Potato waffles are like being born again where you can’t turn them back to the mashed potato form they were before. And they’re so much better. Recipe below. 🧡
It’s a mysterious term that you don’t hear often. It’s a miracle and life changing event like being born. You only do it once by choice, if ever. And then usually as an adult. It’s a personal decision.
Similar to an important event like getting married or landing a dream job that can be highlighted milestones in your life, there’s no taking back.
And like the potato waffles pictured above that started out as another form of the same food, these spuds can’t go back to before. The recipe is below. 🧇
You can’t take back what’s already happened in the past and you can’t go back in your mother’s womb. Or in this born again case, back into your pre-born again old identity.
Once you’re born again, you’re alive with the spirit living inside you. In the Bible, it’s the same as the Holy Spirit. There are no accidents in becoming Born Again… like the miracle of life.
The story of your real life birth from your birth parents may have sounded like you were an accident oops! baby, but it was no spiritual accident.
And it’s another miracle.
In choosing to be Born Again, you won’t have signed up if you’re not ready.
The choice to be Born Again requires a level of maturity that you’ll know when, and your spirit will help prompt when.
Likely, it has been building up inside you. And one day a water baptism opportunity will show up and call you.
And if you do go through, no other earthly person would know whether you’re born again or not unless you told them or they witnessed your water baptism.
The event is the primary marked outward expression. It’s equivalent to an official wedded ceremony and is spiritual bonding bliss.
But unlike most marriage weddings, the dress code is casual wear like a tee-shirt that will get soaken wet and you will too, as you’d be fully immersed in water either in a bathtub of sorts or outdoors in the open waters.
I know this experience because that’s what happened to me. And as life is an adventure, I never set out for that mission.
I didn’t grow up religious either. This was something I grew into gradually. Never having been baptized before and then for the first time, that’s when my Born Again life began.
Born Again Feelings In the Beginning
It was an ordinary day with extraordinary impact. You never forget the day. You wonder how being submerged in a pool of warm water can be so profound. But it is.
And you’re never the same person you were, again. Because you apply meaning to what just happened in your ceremony.
For one, you get to be a butterfly experiencing more of life’s abundance compared to a caterpillar’s existence with even more limitations.
It has unforgettable, deep feelings like the day you experience a once-in-a-blue-moon total eclipse as it’s happening…
You feel chills and something deeper emotionally happening inside you that you can’t explain with logic and leaves you with a wave of tears and emotions.
Or when you see a painted sky where something is special in the air around you even if you’re the only one who notices.
And you know life is not just what you see in your daily busy life. You know there’s so much more meaning and that can make you want to discover more about yourself and your potential.
You know you were touched by the Universe in love and finding out what that means for your life can be the greater step.
When you’ve already been leading a spiritual life and have gained Biblical knowledge that precedes a baptism day, you know the source of what you’re experiencing.
You know there’s a spirit living inside you.
Referred sometimes as the wind or a dove 🕊️, it’s the same spirit that connects us all under the sun.
There’s an energy that connects us all.
It’s also the guided handed helper, comforter, and all-knowing messenger all rolled-up-in-one.
And those first few days and weeks after baptism, you’ll likely be intentional to live out life differently.
After The Born Again Honeymoon
But then after some time has passed, you’ll have forgotten your baptism event day like everything else in life.
The feelings wear off. And you’ll want to set reminders to what you want your life to be about post-baptism.
You’re back to your life reality, except you have a desire to do better and grow further.
You still carry the same mind as before (pre-baptism), and you’ll still make mistakes like all us humans do.
But now you are aware that you can lean into your deeper gut or heart feelings where your spirit is for higher answers, and trust those be the ones best if you want to live a life of meaning and purpose designed for you.
Pre-Born Again life, you may have called these gut instincts. They still show up as whispers or hunches, but now you’re aware they’re as real as you are.
So you’re now a little wiser and want to live the higher ways of living. You’ll want to learn from like-minded others and to help you with interpretations from the one resource manual guide (the Bible).
And as a new butterfly now, you went through a transformation. Your human wings are invisible as are your changes.
There’s no going back into your chrysalis.
You can choose to become more humble as you see through another higher lens.
Looking back, I could see that I acted pretty foolishly when I was younger, but I thought I was invincible and smart at the time.
And had I stayed as is, today those would be regrets… but I know I needed to go through those phases to get to the season of maturity needed. That’s usually how it is.
And then by learning lessons, never wanting to go back to those old ways that we’ve grown out of.
Been there, done that, got the kid T-shirt. And now I have an adult baptism shirt (and you can too).
What to Expect With A New Life
Expect to have favor in your daily walk if you maintain a deep relationship with your spirit and God. Also expect for you to be the change as nothing changes around you for certain prayers.
That goes for the details of ordinary daily life from when you walk out the door, run errands, are working, and then are back home.
You also give up some control of your life (yes, more than what you have been experiencing). But you gain more control in other areas explained below, as you keep reading.
And remember, none of us are in control anyway.
For me, that was the hardest part at first.
Letting go was not my strong suit. Because I did life on my terms my way as a strong-independent person.
