In this aspect, I also feel I may be like most.  I often felt like a square peg being stuffed into a round hole.

Really rather, I felt like a uniquely-me-shaped-me who didn’t necessarily fit the rigid containers seemingly designed as one-size-fits-all.

Did I suffer as a result of this experience?  No.  Not really.  Well, OK…by definition, maybe.
Were there times I tolerated?  Yes.
Were there times I felt subjected to situations or things less than pleasant?  Yes.
And did I choose to observe the qualities inherent in the toleration that led me to a brighter awareness of who I was in my greatest, most purest sense? Absolutely.

Through out our life experience, we’re given the opportunity to grow, to expand and to breathe into all that is possible within us.  We are limitless.  We are truly our own Genie inside the bottle…just waiting to give birth to our potential.

Parenting Woke Up Sleeping Aspects Within Me

When I became a parent, something new was ignited in me.

You Are Your Own Genie Inside the Bottle!

There was an aspect of my passion that was lit that day that has fueled my path well.

As I watched our son, Destin grow I could see his Brilliance, I could feel his JOY.  It was easy to see what he was passionate about.  And even if it wasn’t always exactly my passion, it turned me on to know I could nurture, encourage and foster those passions within him.  I knew that if I did that, I was doing well by him.

When he reached school age, we sent him to school.  The conventional way.  The way his father and I had experienced.  After all, we turned out OK. This would work for him too.

And it would have worked fine, I’m sure.

But there was something deep down within me that knew that for Destin, there was a better (different) way.

Guided by Passion

We chose to home school Destin after he finished first grade and we’ve been enthusiastically following that path ever since.  He’s now an excelling, passionate Sophomore who loves his life and enjoys creating his experience (with guidance from his passionate, committed parents) his own way.  He knows who he is. He’s confident and assured.  He’s sensitive.  He’s kind.  He’s funny.  Is he doing everything exactly as I wish he would? No. Am I confident that he’s doing it all in harmony with his becoming?  Yes. And that’s enough.

Best of all?  Destin gets that HE creates his reality, his experience, his Joy.  And he knows he’s fully supported in doing so.

I came across this quote from Resa Steindel Brown this morning in an interview she did when CBS News did a recent story on Home Schooling~

Each child is born with the seeds of their own brilliance. ~Resa Steindel Brown, Author of The Call to Brilliance, A True Story to Inspire Parents & Educators

I agree with Resa wholeheartedly!  And where ever we are in our journey through life, we owe it to ourselves to nurture those seeds of Brilliance within.  We are blessed and born to shine!

The Greatest Blessing

More than anything, what being a home schooling parent has afforded me is my

• steadfast commitment to following my passion,
• leading my life with JOY from the inside out,
• continually tapping ever more deliciously deeper into my own unique brilliance,
• and expressing that more fully day by day.

By committing to home schooling Destin, I’ve committed to my own lifelong expression of my Brilliance.

Home schooling gives me permission to follow my bliss and holds me accountable to being a walking example of what I hold to be true.

This path has been one of the greatest blessings of my life.

What do I know for sure?

I know that it’s never too late to follow your passions.  It’s never too late to write a new story, to dream a new dream, to create a new reality…one that you cherish, adore, thrive on and find magically delicious in every way.

Your book is yet unwritten.  What will you fill your pages with?

Every day upon waking, ask yourself…

• What JOY will bubble forth today?
• What do I choose to create today?
• What will I engage in today that makes my heart sing?

Creating your day in this way is bound to bring you exactly where you want to be.

Is it that easy? I believe it is.

(Beliefs are just thoughts we keep on thinking.)

Here are a few I repeat often:

• Life is Good…and getting GREATer all the time.
• JOY is mine.  Always.  All ways.
• Ease and Flow as my guides, JOY my true north, Life amazes me with its goodness.
• I’m awesome.  :)  (…like that one?)

What are some thoughts you keep thinking that have turned into Happy Power Beliefs in your life?

Shine on, Brilliant Ones!

Photo Credit

Not geographically… Rather, emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually…etc.

