Should you shed some of your "shoulds"?

I’ll bet your womanspace is harboring more than a few superficial values. I know mine was. Our superficial values are not true functions of our authentic-value systems. They don't really support our spirit-given agendas, and they don't line up with our true-Self. They are our acquired values—either acquired from the beliefs of others or acquired by way of our own incorrect beliefs about ourselves. In any case, they are just veneer. Not part of the true substance of us . . . these pseudo-values just take up focus and energy in the womanspace, and probably in our lives.

Let's start with the Shoulds. Our shoulds grew from seeds planted in our childhood psyche by our significant people. We should be this way or that way, we were told. So, these shoulds translated in our lives as behaviors that we felt obligated to perform, often leading us into situations we came to resent. Yet, we continued to perform them. Why? Because, of course, at some time during our lives, we began to sincerely believe that we should.

Think about the things you do that seem to deplete your energy, usurp your power, and make you feel kind of sad and lethargic. Do you continue to do these things because you see true value in the doing of them? Or because you've somehow come to believe the notion that you would be a bad person if you didn't?

Who do you think you are?

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You are who you think you are.

You are as worthy of receiving good love as you think you are.

You are as capable of creating, developing and actualizing your visions as you think you are.

So, who have you been thinking you are?

Ms. Hopeful?

Ms. Capable?

Ms. Pitiful?

Ms. Sad?

Ms. Fearful?

Ms. Doubtful?

Ms. Faithful?

Ms. Courage?

And, what is it that you want?

New health?

New strength?

New love?

New peace?

New faith?

A new home?

A new job?

A new life?

You’ve probably been thinking that the Trouble in your life was caused by the choices you've made or the family you have. Or maybe you think you're in Trouble because of a certain relationship, or your weight, your looks, your money situation, your responsibilities, your job, or some past experience. But the truth is, what keeps you bound to your address in Trouble is whatever thoughts you've been having about these issues.

Whenever you find yourself residing in Trouble, you can believe that your low beliefs about yourself are what’s to blame. Changing those beliefs will unlock the doors you’ve been pounding on. When we believe High we seek differently. When we be-lieve High we ask differently, and we find ourselves listening more to the mysteries of Spirit than to the din of daily life—we are divinely enabled to see obscure and improbable possibilities. When we believe High, our minds go off seeking hidden things and, astonishingly, discover treasures lurking in the oddest of places . . . and in the most unlikely people.

Love & Light

Are you ready to make this journey?

Each of our life-experiences has given us a platform to stand on . . . and a gift to give. Each one of us could say “I have been here . . . and I have been there . . . and . . . LOOK At ME! I have come through to a better side of things. This is what I’ve learn-ed . . . and this is what I can share with you.”

And it’s only this attitude that will set you on your path to your High Places.

Self-pity will not.

Fear of moving forward . . . will not.

Fear of being hurt . . . again . . . will not.

Your responses to your life experiences will determine your direction. The hard work of real-life will either inspire you to reach for your High Places . . . or scare you into hiding out in Trouble until your life is over. You get to choose.

If you choose to leave Trouble, you will need some new way of being to walk toward, because your first step away from Trouble will be your first step toward your High Places. So, today, ask yourself these questions:

“What am I choosing to walk away from?”

And even more importantly—“What am I choosing to walk toward?”

Love & Light

Are you ready to meet your Joy?

Trouble separates us from the Joy we could experience as our High Places Self. Chances are, if you've never ventured a step toward your High Places, you've never known real Joy. You may have known some fleeting moments of happiness. You may, also, have experienced a few hiccups of exhilaration . . . and maybe even a sneak preview of hopes to come. But if you've never stepped out in faith toward the desire of your heart, marching confidently forward with every expectation of arriving someplace Good, you haven't known Joy.

Joy comes when we begin to realize that our little piece of spirit can plug perfectly into God's all-encompassing Spirit.

When we choose to fill ourselves with faith, and to inhale and exhale nothing less than faith, we place ourselves in a dimension of Joy. Joy has nothing to do with things accomplished or works performed. Joy waits in our surrender to belief in God's awesome power at work in our lives.