I learned and was groomed that way since I was a kid.
I’m still fundamentally that person, but I exchanged control for a more fulfilling purposeful and creative life.
I started out my adult life mostly in the structured corporate work life. And had I not been made aligned with my identity (Born Again) and my second act of my life’s work, then I would’ve missed what was in the cards dreamt up for me before I was born.
Dreams I never had when I was younger.
What I did feel when I was younger and in my late-20s and early 30s, was that something was missing inside.
Daily life didn’t seem all that exciting even though I had a good job, health, stable work-life balance, side hustles, great relationships, a lakefront home, nice cars, and everything else that I thought I needed.
And yet I felt unfulfilled.
I thought there had to be more.
That didn’t feel like wisdom at the time. It felt like self-pity.
Then suddenly I lost a job and a career when the industry was wiped out.
About two years after that incident, I got Born Again.
And that’s when life got really quiet around me. I was working but the work was easy.
I found I had time to look at personal and spiritual development areas that I didn’t delve into before.
That’s part of the inner peace that comes with being Born Again, knowing that you’re provided for and having some direction to seek levels of growth.
You know when doors shut it’s not a coincidence and that forces you to keep looking in other directions. And when they do open, you’re magically aligned.
I had work situations like that which were problem-filled but since I was anointed to be there, they immediately got fixed without my fixing.
Those bittersweet open doors were short-lived.
But in those experiences, I starting realizing this life isn’t about what you do. It’s about what you’re becoming in this life.
And on the journey, you can be proud to look in the mirror at who you are that’s not just the aged person staring back.
You’ve transformed fear, anxiety, and worry that don’t have to take over and permeate life. Especially fear.
When I was a child I was afraid of everything from lightning, darkness, to boogie monsters. And then as an adult, the opportunity to exchange fear for love became part of the process.
We can grow away from those unproductive beliefs. When you take action to move toward love that’s part of being Born Again, then you choose to exchange those negative earthly feelings.
It’s also co-created, as you seek toward your growth desires and the spirit helps you from the inside.
You can count on that as the spirit isn’t earthly.
You’re never alone. Not for one moment. When you seek help, you get help, truth, and comforting answers. They may not match or exactly match what you thought you wanted.
But as your perspectives align with the higher ways, you know that they guarantee your highest and best use in this life. So don’t worry if you feel you’re blooming late. You and your spirit will help you grow and make up for lost time.
And you can use the weekend brunch potato waffles as a reminder that these waffles started as mashed potatoes, and became these plate tasty treats. You can find this potato waffle recipe, potato dip, and other brunch waffles.
Shadow work helps dig out the deeper things holding you back that may be hidden from view and you may not be aware of today.
Artwork is one metaphor for our lives. This spiral art piece brings out the light and shadows where you’re seeing only a partial angle. This can be what’s it like when we look in the mirror at ourselves, where we don’t see the light in our inner selves.This is a full view of the same art piece by Ellsworth Kelly that shows many more lines and color dimensions that can shine like us in our discoverable selves.
It’s work and discovery you do on yourself that pays off as you learn more about your inner self so you can better shine in your authentic and best you you’re meant to be.
And you can find your loving self and steer away from your darker sides that cast shadows in your life.
I know this from my own journey. I was a late bloomer for many years and areas of life. And just when things were coming together nicely, then all of the sudden around 35, I went into a now what do I do? season.
I was hit with a spiritual intervention and no roadmap life manual to help me along that season.
Life springs things on you where you have no concrete guide to follow. No one teaches you that a spiritual intervention can happen at any time in your life journey on your life blueprint that you don’t have access to.
A spiritual intervention is not commonly heard of but it does happen in this miracle we call Life.
And yeah, that’s what happened to me.
Before I get into the details, the reality is we’re not in as much control of our planned future as we want to think. We get to choose to believe in faith over what we think is our future based on our past and what we’re currently working on.
And believe that a greater force above has our back and a better plan.
And in my spun out-of-my control season, I ended up relocating back to where I came from when I had no plans or thoughts to do so. It was more shocking to me than to my friends and family who were happy to hear I was moving closer back to the area.
It was a healthy move, even though it was unconventional as spiritual changes and growth often are.
The days leading up to my move, the healthy marriage I was in fell apart because of the intervention reveals that made the step-to-step moves easier. There was sadness leaving, but no drama.
I ended up in a hospital with no physical health diagnosis. There was nothing wrong with me. What appeared as a mental breakdown I knew as a spiritual awakening. Is that how you diagnose inner voices? Apparently.
The immediate trauma reality I felt when I was released was the sting of the hospital bill. Ouch and oh btw, I would have to pack my life up today and start all over with new work, step back, and build a new adult life while the world around me kept going.
I couldn’t even tell you the songs playing on the radio waves then or what the major news headlines were going on.
Those few final days and weeks before were a total blur. I must’ve thrown out many scrapbook album memories in the preparation for my move. Discarding my past was a metaphor representation of how I felt with this new life ahead of me.
It was nothing less than an invisible higher force that took over and moved me one step at a time.
And I knew this as God co-creating and ordering my footsteps, who got in the car with me and drove me back to the area I had left.