JOY of Brilliance is my chosen, beloved, ecstatically WONDER-full State of Being.

When giving presentations, I share it like this…

“Where do I live?  I live in a State of Being called Joy of Brilliance.  And I have a second ‘home’ I love equally; it’s the pathway to Joy of Brilliance if ever I feel  displaced from my Joy of Brilliance, and it’s another state that just feels so good.  In fact, both feel so good that I’ve learned to bi-locate and live in both simultaneously.  That state is the State of Appreciation!

Joy of Brilliance, when matched with a State of Appreciation is a place of BEing-ness that FEELS SO GOOD.  It is a ‘Connected to the Source Within Us’, JOY-full, Brilliant State of Being that exudes our uniqueness, our naturalness, the magic of Who We Really Are.”

When we live in and from natural Joy of Brilliance…

• we are ALIVE in all senses of the word…
• and we THRIVE blissfully in all we are…
• not to mention in all we do.

How do you find your JOY of Brilliance?

• You FEEL your way there!
• By focusing on what FEELS GOOD…
• By focusing on how you want to feel, and choosing to feel that right now.

I ask again…

• Which State do you live in?
• Are you choosing consciously?
• Does it FEEL GOOD there?

Joy of Brilliance has room for everyone!  It’s an open circle…a community of yumminess!!

Are you coming?

Joy of Brilliance Guidance~

I lovingly assist others to their own Joy of Brilliance,
through the gateway of Self Love,
following Path of Feel Good,
where we re-member that our thoughts create our reality…
and the reality we desire is to live JOY first and foremost.

I had an OY! moment just a few days ago.

My horse and I were out for a lovely sleigh ride…

Horse Play

It was MAGICAL! Sun glistening on new fallen snow…birds singing in the quiet woods…just she and I dashing along on a one horse open sleigh. It was so enJOYable that I was singing songs to her…and I’m sure she was liking it!

JOY!

When suddenly…!

While coming across one of the fields I saw my boarder’s hubby coming down the drive on a new to the farm horse. The mare was weaving and bobbing and didn’t look like she was too excited to be being ridden. My horse hadn’t met this horse before…in fact the new horse hadn’t properly met any of the horses on the farm yet.  (There’s a certain protocol that’s helpful when introducing a new horse to the herd.)

All of the horses were getting a little amped. I quieted my Lindy as best I could…I was feeling anxious right along w/the herd (not my job, 1st signal that I was creating a reality I may not desire.)
Boarder’s hubby & his mare kept approaching and I yelled out to them that I didn’t feel like it was a good idea for them to come over and ride with us.
He insisted we’d all be fine.

OY!

And if I’d have bought his version of reality all would have been fine…
For me, it didn’t feel right (and thus I played my role in creating what happened next).

All 30 horses on the farm went crazy at once.
My horse (and me on the very open, nothing to hang on to, nothing to brace myself on, box sleigh) took off at FULL speed.  I did my best to bring her in…calm her down to a halt but she was not thinking about me or listening…she was OFF like a rocket.

I started sliding and in the moment felt I had two choices,

1. to slide down off the front of the sleigh and have it run over me…
2. to bail and fly off the side of the very fast moving sleigh.

I chose to bail.

OY!
I blacked out, lost my hearing for a few moments…and then came to and felt pretty OK.

My horse continued running like a crazy girl…eventually destroying the sleigh, wood splinters & bits flying every where…which caused all the horses in their pastures to panic, bolt and break through several fence lines.

OY!

It was utter mayhem!

The good news is…everyone is fine, no broken bones, nothing super serious.  (JOY!)

A stiff reality

The next day I was VERY, very sore and stiff…concerned some what about my neck, feeling not so great about how and why this all happened and how I took part in creating it, etc.

You see, you know me…I’m the one who believes wholeheartedly that we create our reality.  That’s true no matter what the reality is.  Good…or what we may consider less than good.

