For many years I struggled with self-doubt, insecurity, guilt, self-criticism, and feeling that I was not good enough. In summary, I was lacking self-love, I was at war with myself. I did not know, at the time, that I needed to learn to love and accept myself. Only when I finally understood this, everything in my life started to change, including my ability to love and accept others.

The first step was admitting that was in a vicious circle and I needed help. The thoughts that created the insanity in my life were not helping and I needed someone outside my mind to help me. This is when I decided to find a mentor and when I started to take self-growth classes. This decision transformed my life forever. It has been a beautiful journey of self-love, to the point that years later I wrote the book “Uncover Your Glorious Being”. I realized that I was not all the shortcomings that I had believed about myself and instead my essence was pure love.

Because the transformation that took place in my life was so remarkable, I continuously look for ways to support others to find the place within themselves where they know their own Self-worth. This week I start a new class series that will guide each participant to embark on a Journey of Self-Love. This will be truly a course that has the   potential to change the lives of participants forever. Click here to register and to learn more.

Every aspect of my life has been transformed as a result of loving and accepting myself, including relationships, work, success, prosperity, health, and my connection with God. I also feel more at peace with myself and the people around me. I also learned to be more accepting of others, to have more compassion, more understanding and humility, and deeper faith.

How do you travel the Journey of Self-Love?

1. Feel your emotions. If you feel sad, confused, angry, give yourself permission to feel your emotions. Face them with love and compassion and they will dissolve. Cry if you choose to cry, or write how you are feeling or call a confidant and let her/him know how you are feeling. Feeling your feelings is the best therapy because you respect what is coming up for you, deal with it as soon as you can with love and compassion and then let it go.

2. Let go of self-criticism. Be willing to forgive yourself for past mistakes and make the commitment to make the right choices that will move you in the direction of your highest potential.

2. Clear any resentments. Be willing to let go of the past and start the Journey of Self-Love

3. Access your Child Within. We all have an inner-child, who in many ways calls us, for us to heal the wounds of the past. Connect with love and compassion and feel the transformation.

4. Meditate: Take time every day to be in silence.

5. Be in Gratitude: In the morning Give thanks in advance for the wonderful day ahead of you. Before you go to sleep go over what happened during your day and give thanks for each situation, especially challenging ones, because they were an opportunity for you to grow. When you are in gratitude you are in prayer.

6. Keep centering your energy on the truth, your divine light.

7. Above all, have fun, play and enjoy your Journey of Self-Love

8. Give yourself the gift of participating in the 8-week class series Journey of Self-Love. Click here to register

Affirm: I love and accept myself exactly as I am

Gift: Listen to this inspiring message: Love Yourself with the Decisions You Make Every Day

To read this month’s Love in Action Newsletter, click here

How many times have you criticized yourself for having a habit that you are not happy with? Probably many times. The secret to letting go of negative habits is learning to replace them with good habits. Putting yourself down or criticizing yourself only increases the frustration, guilt and gives power to the old habit. Focusing on the solution by replacing the old habit with a new one is the way out and will bring you good results.

Each one of us has areas of our lives that we can improve by gaining good new habits. It is important to realize that the negative habits we have are the result of the conditioning from childhood and society and in many cases, there are so engrained in us that we do not even realize they are there. For example, family members treating each other with disrespect or abusive behavior by using language that is accusatory, demeaning, and even threatening. They might also show passive aggressive behaviors as not talking to each other for days or months. In many cases, there is anger that is expressed in very hurtful ways. It is a vicious circle that many times the family members do not realize that they are in it, and that their behavior is detrimental to themselves and others. These deep-seated behaviors have been passed down from generation to generation and if we do not stop to think about how we are affecting others, they will continue to spread like a virus. We do have the responsibility to become aware on how we are either infecting or positively impacting the world with our thoughts, language and attitude.

The first step is to be honest with ourselves and to be willing to let go of negative habits and replace them with good habits. We don’t have to accomplish this overnight and instead we can do it gradually until we are free from our old behavior.

Adopting a new habit takes courage, determination and will power. Here are some tips on how to do it:

Have a plan to replace the habit. Be intentional about putting the effort to adopt new habits. For example, when you find yourself in your old habit be willing to practice the new habit right there and then. As you continue to do this, the power of repetition will help you to finally succeed.

Cultivate your will power. Try first going for small accomplishments. Gradually you will get rid of tendencies you thought you could not overcome. Develop the habit of self-examination, of watching and analyzing your thoughts and behavior. Do not ever identify with your mistakes. Instead use your will power to change your behavior.

Use the power of the word to overcome negative self–talk. Be attentive to the way you use your words to either empower yourself or put yourself down. Your words are creating your reality and will help you to adopt the new habit if you affirm it with conviction. For example: “I can change. I have the will to change. I will change!”

Feed yourself with messages that will reinforce the way you want to live. Read inspiring books or listen to motivational messages, or watch inspirational videos. These will be all good companions on your journey to gaining good habits.

Surround yourself with good company. Seek people who are a positive influence in your life. Be with people who have positive minds, who use their will power to be the best version of themselves. Associate with those who have the consciousness of the good habit you are pursuing.

Use the power of affirmations. They will help you to change what is hidden in your subconscious mind and your consciousness will shift to the good habit.

Visualize yourself succeeding. Use all your senses as you visualize yourself succeeding in gaining the new habit.

