Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace #125

I’m grateful for 12-step programs. Did you know there are 12-step programs for a variety of people experiencing different challenges? The steps are all virtually the same, and the order of them does matter. Part of working 12-step programs is doing the work, along with showing up for meetings and volunteering. All elements of these programs help participants get out of their own way. The first time I walked into a meeting, I was 14-years old. I have done the 12-steps through multiple programs a handful of times. Each time helps me go a little deeper, especially when I would do them from a different angle. I remember saying, the 12-steps should be offered to everyone, because it really does give amazing tools to how to live our best lives and STOP focusing on the things we can’t control. Part of the the reason the Serenity Prayer is used in most meetings.

I haven’t been to any 12-step program in years, but working the steps and the community of support helped me through some of my darkest times. They taught me how to create my own community of support based on my needs to keep going deeper. ALANON was the program I was a part of most recently it’s a program for friends and family of alcoholics. Getting me through the darkest days is an UNDERSTATEMENT. I was a shell when I walked through those doors. I felt empty, lost, and completely out of control. There is NO mistake God led me through those doors and carried me through the first year.

Some people who walk into 12-programs will stay there for life. The community and the work become a part of their self-care practices. For programs dealing with addiction, many have found it is the only thing that works after multiple attempts at doing things differently. As much as I’ve studied addiction, I’m not an addict. There is still a lot I don’t understand no matter how much I read, so my belief is if it works, you keep doing it. When I find self-care tools that work to help to keep me out of my stories drowned in the energies of fear, lack, and separation, I do the work. When I work a self-care program, I serve others in the best way possible too. How someone else chooses to do this is not my business, but if it works, I’m HAPPY for them.

The first meetings I ever attended were Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). I was young, experimenting with drinking, hanging out with older boys, and on a dangerous path. My mom was told to get me into treatment early before I got out of control, so that’s what she did, I was 14. I spent months there and part of the program was going to meetings and doing 12-step work. Early on, I was getting tools and experiences that many adults don’t have, even at my age now which is 44. I would have to go through many life lessons, but having all those seeds has definitely helped me survive and thrive through very dark and traumatic experiences. I honestly believe that learning to process my feelings in a healthy manner, from all the groups we had to do, helped me not to go down the path of addiction. Plus, I learned A LOT from the experiences of others, I definitely didn’t want to travel that path.

Now, one warning I have to any parent reading this and considering this for your child, especially a female. Women’s only meetings are important. One thing I didn’t understand at that time is just because people are in AA, doesn’t mean they don’t have mental health issues. There can still be predators looking for vulnerable individuals. This can happen anywhere, just because a person is in AA doesn’t mean they are safe. There are sick and healthy people everywhere we go. Unhealed trauma, which can be what takes a person down the addiction path can be ugly, men and women can process the loss of power VERY differently. Just stay aware, and make sure your child knows not to put people in AA on pedestals. Nobody belongs on pedestals. We are all human and we both have the dark and light within us, and which one we feed is the one that will create our reality and how we treat others.

When I was sixteen, I started attending Co-Dependents Anonymous (CODA) meetings. I got some good seeds there, but I didn’t stay long enough to dive deeper. There were areas of co-dependency that I would learn the hard way much later, like me being a rescuer…I had no idea that was co-dependency. My “savior complex” would be one of my biggest obstacles to overcome, and an author by the name of Melody Beattie would be the one who showed me how to plant the seeds I needed and weed out old behavior patterns that kept me a prisoner of my own co-dependency.

I’m always amazed to hear about more 12-step programs. I love that so many people have access to these groups, ESPECIALLY now with so many people feeling isolated and stuck in their own stories. These groups are not just for addicts, as I mentioned, they are communities of people who are looking be, do, and live better. I know if I end up in a room, it’s because it’s where I’m supposed to be to get what I need.

If you are wondering why I don’t attend now, it’s because my need for community and self-care has changed, but all the tools I got from the programs I attended come with me every step of the way. I find myself using the tools I learned often.

Today, I commit to working my self-care program! Now, the biggest thing that 12-step programs taught me is, “It works, if you work it.” We have to work our programs in order to maintain any changes we introduce to our lives. If we want to align with the energy of love, abundance, and peace, we have to do the work daily! I’m just like anyone else, when I stop doing the work, I slip. I can easily fall back into old thought and behavior patterns if I don’t commit to doing the work to keep me out of the stories in my head that keep me prisoner. I personally needed 12-step programs for a long time because I struggled to keep myself accountable to do the work on my own. Those programs are what gave me my self-care work ethic. They helped to keep me on my own priority list. I don’t think I would be where I am right now without all the tools I got from those communities and the steps. I have things people said to me burnt in my brain in the best of ways as messages I have to myself on repeat, and that is over 12 years since I heard them.

