Are you happy with your life? If there are areas of your life that make you uncomfortable, angry or frustrated, then you are being nudged to change something in your life. Are you willing to work on yourself?
Our wise soul is sending us messages urging us to work on ourselves every day. Many of us don't know how to decode the messages. What messages are you getting? Here's a decoding of a few common messages that our souls sends to us. When we are feeling bored with our lives, it is a call for us to get moving in a new direction. We have outgrown a part of our lives and we need to add something new. When we have deep seated anger about a person, experience or event, it is a call to forgive the situation, everyone involved and ourselves. When we feel blocked or trapped in our lives, it is a message that for us to take charge of our lives instead of being the helpless, powerless victim of our circumstances. We must be open to learning how not to allow our circumstances define us or how far we can go in life. We have to get out in front and move past whatever we believe is holding us back.
Feeling as if something is missing within our present life is a sign that something needs to change. Some aspect of our lives is dying and we need to open ourselves up to a new beginning. We have to learn how to let go of what doesn't serve us and be vulnerable with change. If we are tired of getting hurt in relationships, then it is time to look deeper within ourselves and find out what beliefs within us attracts the type of people who hurt us. Life doesn't just happen to us. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are always creating our life experiences through our thoughts and emotions.
If you want more out of your life, it is wise to listen to what your soul is telling you. You are always getting feedback about the state of your life. Most of us ignore these messages because we don't know what to do with them or we are afraid of what to do next. Be willing to work on yourself. Be willing to take responsibility for co-creating the life that you want. Notice I used the word, "co-creating," because we aren't taking sole control of reworking our lives. We don't have to take on all of that responsibility by ourselves. We need to be willing to work in partnership with the Creator to grow ourselves and our lives to the next level.
We never stop growing and learning in life. We are never meant to live the same way and remain the same person forever. We are always being called on to be more and do more with our lives. It is time that we begun to hear those messages and embrace the idea of being able to move some aspect of our lives to a higher level. Moving to the next level requires us to be willing to work on ourselves.
How do we go about working on ourselves? Well, it is a very individual process and it depends on what is out of order in your life. When I set out to change careers, I immersed myself in powerful self help and metaphysical books. I knew that I had some limiting beliefs about myself and life that were holding me back. I didn't want to take those same limiting beliefs with me into a new career. I needed teachers to give me more empowering ideas for living to help me move up to the next personal level.
My best advice for working on yourself is simply commit to listening to what your soul is telling you. Your soul will guide you to where you need to be and what you need to work on. Remain open and willing to embrace change. Pay attention to your hunches and follow them. Pay attention to re-occurring ideas. Allow yourself to be guided to resources and people. Be willing to take action, even if you are afraid. Pay attention to helpful people who appear in your life. Simply be alert to receiving messages or guidance from expected and unexpected sources. Don't judge or discount any message or any messenger.
There is no right or wrong way to work on yourself. You can begin anywhere--the key is to just begin. Some ways to work on yourself include forgiving, getting into therapy, participating in a support group, seeking help for an addiction, talking about something that you have been unwilling to do so, going to a self help workshop, reading a self help book, connecting with a religious practice, letting go of unhelpful habits, letting go of emotionally toxic people, transitioning out of a deadend career or relationship, moving to a new home, taking trip, doing something that you have always wanted to do, confronting a great fear, taking a big risk or leap of faith, making time for yourself, exercising, eating healthier, taking up a hobby, speaking up for yourself, saying "no," going back to school, and so much more. Just pay attention to where you are being guided. There are many pathways to working on yourself, so there is no need to make yourself fit into someone else's way. Get quiet, listen to your thoughts and follow your hunches, even if you don't understand the big picture yet.
Life will support you if you are truly willing to work on yourself in incredible ways. Our job is to be open and honest about working on ourselves. There will be times when working on yourself will be painful, but keep working through it. Once you start to see a bigger vision for yourself, it is hard to go back to the small place where you were before. You know that more is possible.
When I decided to start a new career, I found ads for free career counseling through my local library in the newspaper. My career counselor really helped to guide me during the rough spots of my transition. As I became strong enough to stand on my own, my counselor gradually reduced and eventually stopped offering free counseling at the library. I knew that our work was complete and now we went our separate ways. He was sent to help me through a scary transition period. It was no accident that he came into my life when he did.
Be patient with yourself. Some people take a step forward and go back two steps. Some people start working on themselves and then stop. Some people find themselves at a stalemate before they are able to move forward. When you are working on yourself, it can be difficult to tell if you are making any real progress. Appearances can be deceiving. Often, true progress is taking place on the inside before we see the results on the outside through our experiences. We simply need to hold firm in our vision of having a happier life and being a happier person until our inner changes create desirable outer changes. We have to continue to have faith in ourselves and believe in what we are doing.
Be willing to work on yourself and not on other people. Each person has to take responsibility for working on himself. We can't work on anybody else nor can anybody do the work for us. Often when we begin working on ourselves, we get so excited about new possibilities and all the wonderful ways in which we are growing. We want our closet friends and family to experience what we are experiencing for themselves. We try to coax them into working on themselves when they aren't committed, interested or even ready. Each person has to reach a point where the pain of living life as he knows it is more painful than the fear and uneasiness associated with going in a new direction. We don't know nor can we judge someone else's readiness to work on themselves. Some people will complain about what's wrong, but they still aren't ready to do anything about it. Work on yourself. Other people will witness your evolution, which can inspire them to work on themselves if they are ready to commit to it.
Affirmations: I am willing to learn and grow as a person. Everyday, I am getting stronger and wiser.
Copyright©2007 Jeannine Robinson All Rights Reserved