Wounded Souls

To unconditionally love and forgive a wounded soul who has taken advantage of you, lied to you and then inflicted upon you pure unadulterated vengeance, barraged you at every opportunity with nothing but scathing and hateful words and sought to tear you limb from limb emotionally speaking in vindictive acts of public humiliation all due to a bit of misplaced psychological rejection or even transference or projection seems a very difficult thing to do.  To follow the dictates of some religions and march yourself right back into the proverbial fire following selfless forgiveness and love for the seeming offender is, to me, absolute insanity.  To unconditionally love and forgive any soul is truly divine and these two things, I fully support with all of my being.  To find gratitude in a life lesson won, is also a good and positive thing but to forget the treatment and expect something different from an obviously very wounded soul who has always hurt you is only truly ever an invitation by you to allow them to do the same as they have always done.  You see, while you are learning tough life lessons, so are they.  If you permit bad behavior from such souls and allow it to continually repeat, you invite yourself to become a doormat time and time again.  This does nothing to help the wounded soul and unless you are truly prepared to manage such behavior, it does nothing to help you either unless, of course, you never got the lesson the interaction was intended to teach.  Really though, becoming a doormat for any soul, wounded or not is not what we are put here to do.  The suffering souls who continually take advantage of others, lie and then inflict vile vengeance while creating a world of monsters that is supposedly you, well, they have their own life lessons obviously to contend with and sometimes it is truly best to just forgive them in the fullness of the light of love and yet, never forget. 

Let me make myself perfectly clear on this point though.  I’m not talking about holding a grudge here as I am an energetically responsible individual right down to the core of my bones.  I suggest that you hold no grudge at all and let forgiveness and understanding sink into your bones and know that in life some individuals you dearly love are caught up in the illusions and delusions of their own life lessons and they know no better than to use you as a thing or a convenience, to demand you bank roll them while they refuse to take care of themselves or that you tolerate their toxic behavior because you are family.  These are very difficult relationships to bear let alone find ways to heal the emotional trauma from.  It seems that these wounded souls so readily inflict much pain upon those around them but I will say, continuing to suffer the trauma they most undoubtedly will continue to inflict until they have come to terms with their own psychological demons there just is no point in expending your precious energy in a tug of war with emotionally and physically manipulative people...or, as I like to think of them, wounded souls. 

Each soul on this planet has the right to choose how little, if any, they will participate with such individuals.  Sometimes refusing to participate at all delivers its own sort of lesson and opportunity for you and wounded soul to learn from.  Standing tall within your own light while someone uses every fiber of their being to tear you apart can be so very hard, especially when that one has been a biological relative from your family of origin (FOO).  It’s hard but it’s not impossible for you to heal and recover regardless of what the wounded soul does or does not do.  I’ve often suggested that when it is you dealing with such individuals, consider imagining such relatives shouting at you with a straight jacket on from the window of an insane asylum.  If you saw them in such a scene shouting the things they shout or planning and conniving while in that mode of dress and in that surrounding, you’d not be so surprised by their words or behavior.   You would also not be as traumatized as you’d begin to visualize more of the truth of the true nature of the pain they carry that hides their own love.  If you can help them find that and you are psychologically trained to do so, great!  Go for it.  But if you are not, you may soon find yourself in over your head and suffering emotionally or even traumatically to the point your quality of life goes right down the drain.  This is no way to live and you do have a choice.   