When we find what works, it’s important to keep doing the work. We can’t expect things to change if we don’t change the way we do things. We can’t control anything outside us. What we do have control over is how we treat ourselves, how we serve others, and how we tell our own stories. It’s up to us to get the help and tools we need to get out of our own way.

With Love, Abundance, and Peace,

©Rachael Wolff 2020

Author of Letters from a Better Me: How Becoming an Empowered Woman transforms the World

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Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace #18

What I’ve realized on my journey of aligning with love, abundance, and peace is that I have to make daily time to take care of me and my energy. If I don’t, I can easily get caught up in what is going on around me. This truly is a daily practice and I feel it when I slip. I used to say, “I struggle with making anything a routine.” Just saying it created a resistance. What I found is that I have to find MY way to make time. Setting alarms on my phone is one of the ways I get my reminders. It also helps me to keep myself accountable. I’m so happy with how well it has worked for me. Where as before, I would just try to slide stuff in, now I have a designated time and I’m finding even if I can’t do it right then because something comes up, I still make time to do it. Now, I really am making space for myself daily to make sure I’m doing things to align my energy with love, abundance, and peace. Some of things include healthy eating, gratitude journal/ journaling, exercise, and meditation. I feel taken care of and I have more energy to put love out into the world.

I know meditation can feel overwhelming to some, but meditation takes a lot of different forms. Don’t feel like there is one right way to meditate, because there is not. Take it from someone who has tried many! I do writing meditations where I play instrumental or chanting meditation music and free write (just write, no correcting and no thinking about what you are writing) for 15 minutes. I’m often amazed at the sage wisdom that comes from those sessions. When I’m struggling I’ve said a prayer than ask for an answer on my nature walk, again some great wisdom comes from being present with nature. I’ve also done all kinds of guided and not guided meditations sitting on my floor or my bed. I also have movement meditations I do. I commit to doing at least one a day for 15 minutes, and I definitely feel more at peace and loving. If we don’t give ourselves a break from the chaos, we become apart of it once again engaging in the energy of fear, lack, and separation. Creating space for self-care reminds us that we have a choice where our energy goes no matter what is happening around us.

With Love, Gratitude, and Peace,

©Rachael Wolff 2020

Get your copy of Letters from a Better Me: How Becoming an Empowered Woman Transforms the World here.

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Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace #11

There is a reason laughter is called one of the BEST medicines. When we appreciate the people, places, and things that make us laugh, we attract more things to laugh about. One of the saddest things I notice when working  with people is how they brush pass their laughter like it’s no big deal. Laughter is a HUGE deal and something to be very grateful for. Find places to laugh in your daily life. I don’t care if it’s people, videos, stand-up, or what. They even have Laughing Yoga. I absolutely LOVE stand-up comedy. For me, it’s not just about the comedian. It’s about the crowd laughing too. I’m so grateful when I find things in my life that make me laugh out loud.

If you are having to be isolated from your friends, you can video chat with them. I’ve had some of the best nights on chats with girlfriends just laughing so hard that not only were tears rolling down my eyes, but my face HURT the next day from smiling so much. If you are joining me on this daily aligning with love, abundance, and peace, think back to the times you have laughed in the last few days. I know even at some of the saddest times in my life, I found moments to laugh. Those moments were so important to me. They helped me feel like I was going to be okay.

 

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Make laughing a priority today! Why not, unless you don’t want to feel better, I guess that would be a good reason LOL. We live in a world FULL of resources. If we are bound and determined to laugh today, we will. I know I will. If you REALLY want to be in the energy of love, abundance, and peace—write it down!! It’s not enough just to think it and crack a grin. Fully embrace, value, and cherish what you are grateful for. We have to give gratitude our full energy or else that energy of lack will find it’s way back in. We have to give that moment of peace acknowledgment when we are laughing, so that we don’t re-align with feelings of separation. Laugh out loud right now until the laugh becomes real because you are laughing at yourself. Love yourself enough to treat yourself with laughter today. You deserve it and so do I!

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Want to learn more about how the journey of this Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace began? Read DAY 1 here.

With Love, Gratitude, and Peace,

©Rachael Wolff 2020

 

If you want to go deeper and align yourself and your actions with the energy you want to see more of in the world, check out Letters from a Better Me: How Becoming an Empowered Woman Transforms the World. I’ve been asked, “Could a man can get something from reading  this book?” Absolutely! The letters are aimed specifically for women, but the journey of the book is going inward, so a reader could actually write their own letters which would fit their lives and still receive plenty of amazing gifts from this book. If you don’t want to go that route, there are blog posts that go back to 2016 for absolutely any reader. 