It was surreal. My hand was on the wheel but he was unmistakenly the GPS, so I felt safe even though I was confused.
So there I was back to the area where I grew up with a higher plan that I expected would unfold. An old church friend God-wink coincidentally had a room available as her last roommate had just moved out.
Even though I was in the same area I grew up in, it seemed miles away from my growing up familiarities. This time around I was closer to the city and further away from the towns where many of my first memories of childhood and early adulthood were formed.
Some memories were accumulated past trauma from childhood and early adulthood that I needed shadow work for to help me discover forgiveness.
And others were happy memories from friendships and past experiences made.
It was a bittersweet come back. I was then recently laid off from a career job I had been at for years, so I had to lean on trust that I would be provided for during those recession years that wiped out businesses and the corporate tech industry I had just come from.
But this life changing event wasn’t about just a move, a job change, or a season transition. This was a life transformation.
I was entering a new way of life on earth that was foreign to me and the cascade of events leading up were so bizarre. Even though I felt secure under the Universe’s wing, I didn’t know how to start this new shaken up chapter of life.
Now what? kept coming up in my thoughts.
One of my first set of tests was letting go. I didn’t know how to surrender my old thinking ways. And that’s when I got really deep into introspection and shadow work and trying to figure out what happened on my own.
Miraculously, planted in me was the awareness of harmful ego ways. With a little freed up headspace from not being so busy, I became aware that I had healing work to do on myself. I had never paused before from work to successfully get to know the real me.
I went to church healing rooms to see if I could gain a little insight and closure. And got some comfort and was able to purge some past trauma. This was as close to therapy as I would get.
Life Before The Spiritual Intervention
I was always choosing to be busy and that was ingrained in me in the DC metro area culture I grew up in and was now back in. But this time around, my surroundings were quiet as my friends were grown up too. They were busy with their family and lives. I had to figure mine out.
My life looked nothing like most those I went to college with where they moved up the corporate ladder, settled down, and had a family. They lived close by but our world’s were far apart.
I felt alone in navigating what next, but I also felt optimistic that my life would take off because of the spiritual intervention experience I had lived out in the hospital that showed me some prophecies about work and relationships in my distance-off future.
I knew there was a plan but I just didn’t know when, how, and what the real life specifics were. And when some life pieces came to life, I recognized them later on as shown to me in prophecies.
Those were miracles, and it all sounds bizarre on paper, but that’s how it also felt. Beautiful and bizarre.
And at the end of the day, none of us know the uncertain future so nothing looked that unusual about me or my life from an outside onlooker.
One area I knew I could focus on building was my deeper spiritual self and building traits I would need and may have missed developing along the way.
Ego work was just the tip of the iceberg. As mentioned, I was in and grew up around America’s capital. This is an area filled with smart, affluent people where pride and ego are waved as invisible badges of honor, but now I was ready to get rid of those non-serving ways.
People outside or living there in short transition or temporary assignments don’t realize how strong the political daily air is there outside the news. And so much so that nobody talks about it there as common practice to not create further divides.
It’s a unique invisible bubble that rarely gets talked about as ego is not usually a subject matter of discussion.
So, now you know the situation better.
And a year before this new season’s reveal, I was made aware I was holding onto past trauma from childhood and an adult situation that created PTSD I had blindly been holding onto. That’s what a spiritual intervention and shadow work can help reveal.
I grew up under the house of an immigrant parent who had a dominant ego disorder that grew worse over time. And after I moved off to be on my own, I fell victim to a dangerous work situation in a brick and mortar business.
This all came to light in this revealing spiritual intervention season.
I realized my past situations grew my victim mentality. And that fed my ego that loves to hang onto woes me for my situations.
It’s the same ego that thrives on protecting our pride and does so much damage in all of us, showing up in all kinds of daily, harmful non-serving ways.
If you’ve worked around people long enough, you will have seen this and not necessarily know that it was their ego that created their undesirable behaviors.
Our ego is our shadow until we become aware. Bringing out your shadow into the light is the shadow work that can align you to your whole self where your life begins to unfold more purpose and meaning.
I became ego conscious-aware that my ego played me in my subconscious insecurities as it does for most unaware.
Before then, I could be emotionally triggered and all of the sudden be stricken with an ugly cry with my then-husband.
It was like a recurring sound bite scene from Love is Blind where the American dating participant, Chelsea, is crying “clingy?”
Clingy wasn’t my manifestation, but my ego reared its ugly head wanting me to be right and win in partner conflicts.
And instead I lost the debate and all conscious streams of thinking that came from allowing the ego game to be played in me.
I didn’t know how to shake off or walk away from my turmoil feelings that started out as harmless thoughts.
That was work I needed to do. A real life mirror partner had reflected back to me what I needed to work on.
I ignored those prompts until I became aware of the ego years later.
Today’s Lessons
Your old brain is still a part of you that you carry along wherever you go. When you’ve moved on, your past memories and old lessons learned never die.
They travel with you and show up on your vacations.
If you’ve ever seen couples or friends fighting on vacation and you wonder, what’s there to fight about on this dreamy once-in-a-lifetime beautiful serene blue ocean or castle fantasy backdrop?… it’s the ego rearing its ugly head into the situation.
