Purpose

exercises for living bigger

/ Susan Hanshaw / Leave a comment

www.sanctuaryforchange.com
www.eventsinlove.com
http://marriedwithpurpose.wordpress.com

If there is one thing that I’d like you to take away from this space here, it is that how you experience life is totally your choice. If you are completely content with the state of your life, I say more power to you. Yet if you feel a yearning to reach higher, to experience the fullest, most robust life you can, then I’m right here with some insights to support you.

A couple of posts ago I talked about the choice we have to live whatever life we choose. I discussed how you could choose to live big or small. Let it be known that I’m not here to judge. We’re all here as equals. It is totally your choice to live the kind of life you want. I just see that my job is to support those who want to live bigger. So to follow up on that post, here are some exercises you might find helpful in making the shift from small to bigger thinking:

  1. Create a morning ritual which reminds you of your choice to shine as brightly as you want. You are not bound to the standards of your family, friends or colleagues.
  2. Authentically act as if you are on your way to that bigger life. Putting yourself in that role is how you will become it.
  3. Use your alone time in the car to visualize the life you’d love to create. Don’t be afraid to dream big.
  4. Cut images out of magazines that represent what you want from your life and put them in noticeable places. Look at them with the expectation that you will manifest them for yourself.
  5. Adopt a dream buddy. Get together frequently for coffee or tea to share ideas and encourage one another.
  6. Identify someone who has created the kind of life you wish for yourself. Think of them as a model for your own success.
  7. Create a practice of expressing your gratitude for all the blessings in your life. Gratitude acts as a magnet for more of the same.

the choice to live bigger

/ Susan Hanshaw / 2 Comments

www.sanctuaryforchange.com
www.eventsinlove.com
http://marriedwithpurpose.wordpress.com

“We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us.  And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”
—Marianne Williamson

Much of the coaching work that I do these days is around the topics of finding one’s passions and purpose and manifesting greater abundance.  I guess this speaks to what we all want to experience in our lives.  After all, we’re told this is our God-given right.  We can all look at others who demonstrate a strong ability to accept with open arms this right.  Yet why do so many others of us fumble?  Why are we so scared to step up to the plate, to throw open our arms and hearts and yell, “Bring it on!”

As children and up through adulthood, we have been delivered the message that it is uncool to be conceited or think too highly of our talents.  One slip of a vague tongue that implies how pleased we are with ourselves is apt to get a finger wagging from a loved one mocking how humble we are not.  So we’ve learned to project ourselves as small and insignificant, the polar opposite of what we really are.  No wonder we have such difficulty figuring out what we want to do with our lives.  We squelch our own potential for the sake of fitting in.  This is based on our belief that we risk coming across as “better” than others when we express a desire to live the fullest, most awesome life we can.  Yet there is a way to reframe that so that it works in our favor.

We all share the same glory of God within us.  We all hold the capacity to shine in equal brightness.  So it’s not a matter of being better than others.  It’s a matter of choice as to the degree in which you choose to accept the gifts and opportunities that are available to all of us in life.  It’s a choice to allow yourself to dream big and go for it.  And as more and more of us make the choice to live bigger, we can start a new trend where living our dreams is the more popular choice.  What a world that would be, wouldn’t it?

it’s not about the money

/ Susan Hanshaw / 2 Comments

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www.sanctuaryforchange.com

I received an email the other day from someone who was asking me to justify the sanity of leaving a secure, well-paying job to follow one’s heart.  I can certainly understand the question because it is one that stayed lodged in my head for a long time.  Yet now that it has been two years since I made such a leap, I find myself completely on the other side of the fence.  I ask how one can justify denying one’s heart for the sake of money.

Following one’s heart is not a frivilous desire or act.  It’s actually quite the opposite.  It’s an owning up to be responsible to your spirit to live the life it wishes to express.  It’s a following through on the will that was placed within you when you were created.  You can choose to deny this God-given purpose as long as you want.  Yet your denial of it doesn’t make it go away.  It just means that you’ve chosen not to let your soul come alive.

Let me ask you this.  Do you really want to make your life all about the money?

awakening

/ Susan Hanshaw / Leave a comment

www.sanctuaryforchange.com

I used to consider the word “awakening” as one of those new age terminologies that would never make its way to my vocabulary.  Yet somehow I have since not only come to understand what the term means, I have actually experienced it in myself.  And because of the mentoring work that I do, I am also seeing it occurring in others.  I sense there might even be a revolution brewing.

What I am referring to is a shift in what many of us are now willing to tolerate as our experience of life.  I’m seeing this in myself as well as my sisters and brothers of the Baby Boomer generation.  As a whole, we’re well-educated and have spent our adult lives building successful careers.  We’re an affluent and accomplished generation.  Yet as we lose our parents from this earth and let go of our children’s hands as they walk along their own independent paths, we realize that in the very end all we really have to hold onto is ourselves and our connection to the universe.  A generation that crashed through the elusive corporate glass ceiling, we now want more.  We’re no longer satisfied showing up at the office like a machine collecting a paycheck.  We want to feel passionate about our work.  We want to fulfill our purpose.