Love & Light

What do you believe about yourself and your life?

As you go about trying to straighten out your life, you might be surprised to find that the culprit responsible for blocking your goals, upsetting your apple-carts and, generally, sabotaging all your efforts is . . . You. Wielding a plethora of low-belief thoughts, swinging them around recklessly like double-edged swords, we effectively slash through all of our best hopes and rip our dreams to shreds. High Places lives aren't born of low-belief thinking. And the best thing that could happen is for us to actually catch ourselves in the act . . .

Today, examine your self-talk. What do you say to yourself all day? What kinds of thoughts run through your mind like a river of living waters, feeding your perceptions and determining your actions? Have you formulated a laundry-list of reasons why you’re stuck in Trouble? And another corresponding list of reasons why you need to stay in Trouble? Reasons like—“I’m too old to make changes in my life . . . I’m in too much debt to go back to school . . . I’ve invested too much in this bad situation to jump ship now . . . I'm needed here, so I can't move forward . . . or . . . God won't do this for me”—will continue to hold us hostage until we start making conscious decisions to believe higher for ourselves. Today, see how many times you can catch yourself thinking negative thoughts about yourself. CHOOSE to believe higher about yourself and your possibilities. DECIDE that you will leave your Trouble . . . for your High Places . . . and you will miraculously be shown a way to go.

There is this thing that happens. This thing that happens in the psyche and moves all through the psycho-emotional centers of a woman. It is the transient movement of all that we believe coursing through us, throughout all of our physical, spiritual and emotional paths of Self. Throughout the very blood and cells of us. Coloring us and defining us and telling us who we are and what we will do in any given situation. Journeying toward your High Places requires you to begin to inhabit your Highest Self.

Once you have identified yourself as living in Trouble, you will have to choose to meet God on the path toward your High Places. You will have to begin choosing to adopt the mindsets you will need to live more as your Higher Self than as your lower, troubled, Self. You will have to choose to defy the gravity of Troubled-life, as you have known it. You will have to choose to allow faith, not fear, to rule your steps. You will have to choose to allow your forgiving spirit to rule your mind and your relationships. You will have to choose to believe that your Creator-God is mindful of you, will be your strength, and will empower you to walk upon your High Places.

Do you believe that there are High Places with your name on them?

How often have you been brought to the edge of an opportunity . . . only to back away when it was time to leap forward?

How many times have you swallowed your truth because you feared that the consequences of being that honest . . . that telling—about how you really felt or what you really wanted to do—would be less than bearable for someone, or for yourself?

How often have you accepted defeat, before you even entered the race, because you doubted your own ability to succeed and doubted God’s ability to be a sufficiently powerful partner?

Have you ever found yourself living out what someone else thought your life should be about . . . and not what you suspected/knew it should be about?

Have you had a certain dream simmering on the back burner of your life for so long that all the flavor and passion seems to have simmered out of it?

Have you secretly forbidden yourself to dream new dreams?

When we don't believe that we are entitled to a better life . . . we don't believe High. When we don't believe High for ourselves we wind up crafting all kinds of self-sabotaging behaviors that create barriers and, logically, keep us in Trouble.

My references to our having “High Places” comes from Habakkuk 3:19: “God will give us hinds' feet and set us upon our High Places.” (The hind being a deer-like animal that can conquer even the most treacherous mountain terrain.) And there are two things to note here: The first is that God will give us hinds' feet—meaning that this state of power and wisdom, grace and well-being, is a gift, not something earned. It has to come from God . . . through the spirit-woman inside us. This state of spiritual empowerment is not something we can manufacture or create for ourselves, it is something we have to ask God for, and then expect to receive.

The second thing we need to note: this scripture says that after God has given us (through the tests and trials of our life-experiences?) this bounding and rebounding power of a hind, we will be set upon our High Places. Therefore, it seems that it's the use of our hinds' feet that will transport us to this new land of mountain-top experiences. From struggling through our days . . . to striding like Queens, blazing new pathways by faith and high-belief . . . From Trouble . . . to High Places.

