I AM BLOWN AWAY!

 

According to Blogger Statistics, I have readers in the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Austria, Australia, Canada, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Malaysia, Romania, South Korea, and India!

You could knock me over with a feather!  I am STUNNED to discover this!  







I started blogging because I was being tugged on by Spirit to share my spiritual journey openly with others.  This was not an easy thing for me to do, but, Spirit was relentless about nudging me forward about this. 

I finally agreed and became willing to take the risks to blog, to surrender to the process and to allow the vulnerability that blogging openly about my trials, tribulations and triumphs through life bring to me.

I believe that we are all the same in the deepest place of who we are.  Our DNA may be slightly different.  But if I look deeply enough, I see our essence is identical.

We all struggle at times to find our way.  I have found that it helps to understand and grow past difficulties better when we are brave and go searching for support, allowing others to see and know the real us.

When I spend time with others in this way, it helps me to remember that I am not alone, that I am not as weird as I sometimes fear.  It somehow gives me permission to step into myself more deeply--the good and the parts about which I can be in great judgment.  It helps me to grow my courage and take more risks to go after the things I feel guided to do, even if I am feeling terrified or weak.  It helps me take greater risks, dream bigger, believe more, manifest more and embrace more of life.

I believe that if I share my journey, it may help another find more courage to embrace their own more deeply. 

I have been blessed with many beautiful, loving and empowering fellow travelers that have shared their experiences and wisdom, helping me greatly along the way.  

I feel blessed and grateful to all of you that read my blog!  This is a huge gift and a humble honor discovering this today!

Thank you for supporting me!  

It is my hope and my prayer that my blogging may also help in supporting you!

Thank you, Spirit, for always nudging me forward!
 

Love & Hugs & Blessings, Dear Soul Family!
Barbara 

Copyright 2012. Transformation of a Mystic. Barbara F. Manning

Embracing & Loving My Inner Child!

 

I had the most wonderful time in Disneyland this week!  

It seems that the older I get, the better I am at being a kid! With wild abandon, I got on every ride I could!  I took in every smell and relished in the sensuality of every flower, every color, every texture, every scene of every place I went there--I danced in the Magic and the Wonder of EVERYTHING! 

I got to hook up with a dear friend of 45 years that I have not spent much time with in a long while.  Doing this helped me to remember being a kid and playing together.  I so enjoyed her and her husband at Disneyland!  

I let it be Okay that I rented an ACV, a motorized convenience scooter, as I knew I could not walk for three solid days all over Disneyland.  I rode and I walked.  I listened to my body and I honored, accepted and did what I needed for me.

Miraculously, I found that I don't get motion sickness from twirling around on rides like I always used to--if I let go and move with the flow of the ride!  (I found this wisdom to be TRUTH in all areas of my regular life--long before now, and was pleasantly surprised to discover it applicable on roller coasters, too!) 

I didn't do "Being A Kid" very much the first time through!  I was always taught to be responsible, keep my nose to the grindstone, work hard, excel and to do my best to strive for perfection in all things.  I learned that fun and play are optional, definitely not necessary in life. 

WRONG!

It is not that those things were wrong or bad for me THEN.  They were the things I needed to learn and do and they served me well in their time.  But times are a-changin' and I am learning to let loose and shift my beliefs on many things.

My father going Home in January set me free in ways I had no idea I was not free.  I can see him smiling now, sharing my Joy in my discoveries of things I put on a back burner for most of my life, until now.  I opted to be with him and do for him what I could in the Winter of his life.  Before Dad there was my mother, and raising my children, my job, and my extended family.  I am not sorry about any of it.  I could not have done any of it any other way.

My beautiful and fun-loving grandchildren and grandnieces and grandnephews have helped me to remember how to play and have fun!  When they want to play with me, I say, "SURE!"  And I drop everything and go play with them.  With their parents, I was dog-tired from working, going to school, parenting and household responsibilities.  There was little time left over for Play and Fun--although I did my very best at it, even then.

Now I am in a different place than ever before in my life.  I can play more and have more fun than ever before!  The expanded experiences are welcomed and they feel MAGNIFICENT!
 
The more I embrace all the FUN in my life and the more I PLAY, the more JOY I experience in ALL THINGS in my life!

I highly recommend that you find the things that are fun and play for you and that you do them as often as possible!

I wished to experience more JOY!  I wished to experience more of being in the NOW!  

I have found that "Fun" and "Play" and "Joy" and "Being In The Now" are all interchangeable words for the same thing!  

I am doin' it and I am LOVIN' IT!

Thank you, Jiminy Cricket, for teaching me to wish and to dream:  "When you wish upon a star, your dreams really do come true!"

So Wish and Dream and BELIEVE and Play and enJOY everything that comes to you, even the little things--maybe even especially the little things!  

Love, Hugs & Blessings,
Barbara 

Thank you, Disney folks and Victor Johnson, for the use of your photos and artwork! 

Copyright 2012. Transformation of a Mystic. Barbara F. Manning

Gratitude Is The Answer!!

I have always felt like I am the luckiest person that I know!  

Some say there is no such thing as luck.  Maybe that is true.  Whatever this is, I was born with it.  I was born with a great ability to bring into my life the most miraculous and amazing things--Great Abundance, Dear Family, Magnificent Friends, endless bounds of connection to people that I love and feel very close to, unbelievable opportunity and the ability to transform negativity into positivity!  It and they all show up in my life, and in huge amounts!  

How wonderful is that??? 

I was also born with the ability to bring into my life defeat, unbearable pain, difficulty, judgment, fear, rejection and abandonment.

I can be blessed.  Or I can be damned.  It is my choice--simply by where I put my intention, my energy and my beliefs! 

What do I want?

I am so very blessed!  

Maybe it is not luck.  

Maybe it is Blessing!

I was reading Oprah Magazine's November 2012 issue recently.  In it Oprah talks about having fallen down on her commitment to Gratitude Journaling every day--the commitment to listing in a journal, at least five things every day for which she is grateful.  

I have never done a Gratitude Journal, but this resonates with me very much!  I find myself feeling great gratitude for so many things in my life on a regular basis!  I am amazed at how Spirit, God, works in my life!  I find that the more grateful I am about what I have, the more that comes to me, and it grows, simply because I pay attention to it!  I look for the the gift in everything that comes and everything that happens to me--even, maybe even especially--in those things that I have to look into very deeply to find!  

The gift is ALWAYS THERE!

I always find that I am so very blessed and in so very many ways!

I decided I will also make the commitment to Gratitude Journaling!  This feels like an investment in becoming even more concretely conscious of just how very much God works in such positive and wonderful ways in my life--and as far as I can tell, God never works in any other way in mine or anyone else's life--if I/We look deeply enough!

I ran across an image that speaks my feelings about this subject exactly:

I am SO HAPPY!  Thank you, God, for the gift of all the Abundance in my life!  Thank you for all the Happiness I feel on a regular basis!  I love it all and I am GRATEFUL for it all! 

Do I still have bouts of body pain?  Yes.

Do I still struggle with depression, anxiety or fear on occasion?  Yes.

Do I have it all figured out and am I perfect with gratitude all the time?  No. 

But I am getting better and better at allowing the difficulties without getting lost in them.  I am getting better and better at looking deeply to find the gifts in all things that come to me!  This is MASSIVE GROWTH in me!

And it all makes me So Very Happy! 

And now I ask you:

  
Love & Hugs & Blessings,
Barbara

Thank you to the contributors of the images I used in this blog entry!

 

Copyright 2012. Transformation of a Mystic. Barbara F. Manning