• I felt like this could happen, thereby creating space for it in my reality
• I felt strongly that I did not want Boarder’s Hubby & new mare to approach & ride w/us, but I did not clearly state my feelings and I didn’t say NO, thereby creating more space for something that did not feel good to me in my reality
• I felt fear, thereby creating misalignment and separation from Source/My Brilliance
• I saw a less than desirable outcome in my mind’s eye…and my horse responded to meet my expectations

All the while I could have chosen to see things differently, but I was caught up in a state of ‘oh-no!’…and I went with it.
It’s OK.  It happens sometimes.  And all of life is on purpose.

I’ve been so busy of late…enJOYing every moment of it, and at the same time feeling the need to have some slow down time.

Funny, right? (Know where I’m going…?)

I was enjoying my pace and activity so much that even though a part of me was requesting some slow down time…I wasn’t listening and probably wouldn’t have given it to myself without this (fast paced) situation.  Hah!  (Yeah, thanks for that reminder…I’ll make better choices next time!)  *Catch 22 is…I was giving myself some ME time with my horsey…one of my favorite things to do for me.*

On the plus side… (JOY!) I got myself some couch R&R time.  This body was in no shape for taking clients, etc.  I needed to just BE.

As I pondered what had happened and how much of me was feeling pretty darn aligned with OY!  I started feeling that feeling I’ve always got going for me…deep down…

I’ve got that Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy

…down in my heart… 

I ran right over (virtually, of course) to my friends in the Outsourcerers Forum at Good Vibe University.  I knew that if I shared my OY! story that they’d support me in turning it right ‘round to JOY! lickity-split.

I requested that they see me and my body finding our way back to our usual vibrant, strong, vital, supple, happy place…and I invited them to have fun and embellish the manifestation intentions in any way they saw fit.

It came as no surprise that I felt better immediately.  I had released the ‘story’…and was on my way to creating a better feeling place, a new story…and I had friends supporting my journey! (I’ll share some of the outsourcerer magic they sent me in the comment stream…)
JOY!

The moral of the story?

There are many…  In the interest of keeping it light, it feels good to me to recognize that the distance between OY! and JOY! is purely what we make of it.  In fact, just look at it…

OY! only needs one letter to turn it into JOY! Pretty quick and easy, huh?

It’s as easy as a choice.

• A choice to turn around and feel better.
• A choice to see things in a better feeling light…no matter how dim one reality may seem.

I could have wallowed in physical, emotional, mental pain…I had some of each.

Alternatively…

• I chose to get connected with the good stuff.
• I chose to align with the miraculous nature of my body’s ability to spring back to health and wholeness.
• I chose to enlist the support of friends and family I knew would see me as my brilliant, happy, shining self
• …thereby supporting it to reality.

As I write this it’s just 48 hours since I flew from the sleigh.

• I’m cozy on the couch; giving myself what I need…rest and recharging time.
• Sun’s streaming in the windows.
• House is quiet and peaceful…accented by the fire crackling in the fireplace.
• I’m happy, content, feeling restful.
• My body is finding her way back to being her pain free…vital, vibrant self.  (Miraculously fast, I might add!)
• And I’m aligned with my Brilliance…feeling my JOY and laughing at the OY that was.

Life is Good.

Has there been an OY turned to JOY moment for you recently?

• How did you turn it around?
• Was the distance between OY and JOY great, or small?
• Have you recently made the choice to close the gap and create transformation?
• Have you feel an OY coming on & switched up the vibe quickly enough to add the J before it was anything less than JOY?

Tell me about it…!

Out of OY…and IN JOY!
Debra

Photo Credit:  My very own Lindy Rose w/Barn/Boarder Mistress on the sleigh

Have questions about Good Vibe University & how to become a member?  Ask me!  I LOVE it there!!!  A most supportive community of Good Vibers hosted by THE Good Vibe Coach, Jeannette Maw.

In fact, days before Christmas I updated my Facebook and Twitter with this:

Your best gift to the world is YOU! …during this fast paced season of giving and always. YOU are the shining star. Give the gift of YOU!

Know what I love most about this gift?  It’s perfect, readily available, easily accessible, and it never stops giving.  If you’re breathing, you’re giving.  You being here, alive on this planet right here, right now is the greatest gift.

Do you know the miracle of the Gift of You?

