Time To Follow Your Dreams

by Marilyn Decalo | Dec 31, 2018

Dreaming is one of humanity’s greatest gifts; it champions aspiration, spurs innovation, leads to change, and propels the world forward. – Sir Richard Branson

Have you promised yourself that 2019 is the year you start pursuing your dreams? The new year can be a great motivator to get on the path toward your desire. So if it’s time to make a decision to go for it then here are some suggestions on how you can make your dreams happen.

1. This Is Your Life

Only you know what will make you happy. Aren’t you worth giving it your best effort? By doing what you love you live your best life because you do more than just exist. Following your dream is empowering and is an opportunity to use your potential to create something new; to make a life you love. You will also serve as an inspiration to others who hope to do the same. You’ll touch the lives of many who surround you and encourage them to get on their own paths to living joyfully.

2. There Is No Time Like The Present To Be Happy

Wouldn’t it be great to wake up each day excited to do what makes you happy? Enjoying your days, weeks, months and years starts in this present moment. Your dreams are the outward expression of your creative energy; uniquely yours and you birthed them because they excite you. If we bury our dreams or put them on hold we deny our gifts, messages and creative contribution to the world. Not everyone follows their dreams but if you desire to live the life you’ve always wanted there’s no time like today to get going.

3. Get Clear That Your Dreams Are Possible

You can start to get a feel for doing something you’ve always wanted to do by exploring opportunities in the field. Do a little research, investigate the latest ideas, see what else is out there that could either be a stepping stone or get your adrenaline pumping. Move the energy around by writing down your new story – what will life be like as you become the person living your dream? Believing is seeing, so be sure to spend some time enjoying and envisioning your dream as it comes to life. Appreciating the steps on the journey allows you to enjoy the whole process and believe in it more strongly each day. You are beginning to live your dream which increases your motivation to accomplish it.

4. Remember Your Why

Your reason “why” you want a particular goal is the driving force that keeps you committed to accomplishing it. Write out your reasons and revisit them to renew your decision regularly. Remember your “why” if you start to waver or run into an obstacle, and start again. Persistence comes from an inner connection to your vision. You may need to find that inner strength and recommit when you encounter setbacks. However, your vision cannot be discouraged when you are in tune with your inspiration. Journal or meditate and visualize the feeling of accomplishing your dream regularly.

5. Dream big!

Take some time to allow yourself to ask, “What if it was bigger?” Don’t let negative thoughts discourage you. What others may say has no relevance to a dreamer. This is your dream and it is your heart and mind that has created it. While your dream won’t just happen, you can be sure that by focusing on your dream on a regular basis, feeling good about all of the details as they come into view, and planning out an inspired strategy – one that feels right from the inside out – eventually you will achieve your dream. Fueled by purpose you won’t worry about the unknowns. You have embraced who you are and you will feel inclined to see and do things you are you inspired to do.

6. Seek Out A Professional Mentor or Coach

One reason many dreams never go anywhere is because the dreamer keeps their dream quiet inside of them. If you want to accomplish your dream, stop making excuses for who and where you are. Going back is more painful than the unknown before you and your only real limitation is your consciousness. Once your decision is made you’re no longer strained in your abilities. You’ll no longer fear success or losing it all. If it’s time you really start showing up to live your dreams consider starting 2019 with a professional coach. I can help you keep accountable, focus your time and energy, and be enormously successful with only three to five hours of work each day. Email me today to get started right away! Marilyn@marilyndecalo.com

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The Self-Transformation Path – Part 2

by Marilyn Decalo | Jun 15, 2018

Own Your Truth

In our desire to fit into a family, relationship, career or community we put tremendous pressure on ourselves to act, think and believe things that please others or make us feel accepted. This happens often in our society because it is human nature to yield to social pressure and to want to be liked. More intense instances of traumatic events or circumstances that cause us to fear not being liked for who we are can also lead to lack of self-acceptance or self-worth, and cause us to unconsciously bury self-appreciation and respect while conforming to the will of others. In either case, it may take some focused self-discovery to get to know and start living your truth.

