Inspire Me Today | July 15 2012

When you know yourself you are empowered. When you accept yourself you are invincible. ~ Tina Lifford

I am unapologetically optimistic about everything, because life is too short to do otherwise.

This thing called life is the best invention ever! Sure, it has had me on my knees a few hundred times but every time, I get up a better more capable me.

There have been many times when I wanted things to be different than how they were… not anymore! Now I take life as it comes. I have finally caught the hang of it: I expect life to show up being life – full of stuff! And I don’t take any of the stuff personally.

It took me a long time to realize circumstances rarely hurt. What hurts is the story I make up about the circumstances. Something happens. But instead of saying this or that happened and acknowledging how I feel about it, I use to go one step further and create an “against me” interpretation of the facts.

For example, that my parents got divorced is a fact. That that meant they did not value me is an “against me” interpretation of that fact.

I was shocked when I took a deeper look into to my past and realized that at the core of my most painful experiences the facts were never against me. The facts were just the facts. However, in every case, my interpretations of the facts were always against me.

They painted me either as a victim, less than in some way, or simply not good enough. Once I became conscious of my tendency to unconsciously draw hurtful conclusions against myself, I stopped treating myself in this way. I turned the old tendency into a treasure hunt.

Today, when I find myself in challenging circumstances, I create empowering supportive interpretations. This is completely doable without distorting the facts or behaving irresponsibly. Instead of thinking or feeling “Why me?”, I ask an effective empowering question:

How can this challenge be a doorway to my greatness?

An effective empowering question always allows for fulfilling possibilities. I assume that life is for me and not against me. Therefore, I practice leading with trust. I practice believing that everything that takes place in my life comes by way of divine order. This means the challenges, no matter how difficult, come bearing gifts. This is my special brand of self-love.

I believe we all are born innately fabulous. Then, we get mired in misinterpretation and our fabulousness becomes buried by our survivalist management of life. Waking Up Fabulous means learning to see and value your innate fabulousness no matter what facts and circumstances show up. So start Waking Up Fabulous!

Fabulous me to Fabulous YOU,
Tina