Perhaps, only a woman who has been excruciatingly low could ever yearn enough to reach that High. Do you think God doesn’t know that

?

Love & Light,
Esther

Do you realize that God created us just as we are, on purpose?

Each of us has experienced dastardly low points and exhilarating high points in our lives. And, we have each been like travelers, visiting our low places and high places, and journeying those expanses in between.

Each step we have taken has been significant.
Each fear—significant.
Each love—significant.
Each devastation—significant.
Each trial—significant.
Each failure—significant.
Each triumph—significant.

Each of our past joys and triumphs, loves and passions, has served to strengthen us and stabilize us, even in the present. But our past fears, our failures, our lacks of cour-age, our angers and unforgivenesses have created wounds inside us that hold enough power, still, to taint our thoughts, about ourselves and our lives, and trip us into believing that our lives can't get any better.

The pursuit of a truly better life involves truly better believing. We have to open ourselves to a level of thinking that delves deeper into our spiritual notions of who and what we are:
We are creations of God . . . and nothing has happened to us that God doesn’t know about.

None of our experiences have been mistakes—they have all been crucial chapters of our legend. And nothing has happened to us that could dismantle our God-given birthright to be amazing spirit-creatures with all the power we need to leave our Trouble for our High Places.

Our transformation from troubled-Self to High Places-Self begins with our re-evaluation of our notions about God. Everything we believe about ourselves is determined by what we believe about God, who we think God is, and what we think God feels toward us. In the womanspace, what we feel about ourselves and what we believe God feels about us are one and the same thing. It is imperative that we see that our connection to God doesn’t depend on what we do or don’t do; but more, it exists as an unchangeable, benevolent energy that we cannot end or mutilate or affect, except in our own minds. God’s love for us is out of our control! This essential life-blood connection is not subject to our whims, fears, doubts, or neurosis! Nor does it depend upon our ability to be good girls, as we have, in whatever way, defined that notion.

(From Trouble to High Places: Meditations For women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges That Lead to Joy! Copyright 2008, Esthe Davis-Thompson)

Love & Light

Whom Have You Chosen to Be?

I have re-invented myself so many times. It was hard work sometimes—and other times, not so hard—yet always, my re-inventions were the cadres that swept my life from one side of my Red Sea experiences to the other.

Always it was spirit-effort, swirled with my conscious-agreement to believe a high-thought, a daring idea, or a God-breath, that led to my becoming a new growth in the garden of myself. Likewise, daily, re-inventing my womanspace—daily, truly seeking my better way—was/is always about purposefully examining the ocean of psycho/ emotional/spiritual impulses inside of me, and seeking Spirit's way to look at whatever I’m going through. Striving to think better thoughts about myself and my purpose in this world and learning to value my moments, hours, and days as gifts to be used purposefully—these are my personal principles of re-invention.

Most importantly, I have learned that re-invention involves only oneself and God. As we begin choosing our spirit-woman's wisdom over our own reasoning and logic, Self aligns with Spirit in a way that results in our becoming wildly real and profoundly aware of the indisputable importance of our lives in the panoramic schema of things.

We are like marvelous gardens, you and I. We can bear fantastic fruit of many kinds. I have decided that I want to experience every possible color in the garden of me . . . and so I am willing to work for it. I want to be shade and I want to be edible. I want to be beautiful and mysterious and passionate. I want to defy all reason . . . and I will . . .
because God has given that much power to me.

And the more I am aware of the spiritual significance of where I have been, what I’ve been through, and what I’ve already overcome, the more I am aware of my spirit-woman whispering the confirmation: “Yes, Baby Girl, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.” . . . convincing me that I am on piercing purpose and of fabulous reason.

So, what grows in the garden of you? Have you examined your womanspace lately?

Are you becoming aware of some of the notions that are reigning at the center of your consciousness and determining how you approach your life?

What do you believe about your Self and your life?

Have you chosen to be? And what will you choose to be? Dormant or free?

Good questions, huh?