To give the Gift of YOU, to give the gift of your Brilliance to everything…in everything you do is the most amazingly magnificent gift anyone could ever hope to receive!

Imagine what would happen if we gave our attention to the magic in this idea.

When we recognize our Brilliance, the shining star we are each born to be…we become (and we already are) our most heavenly gift to the world.

Being conscious of our Gift and how we share it is yet another gift…to others, as well as to ourselves.

Within the Gift of You there are many glorious Nuggets of Brilliance that make up the whole.

It feels good to share the Brilliance of who we are freely and deliberately.  From this space we are aligned with the Essence that is our most Divine Self and our gifts are even more magnificent!

What are Your Nuggets of Brilliance?

We’ve all got many!  I’d love to hear at least 3 favorites that you love to give others…and if you’re in a giving mood and more than 3 flow forth…wahoo, it’s a celebration!!

I’ll start…

My favorite gifts to give others are:

My JOY (and my irresistible desire to help others find theirs)

My Love

My Ability to Listen with my Heart

My Loving Guidance & Inspired Perspective

My Reflection of Your Brilliance  (I see the JOY of Brilliance in each of you and give the gift of reflecting it back to you so that you can see yourself through J.O.B. eyes!)

It’s Your Turn~

Let’s here it Brilliant Beings!!  Share the Gift of YOU with the world…deliberately, on purpose…here…now.

We’re all ready to receive the Gift of YOU with deep appreciation and love.

Join in…share the Gift of YOU with us now…

Beautiful Eyes Photo Credit

I love the dual energies I feel at this time of year.

It’s a time of harvest.  A time of recognizing and giving gratitude for the abundance gathered over months of inspired growing time.
And it’s a time of winding down as we allow ourselves into the womb of winter.
A time of preparing to go inside until the light is renewed and another cycle of rebirth is upon us.

Nature truly gives us all the wisdom we could hope for.  She knows without question what to do next.  She is the perfect example of allowance.  She just flows.  If something outside of her realm of influence attempts to disrupt her…she shakes it off…she self corrects.

Through nature we find ourselves.  We are nature in human form.  The same vibration that created her is that of us.  We are energy.  Alive.  Pulsing.  Enlivened by the very pulse of the planet.

Nature’s Gateway

In my world, Nature is one of the most magical gateways to our Brilliance.

If ever we feel unsure, shaken, unaware, out of touch with who we are in our purest form…Nature is the Gateway to finding our way home…to our Brilliance, to all that we are.

Most of us have created lives that lead us away from nature.  We create boxes; we exist indoors.  We have multi-level buildings that give rise to our feet from the grounded connection they so love to feel on the earth.  We turn on another box to watch nature…through the lens of another.  Our lives are busy.  We don’t have time to play outside.

My life got as much like that as I’d ever let it.  And then we moved to Kauai where even when you’re indoors you feel the harmony and oneness of nature breathing through the space.  I am forever in appreciation for our blessed union with Kauai.

She gifted us with the Gateway home.

Once we understand the significance of Nature in our lives; once we’ve crossed the threshold of that gateway…we are FREE.

Have you found your Gateway?  There are many…and they’re free, and available to everyone…no matter where you are on the planet!

A Good Sit Spot

On Kauai, we’d often encourage the children in our homeschool community to give themselves a quiet sit spot in nature.  We’d ask them to just be with it…to quietly watch and observe…and later we’d talk about their findings.  Kids are close to nature, so this is easy for them and they always had magical things to report.

As I sit today…with the tree spirits just outside my door…I am aware of these things:

• I am nurtured by the grace of nature.  She fills me up.
• I sit, observe, feel, smell, listen, taste…  I drink her in.
• I recognize the simple beauty…and the intricate details.
• Breathing, nourishing, nurturing…
• Constant BEingness, in complete grace and ease.

The tree doesn’t ask, “What should I do today?”  He just stands in his knowing.  He doesn’t wonder who he is.  He’s good at being a tree.  He accepts himself for who he is.    He doesn’t bend over some days and say, “nope, not today…I’m just not going to show up today…can’t do it.”  He stands in his Brilliance, in his Power and he is Tree.