Owning your truth isn’t about fixing a problem with who you are or how you living your life. Rather, it’s about removing the mask that hides (protects) what we might think are our most vulnerable feelings and rediscovering who we are as our most powerful self. Owning your truth is getting in touch with the desires you’ve camouflaged in an effort to avoid judgment or criticism. It is getting to know the real you that you aspire to be and perhaps don’t have the confidence to show to the world. Instead of believing in yourself as a result of external validation, living your truth means having a strong connection to inner core values and purpose that enables you to know true north for you no matter who or what challenges them.

Set Yourself Free

The way that denying your truth commonly plays out to your detriment is when you have been going along with a long-held belief (defined by family, religion, politics, colleagues, social peer group) and you become anxious or stressed about not meeting the expectations deemed desirable. Perhaps you have been preparing to achieve the result others intend, that you have bought into, only to find yourself in a conflicted moment where achieving it means nothing to you. Existential crisis? You might ask yourself what really has meaning for you. You might be forced to confront what you truly care about as you realize the messages you have been receiving about this expected outcome have encouraged you to minimize your well-being for the sake of another’s happiness or success.

These are the big, important questions to answer in order to be authentic, to be free to communicate openly and honestly, and to follow your bliss. When you do you will trust yourself, believe in yourself and have the confidence to step on your path to greater fulfillment. You won’t be influenced or cut off by the opinions of others nor will you disregard your own well-being. Does this sound selfish to you? In a way, perhaps, but if you are responsible for your satisfaction and joy in life, then it is up to you to allow your own creative expression and happiness into the driver’s seat. Imagine the feelings of freedom and security in honoring those things that nourish your heart and soul? It’s not up to someone else to determine your self-worth. You are worthy because you are a unique human being with gifts, talents and abilities that contribute to the expansion of life on earth. Embrace your authenticity and you can have truthful communication in relationships, and create experiences that support what is right for you.

Discover Your Truth

Uncovering your own truth is a process that requires focus but not a lot of time. I use an approach that explores an inner holistic connection with what personally feels good, and I regularly review and revise my responses to give me clear thinking about a new direction I might be considering. Try this quick self-discovery technique as a starting place:

Get a paper and pen, or journal and write down a type of flower that appeals to you. You can draw an image of the flower or just think about it. As you do, consider what appeals to you about this flower, what qualities does it possess? What feelings does it engender for you? Write them down.
Next, imagine this flower represented you – think of it as an avatar or a brand for your personal style. What are the values this flower represents? Write them down.
If this flower could offer even more happiness to you in your life what would it be or do? Where would it find its greatest happiness?
Finally, what do you honor about this flower? Appreciate its limitations as well as its strengths. Again, write down your response.
Take a few minutes to go through what you have written about this flower and circle those words, images, ideas or actions that stand out. Whatever you highlight has appeal for you because it resonates with your own truth.
You now have a look at those qualities and characteristics that are uniquely important to you. Take one or two of the ideas you’ve uncovered and write more positive aspects about it and how they might integrate with your life style as you apply them to what you want to create. Enjoy this process because you are connecting with your true self!

Other self-discovery techniques include taking a personal inventory, doing a SWAT analysis, or taking a personality test. No matter how you discover your own truth, make sure it comes from within you, your heart and soul, so you can start living more authentically joy-fulfilled now.

The Self-Transformation Path

by Marilyn Decalo | Apr 13, 2018

Part 1: Connecting With Your Inner Self

Recently while writing my book, Seeing With The Heart, I learned how deeply transformational taking a new perspective – a more relaxed, inner heart-filled perspective – can be. Many of us have successfully reinvented ourselves at some point in our lives in an effort to get ahead in our careers, fulfill a dream like having a family, or perhaps become more fit to improve our health. Unlike trying to make changes in what you do in order to achieve a specific goal, I am going to talk about a different approach, a paradigm shift approach to creating a life you love that involves shifting your perspective, opening your inner connection to your divine self, and consciously expressing inner energy in your thoughts, words and actions.

