Find out who you are and be that person. That’s what your soul was put on this earth to be. Find that truth, live that truth and everything else will come   -Ellen Degeneres

When I reflect back over my journey thus far I see one gigantic roller coaster ride that has been filled with an abundance of highs and lows. Regardless of how high the high or how low the low I wouldn’t take back one moment of it for all of it has brought me to who I am in this moment. Who I am today is a far cry from who I was 10 years ago and who I will be in 10 years will feel nothing like it does today. I am so grateful for this because if we are not changing we are not growing and growth is why we are here.

I have learned that we have two choices in life. We can either choose to be asleep to life, reacting, complaining, settling into our comfort zones and wondering why things continue to happen as they do. We can also choose to awaken to life and use it as a playground of continuous growth and evolution with the knowing that we have everything we need within us to live in alignment with our own unique truth. I have experienced life both ways and I can say for sure that if we choose the latter, life will use us in a not so fun way. It will take us on a ride where we will either attempt to escape through countless distractions or it will leave us constantly waiting for that next moment somewhere in the future with the hope of finally feeling like it was all worth it. I am here to tell you this is one big illusion. Life is now. Life is this moment. If we wait for the bigger or better house, the retirement, the pay raise, the next vacation, the boyfriend, the wife, the promotion, the better job title, the degree, the party, the weekend, etc. we are in trouble. Of course, there is nothing wrong with experiencing any of this, but when we are living from a place of needing it because we hold the belief that it will help us reach a “destination” to feeling better or proving that we have “arrived” we are in trouble. There was a time when I felt like I desperately needed a lot of “things” and thankfully I began to notice that once I received what I thought I wanted, I immediately needed something else. Because this felt so incredibly exhausting, I reached a point where I wanted to get off the ride of life altogether – like seriously check out. And I did. I was spiritually and emotionally bankrupt. I was going through the motions of life, getting by, but barely surviving.

What happened? I fell asleep to my own truth. I lost all connection to who I was and disconnected from my internal compass. I lost my sense of what felt right for me and my ability to feel anything at all. Instead I tried to please those around me or at least attempted to fit in just enough so that I wouldn’t stand out in any way, rock the boat or ruffle feathers. I avoided situations where I might risk being told that I was wrong and placed myself in situations where I knew I wouldn’t receive a rejection. I hid and I played small. What I couldn’t see was that in doing this I was the one rejecting myself.

I played the game of life this way, and simultaneously found myself asking questions like “Why me?” and “Why is life so unfair?” I have learned that life can only give us as much as we are willing to give to ourselves. It will give us exactly what we need so that we will be left with no choice but to face ourselves head on. It will continue to show up exactly as it needs to so that we begin to take 100% responsibility for ourselves from the inside out. Taking responsibility requires us to go within and do the work of cleaning up all the emotions, thoughts and beliefs that we have taken on from the outside world. It requires doing the work of clearly knowing what is and isn’t ours.  The hard truth is nothing and nobody is coming to save us. It is up to us and only us.

As I continue to learn this powerful lesson each and every day, I’ve come to see that I am not alone in feeling this way. We live in a culture that is driven by fear and scarcity and one that teaches us that our worthiness comes from outside of us. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The more I continue to uncover and peel away the illusions that I bought into, the more clearly I see that there is no better feeling than living in the knowing that we are already enough just as we are. We don’t need anything to create this truth. The truth is already within us. A wise person once told me “Denise, you came here with nothing and you will leave here with nothing. You aren’t here to get more and survive. You are here to give what is already within you and thrive.”  So I will leave you with these questions. What if you really knew you were already perfectly enough just as you are? What if you knew you already hold all the gifts within you that you were meant to share with the world and that they are patiently waiting to be tapped into and expressed. If everything was taken from you or if you had everything you could ever imagine…who would you be? Why are you here? What are you here to give? And if you’re not sure of that answer quite yet, are you willing to find out? The world is waiting on you to be who you really are not what you “think” you need to be or should be. When we live from this powerful place…I can assure you that miracles begin to unfold before our very eyes.