"The Impact of Presence: How It Shapes Your Success"

I sit here feeling called to talk about the term presence.

What is presence?

Presence to me is showing up for yourself and existing without attachments of your old self, and without fear of your future self.

When you are present in a moment- you are showing up for yourself at that very moment without allowing your actions, decision, choices, and behaviors to be persuaded or changed by the past or future.

It is easy to lose sight or fall out of alignment with your highest and most ideal self when you lose sight of the present moment. How many times a day do you find yourself having anxiety or fear about the future? How many times a day do you make excuses and narratives for your choices and behaviors because someone or an experience in the past broke you, so you created a barrier that even the people closest to you can't break through?

No matter how hard you try to stay present- it is inevitable that you will have to face fear and anxiety about the past or future. We (myself included) have a hard time admitting when we lose sight of the present moment, but we all fall victim to this all the time. Depending on how long we lose sight of the present moment, or allow fear and anxiety to overcome us- the more likely we are to never reach our full potential with feelings of peace, joy, and balance.

The more often you can become consciously aware that you are losing sight of the present moment, the happier and more at peace you will continue to feel. Being present is a secret superpower, and the more you can crack the code to staying present the more your overall wellbeing will improve. Presence is something you should fight for everyday.

So- I am going to share 3 tips and strategies that have helped me practice presence on a day to day basis.

Tip #1 Do some personal inventory and ask yourself why people are triggering you.

I know you are sitting here thinking.. what the heck does this have to do with presence? Over the last few years- I began identifying that the people who trigger and bother me the most- are usually mirroring and showing traits within myself that I do not want to face or accept are a part of me too.

For so many years I would get super upset with people who were wishy washy with their decisions or cared too much about what others would think. I would complain in my head about this, and tell myself I would never be that way. All to find out with some serious inventory and deep internal work- that I was this person, and people who were people pleasers triggered me because it was a dark trait of mine that I never came to terms or accepted within myself.

I would find myself in my early adult years committing to two parties on the same day because I couldn't say no, not giving my honest opinions to those I cared about most for fear of rejection, and focusing my time and energy into people who already had rejected me. I would reject people who were high value friends just to persuade the people who showed zero interest or investment in my friendship that I was worth their time. This came at the realization that I felt zero worth in myself, and rather than feeling peace from day to day I was faced with fear and anxiety constantly.

So I did some personal inventory on why these people continued to trigger and bother me:

Can you guess what happened when I swallowed my pride, and began to accept that my people pleasing tendencies were a flaw within myself?

I was able to get more present and learn to accept others for who they are- the good, the bad, and the in between. I became an encourager to others who had these qualities that I tried so deeply to hide within myself as well. I started seeing people for who they were... which is human. We all have flaws within ourselves, and we should learn to love and accept others for all of their characteristics.

If someone continues to trigger you, bother you, and disrupt your peace- before pointing your fingers at other people- do some internal work and make sure that the person you are criticizing and talking down on- is not just a mirror of your own insecurities. God will present these people in your life as lessons, and with time they turn into the biggest blessings because they force you to face the discomfort head on and grow.

When you take the time and do the work internally you will start to recognize that criticizing others, being jealous of others, and seeing flaws within other people is detrimental to the present moment. So tip #1 is to do some personal inventory when someone causes you jealousy or anger. Take a look in the mirror before you start talking down on someone. Do they have qualities you desire, or do they possibly have qualities that you are hiding deep within yourself that you don't want to admit you also have? You won't be perfect at personal inventory and healing through this type of inner work, but doing the work is what is going to help you find presence more often, and in turn a byproduct of peace, happiness, balance, and positivity.

Tip #2 Get out in nature and BREATHE

A lot of us spend 8-12 hours a day inside a building with the same environment, same job tasks, and same social encounters Monday through Friday. With time we begin to feel pent of aggression towards ourselves, our coworkers, and even at times our clients/patients/customers for no obvious reason. When we begin to have feelings of anger, resentment, and bitterness towards the flow of our day or others- it is obvious you have lost sight of the present moment.

Studies have shown getting up, moving, and getting out in the sunshine is a great way to release feel good receptors in your brain. Being present and recognizing when your out of character with your best self is step one. Step two would be to recognize if the habits and behaviors you are practicing are actually going to help relieve your stress for the long term.