At any time, your ego can take old information and create fear and exacerbate worry in your situations today and in the future that are related to your past. Bring love to the situation is the cure.
If you bring out love from your past situations to your present, it shows up in your calm emotions today and also in your healthy body.
Ego situations and how they play out look different for everyone. If we could pinpoint one situation for everyone we would have figured this out collectively. But ego is a trickster.
Some even refer to their ego as an imposter that shows up.
The outward sign is that it’s not reality happening even though it feels like it is to you or the person. You’re not being chased by a tiger, but it can feel that way with modern digital message triggers.
Unknowingly, you undetect where the havoc source is coming from as it’s subconscious.
You can’t see through those thick clouds and insecurities. And that can lead to knee-jerk reactions.
Another sign for everyone is an unhealthy ego acting up is rooted in negative thoughts about yourself or others like self-pity, self-loathing, or blaming others.
It’s Edging God Out. The opposite is love and being conscious.
An unhealthy ego moment is a twisted form of overprotection for your best interest where you lose, lose control, and those around you lose if they get intertwined.
Bottom line: it doesn’t come from love.
Everyone is best to walk away in peace rather than play the counterproductive ego games.
Becoming aware of ego’s ability to harm you and relationships today and healing your past with new rewritten loving narrative thought memories are two of the healthiest shadow work moves you can make.
On a larger scale, you can rid of victim mentality so you can live fully whole and healthy in the now. You can be happy for others and their progress as you are for your own.
The ego will try to make these darker sides invisible to you so you continue as is, but if your desire is to grow and be happy, you can outwit your ego and not play the games.
We all are damaged goods in some way because of this built-in ego feature that we have a choice to change. It’s no one’s fault.
And that’s why when you’ve been aware long enough you can forgive others for their unconsciousness and behaviors… and hope they will try to get informed, grow, become conscious, and be accountable for their behaviors.
The Healthy Shadow Work You Can Do Today
So many of us would benefit from shadow work.
For one, you could discover and change negative moods coming from inside you. You could learn more about what triggers you.
You can replace these non-serving moments with higher and loving words such as those found in the New Testament Scripture.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
A daily reminder verse to call out your ego thoughts front and center daily helps.
You can build lasting character traits such as those in Galatians 5: patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, peace, joy, and love. These are the higher living ways.
They can take deep inner work and the first step can be shadow work discovery.
Becoming self-aware is timeless and absolutely necessary for growth.
And knowing the ego never shuts off and can show up in many ways in our mind roles such as:
critic
judge
competitor
fighter
dictator
imposter
One role ego doesn’t play is peacemaker. When ego is behaving and healthy, it helps you to strive for healthy goals.
We need some healthy pride to push us along. Or if you’re in real danger, ego can help motivate you to protect you.
But the undealt with unhealthy daily ego critic sitting on one shoulder shouts loud thoughts that appear logical to you (or the person), while the whispering angel spirit in you is gentle and loving preferring humility over pride.
The more you practice the softer humility sides, the more you can see the harmful pride.
Ego is subtle to you…
If you have a balanced way or a sense of making good decisions usually, logic can appear as harmless as “everyone is doing that.”
In those thought moments, you have a choice to not be everyone and do what you know is best or loving when you know better. We all have a choice.
If your ego is fighting you, you can be prepared with spiritual weapons like the armor of God spelled out in Ephesians, and in renewing your mind.
The more preparation and practice you have, your discernment increases the next time and you grow.
Still wondering how the ego shows up?…
So, I used to let the ego run the show. The daily mind show that is where I accepted all thoughts to enter as mine.
Some days a whole day would go by with the same repeated past memories. That’s classic ego.
I didn’t know I could exercise changing my thoughts. That was revelation when I learned and how to replace the thoughts.
Even if you had a great childhood or life so far, your ego will at some point take something from your past and spin it to a negative thought even if others would see it as a healthy and happy moment. It’s in your control to change the narrative fed to you.
Being the observer of thoughts and not letting the thoughts play out after the thought movie reel has been played once is a good strategy, so you don’t lose a whole day of productivity and peace.
And then stay aware the next time. You can make a decision that there’s no room for the two of us as it’s cramping growth, and simply kick out your unhealthy ego. Don’t play the games.
Sometimes it take mental wresting strength to let the thoughts pass through without energizing them to replay. Be determined to do what you know will eventually work for you.
And as part of my light bulb moment discovery, I found that ego was not just once in a while playing havoc in our lives, it’s the source of most problems in our day.
Because the ego is a feature in all of us in this world. Behaviors are trickled down among other people involved and their operating egos.
Imagine if the leader of a group or business had ego issues that showed up. You could only imagine (or have experienced before) the tricked down dysfunctional effect in the management hierarchy.
This observation becomes more obvious when you know (or have been made aware like I may be stirring in you today).
You witness in your daily interactions with people… one minute they are agreeable and friendly and then one day the season ends and they turn out to be something else. They’re unaware they’re being played by their ego.
