What a magical time of year it is, however I don’t want to forget that it can also be a sad time of year.
For some we are missing our loved ones who are no longer with us and the pressures of the holidays can be overwhelming. I remember how I used to feel, so stressed with all there is to do, the worries of where I will find the money for all the extras and wanting to make everyone else happy but forgetting about myself. I would usually get sick sometime between Boxing day and New Years. I gave too much and ran myself down and my body forced me to focus on myself by literally taking me out for a few days.
This was the old me, I don’t feel these pressures anymore. As I write this I still have lots of shopping, cleaning and cooking to do and it’s only a few days before Christmas but I am not concerned, I am happy, so very grateful and I know it’s all going to work out as it should.
I firmly attribute this phenomenon to living a radical life because I never would have felt this way before. What does living a radical life look like you wonder?
I invite you to watch the videos I created to get you started on living a radical life. These short videos are bite-sized tips with daily action steps towards living radically and finding the joy from living from your truth, not hiding behind the mask many of us wear.
Living a radical life does take practice, patience and faith and that’s why I break it down into easy to digest steps you can gradually implement into your life.
So back to the most important life lesson I have learned from Rudolph.
Just the other day I was relaxing, colouring a mandala and half watching and mostly listening to the 1964 classic Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer movie. Watch it here, this is one of my favs!
I really identified with the story of Rudolph and his buddy Hermey, the elf who knew he was meant to be a dentist. I think I was listening to it from a different space than ever before and I was later thinking how this movie was over 50 years old and, we as a human race, are still facing these similar personal identity challenges.
Most of us want to fit in and feel accepted by our peers, our families and society but we also have a deep desire to be who we truly are inside and this is where the conflict comes in.
Are we brave enough to find out and BE who we really are without apology and be open to other people’s judgments and our judgments of ourselves?
Or do we settle with status quo and try our best to fit in and live in-authentically?
The last option is the easier but unfulfilling path. The first one is more difficult but the more rewarding path.
Which path have you chosen?
We have all our answers within and to find them we must listen to that soft, gentle voice, not the judging critical voices we often hear so loudly.
In the movie, both Rudolph and Hermey were misfits and, for different reasons, chose to be who they really are deep inside, despite what anyone else thought. What Rudolph was so embarrassed about turned out to be his most valuable gift; when he shined his bright red nose he saved Christmas! Hermey became the dentist of the North Pole and was busier than ever with all that candy they eat up there. 😉
Can you identify with this?
When we fully accept our truth and choose to be our own unique self and follow that path we become aligned with our soul and we attract those who love us for who we are, not who they want us to be!
What a lesson from so long ago that is more relevant today than ever. More and more people are doing this and it’s a beautiful thing! I can see a world where we are all living from our truth, we unconditionally love each other and embrace our individual uniqueness. What a wonderful world that will be!
What are you going to do differently this coming year that your heart desires but your head has been holding you back from? It doesn’t have to be big, it’s what it means to you, so I encourage you to think about this and choose it.
I would love to hear from you and what’s going on, if you would like to share to make it more real please let me know.
I wish you a Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays if you don’t celebrate Christmas, and of course a prosperous and joyous New Year!
With love and gratitude,
Lorree
Besides impacting the lives of others to ‘be real and love life’ the most powerful thing about the work I get to do is the reflections of the teachings that come back to me. I always receive some type of wisdom, healing or blessing from the experience, whether it’s a private, group session or a speaking event.
Whatever the message is that I’ve conveyed I am somehow reminded of how it applies to me as well and it guides me towards the next stage of my growth.
Being aware of the subtle messages that are being sent to guide us forward is very empowering.
Last weekend at the Soul Full Day conference, I guided a group of 70 women through a visualization meditation to identify and let go of a fear story holding them back from what they truly wanted for their life, freedom to live their love story.
It was remarkable to witness them releasing the fear and claiming their love stories, seeing and feeling themselves living in the higher potential of their dreams.
This week I’ve been deeply reminded of the fear story that I’ve been carrying, ‘not being well enough to live a fulfilling life because my digestive health is failing’.
