MARCH

Happy March everyone, it’s your host Sevina! It is time for new beginnings. Spring always gives me hope for the new and for the better. Spring is beautiful with it’s sunny mornings and longer days. My spirits brightens and soul is gladdened.

The articles below will keep reminding us how to keep ourselves in good spirit. To love ourselves, to be better partners, better parents, and better community members.

Enjoy,

Namaste!

5 Tips to Cultivate Personal Power and Self-Confidence

By: Linda Dierks

When you step into your power, you cultivate self-esteem and personal worth. A new sense of freedom emerges, doubts fall away, and you quit being a marionette to other people’s expectations or vulnerable to external circumstances. This new confidence allows you to let go of the need to judge, criticize, or compare yourself to others. When you claim your power, you also claim your greatest potential as an expression of your source creator.

Embrace your power by following these five building block practices and rise to the top of your personal game and spiritual path.

1. Define Who You Are

When you know who you are, you lay a foundation on which to build. As you define your abilities and qualities, you connect the dots and the picture of who you truly are emerges. Once this image develops, you become genuine, authentic, and comfortable in your own skin. You can start by asking yourself:

• When I let go of fitting in, what is it about me that rises to the top?
• What gifts are distinctly mine? What rings sterling and true about my abilities and personal qualities?
• Are there talents or tasks where others seek my help or advice?
• What did I love to do as a kid that got “practicalized” out of me?
• When that force of intuition and desire tugs my sleeve, where is it pointing me?
• What qualities light me up?
• Am I practical or a daydreamer?
• Do I seek adventure or quiet solitude?
• Is my life a bustle of activity or tuned to a laid-back pace?
• Do I recharge my batteries in an exuberant crowd or curled up with a book?
• Am I happiest when I stand out or when part of a larger whole?

Knowing who you are generates practices that best care for your needs and gives rise to a lifestyle that matches your authentic nature. You’ll feel more and more anchored. As the effervescence of your true self bubbles to the surface, you quit trying to be liked by everyone else, let go of being pulled in multiple directions, and are more resilient to life’s challenges. Dare to be special!

2. Embrace Your Gifts

Shine your light on the world. You are endowed with distinctive talents, skills, and interests that mark your magnificence and set you apart. Do your gifts launch or languish behind old voices? Are you saying to yourself:

• “Don’t be too big for your britches.”
• “Quit being a show-off.”
• “Look at the smarty-pants.”
• “Act like a lady/gentleman.”

Does the term, “fear of outshining” resonate with you? Do you downplay your skills so that you won’t stand out or threaten others? Have you turned down the volume on your talent in favor of fitting in? If your light is barely peeking out from under that bushel, allow yourself to shine—you will inspire, not intimidate. Broadcast what is special about you.

3. Love Yourself

Love is the highest frequency and gateway to your dance with the divine. The benefits of self-love are instant and enormous.

Try it, right now, by sending love down through your central core in a steady flow. With a flush of warmth and expansion, you ignite the heart and wash away doubt, insecurity, and self-limiting thoughts, and infuse calm and confidence. Move from being your worst critic to being your best cheerleader, and the world says “yes.”

When you infuse yourself with love, you honor and become more closely aligned with your creator. Set up your day—before getting out of bed, infuse yourself with love and reinforce it throughout the day. Turn your phone on selfie and have an eye-to-eye, heart-focused chat with yourself if you lose your center or if your confidence wanes. The combination of self-love and operating out of authenticity makes you invincible. You are perfect, whole, and complete.

4. Walk with a Higher Presence

Since prehistoric man, we have expressed spirituality in countless ways that are personal and unique to each of us.

When you incorporate spiritual practices and live by spiritual principles, you raise your vibrational frequency and become more closely aligned with a Universe that is invested in your highest good. A meditation practice increases this connection; however, anything that brings inspiration and joy will open your crown chakra, creating a deeper energetic connection with this wisdom and bounty. Don’t overlook the importance of joy in your life.

As you partner with this higher presence, you anchor your power. Confidence flourishes when you know that you are never alone and have an ally that’s invested in your joy, wellness, and prosperity. The hard edges of life soften, and you are propelled as the barriers of self-doubt and fear fall away. Partner up and become a co-creator of a life of abundance and wellness.

