My days are made up of moments that I choose to string together or not. Like everyone else, I have bad moments when I am angry, shocked, hurt or just downright bewildered by the insensitivity of others. But I choose to replace the feelings of anger, hurt, shock or disbelief with other feelings like love and empathy.

I move from moment to moment and choose not to carry those bad emotions into my next moment. You can do that too. The next time that you feel angry, hurt, shocked or bewildered – move on. Feel the bad, identify it, choose a feel-good emotion, send love and move into your next life experience. Considering what we now know about the effect of emotions on our bodies, feeling good is the highest form of self-love. There is no value for your life experience or your day in taking bad feelings with you. Live, laugh, love – good advice.

Abundantly yours
Sherry

     I have a solution in hand. I do not make New Year’s Resolution, instead I make New Life Resolutions. Each year, I survey my life and make choices that will affect the quality of my life based on changes that I undertake in a wholistic way. What is the difference?

Abundantly yours,

This quote is a perfect fit for my life in the past six months. I have dealt with the unreality of loss and separation on all fronts. It ‘appeared’ that I was losing a job that I loved. It ‘appeared’ that the community was losing a needed outreach program. It ‘appeared’ that money was no longer a magical asset in my life. It ‘appeared’ that my job was my money source and not God. This list could go on for much longer but lets stop here.

It was all an ‘appearance’ as none of it was real. In the face of temporary defeat, my imagination spun a web of ‘lies.’ Times of temporary defeat are times of growth and learning. Defeat like life is always temporary if you look for the lessons and take heed. At that point, the miracles and coincidences begin to show up and you find yourself smiling and knowing that LIFE IS GOOD.

 “I’m broke.”

 “The only luck I have is bad.”

 “Nothing good ever happens to me.”

       If this is a part of your daily language, you are living in poverty consciousness. And just as no man can serve two masters, you cannot focus on prosperity while speaking or thinking of poverty as your reality. Read my lips, “Every word that you speak with full emotion becomes your reality.” Words do not appear from an empty void. They are powered and fed from your feelings within. Follow me down the road to how you have come to this point in your life. All of our lives are powered by our beliefs, our thoughts, our words and our actions. The first item that we have to examine is our beliefs. What are beliefs?

      Beliefs (the basis for our thoughts) – what you have internalized from life observation, words and actions of others, input from your culture and your interactions with life obstacles. Using all of these ingredients, we each decide what is ‘true’ about life. As we are growing up, we internalize and unconsciously keep a lot of the beliefs of our caretakers as our own. Their prejudices, views of life limitations, and even their thoughts about our own bodies become our thoughts. All prejudices against other people for skin color, body type, hair color, eye color, and physical disability learned beliefs accepted as truth.

      You have to question everything that you hold as ‘true’ in your life. Ask, “Where did I hear that?” “Who first said that to me?” “Is it true in MY life experience?” “Has that thought become a limiting factor in my life?” As an example, take the statement from above, “I’m broke.” Is that ever true for you? Often when it is said, you actually have money somewhere in your life – in a bank account; in a glass jar on a shelf; in your purse; in your pocket or change in a desk drawer. Just saying the words announces that you are focused on lack and asks for more of it. Always speak words that announce what you want and not words that reinforce what you don’t want to see show up in your life. 

      What do you believe about your life? If you really want to know, take a critical and open review of what is showing up in your life.

 Thoughts + words + actions = Your Life

     Each step of the equation is fueled by what you believe you deserve from life. Your ultimate actions reflect and reinforce what you believe you deserve from life. Changing your beliefs from negative projections to positive projections takes focus and time but it is far from impossible. It is the most sacred journey you will make in this life. God’s plan is for you to have unlimited access to what you truly want. Get in alignment with his plan by changing your thoughts, words and actions through self-love and self-discipline.

 Sherry Ransom is the author of the award-winning book, Three Paths, Three Choices – Getting the Life that You Deserve.  Her professional practice includes coaching individuals and groups in Abundance Attraction based on holistic views of the body, mind and spirit working together to achieve a balanced and joyful life. More information at www.sherryransom.com

© Sherry Ransom – All rights Reserved

      The answers are right in front of us.  Recently, while visiting Puerto Rico, my husband and I began a walking tour of Old San Juan.  Everything we explored was beautiful, restored and fresh until we stood on a hill looking down on pure desolation.  Poorly constructed houses covered the ‘beach’ and almost looked like a squatter’s town. There seemed to be one narrow way in and one way out. I was not curious enough to venture down to see more clearly and looked in our guide books for information on this area.  The area was known as La Perla and tourists were warned not to enter or even accidentally cruise the area.  As we stood there staring at this place that seemed out of place, I noticed the anomaly.  Every ramshackle structure had a satellite dish attached to the top of it.  The satellite dishes confirmed the statistics of television watching among the poor. In the United States, as of 2002, US Census figures showed that of those living at poverty level in America, 98.20% have television sets in their home and over over-half have two or more sets.  In that same census report, only 59.30% had computers in the home and over one-half of those had no Internet connection.  Poor people are twice as likely to have full cable coverage which can average from $50 to $200 per month while turning down $20 – $50 monthly Internet service for computers already in the home.

