gratitude

Armored with Lessons from Oprah

by paula on February 13, 2013

For the last few weeks, we’ve been a little quiet.  As the New Year began, along came a whole year of possibilities.  Then, within days came cancer for our mom – the core of our family, the source of our strength and the compass that we follow. To say that we were knocked off our feet is an understatement.  But, with comfort and love around us, we know that many have walked this journey and now, we simply find ourselves on this road and paying a lot more attention to the world around us.  Struggling to remain on our feet and moving forward, our public writing stopped as we found our breath and how to move through the world once again.  After many tests and appointments, mom starts chemo this coming week.  While all of this has broken our hearts, it’s also broken open our hearts even wider – because what we know for sure is that this journey…each and every moment…if filled with love.  Now, we simply see it more clearly and in focus.  And we know this because of all of the lessons from OWN over these last 2 years.  Here are the greatest ones that have shown up in these last few weeks.

  • Attitude is everything.
  • Keep your heart open to everything around you.
  • Be the light…and carry the faith when others can’t.
  • Change your emotions by moving your body.
  • Emotions will pass.  Give yourself a few minutes and take some deep breaths.  Give yourself those 90 seconds…and let your body move through it.
  • Use the love language that works best for those you love.
  • Gratitude is everything.  Be grateful for every single moment.

So, for 2013 we move forward with OWN into new programs and new lessons within them…but to do so, we needed to continue to speak authentically because this is who our mother has taught us to be…and who Oprah has taught us to be.  Life is full of JOY.  Make sure that you find yours each and every single day.  Use the lessons from Super Soul Sunday, Lifeclass, Iyanla Fix My Life, Next Chapter and MasterClass to empower your spirit and give you strength…because all of these lessons are gifts that I promise, may one day keep you standing, moving forward, and wrap around you in love.

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Sweet Thoughts and Happy Holidays

by paula on December 24, 2012

Many many  years ago, Oprah had a show about gift ideas before her famous ”Favorite Things” show ever came to life.  Somewhere, sprinkled amidst the giving advice were sweet thoughts…the idea of giving someone the gift of memories of wonderful things from the past. 

That Christmas Eve, I arrived to the table armed with pen, paper and a mission – a new family tradition.  I asked for each person at the table to share five memories about someone or something in the family that made them smile.   Not quite sure of the rules, I made them up along the way.  I was looking for happiness to capture and share… and Oprah’s sweet thoughts did not disappoint. 

Here were my rules:  Take 15 minutes and write down at least 5 sweet thoughts – memories that make you smile when you think of them and the people around this table.  After, we’ll be sharing…Go!

After the 15 minute exercise, we put all of the pieces of paper into a basket and then, passed them around the room as we drank hot chocolate and apple cider, reading each other’s gifts aloud, often laughing or pausing for discussion around the moment captured on a little piece of paper.  The next year, we did the same thing.  Then the next year.  And the next.  Each year, I would keep the little torn pieces of paper of handwritten memories and pack them away with the Christmas decorations.   

After a few years, I went on the hunt to find the right journal and carefully “scrapbooked” the memories into the pages, giving them a permanent home for presentation.   Soon, the book became the discussion piece as we sat on Christmas Eve, drank hot chocolate and stopped to breathe in some family time and happy moments.

Then, like in many families, life came into play and into the mix for holiday attention - Travel. Business. Kids. Pets. Home, Careers. Moving. Health….and somehow, the tradition of sweet thoughts got lost somewhere between the search for the perfect gift and the resolve to have more family time around the holidays.  But this year, the book is back out.  The pieces of paper are all carefully cut out.  Pens will be placed in a basket.  Hot chocolate is lying in wait.  And sometime tonight, when the family comes together to enjoy the holiday, sweet thoughts will have a seat at the table.  More precious memories will be captured.  More pages of the book filled.  More hearts lifted.  More gratitude and joy shared.  Tonight, with those that I love the most…we will remember moments of why we are a family…and why the bonds are more precious than anything else in the world.  All of this with a few words written down…sweet thoughts.

Tonight, make your own rules for sweet thoughts…and capture the moments in your life and share them with those you love.  You just might find that the little pieces of paper hold more joy and love that you could even realize.  Happy Holidays and JOY to all of you.

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Thankful for Living from a Place of Gratitude

by paula on November 22, 2012

Each morning before my feet even hit the ground, I throw gratitude out into the day.  Each day it looks a little differently…but sounds the same. 

Universe…thank you for my breath, for my sight, for my health, and for the sunrise.  Thank you for my family who, though are crazy sometimes, are blessings in my life beyond words.  Thank you for my friends – past and present and future ones – who have brought me lessons and shown me love.  Thank you for these two little dogs that love me unconditionally…and for all the pets and people who have touched my life and made it magical with each moment.  And most of all, thank you for showing me that in the darkness, there is always light….you just have to look a little harder. 