This happens in relationships all the time and is at the crux of partner power struggles.
Without the harmful ego aspects, our world would be a better place because we would be better acting humans, heal ourselves, and those around us.
But until my hospital incident, I didn’t know how destructive the subconscious and invisible ego is on our planet, in our lives, and in me.
Shadow work examples such as going to therapy or light journaling tools can help open the doors to discover more of your deeper and hidden self.
The answers are inside you so deeper spiritual self-help may help you like healing rooms did for me.
And in my spiritual intervention rebirth.
Leading up to that point, these shadow work resources helped and can help to open the awareness…
What Did Help and Can Help You in Shadow Work Discovery
Turning to some self-help books opened my eyes. One in particular, Eckart Tolle’s The Power of Now is one of those books that comes alive in your when you’re ready for the message because your spirit lights it up.
It’s a deep book that you’re either ready for or not. You’ll know if you are because your eyes won’t glaze over the sentences. And when it’s an easy flow read, the chains have been released and the pain-body is exposed. The book is an experience. It can be so powerful that you may only need to read it once to gain the knowledge, and it’s forever in you.
That opened the spirit inside me like a lotus flower to make more room for awareness when my spiritual intervention season entered years later. 🪷
The Bible was another spiritual book I had as a tool. I had let the contents and words of Scripture occupy space and spill over inside me. 📖
You can re-read Scripture over and over again and find new tidbits of wisdom and helpful Biblical truth. You don’t get the same experience each time.
New words can jump off the page with meaning to you when you’re ready. Like my eyes skipped over the mysterious “spirit” word on the pages until I was ready.
The Bible is an instructional self-help life manual and is the only book that’s still being translated in so many languages.
Letting the higher words permeate to brain wash out all the muck that occupies the day for things that won’t matter in the years to come, is life giving.
Those are good starters.
And then be open and let your life’s journey unfold.
There’s so much more to this world and it’s inside you. As Deepak Chopra says, “the world is in you.”
“I am not in the world. The world is in me.” – Deepak Chopra
Doing deeper shadow work is underrated and will produce so much more in you and out of you as you impact the world with your greatness you were born with. 🎉
And can be born again with. Something to consider and maybe enjoy over an angel cake recipe 😇
In 2024, dreaming can be our New Year’s resolutions. For you and me, habits may have replaced resolutions and are healthy good, but they too only get us so far in our daily routines.
This article is all about re-awakening your dreams so they can come alive sooner.
Let’s start with the tradition many of us grew up with…
New Year’s Resolutions
It was the conversation starter for the last week of the year. And for traditionalists, still is. I started that way but then stopped cold turkey one year after I caught on like many others… that resolutions are nothing more than a Fun Wish List.
I became aware that it’s self-defeating to come up with a list of arbitrary projects and meeting lofty self-improvement challenges before the end of January when life went back to usual… and to come up with dreaming visions that aren’t ours and don’t work on annual timelines.
That all sets us up for disappointment.
Mid-February is when most of us have stopped our well-intended new year crusades if not sooner.
Often, our ideas are not aligned with what’s actually in our lives, and we don’t know what’s ahead in life’s uncertainty and opportunities.
And that doesn’t just ring true for resolutions, it’s also for our daily planning and future aspirations we have.
I found one of my life’s work one year by accident during a transition. And that’s how it is in most of our lives.
Creating an arbitrary list doesn’t enlist our higher thinking into our plans. Or what the future holds for the world.
What we really want to know is: what’s best for us in this season?
We’re not the ones best to answer that. The Universe knows before we do and can align us if we pay attention to the signs.
We only have a limited view of what we know today and our past experiences. Our job is to connect-the-dots in our lives.
New Year’s Habits
A better way to set us up for success (where we’re better off by year end) is creating better lasting habits as a productive way. It’s less about meeting goals and more about the process and progress we make.
“Progress over perfection” became the mantra circa 2020, that I think is here to stay.
And habits are at the core of making progress even though habit making is not a new concept.
We’ve been making habits since we were kids, getting up, brushing our teeth, and going to school.
And if we were lucky, we had caretakers who helped us make and form good habits. Or we had a chance to start fresh as adults.
This is when we learned habits can turn into manifesting what we want into our lives as labors of love down the road. They’re the keepsake dreams we hold deep down inside us and that are meant for us.
Manifesting Our Dreams
Because manifesting is not something that happens overnight or when you snap your fingers with a calendar date in mind. It doesn’t work like that as much as we want it to. Darn!
…It’s years in the making. But then it turns out better than expected. Because in the slow cook dreaming process, you’ve become the person ready for the dream.
…And in perfect timing like a warm stew with balanced flavors.
When you look at it like that, then you’re less discouraged today. You keep on dreaming! You have a newfound purpose.
Dreams can take seasons and sometimes decades to manifest. And while waiting, we wisely stay productive developing skills, traits, and experiences we will need.
That’s always in our control until the timing is right for the dream again to reappear.
…When I was a kid, we threw birthday parties and I always got great gifts. One happy memory I barely remember was a tea set that I enjoyed with my stuffed animal friends. I dreamed of my sophisticated adult life when I was a toddler. 🧸
And that was part of manifesting today’s life where I still enjoy a fine cup of tea (while interestingly no one else in my immediate family ever got the tea bug!).