• I see movement, flexibility~
• …bending, swaying, dancing…and yet rooted, solid, grounded.

Trust the Cycles

I trust the cycles~
…Birth…Death…Rebirth

Tree doesn’t say, “no, no, no…I’m not ready!!  I can’t be time.  How is it possible?  I’m just not ready.  I don’t want it to be fall.  Please!!  I don’t want to lose my leaves!!

Instead, she accepts and allows.  She is in the flow of perfection.  She just is.  She is nature and nature is her.  Her leaves fall…naturally, gracefully…feeding and nourishing her roots for further growth.

In this moment, I am the tree.
I give myself to the cycle that is upon me with full abandon.
I am the tree.  I stand strong in who I am.
I stand strong in my connection with the earth.
My roots dig deep.  My branches reach out to the heavens.
My leaves, one by one gently float to the earth in rhythm with the earth’s calling.
My heart knows I am one with the All, all with the One.
I am in perfect harmony.

In this moment, I am Free.
This moment is every moment.
In every moment I am Free.

In love, gratitude and appreciation for the Tree…the Tree that is me…I AM FREE.

Your Gateway?

• How does Nature’s gateway lead to your Brilliance?
• What intimate moments have you shared with Nature?
• What has Nature revealed to you?
• Where will Nature lead you next?

I’d love to hear from you…

In Harmony…with JOY…in Nature,
Debra (@debsoul)

Brilliant Autumn Tree Photo
Tree Gateway Photo

As I pondered what to write I considered all the topics that speak to me…and grabbed the one that sings to me.  The topic of Brilliance and Living Your Shine to the Fullest. As soon as I knew that’s what I wanted to write about I stumbled upon the quote that you’ll read a couple sentences from now.  I had the spark and the quote ignited the post.  I LOVE it when that happens!!

The Good Vibe Community loved the post…and naturally I wanted to share it with you too.  Here it is!

Hafiz wrote:

“You are a Divine Elephant with amnesia trying to live in an ant hole.”

The imagery of this quote is alarmingly vivid.  Seriously, are you picturing it?

The funniest part is, this is exactly what each of us looks like when we choose to live smaller than the brilliance that we are each born to be!

A portion of one of my all time favorite quotes from Marianne Williamson says,

“Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.”

It’s becoming ever clearer to me that we, as a humanity are awakening to our purest Soul Brilliance.

As generational stories of oppression and suppression dot the path of our histories we are becoming more and more enlightened by the idea that we are meant to shine more than anything else in this life.

The Spark of Divinity that courses through our veins has been there since the beginning of time.  No matter what experiences have gone before us that spark is alive and well.  It can not be extinguished.

No matter what the ‘looks as if’ is on the movie screen of life…something deep inside continues to pulse, telling us there’s a better picture…a picture we alone create for ourselves.

It is our Divine Right to shine.  And it is our choice to exercise this right.

What are you choosing?

• Are you the elephant w/amnesia trying to squeeze yourself into the ant hole?

• Or are you the elephant divinely aware of your majestic nature, fully aware of your HUGE Brilliance, fully willing to Live Large?

Perhaps you are the ant.  One ant in a colony of millions.

• One ant who in that colony of millions could choose to get lost in the ant hill of anonymity…

• Or one ant who will choose to claim his uniqueness and be counted as the one he is.

No matter the choice, choose on purpose.

• Choose because you want to.
• Because you know you can.
• Choose because no one else can make the choice for you.

Let the amnesia fade.

Stand up and claim your birthright.

You are a Divine Soul living a Human Experience.

What a gift!

The best part?…

It’s a gift that keeps on giving.  Another line from the same Marianne Williamson quote says,

“And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

I know my perfect JOB.  It’s to serve others through my own Light, assisting others to fully discover their own Light…their own Joy of Brilliance in life.

Just by becoming the Divine Being we are…elephant, ant, human…each of us uniquely brilliant, shining our gleaming wonderfulness in all we are…leading by the clarity of our example as Abraham suggests…

…just by this, we encourage others to do the same.