May today and everyday you notice all of the things that you are grateful for in your life and remember to throw a little kindness from it out into the world.

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Living in Gratitude Even for the Tough Lessons

by paula on October 5, 2012

Throughout the course of our OYOU inspired boot camp, I have tried to stay in the moment.  Instead of focusing on the details of the self-imposed list that I give to myself each week, I have focused on the theme.  What does this mean in my life? How do I make it part of who I am? What do I need to work through to bring me more of this?  Each colorful week bringing me lessons beyond measure that are sometimes too big to even wrap my arms around.  But there is one thing…the lessons that are coming with this experience are not at all what I expected.  We challenged the universe at the beginning of this process – we were going deeper and pushing ourselves more than we did last year.  The universe heard us and has responded in kind. The lessons are plentiful but don’t always come into our lives as pretty pillow covers or fashion accessories.  This week – our Oprah inspired week – is no different. This week I find myself asking “what would Oprah do?” and the answer sometimes surprises me…

A couple of days ago we started talking about Oprah’s Lifeclass in Houston. Now, growing up for awhile in Texas I knew that if Oprah was going to Houston, this ruled out the State Fair because that is always in Dallas and increased the possibility of something from a preacher because for those who don’t know this, church is REALLY BIG in Texas…but in all fairness, everything is REALLY BIG in Texas.  Supersized was invented in this state not at McDonalds.

With the discussion and the reveal of Oprah’s Lifeclass teacher’s came some unexpected reactions and lessons even before class has started.  The truth is that some people are hurt that Oprah is talking to people who are not open, loving and accepting of everyone for who they are and as Oprah, the teacher, has taught all of us to be.  Without even hearing the topics of the day, there are lessons already showing up and for each person, they speak very differently according to who you are and what your life has brought into it.

When I heard pastors were the teachers, I thought “Oh no.”  Not because I dislike churches. Actually, I had an amazing experience with sitting with God in a church one time…so, that’s not it.  My aversion comes from the feeling that comes up each time I “go there” with my emotions.  It comes from being a very young girl, sitting through Sunday school and through weekday bible classes for one summer alongside my molester and abuser as I heard that God was going to forgive him for all his sins if he just asked him to…and I kept wondering to my 7 year old self, how is this possible?  So, just like fresh baked bread makes me think of home, sometimes church makes me think of my 7 year old self.  But I am not a young girl…I am a grown woman who knows that spirituality and love cannot be contained in any building and is everywhere around you.  I don’t have to go to God’s house to find him…he lives at my house too.

With that lesson in mind, I heard the voices of hurt as they talked about Joel Osteen and Rick Warren and their beliefs about homosexuality.  All of the feelings that this brought to the surface of ugly words of condemnation came up for them like sound bites from thier lives. Sound bites of all of the hateful words of intolerance and bullying that have clearly left deep scars. Like opening up the wound again, I could feel the tears where I saw the anger.  Bringing grown people to their knees with the same 7 year-olds question at their lips – how is this possible?

Through the words and these last few days, this is the lesson that has come to me.  Be grateful for every single moment and lesson that is brought into your life because it is there to make you stronger and give you lessons that you may not even realize you need.  Everyone has their own journey. Everyone has pain that bubbles up to the top when they come across a situation that pushes buttons or opens wounds.  Everyone has to deal with them in their own way.  When you walk through the thickness and get to the other side, that’s when you realize that you are stronger for the experience and what makes you stronger makes you beautiful.

So…when I go to Oprah’s Lifeclass and take my virtual seat and listen in for the lessons or look for the friends in the audience who are having their once in a lifetime (or twice) chance to be in the same space as Oprah, I know this….we all have our own journeys to take…and we all should love and respect each other for whatever roads we choose and say to each other, “Safe travels to your heart on your own path.”

It’s with an open heart that I feel joy for some and pain for others…but I feel and this tells me that my heart is open to the energy of the world and whatever comes into it.  And I am grateful for that because it’s with an open heart that you can change the world and heal your wounds.  And finally, I hear Oprah’s voice and the answer to my own question from years ago… “how is this possible?”  With an open heart and with tremendous love…you can change the world.  Believing this makes anything possible.

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Unleashing Your Gratitude Circle

by paula on October 1, 2012

It’s amazing and true that what you ask the universe for, it will give to you.  A little closer to our Oprah moment and our big California adventure at OYou in LA later this month, we have now arrived at our Oprah inspired week for our boot camp and are ready for the wave of inspiration and gratitude just waiting to flood our lives.  

