation. Eventually I did get better, my hair grew back into a pixie style by my high school graduation, I lost weight as my prednisone decreased until I was in complete remission. My physical looks returned to what I had known pre-illness, while I felt more like myself on the outside, I was forever changed because of my experience.

 

Today, when women complain about their looks to me or compare themselves to someone they think is more attractive, I have a difficult time responding. I've been enjoying remission for close to twenty years and no one could guess that I have a chronic illness. I am healthy by all accounts, and I take my health seriously. I'm of the "prevention is hot" camp and do all that I can to take care of myself.  

 

Women who think they should look one way or another forget their innate beauty and how blessed they are to have their health. Foster gorgeousness from the inside out by practicing self love, we love ourselves when we eat healthfully, exercise and decrease stress. Our outsides are a reflection of our internal health- make health your goal, instead of conforming to society's narrow definition of what is attractive. Remember that your health is a gift, have gratitude for your amazing body. You are alive, you are healthy, you are beautiful. 

 

 

My inspiration for this post: Kris Carr , beautiful cancer survivor, watch her documentary Crazy Sexy Cancer and read her Crazy Sexy Diet book (not about dieting to lose weight, but to achieve greater health).

I Dare You

 

"To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself."

 

-Sore Kierkegaard

 

I am not in a regular habit of reading my horoscope, yesterday I happened to glance at it in the Sunday paper. The part that caught my eye: "First, learn the rules that apply, and then go for it with full force." While I don't hang my life on the advice of my horoscope, I do believe wisdom comes to us through all variety of means. If you read or hear something and say "aha!" then it's good stuff, don't ignore it.

Often we can be held back from achieving our dreams because we think we don't have the knowledge to complete the task. We feel stuck and immobilized by uncertainty. Dreams are by nature BIG, the steps to get there can seem daunting. I believe we are only capable of taking one step at a time and the nature of the next step will be revealed when we are ready to act on it.  An important step on my journey is to learn the rules that apply. This involves learning from those that have gone before me, published authors. I am gathering bits and pieces from others' experiences that will prove invaluable to forming my next step, which is right on the heels of this one. I know my trajectory may not be a straight and perfect line, but I am making progress.

What are the rules that apply to your dreams? What can you learn from someone that has done something similar? What is keeping you from your next step?

Think of a runner warming up for a long run, the first steps help gather momentum, they may seem slow at first, but they pick up and eventually feel more effortless. A body in motion stays in motion. We are all poised on greatness, all we have to do is gather some momentum to go at it full force. Everything you need to get started on your dream is waiting at your fingertips, you know what you need to do. Getting unstuck is not a mystery any longer when we're ready to dare to move, keep moving, and keep moving.