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I am 3 months into the Life Transformation Program. My commitment for the program is to exercise, write, and meditate everyday in order to honor my body, mind, and spirit and transform my life. Here are some of the changes I am experiencing.

Losing Weight

I am 15lbs lighter than when I started this program in September. I attribute that to the entire program combined, not just the exercise. The exercise is helping to burn calories, but as I mentioned in the October update food has lost its place as the focal point of my life. I eat less because I don’t eat to fill emotional needs.

Getting In Touch With My Emotions

As a result of not using food to feed emotions, they needed an outlet. What happened was that I got really sick. Suppressed emotions are a real force. Writing is serving as a great outlet for all those emotions. In addition to writing here, I keep a personal journal so that I can keep myself clear and healthy.

Developing Habits

During November, I was sick for a week. For the first 3 days I didn’t meditate, exercise, or write. For the rest of the week I picked up meditation and writing, but no exercise. To my surprise, I was able to pick up all exercise when I was feeling 100%. In another time, I would have let that illness derail me for a good 3 months. I would not be able to jump right back on the horse. This time around I just picked up where I left off.

Kicking It Up A Notch

I have a month by month break down of my goals for the year with increased focus, and intensity in every activity as the year progresses. In November, I increased my walking time from 30 to 40 minutes. I am still doing my power walks throughout the day as well. During November, I also hosted the Season of Gratitude where I did 2 posts on most days.

Deepening My Awareness of Spirit

I was introduced to meditation, metaphysics, and spiritual principles like the Law of Attraction very early on in life (8 is my earliest recollection). But, as I mentioned in the article Something’s Calling Me, I’ve held an intellectual understanding of these principles until recently. I am beginning to really practice all of those things I learned early on in life as I realize that everything is a manifestation of Spirit. This is a truly profound concept. What’s even more profound is that I am understanding that anywhere in my life that I am experiencing less than optimum is a result of a block in the flow of Spirit. When I find the blocks, they melt away effortlessly.

Dropping Into Meditation

When I sit for my meditations in the morning, I fall instantly to experiencing Spirit. A couple times during the meditation I get sidetracked, but I quickly remind myself to focus on Spirit, that those concerns or interests will be dealt with at another time. They fall away and I am back to experiencing pure Spirit. I get clear direction during my meditations. Sometimes, I challenge the guidance or doubt it, but I still follow. My life is completely turning around as a result.

Getting In Touch With My Spirit Guides

Before last month, I thought that the idea of Spirit Guides was whooey. Nonetheless, early on in the month I was prompted to do an intuitive reading with Erin Pavlina. She had a backlog so she said that she would get to me within 2 weeks. I had no idea when in that period I would come up. One morning at the end of my meditation, the guy that I was sitting with said he wanted to show me something. I was immediately surrounded by about 12 glowing people in white and the guy was gone. I sent Erin an email immediately and asked her to introduce me to them. As it turned out, I was next in the queue.

Turns out the guy that I was sitting with was one of my Spirit Guides and I have a host of them. I feel like I have a council of elders. Once I realized that I was not immersed in God during my meditations, I asked about it. That’s when the switch turned for my understanding of the presence of Spirit. It changed from an intellectual notion to a deep knowing.

In December, I am looking forward to increased energy and focus to add to my list of changes for the program. I am gaining tremendous insight into my self as I dedicate my time to personal exploration and growth and I can see the effects in my life. It truly is transforming.

This post is a part of the Season of Gratitude Series. You can participate by writing a gratitude post and telling me about it. For more details, click here.

Today I am thankful for my emotions. Let me explain.

I’ve spent almost all of my life surpressing my emotions in an effort to seem centered and composed. For most of my life I used food to do the trick. When I realized I was doing that and restricted my food by counting points and calories, I just surpressed them. On occasion they would erupt in an illness, most notably, an asthma attack.

Two weeks ago when I got really sick and couldn’t breathe, I was wondering what happened. There wasn’t any physical forewarning. One day I had a sore throat and the next I was laid out in bed. It wasn’t until I was telling people of some events that happened before I got sick that it occured to me that it was my body’s way of getting the emotions out.

As an aside, I intellectually believe that all illness is in the mind and is caused by a disconnect from Spirit. I didn’t really “get” that until I was reflecting on the events of that week.

Yesterday, as I was preparing for a huge day in the history of my church, my airways started to close up again. Fortunately, I realized what was happening. Rather than reach for the albuterol pump, I stopped and asked myself what this was about. It turns out I was excited. But rather than experience excitement and joy, I was trying to force myself to stay calm and composed. To not show emotion. Once I recognized the emotion, I gave myself permission to feel it and the air came again.

Throughout my life, I have placed a lot of emphasis on, and given a lot of attention to, my intellect and my connection to Spirit. My body and emotions were along for the ride. As I go through the Life Transformation Program and set aside time everyday to really be with my body, to move it, to talk to it, to listen to it, I have gained appreciation for its complexity and its role in my life.

Today, I do the same with my emotions. They are not to be surpressed, but to be expressed. All of them: anger, rage, sadness, joy, excitement. All of it. It’s how I experience life. True, I am a spritual being having a human experience. Human experience it is, chock full of emotions, of highs and lows and everything in between. Today I am thankful for my emotions and I give myself complete permission to experience them fully.