What to keep

This has been an insane week, a beautiful week, though still insane. As many of you are probably aware I have been creating a mentoring business the last few weeks and can I just say how it has rocked me to my core. For a long time I've worked an 8-5 job, working hard all day, coming home each night feeling as if I've been beaten up and reading books just as fast as I could get through them. Now even though I am busier than I have every been (working 8-5, having mentor appointments during my lunches, team calls every morning at 6, and trying to grow a website and online presence) I love my life and I'm not hiding in books anymore.

I've been on a journey trying to figure out what it is that I really want to help people to do. It is easy to say you want to help people, but hard to know how that really translates in the doing. How do I reach out to people, how do I explain what I want to do, caring so much about Heavenly Father, but not wanting to turn people away before they want to learn more, how to do it all?

And then to add to all those questions was this negative voice saying that no one liked me, that everyone else was awful and just spreading this nasty poison inside my mind. I knew I didn't want it there and I knew it wasn't serving me, but it seemed the harder I prayed the nastier the voice became. Finally I opened a word document and I just wrote out all the negativity in my mind and I got it all out. Only once I had acknowledged everything that was there and admitted to what I was feeling was I finally able to quiet that voice in my mind. So often when those things enter our mind we think we need to push them down, to bury them deep down and far away so that no one will ever know how awful we are. I assure you, you are not awful, you are just a mortal having a mortal experience, subject to all the nasty voices that come will mortality. We are not judged for the thoughts that pop into our heads, our destiny is determined by what we choose to do with them once they get there. Instead of burying them down deep inside of us where they can come up again and again every time that trigger comes up, instead what if we chose to really get rid of them, to put them on paper, on paper where no one else will see them?



I think sometimes we think if we get it out of us that will make it more real, it doesn't, by putting it on paper we actually recognize that those thoughts aren't ours and we don't want them, we recognize them for the lies we are and it is easier to not believe a lie, once you know it is a lie. So the next time those negative thoughts (about yourself or others) pop into your head, I encourage you to grab a piece of paper or a word document and write them all up, recognize what is really going on, then my personal favorite is to rip it up and chuck it in the garbage. Then find something good to tell yourself. Create the good, so there is less space for the bad to take root. Soon you'll find when bad things come in, you have more of the good to combat them with.  Happy writing, and happy being the one who chooses what stays in your brain. We have been told the lie that if we feel it, then we should say it. Instead if we feel it, we should write it, then we can determine what we want to say and what we want to throw away.

How much better off you are

Wow the last two weeks have been a bit of a whirl wind. If you had asked me six weeks ago what the next year of my life would look like, I wouldn't have had any idea that I would be creating a website, starting a YouTube channel, hosting a Facebook group, having one on one mentoring appointments with clients, and spending an hour of writing every night, but that is exactly what I'm doing and it is amazing!!!

It is a wonderful thing to feel like every hour is being put to good use, I feel more alive and more connected to my life. Where just months before I felt like every day was speeding by and I wasn't sure how I was actually filling it, now I know, I have things I have accomplished, I have things I have learned, and I have joy each day because I know I am helping others find and live in their true selves. What a gift it is to help others and I ask you, what is a way that you can help others that no one else can do?
  What is it that makes you fully you? I think there is something we all have to offer, maybe it is playing a musical instrument that brings joy to others, maybe it is writing stories that bring smiles to many faces, maybe it is cleaning your home and making it a safe and restful place to be for all who enter, maybe it is driving a bus and helping others get where they need to go, maybe it is designing new inventions that bless lives, maybe it is being just the parent your child needs.



There are no little gifts, there are no insignificant offerings. In this world we live in Heavenly Father needs just what we have to offer, His children need just what we have to offer. Satan will tell us that our offering is insignificant, or that we aren't doing any good, that we are over looked and not needed. You tell him to go away, in fact any lie that he tells you turn around and believe the opposite. If he tells you that your offerings are too small, you tell yourself that you are helping many, if he tells you they are insignificant you believe they are significant. If he tells you what you do doesn't matter, than you know without a shadow of a doubt that they do matter. The adversary deals in lies and discouragement, if he can get you down and discouraged in your purpose then you aren't there to bless the lives of someone else. If you are feeling discouraged tonight I hope you'll write down the good that you do. I hope you'll take the time to write down on a piece of paper "I have done something good today:" and list the good you have done, it doesn't matter what it was, having done it means you have brought light into the world, light it needed and you gave so selflessly.