Are these habits/behaviors you are practicing to reduce your stress positive deposit habits, or are they negative deposit habits on your overall wellbeing? If your resolution to stress continues to be processed food items, doom scrolling on your phone, binge watching Netflix, drinking alcohol, and laying around- your body overtime will make these habits and resolutions your identity and who you are at your core. This will in turn create a byproduct of anger, anxiety, frustration, moodiness, poor mental health, and poor self worth.

Your body and mind want to repeat what you always practice, so next time you are feeling stressed- I would urge you to get outside for 3-4 minutes, get some sunshine, breathe a few deep breaths, and reground your central nervous system and body through mindful healthy habits rather than negative deposit habits. The more you can practice positive long term health habits on a daily basis the happier you will feel.

Stressed? Try these instead

• Rather than eating processed foods- take a walk outside

• Rather than doom scrolling- do yoga, meditate, or journal

• Rather than binge watching a Netflix series- go on a hike with friends, then catch a movie

• Rather than binge drinking alcohol- prioritize protein, drink mocktails, and paint coffee mugs with friends

• Rather than scrolling social media- listen to a self help podcast or read a self help book

Tip #3 Practice Gratitude Each Day, and Have Faith...

This tip has been the most life changing tip for me when it comes to staying present. We all fall victim to autopilot throughout the week. You wake up, brush your teeth, eat breakfast, rush to work, complain about minor inconveniences, come home, make dinner, go to sleep, and repeat it again Monday through Friday. Day after day.

When we live in autopilot mode, we lose sight of the present moment. We live for the weekend, we live for that once a year vacation, we live for big events, but forget to focus and have gratitude for the little things on a day to day basis that matter most. The bed you wake up and make every morning was something you worked for and paid for with your own hard money. Or that bed you wake up and make everyday may have been gifted by someone who left it to you when they passed. That bed helps you recover and regenerate so that you can show up everyday and be a better version of yourself than you were yesterday. That roof over your head protects you, feeds you from the kitchen, gives you shelter, and is a place that brings you peace and balance after a long day. We don't usually end our nights focused on the great things god has planted in our life. Instead- we hyper-focus on the minor inconveniences. We lose sight of the abundant things because we allow the negatives in life to consume us. When we hyper-focus on the negatives going on in our lives it can get to the point that we don't even recognize all the positives going on around us. Our lens at which we view the world becomes dull, grey, and angry, and we aren't even aware of it because we spend five out of seven days of the week in autopilot, and not even being present.

I became aware that I was living on autopilot when I started focusing on the small wins of each day, and practicing faith over fear.

My faith over the last few years has helped me live in a more abundant lens of gratitude, peace, and balance. I will share the two ways I used to look at my life experiences. These lenses were not healthy, and not in alignment with a healthy mind/body/spirit, but I feel obligated to discuss them because it took me years to consciously recognize that I was seeing the world through this perspective.

The first way I would look at my life experiences was through a self destructive lens. I would link how others treated me to my self worth. If someone was mean to me I thought it was because I didn't deserve to be loved. I would tell myself and feel subconsciously that I was unlikeable. For the life of me I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that people who don't like you may have their own traumas and self inventory work to do. When you trigger people and they are mean to you when you don't deserve it- you have qualities or characteristics that they desire within themselves. However- they lack the motivation or desire to work towards these qualities for themselves. Instead of complimenting you- they criticize you. This makes you question your worth. I want you to know that you are worthy, you are loved, and you are enough. How someone feels about you and treats often times has nothing to do with you. So let that go. Be present for the people in your life who love you for you, who admire you for your strengths, and accept you for your weaknesses.

The second way I would look at negative experiences was with a victim mentality excuse based mindset. In life there are going to be times you have to give yourself grace. You give yourself grace when the storms start building up and pinning you into a wall more than you ever imagined possible. These storms in life make it hard to even breathe. These storms make you feel like you are doing your best, but it still doesn't feel like enough. During these times it's easy to let fear and anxiety, and anger hold a place in your heart. These times of needing to give yourself grace are the times you need to practice gratitude, find support in family and friends, and keep your faith strong.