5. Engage, Expand, and Express

Engage your power by using these tools. Realization by realization, each step feeds the next in an ever-escalating ladder of growth and expansion. Express it. Show up and shout it out. When you sing your song and put your skills out in the world, you generate an energetic cycle of vitality that says to the Universe, “Give me more!” Reinforce the energetic loop by supporting and mentoring others. You are part of a sacred cycle of vitality.

Personal power and self-esteem are the foundation for creating joy and wellness. It motivates you to be more. It gives you resiliency in the face of adversity. It’s the root of mental and physical health and opens you to positive interaction with the world and a higher power.

When you step up to the plate and invest your time and interest, the Universe invests time and interest in you. Take the plunge, go out on a limb, put on your cape, and read your poetry to the trees. There is a great void just waiting for you to fill it.

How to Boost Your Confidence Through Meditation

By: Trish Thorp

You’ve had the experience of feeling good—reallygood—about yourself at least once in your life. Maybe it was something you accomplished after dedicating a lot of resources, like time, energy, and money. Or perhaps it was just a moment in time where you shined brighter ever before. Whatever that moment was, you will always remember the feeling you had, and there’s a pretty high likelihood that you would like to operate from that place as often as possible.

How to Build Confidence

Confidence is a positive state of mind centered around one’s power or abilities to be the person you want to be, to do the things you want to do, and to have what you want to have in your life. When your self-confidence is soaring, you experience emotions like happiness, joy, and inspiration that make you feel good. You feel clear, congruent, and as if you can take on the world. And yet, there are times in your life when you just don’t feel confident and your self-esteem wanes. In some cases, something happened that caused you to feel “less-than” and you can feel burdened with beliefs that you are incapable of being, doing, or having what you want. It’s important to remember that it’s not uncommon to wonder how to be more confident in yourself.

It’s also important that you learn how to tap into your inner strength on those days because your confidence affects your performance in any area of life and, likewise, your performance affects your confidence. The two are interconnected and go hand-in-hand. The downside to experiencing low self-esteem can present as both negative emotions and limiting beliefs, something that can be easily remedied through applying mindfulness-based lifestyle practices like meditation and goal-setting.

Problems with Low Self-Confidence

Low self-confidence can affect you in many ways. Some of the common issues that crop up are feelings of inadequacy, believing you’re not smart enough, you’re not good enough, or you’re unworthy. Sometimes it can lead to negative thoughts that you don’t belong here (or anywhere) and, in some more extreme cases, it can lead to depression, anxiety, or taking action that ends in tragedy.

Signs of Low Self-Confidence

You or someone you care about may be experiencing low self-confidence if there is a strong presence of shame in the emotional body. According to Brené Brown, a research professor, author, and beloved public speaker on the topic, shame is an unspoken epidemic in society that leads to many forms of broken behavior. Other signs that may indicate a lack in confidence is an inability to set and enforce healthy boundaries, social withdrawal, and being fixated on putting others down.

You’ve been there at one point or another and for some, perhaps, more than others. At the end of the day, you were born whole and perfect. You come in with unique talents and special gifts that only you express in your individuated fashion. Your goal is to discover what those positive attributes are and to share those strengths with the world. To do that, you need to have the ability to anchor into your self-confidence and focus on how to build self-esteem. Fortunately, there are several tools and techniques that can help you find and stay connected with this inner aspect.

Let’s explore this three-part exercise that includes using guided meditation (or visualization) to get you feeling more confident.

Define Confidence for You

It’s helpful to understand that words mean different things to different people. What confidence means to one person may look and feel partially or entirely different to another. So, let’s start with a short journaling exercise where you will discover your own definition of confidence.

• Begin by finding a comfortable place to rest where you won’t be distracted. You’ll want to have a clear mind and feel comfortable before you begin journaling.
• Start with some slow, deep breathing to get yourself into a calm, centered, and balanced state so that you may focus on journaling.
• Bring to mind your idea of confidence. You’ll probably find that some form of imagery comes to mind. You might see a picture or a short movie of a time in your life when you felt confident, or it might be of someone else who you see as exuding a strong sense of self-confidence.
• Notice all the things you see, take in everything you hear, and connect with the feelings you feel inside.
• Now, spend a few minutes journaling whatever came through for you; thoughts, feelings, or imagery. This will reveal what confidence looks, sounds, and feels like for you.