But, we do share the travel bug and shared a family vacation to Europe. After that, I no longer saw my neighborhood, town, and school as the only places I could live or be.
And that set the wheels in motion to manifesting travel dreams in my adult life. I saw the possibilities of adventure and excitement of visiting new places from my younger vantage point.
But I had to connect-the-dots from my younger past experiences, because I wasn’t taught to dream.
So here’s some of the things you can do in your new year that will ring out the old resolutions and bring in the new dreams (back again) that haven’t manifested.
1.Create space for dream ideas to come in. Space needs headspace. So if you start today, you can have better answers tomorrow when you sleep on your dreams and gain new ideas throughout the day.
If you never start with new ideas, then you can stay stuck. But if they’re in you, they can come alive. Like the travel bug I developed.
That’s why it’s good to feed the good bugs (gut ones too, but that’s for another healthy article 😉). Give the good ideas energy and let the bad ones pass through.
2.Dream like a kid. When we were kids, we had aspirational dreams from touch points in our lives even if we weren’t taught to dream.
I couldn’t wait to grow up because most my young life wasn’t on my terms. But knowing there was more out there, helped me to get through those years. Because then maybe in possibilities, I would have the resources and way to make potential happen even if I didn’t know what my dreams were.
And if we were taught to dream, we know how to take those ideas further to the moon 🌙 and give them daily life even if they haven’t panned out.
All we need is the belief that there’s a grander life out there for us than the one we’re currently in. Then there’s a good chance to turn our dreams into motion picture reality. 🎥
3. Night dream with intent. I used to think sleeping dreams were useless. But they can be a part of our thought life that can be used to our benefit.
If you look at night dreams as unique to you (just like thoughts), then you can pull out the good ones and come up with new ideas. And some of them are meant to be yours as most have you featured in them as the star. 🌟
Take the good ones and manifest a good morning. Let them inspire you to keep dreaming and believe for your real life dreams.
4.Dream with inspiration. When you see new places and ideas, your thought horizon expands. You get glimpses of how others live and what others have come up with as their dreams.
America’s Got Talent is one show that showcases dreams do come true and can become reality.
And sometimes inspiration from others is our dream play land and fairytale life that we can aspire to and sets our dreaming in motion.
5. Dreaming with your eyes closed. Bring out a scent that reminds you of a happy childhood memory to help bring alive your imagination.
Maybe hot cocoa, a candle, or something nostalgic from your hood. 👧🏻
Think of the details of that memory. Bring out what childhood or younger self dream can be fulfilled from the memory and still ring true in your life today.
Keep dreaming in the New Year! ✨I’m writing a book on the big dreams that were specifically meant for you and can be manifested for you as you develop YOU. If you want to know when the FREE book is available, signup to be on my list.
God winks appear all the time and in front of us if we’re paying attention.
God often speaks in nature like in bright sunflower blooms 🌻 and occasional rainbow skies 🌈 And in science like the rare total eclipse 🌘 and even in a pair of daily ducks.
We also sometimes forget that God winks in our food where nature provides plant-based foods.
Like these authentic whole wheat zucchini fettuccine getting drying-ready for cooking (recipe below 🧡).
I believe everyone needs encouragement in this life. It’s part of the healthy and happy journey. And one special form of encouragement that you may already turn to is the God winks that are specific to your life…
The daily favors, blessings, miracles… whatever you want to call it… like driving by a surprising display of flowers instead of the usual path to radiate the day 🌷
When something special, small or not happens in your day, you’re reminded that you’re watched over.
You know that you were given luck in some way by the Universe if you allow your beliefs to take you there and you push your ego aside that can thwart your efforts in your mind.
God is love and the ego is fear. And how you noodle yourself out of those times where it’s hard to see the love, will get you to more God winks sooner because you’ll see them. 👀
You see favor in life, whether you bypass a long line that was just there seconds before you got there. …Or, you’re lucky with your online submission that comes back favorable.
Your timing is perfect and the opportunity is for you. And that was no coincidence. That is meant to be encouraging to your day if you don’t miss it.
These can be a part of your every day, if you pay attention to the discernment message that the Universe sends. As you live longer and practice deciphering more you will get better at this!
In Christian living, it’s the Holy Spirit helping us out or the spirit in you.
There’s no mystery or woo-woo, it’s just the way it is on our planet and was established, all documented during Biblical times.
And we can this live out daily in our version of modern Biblical living if we choose.
An interesting thought: the book that made it in every hotel room (I worked in hotels) is full of good daily instruction.
Most of us don’t give it daily thought.
I know I didn’t for the first quarter of my life until the words came to life when I learned the content that helped align my life.
And in your life, the more wondering and connect the dots to the wonders and little miracles, the more you’ll see them and get God wink favors. Not everyone sees a rainbow in front of them. 🌈
And whether you do or don’t think you receive favor, your life will have ups and downs.
But if you know in the end that all will be well, that provides a sense of peace. And we all can use more of that if we want to live a life of meaning. Or when we feel discouraged.