A Steady Source of Guidance Within

First, the perspective shift is awareness and understanding that any outer manifestation is determined by your consciousness in any given moment, and that you can develop your inner guidance to become your own authority and expand your consciousness. Are you feeling emotionally balanced and enjoying your circumstances? Is your mood positive and uplifted? While ups and downs are normal in our daily lives, a general overall and pervasive feeling of hopelessness is a state of consciousness that usually means you are letting your happiness be dictated by outside conditions. The way to shift that is to solidly establish your inner connection with the ever-present energetic flow of your divine self, which is the co-creative source energy that guides you, rather than by taking actions to correct or make things happen in the outer world. This connection has been referred to as intuition, soul awakening and universal energy and it can be realized when you expand your sense of self through heart-centered or spiritual vision. It is not a surrendering of control. By any name it is simply opening to your soul’s voice, living your path with an empowered consciousness that brings the ideas, energy, vision, clarity and connections you need to move forward with your goals confidently and in sync with your authentic self. By receiving the power, love, wisdom, peace and inspiration that flows as you explore and perceive with the loving guidance of your inner self you can dissolve thoughts, beliefs and limitations that might emotionally impede you from experiencing all the good things you desire. Inner alignment to the core energy of your divine self-supports you in transforming your life experience from fear to freedom, feeling the love and guidance of the universe billowing your sails on your journey.

The Gift of Inner Connection

Your connection with your inner self is the biggest gift you can offer to yourself and those who surround you. It is the cornerstone of awakening human consciousness and engaging in the work of personal transformation in our lives as well as contributing to the shift of living more harmoniously in our communities. Through heart-centered and awareness practices like journaling, meditation, nature walks, and other mindfulness activities you usher in and strengthen your connection to pure, positive energy. You choose those relationships and circumstances that radiate similar energy and grow through joy rather than through pain. Your resistance is lessened and you no longer need be affected by other people’s opinions, moods or energy. Every level of your life and consciousness changes, bringing new perspectives on your life, purpose and relationships.

Standing in the center of your inner energy, aligned with your true nature, seeing yourself and others through your heart, is the most powerful path of transformation. This is how you bring through what you want to create in its most beautiful form, and in the process, give back to yourself the energy of love and joy. Seeing With The Heart is intended to assist you in opening up to the gentle and sweet consciousness of the truth of your being at whatever level of receptivity you are currently experiencing.

Exercise for Conscious Inner Connection

Here is an exercise for lifting up to the light within that allows you to more easily change your life.

Start by relaxing and getting comfortable. Take several deep breaths slowly in and out.
Affirm that you are wise, loving, confident and powerful.
If you are ready to enter a new chapter of your life, you are already experiencing inner changes. Your divine self is motivating you to make changes and showing you the way. Take a moment to acknowledge your inner, true self.
Think of the area of your life you wish to change. Feel your divine self within you permeating your being, calling you forward on your path. Allow the divine self to shower that area with light, feeling it fill up and brighten up with warm, pink, gold light.
Ask that any blocks, thoughts, beliefs, emotions that might hold you back be released. Acknowledge and give permission for them to leave.
Ask for and open to receive from your divine self the qualities to move forward – inspiration, clear guidance, motivation and opportunities.
Picture your inner light growing brighter resonating with your desire and all those you encounter you can benefit from this light. Visualize your light connecting with all the cells in your body, and going forth from you with love to light your way, radiating to the earth, others and the universe.
Now let your vision go and retain the feeling that it has happened, you have received the change with joy. Be open and expect things to change.

Seeing With The Heart- Guided Inspiration Journal