My preference is to disengage from the dramatically, traumatically psychologically misguided by sending them love, sending them healing, wishing them well and then standing ever so much outside the circle of their flailing arm’s reach as well as ear shot.  I have found in all of my years it is much safer for me and in a way, also for them.  Every single thing they do builds up somewhere within their psyche’s more self-loathing and hatred for themselves for the things they do to you.  Me, I’m not one to hand a bottle of vodka to an alcoholic and, so, will gladly remove myself from the presence of those who get a charge or high from manipulating others to get what they want and need out of life or hurting others because they miss the true purpose of the value the rising pain within them truly intends to teach them.  It’s just the way I handle things in order for me to sleep better at night.  Does any of this stop me from worrying about my loved ones that fit the description of the antagonists or wounded souls that I am attempting to describe here?  No, not really but I have realized something about life.  We all have choices to make.  We can choose anger and vengeance for this or that or we can choose peace and love.  I choose the latter and will again and again and in so doing I find I’m in a better position to send out loving thoughts and prayers of help and healing for those who need it.  Is it the right way to deal with tough family members?  Some would say yes and some would say certainly not.  In all honestly, I don’t care about what the consensus says.  I go with what is right for me and right for me is being completely free of wounded souls disinterested in healing but a little too interested in inflicting their psychological trauma, drama and vengeance upon me for refusing to be what to them they demand I should be.  It is what it is and I must be who I am…a loving, forgiving person who won’t tolerate anyone’s B.S. in my space.  And yes, I do believe in tough love as you may have surmised.  ~Blessings of courage, thoughtful forgiveness and so much love.

Common Measure

Sometimes I wonder about the state of things that we face here on Earth.  Well, not sometimes, but really nearly all the time.  Its not hard to see the horrors and the joyful things that go on day in and day out.  Viewing them all from a sense of curiosity these days, I try my best not to engage in either with too much of a sense of attachment or emotion.  Why, you might ask?  Why wouldn't I get mad and angry about this conspiracy or that "proven" (and I use that word very loosely), theory for this or that if I am a decent and loving human being on this Earth at this time?  Well, I believe that we engage in deeper emotions, primarily negative ones, when we don't understand the true framework of existence.  When I step back and I mean really far away and back from the egoism, the fight to be right and the loudly screaming proclamations of wrong, I see things quite differently than most.  I am not a pacifist but I'm no activist either.  I am not ambivalent and can say that it's hard to watch the hard things in life, the tough interactions of egos in action and the devastation and permanent collateral damage left in the wake of those seemingly so very unaware.  But, what if we just don't understand the roles we all came here to play at this particular point in time-space?

Physics has some interesting perspectives on a good number of things I find interesting.  Science too
holds interesting studies of presumed facts and figures.  Psychology and sociology hold even more
fascinating fulcrums of knowledge from observations, studies and even more facts.  Religions and spiritual pathways also hold some fascinating perspectives on a good number of things.   I could list every field of recognized and non-recognized aspects of academia or other bodies of knowledge and still I could not use any of these things to understand the framework within which I truly exist.  It is beyond what our learned languages here could define.  How do I come to know this?  How can I come to this perspective which is truly just another to throw into a sea of thousands and millions of perspectives proven time and time again as fact by the source observers?  I throw out every single thing that I have been taught by anyone or anything that stems from ego.  Sitting down in the stillness of the night, a quiet moment in the day and opening up my mind and my heart, I ask questions.  I get answers but I do not get them in words.  I do not get them in feelings that I could even begin to articulate for you.  The only thing that I can say and with those words I only greatly limit the fullness of the information that I have received.  It's simple and I've already really said it - we do not understand the framework within which we work and I mean the much larger and infinite framework within which existence exists.  Because I don't fully understand the framework in which I am operating, its hard for me to judge who is right and who is wrong, if I am right or I am wrong...if my perspectives are solid, whole and empirical or if anyone elses can be.  Everything under the sun can be defended voraciously and strenuously so along with a good sense of accuracy and validity stated from either side of this or that.  What if everyone was right in some way we didn't have the wits or capacity to understand?

No longer am I able to tolerate watching the news.  No longer can I engage or participate in discussions of judgment and hatred or the worshiping of this thing or that.  Observing my own thoughts and reactions as I go seeking meaning and understanding that goes beyond what we are taught by science, religion or anything else in this concrete seeming world is the only way I seem able to go.  To me, this all seems like a play we only write our own parts of the script within.  We don't know the scripts of others and we don't understand who or what produces and directs or if anyone or anything truly produces or directs anything at all.  The sense I get when I go within however, is that there is a Source and a Definitive Ultimate Truth that exists and we are tiny atomic particles reacting within that one Source and Definitive Ultimate Truth.  The greatest teaching is our own being is complete in the Oneness of all things.  The greatest understanding is to "feel" what that means. 