So when things aren’t exactly working out the way you thought they would or you feel stuck, look up for the God winks. They will keep you going.
Align your prayerful thoughts and whether you speak them aloud or just think the thoughts especially while in public or around people.
When we stay on the channel of our daily, small thoughts that are mostly negative because it’s on the worldly level of this limited life, then we lose time with negative moods or emotions.
We keep ourselves from growing and getting to the next level. If we think and reach higher, we’re better off.
And we gain more then in the time it takes for us to try and do it by ourselves. If we plan about the future, that may not happen the way we thought if we don’t check in first with our heart and soul.
This is a simple exercise you can try.
Find something in your situations that has given you some tension or hasn’t worked out. You have several productive options. You can try again or look for a new solution.
An example is a tool that has broken. You can try to fix it. If you look at it from another angle, sometimes you figure it out.
But if you get upset or frustrated, then nothing gets accomplished. If you spend the same time praying, the solution comes to you.
It’s the same way you can pray off your worry, as Norman Vincent Peale taught in The Power of Positive Thinking.
It works because of your productive mindset and calm mood, but is also because of the higher-reaching power working in your life.
Another example, and one that was recent for me is new baking challenges. As someone who likes to experiment, not all bakes turn out. And when I wondered what happened, I use the bake as a lesson. It reminds me of what can go wrong. So instead of being disappointed, I see it as a way to grow.
Because in order to grow, there is always a struggle or sacrifice of sorts to varying degrees. You have to give up perfection or success in order to get better. You let go (or let God and reject ego).
Or you spend more time invested in learning than you thought. And this is how you get good and skilled at anything… by the failures and challenges. You don’t learn as much from the ones that turn out and where you get a few minutes of joy from right away. Never judge a book by its cover. Give things a second chance.
But joy does keep us encouraged and engaged in the balance of everything in life.
And these joyful pasta-ccines are very balanced with whole wheat and zucchini. 😋
This is a great homemade pasta making recipe to get your veggies in (or for picky eaters) or if you have a leftover zucchini you don't want to go bad. Homemade pasta is easy to make once you get the hang of it and you can enjoy same day! And as grocery prices rise on pasta, this is an economical way to get fresh pasta with ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen!
Course dinner, lunch
Cuisine American, Italian
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Equipment
blender or mortar and pestle (optional)
cup measuring cup (optional)
pasta machine or dough roller
Ingredients
1cupwhole wheat flour (can use gluten-free flours) per serving
1egg per serving
generous pinch of salt
1zucchini, cooked and mashed
Instructions
Make a flour mound. Make a deep well with a spoon or the measuring cup you used. Add egg and salt.
Knead. Add blended zucchini to the pasta dough.
Make a dough disc. Let rest for at least 20 minutes.
Divide the disc into two halves. Roll out pasta as thin as you can without getting holes. If using a pasta machine, start on a medium/wide setting such as "5" and then run through thinner setting such as "3." That may be the thinnest setting.If rolling by hand and dough roller, roll evenly to about 1/16".
Let strands dry out enough so you can still make a curled nest or can break (like packaged processed pasta). These took about 2 hours.
Cook like you would packaged pasta for about 20 minutes on medium heat for "al dente" pasta. Whole wheat pasta will take longer than other plain flour homemade pasta. You can store uncooked pasta in fridge for 2-3 days. Buon appetito!
Work-life balance idea is a good one! Let me explain…
Being a living balanced advocate and practicing balance as a way of life, I often hear others who believe that the work-life balance idea is unrealistic for dream life goals to pan out.
Work-life balance doesn’t have to be like a non-working time warp clock (in photo). It can be a priority for your best life yet 🧩
…That is, if we want the life we want, we have to go all in. And giving up on work-life balance is one way to better achieve this.
But, I don’t think “either/or” is the best option.
And from my perspective, the more you lean into deeper desires from your intuition source, the work-life balance idea becomes more important (not less)… and then you don’t want to live without it so you can explore and discover more about yourself and manifest more in your life.
It can become a spiritual pursuit, and not necessarily the desire you start with.
You can aim for self-discovery, balance, and success goals, and be healthier and happier.
If we delay gratification in those two places (healthy and happy), then we’re most likely seeking instant gratification in other ways like outward material things and experiences that have a short-lived impact.
So I break down below how balance can be part of the life you want if that’s what you choose, to not miss out unintentionally…
Balancing Life Priorities
As an adult and individual, you’re busy and usually juggling your time working, managing your relationships, and putting yourself out there. Plus, spending time and prioritizing what you value most today.
Balancing time can be a challenge as we all only have 24 hours in a day.
But prioritizing living out balanced healthy intentions today (and not some future someday) is still a good goal even though it’s not measurable… and I wholeheartedly believe leads you to the best life.
In the process, you dig deeper into your heart’s desires and purposes in this life.
You get further investing in yourself more than in the things of this ever-changing world.
And by prioritizing and investing in yourself, you have more to give to the people around you… and get more out of this life.
It’s where “it’s better to give than to receive” has a deeper meaning.