What can you do to bring the light for yourself? What can you do to be your bestest self? When you find yourself and who you want to be then others dig deep and find their best selves. It seems at times that we are in a competition of who can be the most disappointed, who has lost the most or struggling the most. It is important to mourn with those who mourn, it is also so powerful to seek the good in your life and help others see the good in others. By speaking positively and looking for the best we raise the vibration of our lives so that those who enter also want to seek the best.

I hope as you go into the world this week we bear a dream of what your best self is, maybe that dream feels very far away, maybe it feels unattainable. A thing is never attainable if you don't try, but when you do try and you get even one step closer, think of how much better off you are, than you were.

Those seeking Christ are invited to bring the Light

Tonight I'd like to share some of my thoughts about thoughts. I feel like I have covered this topic a lot lately, with multiple Facebook posts, a blog post about it months ago, and a video about it. Yet as I was pondering about my week, the many ups and downs I faced I realized a lot of those downs came because I chose to not take control of where my thoughts were going.



To lay the ground work I would encourage you to look at the post The Voice that Lies (found: https://ofchoicesandconsequences.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-voice-that-lies.html) which explains that there are three different voices in our minds, we need to learn how to recognize each one, where they are coming from and what they hope for us to feel. Once we understand that there are adversarial voices encouraging us to feel guilty, feel we are of little worth, feel that we can't do anything, then there is our voice, trying to figure out who we are, who we want to be and what to do in order to be that person, and then there is the voice of the Spirit which invites us to remember who we were and helps to direct in how to reach who we are to become.

Each of us were sent to this earth for a purpose, with this purpose we were given tools and gifts to fulfill our mission in this life. As we work to discover and fulfill this purpose the adversary works to discourage us and his voice in our mind fills us with doubt and discouragement. I was definitely feeling a lot of doubt and discouragement this week. I was beginning to feel that I had misunderstood portions of the mission I thought I had received and feeling very low because other's agency was involved and I had hoped for a different response. For most of this week I let those thoughts wreak havoc in my mind, I tried to keep up my morning and evening thoughts, writing down the negative and trashing it and trying to count my blessings, but because I wasn't calling out the thoughts for what they were, lies from the adversary, I was still subject to their influence in my heart. On Friday as I was feeling very overwhelmed and second guessing every decision I had made of the last six weeks I realized that I hadn't invited the Savior into this battle. Last month I made it a goal to recite the Living Christ each day as I memorized it, since I have tried to say a paragraph or two so I could keep it fresh in my mind. As I have worked on this goal I have noticed the difference in my day when I recite it versus when I forget. Now I'm not saying you have to go out and memorize the Living Christ in 30 days, though I can bear witness that the Spirit that comes into your life is life changing, it invites the Savior into every aspect of our day and we begin to realize just how not alone we are. I testify that the Savior delights to be part of our lives and wants to be invited it. When we invite Him in, He immediately enters.

  As we get closer to living our purpose the adversary will get louder in his attempt to distract and dishearten us. I would encourage you to combat his voice by writing down the lies, make conscious effort to be aware of what is going on in your mind. What lies are showing up? What discouragement seems to be getting louder? Are there clouds hanging over your head that you don't know how they got there? Once you start seeing what is going on, you then claim control of what is on the stage of your mind. Then once you see what is going on, and you claim control, find a way, whichever way is most effective to you, whether hymns, declarations, reading your patriarchal blessing or asking Heavenly Father how he feels about you, that you invite Christ into your life and invite the good. In a world where darkness seems to be multiplying it is up to those who seek to follow Christ to bring the light. We must be in a place to feel the light if we are to share that light with others.

This morning I took my own advice and I wrote down the lies that had been floating through my head. What was interesting, once I had written and numbered them, I recognized them as the lies they were and it gave Heavenly Father space to disprove each and every one. As I went through my day, people that came into my life said things directly in opposition to what the adversary said. With the negative named and numbered, I was also able to feel love, and hope.

If you are struggling trying to find what to do next, if you are feeling discouraged that you will never make it, take a moment to write down the lies, then as you brush your teeth remind yourself that you are a child of God and no matter the choices or mistakes you've made, He still wants you because you are His child. His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, came to earth because He loves you and He is coming again. I hope we can each take control of our thoughts so that when the Spirit directs us to serve, when the Spirit directs us to prepare, we can be ready. Because our Savior is at the door and He is coming quickly.