Focus on Yourself in the Mirror

I attend Bikram Yoga and it has been the best gift that I can physically give to my body. The room is over 105 degrees and very humid. Needless to say, you can not maintain cute hair in this practice! You're sweating, stretching, meditating and pushing yourself to the limit. The thing that I love about the class the most is the health benefits. You work every muscle, joint, ligament and organ in your body. The teachers often say very motivating things during class. I like to call them "life treasures." Some of the treasures that I always relate to my life are, "keep pulling, pulling is the object of stretching" or "the harder you pull, you can balance here forever" and lastly "this is not a competition, focus on YOURSELF in the mirror." I will only elaborate on this last treasure. When I'm meditating I'm thinking about my life and how in this heated room, it's just like our daily lives. Life gets hot, we get sweaty, tired, ready to give up and start to compare our lives to the people around us. Reminder: "This is not a competition, focus on YOURSELF in the mirror." In class everyone is on different levels, some just beginning and some advanced. When you stop looking at yourself and start looking at the people around you, you get dizzy and lose your balance. There's no way you can keep your balance if you have your eyes on others, you will fall. So, stop trying to impress others around you, by looking for their approval, DO YOU! I think that you will discover while you're busy giving the people around you so much power, they aren't concerned with you. They are literally, falling over themselves. When you focus on yourself, you receive maximum benefits, your postures are more solid and you begin to see ways to improve you. I know just like myself, we all want to receive the maximum benefits out of life, be solid and have balance, just like my yoga instructor says, "This is not a competition, focus on YOURSELF in the mirror!"

Love,

Dot

Psalms 139:14

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

The Finish Line

As I'm traveling down the highway, I notice this car weaving in and out of traffic, jumping in different lanes that he ended up going slower in, jumping in front of other cars risking a wreck and just driving at such a rapid pace. I thought to myself... That used to be me!! Lol thank you God after a million tickets, you saved me from that NASCAR spirit! I also thought to myself.. This person is driving so fast that he can't be enjoying the ride. He's going so fast that he's missing all of the beauty that surrounds us.

We move so fast in our lives, waiting to reach the finish line and arrive to our destinations that we miss all of the beauty surrounding us. Slow down!!!  Breathe! Enjoy the people in your life, enjoy your career, enjoy the success that has knocked on your door while you work towards the next visit!

It is a challenge to enjoy where you don't want to settle and these are the times God wants us to cling on to Him even more in faith. You are steadily progressing to the next season in your life, but don't miss out on the beauty that is in your life at this moment. We add stress to everything that we do, instead let's choose to delight in the treasures God has given us at this moment in time!


"The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all." -Ecclesiastes 9:11  


Love,
Dot

Separating Our Emotions

When you're doing laundry, you separate your whites from your lights and your lights from your darks. The reason for this is because you realize from past experiences that if you mix them together you will create a big mess. Some shirts will be discolored and some whites may turn pink. I know you know what I'm talking about! Therefore, you recognize this is the process you have to take time for in order to have a successful wash experience.

Just like your laundry, we must separate our emotions. This is a process that we have to make time for in order to have a successful day when things seem to be going wrong. Our insecurity day can't go in with our lonely day. Our PMS day can't go in with our day of anticipation. Our disappointment can't go in with our weaknesses.

When we do this we create a big mess. When one thing goes wrong, we start throwing everything in one big pile and before you know it, we are in the floor asking WHY?

When one thing happens and makes us feel one way, we tend to grab every problem, every circumstance and with that every emotion off the shelf and this creates a disaster. This stops now!

Separate your emotions. Recognize the "one" issue that you are having at that moment and pray for that particular issue. Take captive any other thoughts that make you feel like you live a horrible life and nobody loves you. Emotions are there to help us grow, not to overtake us. Ask God to help you manage your emotions to bring out the very best that He has placed in you and focus more on your faith than how you are feeling! 

Emotional roller coasters don't take us anywhere, but always bring us right back to the place that we began.

Love,

Dot

You are not in control... this can be a good thing!

One of the greatest treasures of advice that I've received from a dear friend is, "You're not in Control." WHEW!! So harsh! That's what friends are for right?! That hurt me and blessed me all in the same moment. Control freak? Who me? Neeeeeever!! God said, "Yes mam, YOU!" Ultimately, we try to be in control of things for one because we think we know what's best and for two because we have life mapped out in our little minds of the way things should and will go. This couldn't be further from the truth, which is why daily we are depending on God because He is the master and controls everyone and everything. I'm thinking it wouldn't be that great if life always went according to what I thought it should be and if people would act the way I wanted them to act. 

Trying to be in control of every circumstance and the people in your life can be so miserable. It's a very heavy load that wasn't designed for you to carry. It's heavy weight and only God can carry it! Don't.Play.God.

Let's trust that every situation, though it's not our idea of perfect.. is God perfect! Every time something doesn't go as you desired, it's an opportunity for growth and it's a moment to gain another perspective. It's a chance to also matriculate in our faith because now we are relying solely on God. God will make that situation work out for the good as He always has! Sweet Jesus!

Release your weights that don't belong to you. With wisdom, live and adjust to the moments in your life.
Accept that life will hurt sometimes but by the grace of God he allows us to GROW through it. 

It's ok to not be in control, and it would give us peace of mind to accept that because we CAN'T be in control all of the time! There are things in life, God has given us the authority over, we should do our part in excellence and leave the rest to Him.  One of the beauties in not being in control is that there are a lot of things in life that people can't blame you for!!!




Love,
Dot

INSECURITY, You've been a BAD Friend......

