It's been a while. I have taken several mental vacations since my last post. Busy being a Mom of 5 and a wife.

In between those mental vacations I have done a lot of learning and growing too. I feel like life just gets better and better each day. I won't lie...I have my hard days, WHO DOESN'T??? But I am amazed at how much hope and JOY I feel on a daily basis. And here is the cool thing...the only thing that has changed is ME. The way I think, the things I think, the way I react and the way I perceive the things around me.

I would see this quote on the back of a car at my kids school all the time and it always made me smile. It said, "Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change."

I want to share with you 4 EASY steps to changing ANYTHING in your life. Now keep in mind as you are implementing these steps into your lives...they are EASY, but not familiar. You may struggle a bit because most of us do not know that WE have the control. It may be new to us to accept that life is not happening TO us, it is happening BECAUSE of us.

I believe that Carol Tuttle explained it best when she related change to coming out of a dark closet. We've been walking around in that dark closet, banging into walls and trying to feel our way around. When a door opens for us, or when we are presented with a better way to live, we walk out of that closet and shut the door behind us. But pretty soon we are back to that door, now locked, banging our head against it, screaming "Let me in!" Even though it was dark and bleak, it was familiar. If we persist and believe that we can change and continue to practice our new-found way of living, we may go back to that door and knock a few times, but we will eventually say goodbye to that door forever.

Here are the 4 EASY Steps: (get a pen and paper ready, you will want to write these down! Not only is this process EASY but it is FUN!!)

#1 -Identify what you WANT in life. This may be easier done by listing first the things you DON'T want. Once you have your list (it can be as long or as short as you want) of DON'T wants, you can easily change them into your DO WANTS. For example "I do not want debt" changes into "I want to be free of owing anyone money".

It is SO important to get your list of WANTS, because, as we know, when we focus on what we don't want, we get a whole lot of what we don't want, and vis-a-versa. Easy attracts easy, hard attracts hard. (see more on the Law of Attraction here)

#2-(this is the FUN part) Now, choose ONE thing on your list. You will know which one. It will be the one that stands out the most and the issue that keeps coming up for you. Once you have chosen, close your eyes and image what it would be like if that one things was already in your life. Imagine what it feels like. What do you hear? What are people around you seeing and saying about your success? How do you feel? Really get to a place where you truly believe it has happened.

#3-Now go throughout your day and act accordingly. Act as if this issue has already been cleared or come to fruition. When self-doubt or self-sabotaging thoughts creep in, and they will, close your eyes and go to that place again.

A dear friend of mine was trying to loose weight and she tapped her goal weight right over the face on her scale, so when she stepped onto her scale she saw that she weighed exactly what she wanted to weigh. Sound silly? It may be, but our subconscious mind doesn't know the difference between real thoughts and imaginary ones. Our subconscious also HAS to be right, so if we are telling our mind that it is fit and trim and weighs 130 pounds, you better believe that our minds will deliver.

#4-That leads us into our last step, and this one may sometimes be the hardest. It is Inspired Action. We had already identified what we WANT, imagined being there, and stayed in a place where we could continue to believe it until we see it. Now we get to act on inspiration that comes to us.

You can't get anywhere, except to the next episode of Survivor by sitting on the couch. It just ain't gonna happen. If I set a goal to run a marathon (which I would never do by the way...=)...) I won't be ready on race day unless I have trained and ran mile after mile. Is training always going to be FUN and EASY? Nope. But it will be worth the effort.

We all have inside of us a God-given tool to see good and see what is right. We also have the ability to go after it.

If I want to loose weight, I need to take the Inspired Action to loose. I need to get up instead of sleep in. I need to listen when my sisters or friends are taking about a healthy recipe then ask for it. I need to research on the Internet some good muscle building exercises. I need to say YES when a friend asks me to get up early with her and go to the track. I need to act.

I can tell you that these steps work. They are working for me. I know that they can work for you.

Like I said at the beginning, nothing about my life has changed except ME. I have closed that door on a dark, depressing, sad closet and stepped into the light. The view from my new closet is amazing. I see hope and color again. I see life and love and JOY!!

PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH ME! I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR SUCCESSES!!

JOY IS...

We all experience JOY in different ways. What is JOYful to one may not hold the same value to another. Here is what JOY means to me:

JOY is...

a nap, opening all of my windows on warm spring day, watching my kids sleep, my kids at play, relaxing after a day of play or work, a nap (did I mention this already??) feeling accomplished, my husbands goofy way of making me laugh, a friends encouraging words, a good hair day, family parties, holidays, a meal that didn't burn or wasn't missing an ingredient, sharing something you have learned with someone else, garage sales, a child's arm around my neck, a toothless grin, asking my kids what they learned in school, a good parent-teacher conference, driving by myself, books on tape, ice cold water, a nice aroma in my house, hot cocoa and a fuzzy blanket, being a wife, being a mother, being a daughter and an aunt, and a friend...