      Owning a television or two or more is not the culprit.  It is the use of the television to eat away at time that could be better spent.  It is time that could be spent on activities that ultimately bring abundance into your life.  Have a conversation with a successful person about the television show that they watch.  You will find that often they haven’t the vaguest idea of what is current. Time is better spent thinking, building, creating or expanding into areas that pay dividends.  How do you spend your evenings?

      Television watching is routinely blamed for a myriad of personal setbacks, including poor academic performance for teenagers, excessive weight gain for children and adults, poor sleeping habits, lack of communication between family members and many more.  How much did your television cost you?  You know the one with the biggest screen, HDTV, and blue-ray.  Whatever the number, if you would like to live your best possible life by creating a new home or work reality, it is costing you much, much more.  Yearly, your television may be costing you $40,000, $80,000, $200,000 or even millions.  How can that be?

      While you are watching television hour after hour, night after night, you could be investing that same time in yourself.  You could be furthering your education, building a business, exploring the Internet for opportunities and ideas, or finding new ways to invest your money.

      Before, I changed my habits; I would spend up to four hours a night watching television.  That four hour investment of time gained me some relaxation, but did I need to relax for four hours? Wouldn’t one hour or one and a half hours have been sufficient?  As I headed off to bed, I had learned nothing and most of all not propelled my life forward one tiny bit.

      Time is truly a valuable commodity.  There are only 24 hours in a day and we spend one third of the time sleeping, one third working and getting to and from work, and one third bathing, eating, cleaning house , errands etc.  That one third for the etc is eight hours and you have chosen to spend one-half of that precious time sitting and watching characters who are not teaching you anything or advancing your life.

      You don’t have to give up your favorite television shows.  Just the precious time spent watching hour after hour including commercials.  Choose your favorite shows and record them for Saturday or Sunday afternoons without commercial interruption. I would hate to know how many hours I spent watching American Idol in two hour intervals when only one or two acts were worth viewing.

      How much money has televsion cost you in terms of time spent away from following your dream?  Are you willing to take a different view on time management?  Making decisions about how you will choose to allocate time to move into your dream is your option.  As for me, I will choose my dream every single time.

 Sherry Ransom is the author of the award-winning book, Three Paths, Three Choices – Getting the Life that You Deserve.  More information at www.sherryransom.com

© Sherry Ransom – All rights Reserved

Today, my daughter spoke to me about her gratefulness for all that she has. She is happier than she has been in years. Her statements go against the grain of the capitalist belief that happiness is irrevocably tied to wanting and having more. When she lived in Austin, she had a spacious home with beautiful furniture, a relaxing and inviting backyard, a luxury model car and more clothing than closet space in a three bedroom home and she was unhappy to her core. In her move to Chicago, she now has a 550 square foot apartment, one very small closet and walks to work, shopping, dinners and fun. Her living space is so limited that she can only allow the things that really mater to her. She no longer owns anything because it matches the world’s expectations. I am seeing her for the first time in a month and she is radiantly beautiful with self-acceptance and joy.

Having it all is not about going home with the most marbles, it is about finding your center of joy and living there happily for awhile. Life is totally about change and trust me your life circumstances will change. If you feel the need to move forward or upward and want to claim more marbles – it is your choice. Just take a quick self assessment  to ensure that what you want is not based on how you want others to perceive your level of success. What you have in your life should reflect what YOU want in your life as you look forward knowing that abundance is unlimited and you don’t need to have the world’s perception of ‘all’ at this moment. When you are looking at your life through the world’s eyeglasses, you will always come up short.

Look around you and decide what  works toward your happiness and what doesn’t. Make a plan to replace what doesn’t and give God thanks for the pieces of your life you plan to keep. Make a plan, live your plan and be happy. You really are in control of your own destiny.

Abundantly yours,
Sherry

My only daughter is moving to Chicago soon and in the planning of the move, I became so focused on what I wanted to see for her (a large apartment overlooking the lake; free parking; perfect commute to work etc) that I ended up taking away her joy in finding a small apartment in a great neighborhood that she liked with a 1/2 mile walk to work. These were all things that she wanted. I acted as if I were moving and chose the things that I would like to have and failed to see that I was ruining her vision for herself.

I have now recovered and stopped to take a deep breath (all realizations start with a deep breath) cleared my future focus and thanked God for the blessings she has (a wonderful new job; a new life; a great neighborhood; friends; and hope). Thank you, God for another life lesson.

Love and light!

You can only take one breath at a time.
You can only take one step at a time.
You can only have one thought at a time.
and most importantly, you can only make one choice at a time.

Your life is always one choice away from creating your life possibilities. One choice will lead you toward the life you want and another will lead you away from the life you want.

A succesion of choices have led you to where you are right now (whether you like it or not). Look carefully at the next set of choices that you make one at a time. Will they take you closer to your best life or ……….

Love and light,
Sherry