So then, I find that the only thing that brings me any true measure of peace or even the remotest measure of understanding at all is to just love every soul that exists whether or not I like or agree with them and their perspectives.  It's easy to find a common measure of respect and admiration for the perspectives and the beautiful souls that created them as they live within the framework of their own purpose and design.  I need blame no soul for this or that gone wrong because I see a greater design in the works even if I am unable to articulate why or how.  Knowing that I can only truly take accountability in this world for my own thoughts, my own emotions and my own actions is how I now function.  Realizing that  I can choose to participate in the problems of this world or in my own way, contribute to true and loving solutions is now my approach.  I can employ kindness and compassion for all regardless of station, regardless of acts, regardless of judgments I may have learned to hold along the way even if gained in a state of woeful lack of awareness.  I may not right the wrongs in this world that others hold as important but I am a being of energy and thought and even more important, love.  I can at least contribute that to this world, to this frame work and do so with much gratitude for the ability to hold love while walking through the middle of a chaotic seeming string of things, people and other energies that contribute to this little space in this tiny universe we inhabit.

Admiration is what I hold for each and everyone of you for living your truths, for forming your perspectives, for seeking the truth, for making mistakes large or small, for striving to learn, for holding love and contributing your own energies to the whole of our existence here in this time-space.  Thank you for being here and for contributing in whatever way supports your truest goal and purpose.  You are appreciated and loved regardless of frameworks, goals purpose or actions or even lack thereof. ~Blessings for a beautiful day.

(c) 2013 Jaie Hart (photo from newgrounds.com)

Wielding Your Own Power

At some point in our lives a shift occurs and we realize that searching for someone to rescue us from our pain, our misery and everything else bleak, bad or wrong we encounter just can no longer occur.  In those moments we realize that no one is going to come to save us, we may despair a little, be envious in our thoughts recalling how it seemed that it has happened for everyone else we know but us and we may dive headlong into depression, anxiety, a bottle, drugs or some other form of escape only to realize eventually that even there...there is no escape.  If we could but relax just a moment instead, breathe in deeply the beauty, joy and love all around us all of the time, we may finally come to the conclusion that it is we who must stand up in our own light and rescue ourselves.  Primarily, we are really victims of only one hideous and heinous thing...our thoughts...our assumptions and the resulting feelings from those things.  If we could but right our thoughts and allow the shift to fully occur...that shift that has been trying to get to us from the moment we seemingly lost our connection to Source shortly after our arrival here, we may discover some really truly amazing things such as:

1.  We can save ourselves;
2.  We have more than enough love within us to fill even the darkest, most painful and frighteningly lonely places within us;
3.  We need no other soul to generate happiness on our behalf;
4.  We need blame no soul for the state of our being but us;
5.  We need not hold harmful and unloving thoughts of ourselves regardless of the horrible mistakes we might think we have made; and
6.  We can stand up in any second at any part of our lives and take accountability for our very next steps and thoughts no matter where we are and regardless of how we may have gotten there.

It doesn't really matter what happened to us in our lives.  We can lay out our thoughts for miles in blame, shame, denial, vengeance, anger and guilt or we can decide to leave that all behind and allow the transformation, which is truly only a return to our true selves to naturally and so very beautifully occur.  We have that much power within us and need only the faith and confidence enough in ourselves to stand up and take the next steps and breaths and just live more authentically and gently with our thoughts of ourselves.  It hurts when someone pushes us down.  I do not dispute that.  But here's the thing.  You can stay on the ground and complain about the bumps and bruises and who caused it, we can begrudge the fact we now must expend energy unnecessarily to stand back up again or we can completely disregard the fact we were pushed down and the reasons why someone may have pushed us down.  We can just stand up and figure out which direction we'd like to start walking free of the blame, free of victim thinking, free of poisonous and toxic anger at others, self-belittling thoughts and muster the courage to know that no matter what, we can stand in our own light even if there are those who would seemingly prefer to stand in front of the sun casting shadows on our path.