For many getting in touch with their purpose seems like the most daunting of tasks.  Yet it is daunting only when we remain in the machine mode we’ve become accustomed to; when we experience life only on the surface.  It’s when we awaken to remember that we have heart and a soul that we can begin to crack the mystery of our purpose.  For purpose is an expression of our heart.  That’s where we need to look for our clues.  When we begin to have a relationship with our heart—to pay attention to what makes it skip a beat or feel totally full of joy—we can start to recognize the passions that are unique in us.  And it’s our uniqueness that enables us to serve the world in our most authentic way.  That’s what purpose is.

If you are one who is seeking to step into your purpose yet feel stuck in knowing how to go about it, stay tuned here.  I will be talking more about this in future posts.  As a start, though, I would encourage you to step outside of yourself from time to time and take a look at the package of who you are from a sense of purpose.   Take an inventory of the following and ask yourself why you might have inherited these particular gifts:

What are your creative or professional skills?
Recreational interests?
Physical attributes and body type?
What adjectives are often used to describe how you show up in the world?
What simple things give you joy?
Do you have you a long-held dream that just doesn’t go away?

Awakening is about getting in touch with your soul and giving it a chance to come alive.  The way to do that is to pay attention to who you are and how you respond to the events that unfold in your days.  There are many clues to be found, yet in order to see them you must be paying attention.  It’s not hard.  It simply requires focus.  Yet that focus makes life far more interesting than being asleep at the wheel in machine mode. 

the faith to follow your heart

/ Susan Hanshaw / Leave a comment

www.sanctuaryforchange.com

“Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.”
           — Kahlil Gibran

I left my well-paying corporate job just shy of two years ago to follow my heart.  When I share my story I often receive comments back about the courage it took to take such a leap.  I won’t deny that courage wasn’t involved.  Yet what it really was and continues to be is a leap of faith that my heart is leading me where it knows I am supposed to go.  And I follow it because I trust that my heart is wiser than my mind.  I believe it knows the real role I am supposed to play in our world.  And I believe that if I am doing what I am really here to do, the universe will take care of me just fine.

You see, when we show up for the role we are really here to play, we then become in true alignment with God’s intention for us.  Wouldn’t it make sense then that everything we need to be successful in this role will somehow find its way to us through God?  Isn’t this what is meant by the statement that everything that we will ever need was given to us when we were created?

The first personal growth workshop that I taught included an exercise which asked the students to share the unexpected gifts that had come their way throughout the course of life.  I assumed that each person would produce a list as abundant as my own.  I was shocked when a handful of the participants shared that they felt that life had been much of a struggle to get from here to there.  What an eye-opener that was for me.  My instinct quickly told me that because I have always been one to expect that I would be well taken care of, that was my experience.  I attracted my good fortune through my thinking.

So here I am in year two without my cherished paycheck.  Truth be told, I’m not where I’d like to be financially yet.  Do I ever experience days where I focus on fear or lack, you might ask?  Yes, I have those days.  Yet luckily they are quite rare.  For these days when I get up in the morning, I pay close attention to that voice inside that feels like my heart giving me direction and I surrender to it.  My heart is now the boss.

Yesterday I awoke with a strong desire to do some serious research on what kind of equipment I would need to add video to my blog here.  My boyfriend sat down with me and together we gave ourselves an education in digital camcorders.  On his way home he stopped at an electronics store to discover the model we’d been looking at on sale and he snagged it for me.  So stayed tuned because within a week I expect to deliver my messages of hope and inspiration with my voice and face as well as my fingertips.

I have no idea where this will take me.  It just feels like the right next step.  And that is what following your heart is all about.  It’s putting one foot in front of the other, trusting without proof that where you are being led is where you are supposed to land, knowing that you are always in good hands.

what master do you serve?

/ Susan Hanshaw / Leave a comment

www.sanctuaryforchange.com

“The mind can elect what it chooses to serve. The only limit put on its choice is that it cannot serve two masters.” — A Course in Miracles

In the fall of 2004 I was struggling with the realization that I was becoming miserable in my corporate management job. My heart had not been in it for at least a couple of years and I began to feel more pained by the growing sense of emptiness it left me with. I don’t recall if I saw any connection with this at the time, yet that fall I also felt called to read the bible for virtually the first time in my life. I became so fascinated with the life of Jesus that I rented nearly every DVD I could get my hands on to bring his story alive in my mind.

One day during my exploration process I received a revelation that I hadn’t bargained for. I came across this message that we cannot serve two masters at the same time. Yet the message I received was even more specific than that. I had been led to scripture which spoke about how man cannot serve money and serve God at the same time. That message hit me like a violent blow. Looking honestly at the choices I was making in my life, I saw clearly that money was my master. I felt like I had been cut off at my knees. I was very much in touch with an understanding that my real purpose in life is to inspire and teach, yet I continued to cling tightly on to the security the job represented. Then when I saw in black and white how I had made my life all about money, I couldn’t live with myself. I felt like I’d been caught selling my soul. I knew I’d have some major regrets if I didn’t do something about how I chose to use my precious time here. I put myself through another four months of this agony until one Monday in April when I’d finally had enough.