As we have worked through our many lessons during these last few weeks, now we are all about unleashing our gratitude circle and putting that into place in our life.  Challenging ourselves to put some of Oprah’s live your best life suggestions into practice has led us to this week and our hope is that we fill up our lives with the joy and energy that living in gratitude brings.  In return, we hope that how we move through this next week will take root into our lives and into others as well.   

As we get ready for LA, we are full of excitement and adrenalin coming in to this week.  Just the kind of energy that you need to change the world…and change your life.  We are ready to fill up our cup and drink it all in!  Bring on the JOY! Unleash the gratitude.  Let us start by unleashing our gratitude on you, our readers.  You being here means the world to us.  Thank you for reading our blog, for finding our stories, and for letting us share our hearts and our words with you. We are so very grateful…so thank you, thank you and thank you!

Now, here is how we are focusing in on gratitude this week.

  • Gratitude Meditation – Each and every day, take 15 minutes to sit still and thank the world for every single thing that you can think of.  The wind, the trees, the gas in the car, the brief breeze in the hot day, the gift of touch, smell, taste, sight….you get the idea.  Fill up your core with gratitude…
  • One Gratitude Gift a Day – Reach out to someone different each and every single day and say thank you.
  • Pay It Forward – Let someone go ahead of you in line, pay for someone’s drink at Starbucks, smile at a stranger, give the gift of listening, do something for someone else…put this on the list for each day.  Small acts bring big results.  Change the world with just being the change.
  • Focus on the positive – Be the positive force in the world and turn away from the negative. 

We hope you follow our journey and are inspired enough to join us…especially this week.  Welcome to week ten of our OYou 2012 Boot Camp Challenge.  Opening your heart and your life to being grateful for the world around you is amazing.  When you live in gratitude it reminds you at every twist and turn of your day how amazing life can really be.  When you focus on the positive, it changes everything.  Take the time to pay attention to your life and fill yourself up with gratitude. This week we are focusing on unleashing the wave of gratitude into our life…because being swept up in a gratitude wave is the best way to be swept up into living your best life.

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Angels are always there when we need them

by Guest Blogger on July 19, 2012

Catherine Duffy

The other day I was reading the blog by SARK and she talked about how if we ask for wonderful people to come into our lives, they do.

So on that day when I was carrying a lot of anger, I asked for someone wonderful to come into my life and then released the thought. I then decided to take my car in to have it cleaned. Why that day I was not sure considering it had not been cleaned for months. But something compelled me to take it in. I was almost at work but decided to turn around to go to the car cleaning place.

When I went back to pick up my car, one of the guys that had cleaned my car started talking to me about life. He told me that he doesn’t worry about anything anymore. How he has learnt that he can’t focus on the negative stuff because all it will do is make him sick. He said he has seen too many of his friends dropping off from heart attacks and he believes it was because they were carrying too much stuff.

I looked at this guy and realized he was the wonderful person I had asked for. Surprised by the guise he had come in. But full of the wisdom and inspiration I needed for that day. I agreed with him and then we got into a lively discussion about life.

He told me that whenever an angry thought pops into his head, he replaces it with a happy one. He asks himself would he still be angry in an hour about whatever it was that was making him angry and if the answer is no, he releases that angry thought and replaces it with something happy. And he said it feels amazing when he does that because what he realizes is a lot of the stuff we get angry about is not worth holding onto. Not worth killing ourselves over because it is just a moment in time.

Once he realized what he was saying, he became embarrassed. Unsure about how I was taking his observations. So he said rather sheepishly that he hoped I didn’t think he was strange. I looked at that man and realized without question that he was my angel in disguise. Tattoos and all. Despite his gruff manner. Despite his shuffle and street manner. I looked into his shining eyes and realized how much I could have lost had I judged him by his appearance. How unfortunate for me it would have been if I had not engaged with him because I would have missed out on learning my lesson for the day.

I looked that man in the eyes. Opening his soul to mine. Embracing his light so we could feel the exchange of positive energy. I then thanked him from the bottom of my heart for being my angel for the day. To see the gratitude that washed over him was touching. The light that was shining in his eyes was beautiful. To feel the lightness of my being coming back in after our exchange was uplifting. I drove away from the car cleaning place feeling much better than the woman I had been when I walked in. Smiling. Happy. Grateful for the blessings and answers that come to me whenever I am open. Reminded that angels are always there for us when we call upon them. And sometimes from the least likely person of the day proving to me that angels come in all guises and we have to be open to them because they are always there. Always when we need them

 

***About Catherine Duffy – A woman in search of truth. A wife trying to love unconditionally. A mother trying to raise good citizens. A writer bursting through. Enjoying life’s journey.  Catherine can be found @duffy_catherine and on her blog from Bermuda · http://bermudacat.blogspot.com.