However- the giving yourself grace can also downward spiral into allowing false narratives and victim mindsets to take over. There is someone to always blame for why things aren't working out for you. You are never the problem. You don't workout because of a different excuse and roadblock everyday. You don't prioritize what you really 'NEED' because you don't have "time." You allow yourself to be a victim to your circumstances constantly. This is not a period of giving yourself grace, because you aren't even in a healthy headspace, or practicing healthy behaviors and habits. You are just allowing life to rule you, and continuing to fall victim to self destructive habits, negative self talk, and criticizing others. I still find myself in this lens from time to time. However- the more you can find presence within each day, and become aware when you are practicing negative thought patterns, negative talk of others, and negative habits- the easier it is to get back to a more abundant lens of thinking, speaking, and acting.

So tip #3 is a long winded one. You have to be grateful for all that you have in the present moment even if you desire more. You have to trust all storms placed in your life even the ones that bring you to your knees are intentional. These storms are true tests to your character. This is the time presence is the most key. Allow yourself to be a warrior in a tough storm, don't allow yourself to fall victim to the storm, and make false narratives/excuses. Lastly-faith is key during all of life's storms. Faith helps you believe that everything is intentional and for your higher good. Faith makes you grateful when you start achieving more than you ever imagined. Seeing the world through a present and faith driven lens will help keep you grounded, balanced, at peace, and in a healthy space for the long-term. So tip #3 to finding presence is practicing gratitude, and having faith!

I hope these tips help you stay more present, more grounded, and in alignment with your happiest healthiest self! Thank you for tuning in! Keep working on presence!

"Discovering the Power of Mindfulness: 10 Practices for a Better YOU"

It's up to you to decide what habits and behaviors to practice on a daily basis. Your habits set the foundation of your overall wellbeing.

I sit here today drinking my morning coffee in a creative space to write. I have been having a really tough time lately with my mental, physical, nutritional, and spiritual health. I recently took a leap of faith to clear up some space and time to start pursuing my health and wellness business. With this change in routine, habits, behaviors, and environment- I have been feeling a lot of friction, fear, anxiety, and most recently imposter syndrome.

There are so many days recently with this change and shift towards pursuing my calling that I let my ego win and I tell myself I will never be good enough, that I will just embarrass myself, and I don't deserve to live the life I always envisioned. Some days I can recognize and break free from my perfectionist mindset, ego, and old thought patterns and belief systems. Other days I can't break free from these negative, self deprecating thought patterns, and I feel "lost."

I am sharing this to let you know you are not alone- if you have felt these feelings one time or another in your life- I have been there too. We all have dark days, and days where our ego and thoughts in our head talk awful to us.

In these dark days- I have recently found great success with implementing mindful practices into my daily routine. I will share the 10 below that have really helped me break through the chains of my old self, and find freedom, happiness, and peace with the person I'm working towards becoming everyday. Some days are better than others, but by implementing these mindful practices- you may find better peace, happiness, balance, and alignment with yourself just like I did!

Practice 1- Move

When I am feeling down it's easy to change into my favorite pair of PJs, fuzzy socks, pour myself a glass of dark red wine, and watch my favorite comfort show (it will always be friends or new girl for me). Although this is not necessarily an awful thing to do in moderation, it's not what your body is craving at the soul level. Our mind, body, and spirit thrives off movement when we are feeling down, but so many of us fail to prioritize movement into our daily routine.

The friction that most people feel when it comes to movement is that most people have not created a daily routine or habit involving movement, which feels foreign and frictional for the brain at first. A person who always turns to their TV and phones when they are down- makes a connection with their brain that being down and getting on their TV/phone will provide comfort.

So instead of craving a healthier habit like movement when a person is feeling down- their brain will relay signals that they don't want to move, or that movement won't help their mood since laying around and watching TV and scrolling through their phone is what the brain has practiced time and time again. The brain thrives and learns off repetition. So it will crave the habits, routines, and behaviors it always does on a daily basis. So don't be surprised if movement is not your first choice or frictional when you first start trying to implement it if you aren't moving very much to begin with.