(From Trouble to High Places: Meditations For Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges That Lead to Joy! Copyright 2008 Esther Davis-Thompson)

Love & Light,

Believing High

There are reasons why we are as we are, and there are reasons why we act as we do—our beliefs and our personal perceptions of our experiences have molded and shaped us into who we are today.

The way that our inner light shines—or doesn’t shine—inside the womanspace, determines whether we come to expect sunshine or darkness, or perhaps just shadows, in our lives. And, it is what we have come to believe—what we have come to expect to be true—that determines how we live our lives.

Inside each of us there is an ever-changing, emotionally-charged, vibrant kaleidoscope of energy—our womanspace—that determines how we think and feel and act. The spaces of belief in this womanspace are innumerable. Twinkling like so many stars, glistening brightly and alive, each belief we have holds the power to light our lives in its own way and after its own fashion. Some spaces of belief are bright and lovingly charged, and some are ugly. Changing changing . . . all the time, some spaces of belief are multiplying, some are self-deleting, some are acting up and getting inflamed and demanding attention. Some spaces of belief are working miracles inside of us—some are hindering them. Some of our inner belief-spaces are easily corralled into categories like fear, faith, anger, pain, accomplishment, satisfaction, indifference, envy, joy, strength, passion, and some spaces are, yet, undefined—affecting us still. Each belief we have holds an incredible amount of power to, at any given time, determine our steps, order our days, and to create our thoughts, our reasons, and our actions. We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made! (Psalms 139:14) And our thoughts—particularly our thoughts about Self—are extremely powerful shapers of our reality.

Imagine this kaleidoscope-like womanspace inside you. Imagine the gliding of one colored emotion—fear, hope, hopelessness, faith, passion—into another. And imagine further, the churning that can take place within the whole of it, when even one tiny aspect of what you believe changes.

Yet, if you could look inside yourself, you would see one small, simple, solitary space that is unaffected by all the others. It is a lovely, calm and peaceful space, like a placid lake. It is an invariable, yet it moves from side to side and from inner-place to inner-place. And yes, it changes shape —sometimes seeming larger . . . and sometimes smaller. But the substance of this space is never affected by the sur-rounding spaces, although the surrounding spaces always seem to be transformed by it.

And you begin to realize that this stable space is actually the nucleus of your womanspace. And the more you look inside yourself, the more you are fascinated by, and habitually begin to search for, this nucleus-space. You begin to anchor your searches and muses about your womanspace on the search and holding of this special space. This strongest and most stable of all the spaces. And you begin to notice that the more you go back to look for this nucleus-space, the easier it is to find. And this space just seems to glisten and twinkle in response to your coming to visit again. And, if you were to think about it long enough, you would come to realize that your concentration on this nucleus-space always results in a transformative temper-ance of all the other spaces around it.

Your awareness of the workings of your womanspace will lead you directly to an awareness about the greatest source of power in a woman’s (or any human being’s) life: your spirit—the only part of you that lives truly unaffected by your experiences.

And, since you are a woman, this inner spirit is your spirit-woman.

And since she is directly connected to, and receives her strength, her resilience, her wisdom and her essence of being from God . . . she is empowered (Ephesians 3:16). That is why she does not turn gray when clouds engulf your womanspace. And that is why the emotional churnings and gurglings of your womanspace have no effect on her at all. Her wisdom is not subjective—because it’s straight from God!

And that is why you can be healed . . . truly healed . . . from all the rough experiences you’ve been through—because deep on the inside of you, in that space where your spirit-woman resides, you are healed and whole already.

(Excerpt - From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges That Lead to Joy! Copyright 2008 Esther Davis-Thompson)