Here are a couple of the things I have come to take JOY in since I have taken my head out of my

sandy, ostrich hole and remembered what life is really suppose to be like...

The sunset. A rolly polly bug squirming in my child's hand. My kids laughter. My husbands blue eyes. Anticipation for the next great thing. Hope. The silence in the morning before everyone wakes up. The sun coming up and bringing with it a new day of endless possibilities.

WHAT DO YOU FIND JOY IN??? Please leave a comment!! We need to learn from each other! I want to know what fills you with JOY!

Wholeness

"And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:

"For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.

"But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour." -Matthew 9:20-22

The woman in this passage was made whole by her faith. What is faith? Faith is believing in things that we can not see. If we believe in JOY, believe that God loves us and wants us to be happy than those things that can help us be happy and bring us JOY will come into our lives effortlessly.

Believe in JOY! Believe that you can be whole! "Be of good comfort!" I can not think of many things more comforting than that.

It Is What It Is

A pay check comes in the mail for $5000 dollars. To a man who usually receives a check for $1500 dollars, this is a lot of money. He is going to experience feelings of happiness, and excitement. If this $5000 check came to a man who usually receives a check for $20,000, he would experience some feelings of panic and anger.

This scenario is a good example of the law of relativity. The law that an object, like a paycheck holds no good or bad value, it is the good or bad emotion that we attach to that object that creates how we feel about it? Confused?

Here's another example you might relate to more. The person in this story will remain nameless (and he may or may not be my husband...I love you honey!! Note: I got this nameless person's permission to share this story =) A man was driving down the road. The driver of the white pick-up truck ahead of him was driving a good 10 miles an hour under the speed limit. This evoked feelings are impatience, anger and annoyance. Which lead to tail-gating, frustrated phrases and gestures.

Now, let's think...NOTHING that this man could have done could change how fast or slow the driver was going. The POWER to do so was completely outside of himself. The fact that the driver was going so slow was just like the $5000 pay check, it was what it was.

When we become aware that this law is at work in our lives, it allows us to see things differently. We come to see clearly that the power to alter the things that "just are" (like the slow driver or the pay check) are completely outside of ourselves. We come to understand how futile it is to waste time and energy on things that are outside of our control. We in turn see the great value and benefit of the power inside of ourselves. The power to ACT, not REACT.

Instead of getting angry and acting as if the slow driver was deliberately driving slow just to annoy the man, he could have turned and taken a different route, or turned up the radio a little louder and sang along to the song. Or turn off the radio all together and engage in a conversation with his passengers.

What does this have to do with JOY? What happens to us internally when we understand that we can CHOOSE JOY and that we don't have to wait around for JOY to find us? How would your life be different if you knew that you didn't have to wait for your life to be going perfect, or even GOOD until you could be happy and have JOY? When we understand the Law of Relativity, we understand that things ARE WHAT THEY ARE and we can choose to react negatively or positively.

Half the battle to just knowing this. You mean I have a choice? I can choose to not blow up when my daughter writes all over the wall with permanent marker? I can choose how I feel when I get a bad grade or bad review at work? I can choose how I feel when a car pulls out in front of me? When we understand that we are not VICTIMS of life, but CREATORS of life there are limitless possibilities for JOY to flow. It makes me happy just knowing that. I get to choose! I can create my life simply by understanding that I have say, that God loves me and wants me to be happy.

This Weeks Challenge: The next time you are stuck behind a slow driver, take a deep breath, and come up with the BEST story you can for why that person is going slow. My most recent story was that the van that was going slow in front of me had a 7 layer wedding cake with porcelain roses on it. It was the woman's first wedding cake and she was really anxious about it arriving in tact. I promise you that it will be hard to feel frustrated after you have given your slow driver a good reason for their turtle-like driving and it will distract you so much, it won't even bother you that you are driving slower than normal.

Helping Our Kids Remember JOY

I use to live with a lot of fear. I lived each day, each moment, anticipating something bad happening. I experienced a lot of anxiety and sadness.

I look back on those years of my life and think, "What was I teaching my kids?" I rarely vocalized my fears but it was blatantly obvious by the things I did and the unhappy state I was in.

I loved this quote by Carol Tuttle and thought it was note-worthy, she says, "As a parent, I can believe that the world is not a safe place for my children and pass this fear onto them, or I can empower them by making them aware of contrast, that good and evil exist in this mortal dimension, and teach them about the Law of Attraction- which is that they can choose whatever they want to experience. We do our children a great service by creating a space for them to know who they are, to love and honor them, to treat them with respect, to teach them correct principles, and to let them govern themselves, and learn from the contrast of life."