What most people don't understand is that choosing tv and choosing to scroll on your iPhone over time and for years and years- will create negative deposits on your overall health. If you are always choosing your comfort foods, comfort show, and drinking as your vice to cope with the emotions of a bad day- it will negatively impact your long term health. When we can break free from our old habits, behaviors, and routines, and prioritize movement- your overall well being will improve.

Your brain releases feel good chemicals when you move. So next time you want to reach for your comfort food, that glass of wine, or the remote for your favorite TV show to escape reality- I challenge you to change your thought patterns and prioritize the one thing that has been clinically proven time and time again to improve your mental, spiritual, and physical health- and that is MOVEMENT. I encourage you to move more, move often, and definitely move when you are feeling down.

Practice 2- End the Day on a Win

End each day focusing on the positives. There are 24 hours in one day. Although we have days where it seems like the hours were filled with more negative than positive hours- we are already starting the day with a win, and that is that we are getting up breathing earth air, feeling our hearts beat within our chest walls, and getting another day to live out the human experience. Life is a daily present in itself, but sometimes the emotions and heaviness of a daunting and negative day can make us forget this.

So at the end of each night find a quiet space, a safe place, and a place of comfort where you can internalize your day, and find the good in it. My Fiance has been in my life the last two years, and we always tell each other to "Win the Day" before we leave every morning. Although a lot of days feel like I am losing miserably, if I can only focus on the fact that I was granted an amazing opportunity to live another day living, breathing, and feeling emotions through the human experience- I call that a win.

So I dare you to find the courage to end the day on a win.

Practice 3- Get out in Nature

The concept of nature in itself is so grounding and humbling to me. A greater power created our galaxy with all the planets that revolve around the sun. Here we are on planet earth having a good time, and given the opportunity to explore and see mother nature from the human perspective. I have recently found so much gratitude in all that nature has to offer after the pandemic. Spending so much time locked up inside, and feeling like I was a prisoner to my house made me grateful for any chance I get to be outside absorbing the rays of the sun, and breathing in the fresh earth air.

Just like the habit of movement telling yourself to get outside in nature will be frictional and hard initially if it is not part of your daily habits and routines to begin with- but the more you start building repetition and prioritizing movement and being outdoors in nature- the better your long term health, and overall wellbeing will be.

I would love to hit the fast forward button to show others how important it is to prioritize movement and getting outside. For me personally- working in the orthopedic clinic setting for the last 4 years has really opened my eyes to what negative deposit habits and behaviors can do for you as you age. So I encourage you to envision the daily habits and behaviors you are currently practicing. Iff you were to hit the fast forward button and jump into the timeline of you being older- like the movie "click" with Adam Sandler would you have regrets with the daily habits/behaviors you are currently practicing- or would you feel proud that you set your aged body up for success?

Practice 4- Say No to the Things That Take Away From Your Happiness

Boundaries... yikes...

Before I came to the point in my life where I was able to set healthy boundaries, I was full of resentment in others who did. Since I lacked healthy boundaries I was always repulsed or instantly offended by friends, acquaintances, and peers who would say no to me or set healthy boundaries for themselves.

It came with deep internal reflection that I was projecting my own insecurities and lack of my own boundaries onto them. I am not perfect by any means, and still struggle with setting healthy boundaries, and learning to respect other people for their boundaries- but these are vital for your long term health.

Saying no to something or someone that is not filling your cup, and in turn other peoples- is the perfect time to set a healthy boundary. Some of the richest and wealthiest people in the world talk about how money is not their biggest asset. The biggest asset is TIME. When you start looking at your daily activities, habits, behaviors, actions, and who you allow into your life- you will recognize why healthy boundaries are so important.

You don't get time back. If you are spending a lot of your time regretting and resentful for doing things you wish you would have said no to- you will spend a lot of your day feeling negative emotions and feeling drained. Healthy boundaries are a way to ensure your energy and time is being invested in things that truly bring you alignment with your highest, happiest, and healthiest self.

Practice 5- Journal Your Day

I have recently come to the realization that I spend a lot of my time venting to family members, friends, and my fiancé about things that could easily be shared confidentially in my journal. I have come to the point in my self growth journey that I have recognized that I am a pretty optimistic person, but highly sensitive. As a person who is highly sensitive- it is easy for my feelings to get hurt quickly, and to get easily agitated by others even if I don't always show it.