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Meditation: Take a Gratitude Break

by paula on July 16, 2012

Today, we’re starting off the week from a place of gratitude in honor of Oprah’s Lifeclass  and also, in honor of our OWN life.

A few days ago, I realized gratitude changes everything.  I’ve heard Oprah tell me for years to live in gratitude.  I’ve started gratitude journals and read books from Dr. Dyer and others…but sometimes you have to be that place where you are ready to open the door…and really understand the lesson.  Gratitude doesn’t just change how you feel about something, it changes everything.  It changes your life.  So today for meditation Monday, take a 5 minute gratitude break and stop your day.  Get quiet and just let yourself be in gratitude.  Let yourself appreciate the sunrise, the sounds, the moment, the breath, the small successes, the big challenges…take yourself to a new level of being grateful for your own life… These 5 minutes will change your day.  These 5 minutes just might change everything.

Give it a try…you are worth it.

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Here and Now

by Guest Blogger on July 12, 2012

Catherine Duffy

Sometimes I sit and wait. Wait and sit. Stare off into space. Let space stare at me. Look out the window. To see what I can see. To feel what I can feel. To allow emotions, feelings, thoughts run through me. To see what inspiration hits me. To see what thoughts form the most cohesive train.

And then I let go. And start to write. Until I can’t stop. Until there is nothing more to express. Until my thoughts are assembled into something I can decipher. Until they start to make music and resonate with my soul.

Some days it’s easier than others. Some days I’m trying too hard to write something profound. To make sense of the world. When there is no sense to be made. Trying too hard to answer all my questions. Not accepting sometimes there are no answers. Just questions.

Sometimes after I finish writing I can’t believe I was the author. Sometimes I feel like the words are coming from a place and space I can only peek into for short periods of time. A place full of love, answers , wisdom, fullness and richness of self. A place of abundance. An overflowing well of joy. And when I reach that place by surrendering completely, I feel a sense of euphoria and peace at the same time. But then when I try to examine that place and space too much – overanalyse what it means – it disappears quickly – closes up and leaves behind darkness. More questions than answers.

And then on those times when I am trying too hard I find I am exhausted, afraid. Nothing happens because I am too judgemental about my ability to write and why I write. I let ego take over. I question who I think I am and why I think I have anything to say that anyone would want to read when I am just a person – the same as everyone else. Insecurity clouds my space. And then I freeze. Fear paralysing my fingers. My thoughts. My inspiration and my creativity. And I berate myself until I just give up and get up and walk away from my computer. From the negativity that is channelling through my body causing me to feel inadequate.

I walk away from the madness. Change the scenery. Inhale and exhale. Look outside. Until I see it. Feel it. And it sees me and feels me. Bringing us together. And usually it’s something as simple as a rose bud starting to bloom. All delicate and beautiful ready to burst into life. Filling me with pure joy. And then I feel something start to stir within my soul again and my eyes open wide to all the beauty that surrounds me every second of every day.

The beauty replaces the ugly and allows me to see that beauty and ugly exist side by side depending on one’s perspective. Depending on how we view things. Beauty and ugly are always there. Always challenging us to determine how we view life. And then I feel my creativity start to flow. My inspiration surging back and I go back and I write until I can write no more.

And then I sit back and contemplate and realise that writing, just like life, requires me to come from a place of love. Always. A place of surrender in order to free myself to see the gifts and abundance there in front of my face every single day. To see the inspiration that comes from everyday life through nature’s rich and varied tapestry. To feel it deep within my soul. Breathe it in slowly and fully. Letting it spread like wildfire through my veins until I open to that place of magic that resides within us all. Surrendering to its goodness and richness. Embracing it like it is my long lost lover.

And then I see I am all I need here and now. Now and here all I need. I am.

When we are looking for something that much grander than where we are and what we are, here and now, we miss out on our authentic selves. We miss out on the opportunity to grow and love. We miss out on the opportunity to be. And that’s why I sit and wait. Wait and sit. Because sometimes doing that allows me to write from that place of total understanding. Enabling me to learn a great life lesson – sometimes I just have to surrender to the here and now without question so I can see I am all I need here and now. And so are you. And so are we all. Here and now.

 

***About Catherine Duffy – A woman in search of truth. A wife trying to love unconditionally. A mother trying to raise good citizens. A writer bursting through. Enjoying life’s journey.  Catherine can be found @duffy_catherine and on her blog from Bermuda · http://bermudacat.blogspot.com.

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