Goals!

by Cynthia Bischoff | Jan 13, 2019 | Heartliving

You have probably thought about what you want in different areas of your life, but have you taken time to choose an area and set a goal for yourself?

When you set a goal and know with clarity what you want to achieve, you can know where you want to be and thus concentrate your efforts. Here are some to tips on setting a goal:

• If you truly want to achieve a certain goal, begin by writing it down. You will then have a more intimate relationship with your goal.
• Try writing your main goal in one sentence so that it is succinct and clear. This may take a few moments to narrow it down, so take your time and just get it to where you feel good about it. You may begin “My goal is . . . .”
• Be both inspired and excited about what you want to achieve and realistic about what you know you will commit to doing.
• Work with the journalist questions as you write your goal: who, what, when, where, why, and how?
• For example, if you want to become more physically fit, what would you do and how would you be?
  • Who: you
  • What: exercise to become fit; go to the gym
  • When: exercise 3 times per week on specific days at specific times (otherwise, you will not know whether or not you have met your goal)
  • Where: exercise at a specific gym or location or in a certain way
  • Why: to physically improve your body, but also to feel inspired and in greater health
  • How: schedule exercise dates/times and COMMIT to keeping your word.

So your goal may now be:

My goal is to improve my body by committing to exercising at One Life Fitness three times each week on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday from 5-6:30 p.m. for the next six months. I intend to tone up and lose 20 pounds.

• Your goal should be measurable. Main goals can have “sub-goals” (I intend to tone up and lose 20 pounds).
• It is sometimes helpful to have an “accountability partner” who may also wish to achieve a goal. This person may not have the same goal as you, but you can hold each other accountable by agreeing upon dates to check in with each other on your progress. Be each other’s cheerleader!
• When you achieve your goal, be sure to celebrate your success and reward yourself in a healthy and positive way.

Setting and achieving your goals builds your self-confidence and gets you where you want to be!

A Thankful Heart

by Cynthia Bischoff | Nov 18, 2018 | Heartliving

As we approach our Thanksgiving week, we reflect on numerous traditions for giving thanks. Some people have shared with me that at Thanksgiving dinner as a child, they were asked to express something for which they were grateful. While it is one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving is not the only day to focus on “thanks-giving”!

There are important reasons for giving thanks on any day of any week:

• Your emotions are your most sophisticated way to know what is going on for you.
• Your emotions at any given moment help you know whether or not you are resisting life or allowing it.
• You can actually change your emotional grooves and allow the details of your life–your response to life–to play out differently.
• While you can’t always control your thoughts, you can guide them.
• Allow yourself to witness a larger picture of your circumstances and your world and decide to feel blessed, expecting good to come to you.
• Decide that your world is a kind one and that you deserve goodness.
• Feel better first and then your vibration will change.
• Know that you are an integral part of life itself and that the Universe blesses you.
• Let yourself feel blessed.
• Give thanks for blessings now and on the way.

You see, to the degree that you feel blessed and expect good things–that indicates your degree of allowing good to come to you. So put on some music, do something you love, call a friend, help another, say a prayer–above all, expect good things to come to you and give thanks!

Native American Prayer

by Cynthia Bischoff | Oct 28, 2018 | Heartliving

O Great and Holy Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind, whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me.

I need your strength and your wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hand respect the things that you have made, and my ear sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things that you have taught my people.  Help me to remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes toward me.

Let me learn the lessons hidden under every leaf and rock.

Help me seek pure thoughts and act with the intention of helping others.

Help me find compassion without empathy overwhelming me.

I seek strength not to be greater than my brothers and sisters, but to fight my greatest enemy–Myself.

Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and stright eyes, so that when life fades as the fading sunset, my spirit will come to you without shame.

All my relations.

Source:  A Sioux Prayer

You Are What You Think

by Cynthia Bischoff | Oct 14, 2018 | Heartliving

Within each of us is a critic that seems to confront us at different levels of our growth. For some of us, this critic is very active and sometimes even attacking—evaluating our every move, telling us when we are successful, “good,” acceptable, and when we are not.

If you are constantly asking yourself: “Do I have what it takes? Does so-and-so really care about me? Am I attractive?,” and so on, then the underlying belief that appears to drive the questions is the idea that you lack something important or don’t have what it takes. The unconscious reality is a lack of contact with your soul’s true nature. This lack of contact expresses itself as a lack of self-esteem.

The bodily experience in these cases is often one of emptiness. Instead of listening to the critic or trying to deny the critic voice, a way to stop the self-attacks may be to allow yourself at first to feel the emptiness—to feel your sadness and emptiness fully—and then to choose to move beyond it. Remember, “the only way out is through.”

It is important to understand that the inner critic has a profound distrust of your ability to handle this very moment. It compares you to the past and measures you against the future. In order to move beyond this judge, it is essential to trust that you have complete power over this very moment and how you live it. Repeat to yourself in your moments of challenge, “Up until now…” knowing that at this very moment, your entire life can change, that now you can choose to.

Our inner judge often asks us to rely on past beliefs in order to exist. Its ongoing saga is that nothing good will happen in the current moment, and it tries to maintain a fixed sense of who we are. Once you recognize that you are giving this judge your power, you can also choose not to give it. Instead of letting the judge deny your soul its potential, you can disengage from it. You can recognize the critic’s voice as one of sabotage and choose not to finance the negative relationship with the critic any longer. And, of course, you can remind yourself of one thing: You are worthy.