The old version of myself would react to any situation that disturbed my inner peace by venting out my frustrations and complaining. The new version of myself still does this at times (shout out to my work besties and fiancé)- but I have found such a great release in journaling. Rather than pouring this negative energy onto someone else and being selfish with their time, I have chosen to try to journal about it instead.

I currently work in healthcare. I miserably fail all the time at holding my frustrations in about how I get treated by patients, the roadblocks of the medical system, and so much more. With any fast paced environment (not just healthcare) it's easy to get into a highly reactive and agitated state. However, each day I get better and better at inwardly telling myself that these emotions can be settled by getting outside, by taking deep breaths, and by journaling these thoughts and emotions out at the end of the day. Although the journal doesn't talk back like human interaction- I truly can feel the negative emotions being released and absorbed by the pen and paper.

Practice 6- Practice Gratitude

The above practice of journaling can be used to absorb negative emotions and feelings, but also can be used to absorb positive emotions and feelings of happiness and gratitude.

Physically you can practice gratitude by journaling about it, writing a note, or sharing a gift with a friend to express gratitude. Spiritually you can practice gratitude by prayer. Prayer over what you have, the food that feeds your mouth each day, the roof over your head, and in times of desperation where all you have is faith.

Living in an ego and victim mentality mindset will never make you truly appreciate all that you already have. If you can't express gratitude for all that source has provided you with, you will never see the world through a positive, happy, and abundant lens.

The more time you can spend in gratitude and grace, the the more you truly will appreciate and enjoy all that life has to give you. So practice gratitude DAILY and as often as you can.

Practice 7- Practice Acceptance- Only Take Advice From the People Who are Going Where you Want to Go

If you are allowing someone who disagrees and criticizes you for your vision and calling to be of service to others.. let them go.

Your inner voice is wisdom, your inner voice is light, and your inner voice can be YOU in the highest realm. When you start listening and taking action with your inner voice- you will start to grow in a direction that even YOU may not fully comprehend. Growing into your true self takes time. Steve Jobs didn't create apple overnight, Jay Shetty only talked to a crowd of 5 people before selling out arenas as one of the biggest motivational speakers, and my absolute favorite is that Milton Hershey created Hershey Park before even coming up with the recipe for his Milk Chocolate Hershey Bar.

When you start growing, chasing, and pursuing your higher calling- this can come at the cost of a lot of judgement. Start practicing acceptance with those who do not see your vision. It's okay to stay in a place of respect when they share their views, but do not allow those criticisms and opinions to hold POWER over your vision. Only listen to the criticism and advice from the people who are where you want to be, or going in the direction of where you want to go.

Practice 8- Shower and Pamper Yourself

Self care is a great practice on the hard days, and even on the good days. A simple shower after a long, hard, and hectic day can be calming, relaxing, and help improve your mood.

If you are in a place of burnout, and the thought of showering feels exhausting- find it within yourself to shower so that you can relax the mind, body, and spirit. A simple shower can hit the reset button for you.

Practice 9- Practice Looking Inwards

We spend so much time as a collective of humans reacting to other peoples behaviors and actions, I feel like we avoid looking internally and doing personal inventory with ourselves. I was victim to the blame game for years and years. If someone hurt my feelings, a friendship ended, or I had a bad breakup- I refused to look internally. Looking back on this- I regret it deeply.

No matter what experience you go through in life it's important to remember that there are different perspectives to every story. A fight you watch may be told 10-15 different ways because of all the spectators in the crowd, a falling out between friends may have two different sides of the story that don't match up at all, and a bad breakup may have a friend group of one significant other labeling someone as the villain when all along the other person was just as guilty and possibly even more of a villain.

With any human experience it's important to look within yourself to learn and grow, rather than just blaming others in your external world. The last few years I have tried to hold myself accountable of inwards learning from all my experiences- especially the ones involving other people. It's easy to rationalize and blame other people for confrontations and fights, but true power and grace comes from the people who want to look within to see what they could have done better. Taking responsibility for an experience or confrontation may be hard on your ego, but this is what truly helps you find alignment with your highest and best version of yourself.