Create a Resource Anchor

Next, you’ll use a powerful technique that comes from neuro-linguistic programming called anchoring. Anchoring is an effective tool that helps you access a desired mindset anytime you need to. This can come in quite handy on those days when your self-esteem can use a little boost. For this exercise, you’ll create a resource anchor for confidence, which will help you get in touch with your inner self-esteem whenever you want. (Note: please read through this entire process before you begin so you understand each of the steps clearly.)

1. The positive state you will want to anchor for this exercise is confidence. However, you can also ask yourself, “If I could feel any positive and empowering emotions at any time I wanted, what would they be?” Or, another approach is, “How would I like to feel instead (of how I feel now)?”
2. Next, decide on a body part you want to anchor the desired state to. Most often, people will use a knuckle on their hand or an ear lobe. You want to choose a place that isn’t always coming into contact with touch because you use touch to activate or “fire off” the anchor.
3. Now, ask yourself, “Can I remember a time when I felt confident, a specific time?” Be sure you remember a specific time.
4. As you remember that time now, step into your body; see what you saw, hear what you heard, and feel the feelings of being totally confident.
5. As soon as you begin to go into the state, meaning you feel totally confident, apply the stimulus by putting your finger on a chosen knuckle or reach up and touch your ear lobe (whichever body part you have chosen to “anchor” this state to). The idea is to do this right when you’re at the peak of feeling totally confident.
6. As soon as the state begins to subside remove your finger from your knuckle or ear lobe. Be sure to remove the stimulus prior to the feeling of confidence beginning to dissipate. This is very important.
7. Last, test the anchor to make sure it works. To do this, you need to break state, which is a way of saying reboot your mind. Simply look outside the window or walk into a different room and then come back. Test your anchor of confidence by reapplying the stimulus. Observe how you go into a state of feeling totally confident. *If you need to repeat the process, you can do so.

A Guided Meditation for Visualizing Confidence

Now it’s time to bring it all together.

1. Find a comfortable place to sit and minimize any distractions.
2. Close your eyes and begin to take some slow deep breaths, following your inhalation and exhalation, to allow yourself to settle into a peaceful, meditative state.
3. Begin by bringing a real-life situation to mind where you want to be able to step into a state of confidence. Maybe it’s a conversation you need to have or a presentation you’ve been asked to deliver. Perhaps you’re wanting to ask someone on a date or set a meaningful goal.
4. As you bring this situation to mind create a picture and then fire off the anchor you previously created. You should feel yourself shifting to an emotional state of feeling totally confident. (If not, simply repeat the anchoring process and test it to be sure it works.)
5. Play out the scenario in your mind in the most positive way you would most like to see it unfold. Follow the movie reel all the way through to completion where you end with the most positive outcome. Take in everything you see, hear, and feel around you. Notice how much confidence you have and how amazing that feeling is.
6. When you’re ready, open your eyes and journal for a bit about how this process was for you. Repeat as often as necessary.

In this guided visualization, you are practicing what many successful athletes do before the game. It’s called dissociated state rehearsal. It gets your mind into the state you need to be in to accomplish your goals in the moment. The more you practice this in your mind, the better you will become. These methods will help you decipher how to boost your confidence.

The final step in achieving the level of confidence you desire is to go out into the world and do it. Exactly as you’ve been imagining it in your mind, you must now take physical action to make it your reality.

HEALTHY EATING

Sausage, Squash, and Spinach Hash

What sounds more enticing for breakfast than hash? It’s warm, filling, and full of flavor. Most hash recipes use pork, potatoes, and butter. But this recipe swaps out the not-so-healthy ingredients for butternut squash, turkey sausage, and spinach for leafy green goodness. It’s the perfect way to make a classic breakfast recipe healthy without sacrificing flavor.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces uncooked turkey sausage, casing removed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups butternut squash cubes (chopped in 1/2” squares)
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 cups baby spinach

Directions:

Over medium heat, cook the turkey sausage in a skillet. Break it apart as it cooks until browned. Once cooked, move the sausage to a plate.

In the same skillet, add in olive oil, squash, and onions and cook until the squash is soft. Add cooked sausage, nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper to your skillet. Stir until combined and then add in your spinach. 

Remove from heat and mix until spinach has wilted. Serve with hot sauce if desired.

Serves 4