Love & Light,

Esther

Readiness

Imagine that you are a child and when you wake up one morning, your mother is sitting quietly next to your bed, waiting to bathe and dress you. “Hurry,” she says. And she is smiling just a little. “We are going someplace good today.” And after bathing you with fragrant water, she dresses you, carefully, in a lovely new dress and new shoes, combs your hair, and then says to you, “Come”. And you follow. And the two of you walk, just far enough, and you see THE WATER. It has no other name, and all you know is that it is THE WATER that you’ve been warned about all your life. And that THE WATER is too, too deep for you to walk through and too, too expansive for you to even think about swimming across. And still your mother is walking steadily, firmly pulling you along, closer to THE WATER—closer than you’ve ever been before. And she is not slowing down, as if she realizes that she’s heading directly for THE WATER, but she seems to be moving forward with more determina-tion the closer you get. Moving forward with a momentum that seems to have been gathering from the time you woke up this morning . . . and growing more intense the closer the two of you come to this WATER’S edge. And you are becoming frightened because your mother seems not to realize that you are approaching the edge of this WATER—this WATER that she has told you, all your life, not to play near . . . not to go near . . . not to fall into! And coming to THE WATER’S edge, her stride quickens and she steps . . . out over THE WATER, raising her foot into mid-air as if she expects it to come down onto something solid and supportive. And as she steps, she whispers to you in a voice that lands on your ears like a shout and a shriek and a scream and a cry, and she says, “COME!” And she doesn’t jerk your arm, but she does pull you firmly. And as you look down to see your own foot rise out above THE WATER . . . you see that your mother’s foot has landed squarely on an expanse of solid earth. And as she steps again, more solid ground appears, and so you follow. And the two of you begin a slow and steady trek across THE WATER, the action of your steadily stepping feet creating a bridge below you that rises slightly upward and out and over THE WATER. And as you step, you turn to your mother and you whisper, “How are we doing this?. . . How am I doing this?” And she looks into your eyes and smiles and says simply . . . ” Baby, you were ready.”


I think readiness to move forward comes when you, finally, surrender to your spirit's willingness to step out, in faith, beyond what you know for sure. Paying more atten-tion to your spirit than to your intellect, you enter into a state of sacred momentum that shatters every one of the laws of inertia you’ve been living under . . . finally ready to risk believing that your spirit-woman knows more than you do about all things.

Readiness to change is born of your realization that you have, thus far, been ruled by your own fears and stopped in your own tracks to your own High Places by your own-Self.
Know this: You cannot move out of Trouble until you are ready. Until some part of you has decided that you have had enough of whatever space of mind and emotion you’ve been occupying.

And, know too, that your spirit-woman will not take you any faster than you can go. She will not push you out into deeper waters than you can handle. She will let you live in Trouble for as long as you feel you need to. But, believe me, she will nudge you . . . she will whisper . . . and occasionally she will shriek! She will summon your counselors, your mothers, your sisters, and your good loves. She will call forth your Angels . . . the Holy Spirit . . . your Creator . . . but she will not ever push you into High Waters.
You’ll have to leap!

(Excerpted: From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges that Lead to Joy, Copyright 2008 Esther Davis-Thompson)

Love & Light
Esther

Moving Forward ... From Trouble to High Places

A Conversation with Self in Trouble

“You have to fight,” whispers the tiny, inner-voice.

“I tried that before,” says the tinier, inner-voice.

“Well . . . you’re still alive,” says the tiny voice.

“But I have no power,” says the tinier voice.

“But you’re still alive,” repeats the tiny voice.

“But with no power,” says the tinier voice.

“Then, give up,” says the tiny voice.

And there is silence. And this silence is key . . . because the inner-self that keeps a conversation going with itself is not really ready to give up.

Our tiny inner-selves may be tired . . . and our tiny inner-selves may be wounded. We may be altered. We may be maimed, emotionally. But we’re still alive. And if conversation with Self can encourage Self to keep trying, then perhaps conversation with Self can help Self to heal.

We can withstand some inner silences, but we need to understand that silence within the womanspace often signifies a refusal, on our part, to engage our spirits in working toward the resolution of our issues. We choose silence because silence is easier—easier than sitting with Self and hashing out our truths. Only the human part of Self can call the silences within the womanspace to a halt. Either we choose to purposefully push through the emotionally protective barriers that we've erected over time . . . or we don't.

Silence, (a long, weighted-silence).

And the tinier inner-voice sighs,
“I’m not ready to give up . . . yet.”

And the tiny voice gets just a little louder and stronger.

”Well then, get up!”