Practicing peace, grace, light, and love is so much more healthy than pointing fingers, comparing yourself to others, blaming, and criticizing others. Spread love to your neighbors and treat others how you would like to be treated. These practices often times takes looking inwards to be a light for others outwardly. When you discover someone is disturbing your inward peace and happiness set some healthy boundaries for yourself, but also do some personal inventory to see what you can learn from the experience. We are at human school, part of the human experience, to learn, grow, and spread love to others living in the human experience with us.

Don't let your ego and failure to look within and to grow stop you from finding your wings to fly.

Practice 10- Learn to Say Nice Things Behind People's Backs, and to Yourself

Compliment others. Spread love. There is already so much hate in the world. If we all just started respecting each other and complimenting each other for our strengths, the world would be a better place.

You need to compliment yourself just as much as you compliment those you love most. Wake up everyday and look at yourself in the mirror and say things like "You are Enough."

You are indeed enough, and the moment you start realizing your presence in this world is just as valuable, needed, and important as everyone else here- you will truly live out your purpose.

I truly hope these ten mindful practices can change your perspective on how to approach life with a healthy lens, and through the tough days. You are the creator to your own internal happiness. Now is the time to take responsibility and find the happy and healthy in your life that you deserved all along!

Much Love,

Julie

"The Power of Positivity: Shining as a Light in a World Full of Darkness"

Over the last few years I have done a lot of internal work to become more aware of how I treat others, and how I should treat myself. I have recognized that the world can be a very dark place at times. The daily news, social media, and social settings can become very dark, scary, and anxiety ridden.

I often times fall victim to the darkness. It is easy to fall victim to it on a daily basis.

Here are some examples of falling victim to darkness that I will share below:

• Fear of the future watching the news

• Developing a critical lens when being on social media and comparing yourself to others

• Questioning your self worth while scrolling on social media

• Surrendering your values and principles for conformity in social settings

• Gossiping to fit in

• Talking down on others just so you feel better about yourself

• Judging others before looking inwardly on your own insecurities and flaws

It's important to recognize when you are falling victim to darkness. We are all human, we have flaws, we have insecurities, and NO ONE is perfect- no matter how much the external world tries to portray perfection.. we need to remember and stand for the fact we are HUMAN and we sin.

I feel like darkness is convenience, which is why it is so hard to shine and be a light for others in such a dark world. Our brain loves practicing habits, behaviors, and beliefs that are convenient and not mentally straining. So when something in your external world starts to go sour- we fall victim to blaming the external world- rather than looking inwardly to find a solution, to see the light, and to work through it.

Darkness is heavy, but without darkness you have no value or appreciation for the light. It's inevitable that there will be darkness in our lives.

This is why people who try to cover up darkness and pretend it is not there have a hard time withering through the darkest of storms. It's about how you view darkness, and about continuing to see the light even in the darkest of storms. It's all about perspective, and how you choose to view your external world. You can walk through life working on yourself internally and continue practicing actions, values, morals, and behaviors in alignment with light and love. Or you can choose to fall victim to your surroundings and walk a path that is dimly light by allowing your habits, behaviors, values, and actions be in alignment with darkness and deprivation.

In my own wording of this famous concept Jay Shetty's discussed- you can view a dark and cloudy day one of two ways.

1. Through a negative lens and focusing only on the clouds and darkness. You are not recognizing that their is light and sunshine behind the clouds. You are allowing the clouds and darkness to consume you, you fall victim to your surroundings, and fail to step back and view the experience for the light it brings. You just see it as negative and dark.

2. Through a positive lens and seeing the cloudy day as short term darkness, but knowing that there is light behind the clouds- so there is good to come after the short period of darkness.

Perspective and the lens at which you look at your life experiences through is key to finding your healthy and happy. Acceptance, recognition, and working through dark days is important, but there is a difference between working through the darkness and accepting it for what it is, and allowing minor inconveniences to make your world dark in real time, and all the time.