Our thoughts, our lives and our feelings about ourselves need never be dependent upon the actions of others, the words of others or the deeds of others.  Standing in your own light means that you know who you are, you know how you are and no matter what comes before you...you will rely on your own love, light and knowledge to guide you through life on your own merits.  You will encounter those along the way blinded by the mistaken thoughts or beliefs that they can make themselves better only to the extent they can take others out or down.  Neither feel sorry for nor engage in battle with such individuals.  They doom themselves for a time until they too learn to stand within their own light and know that they can choose to do this at any time and it really isn't your job to school them any way.  The reality is that your efforts to educate them will be wholly wasted until they are ready to make that shift.  Don't let such individuals prevent you from making the shift from dependence on the world reflecting your worth to knowing that only you can gauge your true worth in this world.

You came here with so much love and light within you.  No matter what has hidden these facts from you, trust that you can always uncover the truth beneath the lies others and even circumstance in the world have lead you to believe about you.  You are weak and powerless only to the extent you give permission for this to be so by making yourself the victim of words and actions of others.  Things may happen to you and unpleasant things at that.  But YOU get to decide how you will be accountable for your actions in the very next breath and step and every breath and step counts.  I suggest to you that you do not waste time or energy in blame, don't waste it with victimizing thoughts and don't sell yourself short by believing anyone but you has the power to define you.  You are no less than a walking, living and breathing miracle.  Your presence here at this time is so very valuable.  Stand up in your own light always and live like you mean it, love like there is no tomorrow and take every step knowing that you matter.  In love and infinite light may courage and conviction to shift and return to your own truth become your focus in your tougher moments.  You will succeed.  May your God/Goddess presence be felt within you in all the steps you take in your lives always.

(c) 2013 Jaie Hart (photo, random internet find)

Wandering with Intention

I wander along the pathway my thoughts have created.  I do not know or desire to, where they may lead me.  I'm content just to meander along them sifting through memories and thoughts once held important, dreams laid by the wayside and then there are the hopes.  Hopes and dreams can seem funny things sometimes.  We place much more emphasis on them than we likely should and often we do so from a seeming place of lack.  We aspire to be this or that not realizing we already are that and more.  The realization is funny even though it makes me wince a little.  The pain of this discovery always seems to feel a bit too fresh.  Years of searching, seeking understanding unknowingly and encountering one demolition after another of my poor tattered ego.  Just before I become too distraught with these memories and thoughts I realize what a beautiful thing the destruction of one's ego can be.  If off kilter in even the slightest degree one unknowingly wreaks havoc upon one's own life for reasons we have no conscious cognition of.  Decisions are often made to fend of spectres real or imagined that can truly confound all manner of happiness, logic and reason for a time.  Or, so it may seem.  What if nothing unintended ever really occurred in life? What if every single thing under the sun we encounter and experience was exactly what we intended to experience?

So many questions have I as I continue to wander through the days, years and moments of my life.  Expectations, I've learned have been an utterly ridiculous part of my experience and I laugh as I recall how I've created my own misery with them.  I decide to let go and continue to stay with this curious sway and weight the energy carries as the wandering through my own history continues.  I recall with a smile all scenes and actors even one's I cringed at finding in my play so long ago in my complete lack of understanding.  I realized some time ago that it was I that cast every actor in the scenes of the plays of  my life that I actually scripted, directed and produced.  Again, a tinge of that wincing feeling and soon I notice it's replaced by a permeating peaceful feeling.  All those anxious moments worried I was not living up to the expectations of another, all those times I judged myself by someone else's misplaced words and deeds or how I held those same thoughts towards others truly to no avail...It's so funny to me now.