It’s that easy.  It’s that important.  It’s that brilliant.

We create heaven on earth just by being the brilliance of who we are.

Heaven feels good.  I choose brilliance.  In JOY.  Will you join me?

Let me hear you claim it!

• What amnesia have you recently come out of?
• What is the “Brilliance of YOU” that you are now, more than ever, willing to BE?

Living amnesia free ~ In my Joy of Brilliance…  Debra  aka @debsoul

Divine Elephant Photo

For example, I do things like:

• live JOYfully,
• express creatively,
• love unconditionally,
• dance wildly,
• sit quietly,
• speak passionately,
• BE brilliantly.

In fact the premise of that post was inspired by the nursery rhyme ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’ in which one floats gently down(the)stream…because…merrily, merrily, merrily Life is but a Dream!

Oh, the Magic!

Last night I was updating my Facebook status and something magical happened.

I saw something in a word that had been there all the while, except I had never seen it that way before.  (LOVE when that happens!)

I was giggling to myself about how people I’ve known for years, but haven’t seen for a long time seem to be perplexed about all the different ‘jobs’ I have.  Currently I am:

• a Social Media Consultant,
• an Intuitive Guide,
• a Copywriting Coach,
• an Alkaline-Antioxidant Water System Fan & Promoter
• and even the Magic Hairdresser in me may be getting dusted off to shine in the spotlight once again.

As I considered how funny it is to me that I don’t fit into another’s ‘I do this and this alone!’ box, I stared at the word ‘job’ that I had just typed.

As I stared the letters started dancing before me …J…O…B… and that’s when it happened.  I saw the word JOB as an acronym for Joy of Brilliance!!!

J.O.B. = Joy of Brilliance

Oh My Goodness!!!  It’s everything I ever say, share, be, do, live, encourage, etc. to the max!!

Who knew that a little word like ‘job’ held the magic of J.O.B. ~ Joy of Brilliance?!?

This is perfect! JOBs are meant to be born of our Soul Brilliance and expressed with great JOY!

The secret to life is about living JOY and Feeling Good…and when we do we become like Midas; everything we touch turns to GOLD.

Life is not meant to be about ‘work’ or ‘job-jobs’.  It’s meant to be about a continuous joyful flow of expression…and within that we receive abundance as a result of living that joy.  (Some may refer to parts of that abundance as a ‘pay check’)

My friend, Star Rinaldi on Facebook shares a quote by Rabindranath Tagore in her sidebar that I resonate with so deeply:

“I slept and dreamt that Life was Joy.  I awoke and saw that Life was Service.  I acted and behold, Service was Joy.”

In dream time we often recognize the brilliance of who we are.  To wake up and express that with joy each and every moment of every day is the best JOB we could ever dream of.

The best part is…every job we have can be this if we choose it to be.  Every one.  Even the most seemingly mundane.  Putting our Brilliance to work with Joy is possible no matter what we do.

Do You Want a JOB?

So…I ask you, what is your JOB?  Are you working it?  Do you have your Joy of Brilliance (JOB) turned on in everything you do? If not, what can you do to shift it?

Now, when someone asks, “What do you do?” I can simply reply, “In everything I do, I have the BEST JOB in the world because I’m working my Joy of Brilliance!”

It’s up to you.  You are Brilliant beyond measure. Will you work it?

If you need help finding your J.O.B., let me know…one of my favorite J.O.B.s is helping others find theirs.

And you know what?  When you work your Joy of Brilliance it is as easy as you choose it to be to turn that into your Midas Touch JOB…the one that creates the paycheck you desire as well as other joyful abundance.

In future JOB posts we’ll talk about how to find your JOB in any job, the Age of the Entrepreneur related to JOBs, Creativity, Passion, Purpose and Connection JOBs, why being a Jack or Jill of all trades creates great JOBs, etc.

Are you as excited as me about this Re-Frame? Tell me about it!  I want to hear about your JOBs.  What is your Joy Of Brilliance?  …and if you’re not sure, I want to hear about that, too!

In JOY…with my new JOB…  Deb

BEe JOB Photo Credit