Insecurity is such a major, but silent poison amongst the community of women. With our precious jewelry, fine china, luxury cars and beautiful homes, we are able to hide underneath it all. Surely she's not speaking to me... I hear you!! Yes I am on your street, but I'm sitting on the block with you. Whether it's a drop, puddle or ocean full, we all have experienced insecurity. A great read "So long Insecurity, you have been a bad friend" by a great author Beth Moore has been so enlightening. 


Our insecurities derive from our childhood and even our experiences daily that have a major affect on the women we've become. From the way we view ourselves to our unrealistic expectations in relationships.. These insecurities have ruled far too long!


We must first recognize these unhealthy thoughts and emotions that rule our thoughts and poison our spirits. Most of the time we get insecure when we feel threatened, when attention is being taken off of us or when we just plain flat out don't feel significant. We start comparing ourselves to the next woman and either despising her or wanting what she has. WHY? Because our security is in people and things and not in God. 


If we looked to God as our mirror instead of man, we would be more secure. Often times we feel threatened, jealous and insecure because we subconsciously always want it to be about us. Ladies, get over yourselves!!! We need each other, it takes more energy to hate than it does to love. That woman that looks so secure, is probably overwhelmed with hurt on the inside and would love to hear an encouraging word from you. 


Recognize that the enemy is glad that you use all of your time talking ABOUT the next person instead of talking TO them. Take a stand... Insecurity must get out! This state feels so normal because we've dealt with it for so long, but it's not healthy. There's so much freedom out there waiting on us. The anguish you're living in because of your insecurity will be gone the minute you recognize it and get up! You can do it!


Love, 
Dot

FUNNY GLASSES

Sometimes life gets so overwhelming and so frustrating that we begin to question "why?" If only things could be the way we imagined, life would be so much better. We tend to think that if we only knew what God had planned we would be more at ease and we could plan life according to what would happen next. I was getting a facial and my Esthetician put on these funny glasses. They were magnifying glasses and she said "do you ever look at your skin through a magnifying mirror" I answered "no." She said "great because if you did you would go crazy, some of these things we're just not suppose to see. Only I can see because it's my job to get rid of the bacteria." I thought to myself, WOW! Such is life. When we put our "life" magnifying glasses on we go crazy! We start to pick at things that are out of our league. We start trying to find remedies to fix our life's problems. While all along, God is saying... STOP looking at your life through that magnifying glass, those are my glasses. We were not built to see everything, otherwise we will go crazy! Let's trust that our Creator has Great plans for His creation even when we can't see. Let's trust God with our lives, our problems and frustrations. He has every tool and every remedy. Sit in his chair and relax... He is the Master Esthetician. Love, Dot

Are You Eating?

In Los Angeles there's a famous canyon where everyone works out and walks their dogs called, Runyon Canyon. I try to make it there as much as possible (we know how that goes!) to go for a "challenging" walk! Not your average walk in the park. The steep hills, the huge mountain rocks to climb, various routes to take and let's not leave out the sun beaming down in the midst of all of this. Again, I will say, not your average walk in the park. Well one day I went with some friends, I hadn't eaten and decided I would be just fine!! And I was, for the first 30 mins. While walking down, I felt fine, but as soon as we started climbing up, I started feeling like I was going to pass out. Light-headed and nauseous... I had to take a seat. Everyone kept walking and before I knew it, I was laid out on the ground. No food and no energy to even think about moving! "Jesus, Take the wheel" I said to myself! Lol When I look back on that incident, the missing component from me not achieving my goal was a lack of food. I was thinking, in our daily lives when we lack spiritual food, how can we make it up these mountains? When circumstances are steep, life mountains are hard to climb, tough decisions are to be made and all of the heat on our shoulders... How can we make it if we lack spiritual food? The answer is, we can't. We need the word of God to help us on this journey or we just won't make it, we will be laid out. We won't have the wisdom, the power or the peace to make it through. We will be living but not LIVING! Without physical food, I ended up getting up and walking back down the path I had just come from while everyone else kept going forward. They knew the difficulty it would be on the canyon and the significant impact that food would be on their journey. Ladies.... I encourage all of us to take time to spiritually feed ourselves. God wants us to live life abundantly and knows that through His word we can! Spiritual food sustains us, gives us energy and the enthusiasm to move forward in this life. It gives us hope when we're hopeless and comforts us when our world seems to be spinning out of control. Lastly, I also encourage you to never go to the canyon on an empty stomach!! (smile)

Love,
Dot

SOLITUDE

 “Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away.” –Barbara De Angelis


Solitude can be a very significant and life changing moment in our lives. It’s not at all selfish to take time to be by yourself, it’s actually a very mature move to position you to become more selfless. In order to have healthy relationships and be able to give wholeheartedly to others we must have that time alone to be re-fueled. A car can’t move without gas nor can we draw from an empty well. When we don’t take time for ourselves we become entangled in life’s circumstances and exhausted. Things that we may have had control over before now seem to be slipping out of our hands. Areas in our lives that we had a clear perspective on have become blurry because we have neglected our time of silence. Solitude allows us that time by ourselves to do a number of things:

1. It is a time of discovery. It helps us identify things about ourselves that we never knew and in this time of privacy we uncover our uniqueness.

2. It allows us to Trust God more and recognize our dependence on Him.

3. It gives us a clear assessment of our lives.

4. It gives us an opportunity to care for ourselves. These things are hard to accomplish if we are always busy and always speaking. Find time in solitude and see that you have more peace, your joy increase and the chains of your anxiety diminish.

“What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.” –Ellen Burstyn 




Love, 
Dot