Although the thoughts now seem to be traveling at lightning speed, behind the smoky anxiety looms a deeper peace and I know it's true source.  No matter what I have seen or experienced, no matter how many missteps that I have seemingly taken, no matter how much I never knew about love I find that am surrounded by it despite my best unconscious efforts to miss it in action.  Love is the very air we breathe and yet we search for it high and low in things, people and places.  We hold it within us, love surrounds us and when we get to the heart of the truth beneath all the layers of lack and loss, we find it waiting right exactly where we left it so very long ago.  A sigh leaves me as I smile at these thoughts and the frenetic manner in which they became a part of my consciousness.  No longer fearful I walk the path now in earnest.  No longer questioning now as I take each step.  No longer worried now I won't find my own light.  I realize it has guided me in every breath and step for the entirety of my life.  In a sense, in a very long and peaceful sense, I've come home.  Blessings of great love and wondrous mental meanderings on your journey dearest souls.  Be brave and courageous as you make your way through your lives.  Don't take too much too seriously and love yourselves and everyone and thing with every step and breath that you take.  You'll make your way and be so glad of it.  You can do it.  What are you waiting for?  Dream, live, laugh and love.  That's what you were born to do.

(c) 2013 Jaie Hart (photo from recruiterpoet.com)

What Was is No Longer - Wait, It Gets Better

I've learned of late how fragile life can be.  One moment, all seems to be well and everything or everyone you thought you could count on  is just there humming along just as you planned.  Then one day when you least expect it, everything changes. Someone leaves, jobs change and the unexpected happens.  Most often, we struggle at best to take things in stride but we do so first from a space of complete resistance.  We do not like change much when it comes to those things and people familiar and a comfort to us.  We do not like to let go and we do our best for a time to try to hold onto what was even though it is no longer.  We battle ourselves in these troublesome minutes, hours and days until we learn to shift our thoughts to the potentials for opportunity that we truly face.  There is opportunity in every seeming shift or change we encounter in life.  We can't feel that though if we are dead set against letting go to embrace intended transformation.  Life is about change and not about standing still ever.

When we can find a way to make our way to the top of the mountain that understanding most often seems to be, we'll see that change is necessary not only for us but for all involved in our lives and experience here on Earth.  When we let go we give ourselves permission to grow even if we didn't seek that out or even remotely desire any form of growth.  To strive to embrace only that which came before is folly.  We simply cannot hold back change.  We cannot prevent our own growth.  We try in so many ways though to stop it once it starts.  I know that I do not care for change much either and that at first, I will always be resistant.  I've learned though, to not assign too many emotions to such a series of thoughts because I only create my own prison.  We all do that in so many ways...create prisons.  We forget that we always have the keys to release us from the prisons we lock ourselves into with our thoughts.  I think when change strikes, if we can find some small way to fight to stay curious about what is happening and reserve judgement and the assignment of resulting emotion for a time, we'll come to understand what the change is calling for us to do and we'll set ourselves free from the prison of "loss."  Sometimes it is enough to let go of those we love who must go.  Sometimes it is enough to let go of situations that we counted on.  Sometimes it's enough to embrace happiness through a refusal to engage in resisting change.

It's never easy.  It just never is.  But, I have found that it is always worth it.  Today, we celebrate the Fourth of July, independence day.  Independence and being free are always a part of my thoughts and so, I've decided to free myself from one toxic thing today - resisting change.  In my refusal to resist change and to instead expect it, I have set myself free.  I don't have to engage in fearful emotions.  I don't have to engage in anger for what could have been, should have been or might have been.  I can relax into experiencing what is free from judgment.  I like that idea.  I always like finding some way to turn a seemingly negative experience, thought or encounter into a positive.  Sometimes we view a situation as if we have lost something.  That's often a short-sighted view because no matter what we might seem to be losing, we have gained precious knowledge for our efforts and in that we never really lose anything.  Sometimes we miss what we think we were supposed to gain.  Sometimes it is a mere experience of a thing or a person for a time and to not have that experience, thing or person be with us forever. 