Isn't that amazing! Just think, by changing our lives and remembering JOY, we are teaching our kids that JOY is a part of life. That the their world is going to support them in being JOYful.

JOY is a vibration. It is a high frequency. When we teach our kids to stand a little taller, be a little better and plug into that frequency, we empower them to live happy, JOY filled lives. Can you think of a greater gift than that?

This weeks Challenge: Introduce your kids to the language of JOY. You might even want to sit down with them and explain in whatever terms they will understand that JOY is just like that speck of dust that we can only see when the sunlight is shining on it. Ask them if you can help each other be happy and remember the JOY that you have access to. If you don't have children, do this with a spouse or other family member.

Purple Elephant

Isn't it amazing how well we have convinced ourselves that life has to HARD??

I believe that we chose to come to this earth, knowing full and well that we would be tested and tried. We agreed to live through uncomfortable circumstances so that we could grow, learn and become as close to our Heavenly Father as we could.

Do you believe that a loving Heavenly Father has put us here on earth, under those circumstances and not provided a way for us to be happy and find JOY? There are many who do believe that. You hear ALL THE TIME, "My life is just hard", "I was meant to have lots of trials", "A hard life is just my lot in life" or "Good things never happen to me"

Think about the above statements? Have you ever said any of them before? I know that I sure have.

Have you ever heard of the law of intention, or the law of attraction? That which we set our intention on will expand for us. For instance, picture in your minds eye a purple elephant with shiny red toenail polish. Get a really good picture of it in your head. Now, count to three and do your very best to NOT think about that pink elephant.

It is almost impossible to not think about that elephant because you put it in the front of your mind. If I were to say, "My kids drive me crazy!!" Then I make that statement true, simply by saying it, and my kids will deliver on that 100% of the time.

Most of the worlds population doesn't know about or understand the law of intention. It is still there- whether we know about it or choose to believe in it. It is just like the law of gravity. You don't have to fully understand or even know about that law to have it work for you.

It is simple. What we say, think and set our intentions on will be manifest in our lives.

In life, we will encounter trials, heart ache, health problems, sadness, loneliness and tragedy. These are a part of life. But these trials were not intended to rob us of our JOY. They were intended to humble us and remind us that JOY is all around us.

This weeks Challenge-Notice were JOY is trying to creep in. JOY is always knocking. If we are declaring statements like the ones above, then we will attract those things into our life. Pay close attention to where JOY is trying to present itself in your life. Keep a journal. Pray for enlightenment. Catch yourself in your language and thoughts.

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS WITH YOUR FEED BACK! I NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU! THANKS =)

Has a week past already?? Wow. My baby has been sick this week and I feel like a zombie...walking around with no sleep is not an easy task.

Baily (5) said to her dad the other morning when he was trying to wake her up for school, "I would rather eat DIRT than get up right now! That is how bad I don't want to get up!" I totally agree with her and I would rather eat dirt right now than have another sleepless night with a coughing, fevering baby! He is much better today, so I may get a good night sleep yet.

It is amazing to me how different my life has been by making these seemingly small changes in my thinking and language. Just like the scripture that says, "By small and simple things are GREAT things come to pass." Don't ever underestimate the power that small changes in your thought patterns or language have on you and those around you.

I want to share one thing that has completely shifted for me since I have started this JOY JOURNEY. It is about money. You may wonder how money relates to JOY. Well, if you have ever struggled financially, you know that MONEY can sometimes be DIRECTLY related to JOY.

It was pay day on Monday. I was really looking forward to going grocery shopping and having some money to get somethings we really needed. I walked into the living room that morning where James was sitting with the lap top. I could FEEL the negative energy in the room. The look on his face didn't help either! Something had happened with his pay check (taxes...something complicated...) and we were shorted almost $400. That is a lot of money to us!! FOOD money!!

The feelings came immediately. Hopelessness. Anger. Sadness. Panic. The feeling of wanting to run away and hide. These feelings, associated with money, have been my constant companion. Me and money have a very unfriendly relationship. Money has never done anything for me. I could never trust money and it seemed to run away screaming whenever it got close.

I felt myself retracting into the space inside of me that is designated for money troubles, when, like a switch, I remembered JOY. I remembered all of the things I have been learning about myself, my internal beliefs and the promise I have made to myself to not be a victim anymore. I had made the realization a couple of weeks before that money was no longer going to be my ENEMY. It had no power. It was just money.

My loving Heavenly Father, in his infinite wisdom and love, was testing me. He was saying, "You said you wanted to change, here is your chance."

I was amazed at how easy it was to just shake it off. I told James, "Everything will work out." He gave me a surprised look, and I even had to go look in the mirror to make sure I was still ME.

Can I tell you what an empowering experience that was for me. I was no longer a victim to money. I could control how I reacted. James and I sat down, rearranged our money plan and continued on through the day, experiencing JOY in our children, our home and each other.