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