On the other side…
Without work-life balance, the regular daily grind of draining tasks, stress, and overwhelm is taxing and a burden on health.
Our bodies keep score and one day can snap. And just like that, the juggling balls can all drop.
So then it’s best to prevent an ongoing or recurring stressful life situation that an unbalanced life can bring.
By replacing a giving-up-to-get perspective with mindfully focusing on today’s priorities that build your tomorrow, you can let go of control over things that aren’t the best for you.
Gradually I made this mental shift away from the first perspective that I now think hinders abundance.
…But in my earlier bright-eyed-bushy-tailed days, I had no work-life balance. I worked in hotel catering sales where events I planned happened every day, including weekends.
Hotels are a 24-7 operation like hospitals, but without the saving life aspects.
In my high-energy 20’s, I was drained by the end of the 60-plus hours including commute time.
Plus, my role included sales weekend hours and rotating hotel manager-on-duty responsibilities (to relieve the general manager) where I would stay in the hotel over a weekend.
Dine for free in the restaurant and stay in a luxury hotel. …sounds fun, huh?
…But it’s not when you’re stuck under one roof with 400 occupied rooms in a full-house hotel where anything can go wrong.
And then exhausted, I would go home for a few hours and put on a new customer service smile and clothes for work Monday.
My manager co-workers were the only others that fully understood this life, as it’s not usually uncovered in the news.
And as an insider… the first hotel I worked at was an airport property and many hotel guests were unhappy because they were distressed passengers that couldn’t get on their flights.
You can imagine how a whole new level of customer service has to show up engaging with a bunch of grumpy guests whose flights were canceled.
I’m happy I never had a guest throw a drink in my face or anywhere on me. I think my naturally friendly and happy aura rubbed off on them. 😊
…And then I moved out of that hotel life for a more balanced corporate 9-5 gig where I could actually get vacation time off… and enjoy a hotel room without any responsibilities.
Ah, but stability in any corporate job is dependent on the world and the economy. Through recessions, I moved on sometimes landing back at rung zero with more experience… but no lasting balance learning the ropes in new and different organizations.
Starting over seemed to be a theme for a while. But striving for work-life balance was not something I EVER gave up on after my first taste. And I learned to value work-life balance even more having seen both sides.
My lesson takeaway over the years, is that balance is not always consistent but you can high-value prioritize it if that’s a desire you choose. And it’s a healthy sustainable design in this changing, sometimes chaotic life for us breathing humans.
Experiencing constant change amplified to me that nothing here lasts.
The systems and routines that I desperately wanted to stick, didn’t… like when I left a job or moved.
All those accumulating pivots (…would be great if they were like travel reward points 😊) had left the impression on me that only this moment matters most.
“Today is all we have.”
The timeless cliche is wisdom when you’re navigating uncertain waters that most of life is in some way, shape, or form.
You get to keep going and growing and let go for a better outcome.
Staying open to possibilities is more achievable with a healthy work-life balance lens. It can help to steer you in times of setbacks or disappointments when you start over and aren’t sure of the next steps.
And balance keeps you from holding onto a part of life or a desire that was never meant to last.
You can decide it all ends up working out and those beliefs work out as reality.
With work-life balance, you can spend more (or as much) of your free time being reflective instead of busy. Reflection time is more strategic.
…I’m sure this has happened to you as it does for me often… where I reached out to someone I know and they say, “funny, I was just thinking about you this morning.”
That ain’t no coincidence.
In texting, I usually would smiley face back with my words, BUT through mindful reflection I know that was the Universe orchestrating connection. I could’ve just as easily dismissed the moment.
With every little situation, we get to decide what we see and act on (free will). And in the balanced order that this planet we live on is, the steps we take are the ones that were specifically meant for us. Like a mysterious puzzle piece that just fits. 🧩
We can grow and become aware of our greater and empowered existence which makes us want and strive for more out of this life.
Especially, when we choose to see the amazement of our world in the small and joyful moments. Without work-life balance, we can miss it like a vanishing rainbow. 🌈
And without balance, I know I would have taken longer routes. And worse, I could’ve stayed in the Murphy’s Law realistic or pessimistic way of thinking that used to be popular in my adult formative years… when I was meant to be (and better off) optimistic and hopeful as I am today.
With a work-life balance, I was more proactive in my life and am able to see out from two helpful lenses instead of just one. These two are:
The achievement lensthat’s on the level of our choices and decisions we make, our rational brain, and what we want. Most of us look out from this healthy lens.
Aiming and working at high standards makes for better personal progress and innovation than just waiting to see what happens.
And then there’s the spiritual lens. The one that’s trusting the Universe when we let go, that our mind-body can help us better see when we’re calm, and not stressed or busy.
There can be an internal tug-o-war between the spiritual lens when at odds with the achievement lens.
Because the achieving mind can become unhealthy with our born ego in us, where we can lose sight of what’s good, and then reject mind-body health and happiness.
Keeping the mind-body-spirit alignment is part of the smart checks and balances. And being attuned to your intuitive and balanced mind-body can lead you to your best life… and not just listening to and relying on the mind for answers.
These are just some good things I encourage you to think about this week. 💭