Enough of my rambling thoughts for now.  Too much work, schoolwork and stress as well as some exciting and purely magical things have prevented my writing for a while and well, I had to take some time to sort out a few more things floating through my mind and heart.  For those who are experiencing loss in any way, my heart and prayers go out to you.  My wisdom tells me that at some point you will heal and once again come to see all that you have gained despite the loss you face in this moment.  Many blessings of love, light and pure understanding.

(c) 2013 Jaie Hart (photo, random internet find)

Seeing Clearly

I sometimes think that pain never really heals but that we somehow learn to live our lives despite our wounds.  We develop coping mechanisms and strategies that help us compensate for the pain we have suffered.  Some of these coping mechanisms can be healthy and will not really interfere with our experience here on planet Earth.  Some of these coping mechanisms, however, can create a vast array of mini psycho dramas that we unwittingly play out of our own volition while we mistakenly blame the landscape, the themes and the actors conveniently acting nearest us in the present.

Going back for a moment to emotion, I think we have to be very careful in how we choose to align our emotions with the thoughts that we think.  Before we can even get to that point of awareness, we must understand how we have attached an emotion or series of emotions to our interpretation of events transpiring in our lives.  Emotions sometimes seem to be triggered so very fast that we almost unconsciously give birth to them as we misjudge what we think we see.  We may be trapped for years in the maze of emotions, thoughts, pain, recovery and reactions to the point that we habitually continue seeing, judging and reacting to the same themes without ever giving conscious thought as to why.

Although it may seem very difficult to understand, we do choose our emotions.  Although they seem to automatically occur, that’s not really the case.  You witness something, an event, a scene and the actors, your mind initiates thoughts and judgments about what it witnesses or experiences and then based on your personal experiences from all aspects of the lives you have lived up to that point and then you begin to attach emotion.  Sometimes in some cases, you even quickly look ahead and begin to attach emotion before anything has ever even occurred.  We seem to react and think this way on auto-pilot but if we do not like the results of this very natural seeming behavior, we can choose our thoughts and the emotions we attach to them differently.  We can learn to see things and experience things we encounter with greater compassion and understanding and when we successfully engage in conscious awareness of our own thoughts and emotions, we can change what we see from a mere perception to direct conscious experience of what truly exists.

For those trapped in a series of emotional upheavals and reactions day in and day out, challenging interactions with other human beings on the planet, work or other aspects of life, taking a time out to contemplate your own thoughts and reactions about a thing, person or situation can be very helpful in uncovering the truth about a thing, person or situation as well as the truth about you and what you carry deep within you.  Careful consideration may just be the key that helps you unlock the door and step out of the prison you unwittingly locked yourself into in the absence of knowledge of just how much power you truly do hold.  This is one of the most important lessons in life you can learn.  But, it’s not easy to do because you have to be brave and courageous.  You have to be willing to see your own hand in your undoing throughout your life by the thoughts you have allowed yourself to think and the emotions you gave permission to be brought out into the light.  For some, the violent disagreement may ring loudly through the halls.  However, I challenge those to remain very curious a moment and consider that they may really be in a state of disagreement only with that which they do
not yet understand.  I know this because I was once in this place.  Through keen awareness did I one day gain the ability to see the truth and then felt compelled to share it because I understand how liberating it can be.  I want that freedom for others even if they don’t understand why.  The shift in consciousness puts an amazing energy out into this world that touches the hearts and souls of others still struggling to awaken.  It creates a space of love and light for others to grow in their own understanding of their existence.  So, okay, enough deep thoughts for this moment.