And this particular conversation is over . . . and Self stands, reluctantly, to begin another round. Another round of trying to leave Trouble. And this, too, is key: Trying to leave Trouble for the sake of leaving Trouble will only, sadly, send you off toward another space of Trouble. Same land . . . just a different address. But, deciding to leave Trouble for your High Places—allowing your spirit to point out the good in your life and using that as map, compass and goal, spring-board and landing place—will get you going and get you out.

When we find ourselves dwelling in—not just passing through—Trouble, it is because we are choosing, for what-ever reason, to stay right there. We are giving ourselves permission to stay in Trouble. Perhaps we are too tired to make an escape plan. Perhaps all of our energies have been scattered to inner spaces that are in automatic survival mode. Perhaps we feel that we have a better chance of surviving in Trouble than we do anywhere else. But one thing is clear, and it is a sobering thought: Trouble is a state of mind. Trouble is self-hate in a red satin dress . . . gussied up . . . perfume over funk . . . and with a really dumb attitude. And Trouble is our choice.

The first thing you have to realize about Trouble is that you're not supposed to dwell there! The second thing: You can’t get out without courting a new spiritual awareness, a new self-understanding, and a brand new mindset.

There is a river to our High Places inside of each of us . . .
and we could leave Trouble if we would just walk upon it.

We find ourselves stuck in Trouble when we have lived in Trouble-mode for too long. Trouble is debilitating. It keeps you restricted within yourself. You are not capable of carrying out your good ideas. They hang in your mind, hitting you, first, with enthusiasm, but later slugging you with frustration. And the longer you hold your hopes in your mind, the more they make you angry and ashamed of yourself because you haven't managed to make yourself act upon them.

Trouble is a cold, dirty, disgusting place to have to call home, and yet, it is a comfort zone for those of us who live there because it’s all we know. There are no good neighborhoods in Trouble. Every avenue is part of a pitiful slum. You can paint your house in Trouble, but the structure and the foundation will still be bad. You can get an addition put on, but it’ll never be big enough to allow you to get away from yourself. You can entertain there—the pity parties are going on all the time. You’ll have lots of guests, and there will always be plenty to talk about. Who doesn’t like to talk about their Trouble? Who doesn’t like to talk about how they’re going to get out of Trouble . . . one day?

(Excerpted: From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges that Lead to Joy, Copyright 2008 Esther Davis-Thompson)

Ready to start moving your life forward?

Today... decide that you will leave your Trouble for your High Places and you will miraculously be shown a step to take!

Love & Light
Esther

New Year... New Approach

I always feel a certain little twinge of weird optimisim on New Years Day. I think most people do. And I think it's all about the R word. Whether or not you admit to being into the tradition of making a list of ways you plan on becoming perfect over the next 365 days... I think the hope passes through all our minds that we could possibly forge a great divide (precisely at 12:01, New Year) that separates us from our inept past (the old years), and enables us to tap into some place inside where our intentions and our actions will magically merge and turn us into our best Self.

Yet... for the vast majority us, that hope is never enough to bring about anything more than a brief upstart... and an eventual fizzling out. Why? Because there's nothing particularly magical about New Year's Day (unless you bring something magical)... so we're all setting ourselves up. Setting our sails in the direction of no-wind, and then beating ourselves up, by mid-January, because we failed, once again, to move steadily forward in the direction of your Best Life.

So... let's try something different this year. Instead of making a list of Resolutions for changing your life... let's take the next few days and take a good look at your life just as it is.

And ask yourself a few self-questions:

“Am I at peace with my life . . . and how it’s going?”
“And, am I at peace with myself about how I walk out my days?”
“Am I living by faith or do I live by fear?”
“And... do I truly believe that I could be living a life with more peace, more wisdom, more purpose, more passion, more abundance, and more joy?”


?

I've just finished writing a new book called From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges that Lead to Joy! (For now, you can find it on http://www.lulu.com/ and on my website - http://www.reinventingyourwomanspace.com/) In a nutshell, it's about finding ways to walk away from the life you don't want and moving forward toward the life you do. I'll be sharing excerpts from the book through this blog. Enjoy!

Love & Light,
Esther