When you fall victim to darkness and allow darkness to consume you- any minor inconvenience will throw off your day, which makes you fall into a victim mentality with your surroundings. You live life through a lens of darkness and deprivation, and any minor inconvenience is the "end of the world" as you know it. This is the type of person who will look at a beautiful blue sky with one cloud and call it "cloudy." They don't focus on the beauty of the beautiful blue sky, and all the light it brings- they allow the one small cloud and little bit of darkness to take up their focus, their identity, and their belief systems. Don't let minor bouts of darkness distract you from the light and bigger purpose/meaning of each day. Even in the darkest days- there will be a moment of light you can focus on. Each day there will be light to ground you, give you peace, and provide you hope. Some days there is more darkness than light, but fighting to focus on the moments of light will help you spread light and love in a world where it is easier and more convenient to focus on darkness.

Each and every night the sky becomes dark, but there is hope and knowing in the morning the sun will rise. Your life should be viewed through the same lens. The darkest nights and darkest storms- make you appreciate and have gratitude for the happy moments and light and love this life will bring you.

So how do you become more of a light in a world where there is so much darkness?

1. Acceptance Accept the bad, but find the light/sun in each lesson, experience, and moment. When you take a deep breath, process, and reflect on each experience- you start to know that there is purpose behind the moments of darkness. Darkness is divinely placed into your life for you to find the light, and to see each experience for the lesson. Often times you don't understand the experiences going on in your life until later on. So having FAITH that everything is so divinely placed and for a reason will give you comfort and peace in each moment of darkness. The sun will rise- so the same applies to your life- that darkness will fade. Keep having FAITH.

2. Gratitude

This goes hand and hand with acceptance. When you start viewing your experiences of darkness for a lesson, blessing, and to eventually see the light. You start living life in gratitude. The darkest of days and lows in life- make you so appreciative of the moments of light and happiness. When you don't experience the dark days, you can't have appreciation for the happiest moments. So practice gratitude for the small things like living to see another day, having a healthy beating heart, and having a clean pair of clothes. Because one day when you have more than you ever imagined- you will spread so much light and love to others.

3. Practice Solitude

Spending alone time with yourself is a great practice to learning who you are, and what your values, morals, and belief systems are. The more time you spend getting to know yourself, and all that you stand for- the less likely you are to fall victim to your external world, and to seek external validation from others. When you stand firm in your power and all that you divinely gift to others- you will be less likely to let others steal your light. You become a person who listens to understand others, you view experiences from all perspectives, and you do not let criticism or naysayers impact your internal worth. The only way to stand firm in who you are is to get an understanding of who you are by practicing solitude. You will develop your own ways of thinking, values, morals, and belief systems when you are alone without seeking external validation from others. Grow into yourself and who you are, rather than seeking to understand who you are from others.

4. Growth

In a world that's everchanging don't fear growth. New experiences, travel, and diversifying yourself in different cultures will bring more light into your world internally, and in turn externally by impacting others. Not being afraid to question your belief systems and all that you have already learned through life- is what will keep you shining light and love. If we didn't question our reality- we would never grow. The medical field and technological advances are great example of not being afraid of change and growth. We would not have the medicine we have and still be calling others from landlines or payphones if we were afraid of change and growth. So as frictional as it is initially- don't be afraid to grow.

5. Practice love and kindness.

The bible is a great outline and resource for being gracious, practicing kindness, being a light for others, and loving others how you would want to be loved. Even if you don't fully believe in the bible and all of its principles- some source crafted each and every one of us to come down here on earth and walk a path in alignment with the principles of light, love, and kindness. It's easy to judge, throw shame on others, and be quick to criticize others for making mistakes. However- one mishap or mistake should not make a trajectory or story of that person's life. A mistake should only serve as a sentence or chapter in that person's book. The statement of not judging a book by a cover- could not hold more true for how we should be practicing light and love in this world. See a person for their whole story, every chapter, every experience, and every hardship. You may get clarity and understanding for their behaviors, actions, and how they treat others when you look at the bigger picture. Empathize with people, seek to understand, and listen to understand who they are as a human. We are all FLAWED. You don't have to be friends with everyone, but respecting and trying to understand people for who they are and where they are coming from is key for practicing a life in alignment with light and love.

In a world where there is so much darkness- find the courage to be the light.