Forgive my dwindling posts of late.  I’ve been very busy with some amazing new projects and I’ve not had much time to write.  I’ve missed it very much.  I’ve recently quit smoking (1 month today to the day) and have needed to keep very busy to conquer, finally, that dreaded addiction that I very unconsciously chose to engage in for too many years.  I’ve also decided to fight some other long-standing seeming barriers and I’ve gone back to school.  I’m thrilled and excited for all
the amazing things in life that have seemingly come together in a heartbeat.  Speaking of heart beats as well as seeing more from the truth than mere jaded perception, there are now two hearts beating where once there was one and of course that also brings so much more to the colors of my life.  Correcting your thoughts and emotions in greater alignment with the truth is also a key to manifesting those things you most want for your own greatest good.  Thank Goddess for all that
is good, challenging and beautiful in this world.  I’m glad I can finally see.  (Now, a little song just for fun - enjoy).

(c) 2013 Jaie Hart article  (Youtube Video copyright is not mine and is held as noted on Youtube site).

Green Lights

Why do we engage in the "All lights must be green mentality?"  There are things we think we want to accomplish and go after in this life and yet we don't even engage in a process of getting started because we can see from the moment of conceptualization of something new that there may be many barriers and obstacles to get from point A to B in our concept or desire.  It seems we sometimes do this with our own happiness as well in thinking, "I'll be happy when this or that occurs" or "I'll have that sense of accomplishment only when this or that happens."  The funny thing is that if we have not found a way to make and maintain our own happiness, nothing we get, achieve or create will ever truly make us happy regardless of whether the lights are red, yellow or green.  We may ultimately get to that place we always wanted to be in life and find there is no happiness there at all except for that happiness that we took with us.

We are mistakenly taught that it is the outside world that generates and/or controls our happiness through the world of materialism, human validation, that job, this color and kind of car or whatever else fills the blank...will really make us happy.  These are really such silly thoughts as the reality is nothing in the outside world can make us happy and if we don't learn this and try to understand it now, we may engage in all manner of crazy things to make us happy only to find we are in no greater state at the end of our happiness seeking or unhappiness avoiding endeavors.  So, consider this, if nothing in the outside world can make you truly happy and only you hold the only true power to grant yourselves happiness, that too means that nothing in the outside world can make you unhappy.

I know, I know.  You're writhing in vehement disagreement at this point but I'd challenge you to retain a very curious and open mind about now.  Consider how very empowering these words might be to you.  If no one has the power to make you happy and no one in this world has the power to make you unhappy, this means you truly are in charge of your own sense of well-being and happiness and you create it with your own controllable thoughts and associated emotions.  I know it might seem such a stretch because you are more than certain only the next promotion will prove to the world how amazing you can be or the next beautiful car you come pulling up to the office in will make you one to be truly admired.  Likewise, your thoughts might also lead you to contemplate the seeming fact that if only by some stroke of luck those mean people in your life would cut you some slack today, you would not be unhappy, dejected or miserable in any way.

We misperceive control sometimes not realizing it is not other people or things that hold the strings to happiness in our lives.  We need not wait for all of the lights to turn green in order for us to be happy.  In fact, we can find happiness at every road block and red light we encounter.  It's up to us to decide what we wish to feel, what we wish to pursue and what we wish to contemplate and attach emotion to.  If we were to truly stand in our own light, we'd never prevent our own happiness by seeing it as out of reach of our grasp due to lacking funds, lacking outside world validation of any sort or tying our happiness to the achievement of a thing.  Live your lives and know that your moods and perceptions are solely generated by your thoughts and what you hold as truth.  What you think is true based on a perception or even less valid, an assumption, can only ever seem like the truth but can never be definitively so.  You  are just not limited by your perceptions like this.  If you think you cannot be happy until you achieve or attain this or that, consider why those thoughts exist...consider why you are limiting you in your own thoughts.  Take a deep breath and realize that life was meant to be enjoyed at every step and with every breath...the journey is the destination...our destination here in the physical is death.  So, live and be joyful because you exist...know that you are love and loved...understand that there is much more to life than handing the power over to the world to generate your happiness.  You are truly the only source that owns that right.  Much love and light always.

(c) 2013 Jaie Hart, Photo http://www.hookingupsmart.com