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Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace #10

Today, I’m focusing my gratitude on flowers in all their glory. For me, taking pictures of flowers reminds me to stop and pay attention. They provide us with such beautiful gifts. I love walking around my neighborhood and seeing all the variations. When the wind hits the right place, I smell the gardenia and the jasmine permeate the air. If you want to join me, take a few minutes to really stop, appreciate, and smell the flowers you love. What are your favorites? Do you have any around you? Go visit them if you can. If you don’t, find pictures and imagine smelling them. When the mind focuses, it can bring a smell from a memory right to you. Use the flowers to REALLY embrace the feeling of gratitude, because in this moment the flowers are enough to bring you into the energy of abundance. 

When we slow down and pay attention to the flowers, we give ourselves the opportunity to be fully engaged in the moment. We don’t even need to see flowers in person to feel the AWE. We can look at pictures online and notice details of these AMAZING creations.

Right now, I’m thinking about gardenia. Instantly, the beautiful scent fills my head, and I not only smell it, but absorb the last memory of me smelling it. I’m back to the AWE…a moment of pure joy , peace, and gratitude all at once—true abundance. It’s the most beautiful feeling. When you recognize the things that bring you to a feeling of AWE, it’s easier to move out of a moment of fear, lack, and separation and back into love, abundance, and gratitude.

Want to learn more about this journey? You can go to day 1 here.

With Love, Gratitude, and Peace, 

©Rachael Wolff 2020

 

If you want to dive into a deeper journey, check out Letters from a Better Me here!

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Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace #9

Animals have a way of aligning us with love, abundance, and peace VERY quickly. Let’s take this moorhen family in the picture below. Each day I watched this family, joy emanated through me. Joy comes from aligning with love, abundance, and peace. My energy felt completely aligned with the present moment as I watched this little family work together in such an extraordinary way. I also love how I can watch a cute animal video and my energy will immediately shift. That in itself is a reason I’m so grateful for animals. As an animal owner and lover, my animals tend to keep me entertained and my heart soft on a daily basis. I know I can come up with a lot more than three reasons I’m grateful for animals. Really get into the energy of this one. If you need to watch a cute animal video, go do it.

Check out more about the Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace Challenge by going to Day #1 here.

Being aware of the tools we have for self-care is essential on this journey of aligning with love, abundance, and peace. If we slip out of the energy we know we want to live in, we need to make sure we know how to get back. When I mentioned the animal videos, I was very serious. If those help to keep you in a loving mood, watch them. In the beginning of my practice, I had a challenging time spotting when I was going to fear over love. As I learned to pay attention to my body’s reaction to the energy of love and the energy of fear, I started to REALLY able to spot the difference. Being able to do that makes it much easier to get the love flowing through you again. A few things I do is watch Ted Talks, videos of people from different walks of life being good to each other, animal videos, write in my gratitude journal, talk to specific people, make posters for Facebook.com/FromALovingPlace…and of course write blogs, which is why I’m here in the first place. Being here keeps me connected, because I know my energy has to be aligned in order to write. So, what will you do today?

With Love, Gratitude, and Peace,

©Rachael Wolff 2020

If you like the road you are going on with me here, you can go even deeper in my book. It’s available in multiple countries in audiobook, audio CD, ebook, and paperback. It’s been in the top 100 in multiple categories in the US on Amazon. Preview available in the link below.

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Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace #8

Sometimes we can be brutal to our bodies in our feelings, thoughts, words, and actions. Doing this aligns us with fear, lack, and separation. We tell our bodies that they aren’t enough and that we don’t appreciate them. Is that a way to treat our life partners? Our bodies are with us from the cradle to the grave. It’s time to start treating them like the love of our lives and show them some appreciation. When we align with our bodies in love, abundance, and peace, we stop going to war with them. We start feeling better and start wanting to do right by them. Then, they start doing right by us.

See, our bodies have a way of telling us that something is wrong, but when we are not attune to them, we miss the signals. The reason why is because when we are aligned with fear, when we really need our intuitive fear button, it’s broken from being over used. Today, I’m working on the relationship with my body. Join me if you know you haven’t been appreciating yours.

If you want to learn more about the Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace Challenge, go to Day #1 here.

If I really want to show another person how much I love them, I can come up with endless ways. The reason I can do this is because that person is important to me. That person is on my priority list. I feel that person is worthy of my affection, time, and love. Are you getting the point? Today, let’s commit to treating our bodies like they are the loves our our lives, because quite frankly the choice is they are our love or our enemy. Who do you want to live with for the rest of your life? If you are having a hard time figuring out ways to to treat your body like it is the love of your life, think of it like it is your ideal romantic partner outside of yourself. How do you think that person would feel loved? We can feed them, bathe them, take a walk with them, help them stretch, massage them, etc. Today, I’m going to be the absolute love of my body’s life and show it how much I appreciate what it does for me.