This is the same story my grandmother carried, and she died in fear with this story in her which was unconsciously passed on to me, and I accepted it.
For 8 years now I’ve been having various challenges with my digestive health. I’ve seen many different professionals and tried many different remedies and lifestyle changes. Some have worked and some haven’t. Over time things seemed to have mostly settled, then just a month ago the issues flared up again in a bigger way.
This brought up the old fear story for me as I prepare for a trip of a lifetime. I’m going to Egypt on a sacred pilgrimage to the visit the lands and ancient sites with 13 other women. This will be my first trip overseas and I’ve always been fascinated with Egyptian history, never thinking I would get the opportunity to visit until it showed up to me. I was very drawn to go, and decided I was going, even though it felt way outside my ability to be able to take such a trip.
Worries and a wide range of emotions have been coming up for me since these flare ups have been happening. My mind races and makes up stories based in old fears.
What if I am not well enough to fully experience this trip? What if I am stuck in my room and miss the tours, or what if I am not able to digest the food there? All that disappointment and money spent if I might not be able to full experience it.
These stories are very similar to what my grandmother used to tell herself. She was afraid to go far from home, let alone on a plane to another country. Everything centred around her digestive limitations and she was petrified of having an ‘accident’ while out in public. These fear stories debilitated her and she became a hermit and was very lonely in her later years.
I will never forget seeing her in the final days of her life living in fear. I visited her almost every day and seeing her like that was very sad because there wasn’t much I could do other than comfort and reassure her that she would be ok.
What it did do was motivate me to face my own fears and not go down the same path as she did. In this regard, she was a great teacher to me and not long after she transitioned I was divinely guided to take the Radical Forgiveness Master Coach 10 day training in Atlanta.
It was a huge step for me, and again way outside my comfort zone, but in the end it was one of the best things I could have done for myself because it set me on the trajectory of facing my fears, and the journey of living my love story.
I am eternally grateful to be on this path of self-forgiveness and self-acceptance just as I am, and in time I have learned to love myself. I’m still on this healing journey however this year I’ve had some major shifts in this area of my life and feel truly worthy and deserving of this love for myself because I have freedom from the fears.
This is where the synchronicity comes in again.
It just so happens that this Friday, the day I fly to Egypt, is the 9 year anniversary of my grandmother’s passing, and it’s a full moon! You just can’t make these things up. I didn’t realize the mysterious alignment of these dates until just a few weeks ago.
In numerology the number 9 represents endings and completions and I have a strong intuitive feeling that this trip is going to be transformational for me as a new beginning.
The other day when I was dancing my grandmother came to my mind, she was dancing with me, and I know she is leaving me these breadcrumb signs to follow to complete this stage of my journey. I made a promise to her that I was going to end the cycle of fear she carried and commit myself to healing into wholeness.
I have no doubt that this is all happening for me, rather than to me. And unlike my grandmother, I will face my fears and take this trip and I will trust in the divine unfoldment of it all.
I am reminded that everything is always working out for me, even if it doesn’t seem that way and she is cheering me on all along the way.
These are the same phrases I spoke to the women when I was on stage just a few days ago and they echo loudly in my mind as the beautiful blessings of having the freedom to live my love story.
If you would like to experience the guided visualization for yourself listen to the audio recording so you too can be free from your fear story and claim your love story.
In my next blog I will share about my travel adventures so stay tuned, and if you would like to be notified when I share it you can join my email Love Letter list at the bottom of this page.
Until next time… thank you for being here.
Beautiful newsletter. I did relate as a child and for a while imprinted with “misfit” , then “rebel”… and grew up doing too much to please others who actually were never pleased. Yes I always got sic between Xmas and New years.
… until I turned 40! That is when I realized I didn’t want to be a “sheeple” and I no longer hid the Energy Healing Empath anymore. The sense of freedom when I just embraced and honed my gifts was so liberating, and I have never looked back.
Wonderful seeing others embracing their truth now as well (26 years later).
Thank you Jessy, it seems this is a common way of being for many of us. 40 was my realization time too that I was going downhill and needed to save myself! It is very freeing to explore and embrace who we are at our core!