Affirm: I am committed to cultivating good habits to bring joy and peace into my life

If you feel you need support in shifting from a negative habit to an empowering one, I am available to support you with a coaching session or with a series of Life Coaching sessions. We can meet by phone, Skype, FaceTime, or Zoom. Please visit my website or reply to this email for more information and to schedule a session.

Have you ever asked yourself how much you love and respect yourself in the decisions you make every day?There are so many ways in which we tend to discount ourselves when we make decisions, maybe because we want to please someone by seeking their approval, or we are fearful of the consequences if we say no, or we are afraid of what they are going to think about us, or we just don’t believe in ourselves.

We discount and hurt ourselves when we don’t treat our bodies with love, or when we accept negativity in our minds, or when we don’t honor our emotions. It takes strong will power to let go of habits that can be hurting our bodies like smoking, not eating properly, not exercising. However, if we approach the change from our desire to love ourselves with the decisions we make every day, we will be more receptive.

It also takes determination to have a winning attitude and a mind that is positive. Becoming aware of our behavior and our thoughts is essential so we can decide to shift our attitude. The same idea applies to honoring our emotions. We need to take time to honor our feelings so we can be in harmony with all.

The ideal situation is to make decisions that end up benefiting everyone involved. However, there are times when we have to make decisions that someone might not approve, but deep inside we know it is best for ourselves. What do we do at a moment like that? We either end up giving up our dreams to please others, or we gather the courage to do it. What is important, obviously, is to never do anything with the intention of purposely hurting someone else. This would not be a wise decision and will create a boomerang effect that will come back to us.

Here are some ideas that can support you to love yourself with the decisions you make every day:

• Do a self-analysis to see what areas of your life have some room for you to be more loving. For example, negative thinking, abusing the body, fear of saying “no”, fear of failure, self-judgement, people pleasing, procrastination and any detrimental behavior that may be hurting us.
• Be authentic. Express yourself with the joy of being you. Be congruent with your thoughts, words and deeds. Be free to be yourself!
• Believe in yourself: Trust yourself and let go of any self-doubt and self-denying behaviors. You have wonderful God given talents and abilities that make you unique. Share them.
• Communicate with clarity and conviction. Express your truth with love and respect and be willing to accept that people may disagree with you. This does not make you wrong; it is just a different perception.
• Give yourself permission to be happy: Happiness is a choice and it is something you have to decide to embrace. Your divine nature is bliss.
• Ask for divine guidance: Your Higher Power is always available to guide you. Ask and it is given! Be open and receptive to the guidance than can come thru a friend, a book, a dream, meditation or your intuition.

Affirm: I make wise decisions that enhance my life every day

I just came back from an amazing trip to South India. I went to the Kerala region to an Ayurveda resort near the capital, Trivandrum. This was my first time going to India. I was fortunate enough to follow my intuition to see India with the eyes of the soul, and as a result I had a very profound experience.

Seeing India with the eyes of the soul really meant to feel it with my heart and not to focus on the external but instead on its beautiful people. Externally there are things that can be overwhelming like the traffic, the poverty, the caste system, and many more. Every day I set up the intention to connect from my heart to their hearts and I believe this is the reason why I was able to experience the humbleness, devotion, kindness, sweetness, spirit of service, joy and deep spirituality of this extraordinary culture. I felt in love with their smiles, with the beautiful colors of their clothing, with the melody of their language and with their deep connection with God.

Very early every day, for hours at a time, you could feel their devotion in their voices singing to God in the temples, churches and mosques. The state of Kerala has a high catholic population. On the evening of December 24^th, my friends and I decided to go to midnight mass. The experience was quite profound. As we were approaching St. James Church, a very large church, thousands of people were walking to the church. When we got there, the church was packed with people inside and outside. There were no chairs. Everyone was sitting on the floor, women on one side and men on the other side. Fortunately, our driver had spoken to the priest earlier that day and they had reserved a space for us with chairs, to the side of the altar. The entire experience was breathtaking. The deep devotion, the singing, the rituals, everything was so deep that I was in tears most of the time. Here, at this church I understood why India is the land of spirituality. I could see and feel their devotion so deeply that it entered my heart and transformed me.

Everywhere we go, whether it’s in our own neighborhood or abroad, we have the choice to see with the eyes of the soul or the eyes of the ego. When we see with the eyes of the soul, we connect with the aspects of people that are positive and that can help us feel our similarities and unity and we can learn a great deal from them. The soul is kind, joyful, peaceful, compassionate, understanding, patient, and sweet. When we see with the eyes of the ego, we focus on seeing what is wrong and this only brings despair and separation.

Thinking about my experience in India, I’d like to live this new year by following the qualities in people that impacted me the most during my visit to India. I’d like to invite you to experience life every day with the essence of your soul. These are some of the qualities that we can embrace at a higher level:

1. Devotion: Being willing to go deeper in our connection with the divine within us.
2. Humbleness: Behaving in modest or unpretentious manner. Humility embraces contentment and simplicity.
3. Kindness: Committing to being kind to everyone regardless of race, religion, education or background.
4. Sweetness: Expressing outwardly the sweetness of the soul.
5. Joy: Keeping an attitude of happiness, regardless of the external circumstances. Being a smile millionaire.
6. Spirit of service: Having an unselfish attitude to serve whenever we are needed and with the intention of making a difference.

Affirm: I am willing to embrace each life experience seeing with the eyes of the soul