With Love, Abundance, and Peace

©Rachael Wolff 2020

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Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace #6

One of the biggest excuses to not align with the energy of love, abundance, and peace is our challenging times and past traumas. When we say we can’t do this because… that is a CHOICE not to do it. We are telling ourselves we are comfortable in our pain states and we don’t want to change. As a survivor of multiple traumas, I used to make this choice and it landed me in the psychiatric ward after trying to attempt suicide at age seventeen. It would be a long time and a lot more trauma before I realized that I was projecting the energy of fear, lack, and separation into the world by holding on the way I was. I believed (a perspective of truth) that I was protecting myself, when really I was not only causing myself harm but bringing that energy into ALL my relationships (EEEK).

Whatever we tell ourselves is true, is true to us. This is why it is SO important to be conscious of where we are putting our energy in each moment. We have the power to re-wire/ re-train our brains to go to different thoughts when we face challenges, what better time to practice this than right now. Byron Katies work taught me to REALLY question my thoughts. If a thought creates dis-ease in my body, I pay attention and ask myself, “Where would I be without the thought (name the thought)?” This practice truly helps me to see that my thoughts can be changed, if I CHOOSE to change them. One of the steps I use to keep my brain wired for love, abundance, and peace during challenging times is to find lessons to be grateful for.

This might not be easy in the beginning if your brain is used to staying in the chaos, which mine was. Now, it is one of the first places my mind goes after I fully feel my way through whatever is happening around me (come back tomorrow for more on that). For today, think about some lessons you got from challenging times that have helped you in SOME way, whether that be in relationships, work, school, parenting, dealing with negative people, etc. If you want to learn more about why I’m doing these posts, go back to day 1 here.

Now, breathe. Our conscious breath taking is a crucial piece of aligning our energy. When we slow down and breathe through our stressful thoughts, it not only lessens their impact on our bodies, but in the functioning of our brains. Sometimes just taking three conscious breaths in and out is all we need to gain a little space from the stressful thought. This gives a place to question the thought and re-access it. If you have a stressful thought today, pay attention to what happens to your breathing. Stress creates us to hold our breath. Make sure you are taking a long and deep breath in and FULLY releasing it. If you can get into the habit of doing this, you will be able to re-align with the energy of love, abundance, and peace much faster.

With Love, Gratitude, and Peace,

©Rachael Wolff 2020

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Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace #5

Oh yes, today we are focusing our gratitude on HERE and NOW. Right now, look around and find three things you are grateful for. To find out more about the daily aligning practice, go to #1 here.

The path to peace is an inside job. If we aren’t at peace inside, we will tend to spread chaos around us (most times unconsciously). One of the important steps to inner peace is showing ourselves respect. This also helps us have healthy boundaries with others. Part of showing ourselves respect is taking care of ourselves. Over indulging in things that do damage to our minds, bodies, emotions, and/or souls is us NOT respecting ourselves.

With Love, Gratitude, and Peace,

©Rachael Wolff 2020

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Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace #4

Living in gratitude is living in abundance over lack. When we take time to focus on gratitude daily, we start noticing more and more to be grateful for. Our energy is aligned with our blessings, and that is what it means to live in abundance. Today’s focus on gratitude is focused in the wonderful world of nature. When we start looking at nature for gratitude, we have an endless supply. If you missed the details of this daily challenge, you can find them here.

You heard me, THREE NEW things, just for you! I’m so excited to hear what people will come up with. Think outside of your own box. The more often you can do this, the more you will open your mind to possibilities. That is when miracles REALLY begin to reveal themselves.

With Love, Gratitude, and Peace,

©Rachael Wolff 2020

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Daily Aligning with Love, Abundance, and Peace #3

I’m so excited to be keeping my energy aligned, I know I need it. My head is so much clearer when I make sure I’m aligned. I have more energy, I eat better, I communicate better, and I serve better. Those are just a few of the benefits. If you missed the original post about these daily exercises, you can find it here.

What are you going to do today to align yourself with the energy of love, abundance, and peace instead of fear, lack, and separation? While you are sitting here reading this, If you are having a hard day, try thinking in as simple of terms as possible. It could be that there is a roof over your head, breathable air, comfortable shoes, etc. Make sure to write it down. It can be on your phone, in a notebook, to me, to a friend, etc.

Really commit to doing three things. They don’t even have to be big. I can be something like drinking 64oz of water, writing in a journal, eating healthy, exercises, taking a walk, reading (personal growth, spiritual, etc.) praying, meditating, watching an inspirational Ted Talk, dance, etc. Whatever it takes to move your energy in the direction of inner peace. Remember, we can’t project peace to our relationships or the world unless we are carrying it inside of us. One of our greatest challenges can be re-wiring how we treat ourselves, but nothing is going to change if we don’t. Make sure you are only saying kind and compassionate things to yourself.

With Love, Gratitude, and Peace,

©Rachael Wolff 2020

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