I don’t know about you, but I am certainly guilty of sweeping things under the carpet that I prefer not to face. You know what I mean; we can pretend it’s not there if we don’t acknowledge its existence. It’s easier to just not ask any questions when we don’t want to hear the real answers. Yet sometimes the bad ass truth is exactly what we need to bring us to our knees and light a fire under us.

So I invite you to take an honest look at the choices you are making in your life. What master are you serving? And how does your understanding of that make you feel? If suddenly you were to be told that your life is about to end, would you be at peace with yourself? Or would you be squirming with regret, wishing for a second chance? If you happen to be someone who would want a second chance, that’s a clue that your heart hasn’t yet felt its true expression. There is a lot of courage to be found in the faith that our hearts are wiser than our minds, and that we are best served by following them.

claiming abundance

/ Susan Hanshaw / 1 Comment

www.sanctuaryforchange.com

I am writing this on the first day of spring.  This vernal equinox marks the time of new life.  In many traditions it is the beginning of a new year.  When I was living in New Hampshire the first day of spring was a major big deal.  It was a sign that there was light at the end of the tunnel; that the snow and cold would not be hanging around too much longer.  The weather was given official permission to start getting warmer.  Yet as I’ve moved back to my native California, the first day of spring is just another day.  It’s easy to forget what other realities are possible when you take the life you have for granted.

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “we are spiritual beings having a human experience”.  And perhaps like me, you’ve nodded your head in agreement with this idea before immediately getting back to the business of life.  Our human life, that is.  I believe we all know that our human perspective is what creates all our problems in life.  Yet why is it that it tends to be the side that we always focus on, the identity that we constantly attach ourselves to?  Why is it that we choose to see ourselves as too this or not enough this instead of the amazing powerful light that we are?

It’s spring now.  Why not let your light be exposed more brightly? 

If you are wondering how to do this, first start by remembering who you are.  Rather than thinking of yourself as the body that goes to your job, drives your car, wears your clothes, and talks on your cell phone, imagine the essence of you as a bright light.  As you look around, consider everyone you see as beings of light.  In doing so, you bring your perspective back to truth.  We are all equal beings of light.

Being equal means that we have equal access to abundance.  What Oprah, Donald Trump and Bill Gates have access to is the same substance as you and I.  The only difference is in how we choose to claim our abundance.  We make those claims in our minds through our thoughts and beliefs.

I catch myself cutting off my abundance of experiencing love when I tell my boyfriend I am too busy to see him, or my financial prosperity when I don’t make the phone calls to promote my programs.  And most of the time when I cut myself off like this it is because I’m telling myself that I am not good enough to be deeply loved or worthy enough to be paid for living my dream.  Pretty pathetic, isn’t it?  Yet when I am spiritually awake I remember that I am a creation of the perfect loving light that created all of us.  I remember that I was created from abundance.  It surrounds me and flows through me.  I just need to get out of my own way and stop clogging its flow.  I’m going to try to make that my loud mantra for spring.  How about you?

Here’s to spring—to new life and new beginnings.  Start shining that bright light of yours.

stamp out fear

/ Susan Hanshaw / 3 Comments

http://sanctuaryforchange.com

What if you were to believe that you were given everything that you would ever possibly need when you were created? You may not have everything at your immediate fingertips, yet what if you knew that you simply had to trust that you will receive what you need at the right time?  Shouldn’t that abolish all your thoughts of fear, lack and doubt?  After all, what would you have to worry about if you knew you have everything you need?  You could stop worrying about a lack of this or that and just experience the flow of life.  Wouldn’t that be something? 

The truth is that you do have the opportunity to believe this.  It is your choice to believe whatever you want.  Among the billions of ideas out there for you to believe lies one that says that you will always be taken care of as you believe you will.  If you believe you will be a millionaire, you probably will.  If you believe you are doomed to live in poverty, that will likely be the reality you experience.  So much in life is about our perception.  And there’s more good news in that because we get to choose what we wish to perceive.

If there is something on your mind right now that is causing you discomfort, pain or fear, try letting go of it for a moment while you remind yourself of the loving energy that created you.  That is the same energy that flows through you constantly.  If this energy can create the world, it can very well take care of whatever is on your mind.  I know that this kind of trust doesn’t often happen overnight, so try practicing one day at a time.  Remind yourself that you are in good hands.  The worst thing you have to fear is your own mind. 

inheriting the power of creation

/ Susan Hanshaw / 5 Comments

“You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator.” — A Course in Miracles

Might this one statement sound so grandiose that it comes across as unbelievable? What does it mean that we are capable of creating in the likeness of our Creator? And where might that capability come from? With such a collective consciousness fired up on the law of attraction these days, it seems only right to explore this idea from a place of depth. We might even ask ourselves if perhaps the law and the quote from A Course in Miracles might be linked.

For the benefit of those not familiar with it, A Course in Miracles is a non-denominational spiritual curriculum that was scribed in the early 1970’s by clinical and research psychologist and tenured Associate Professor of Medical Psychology Dr. Helen Schucman and aided by her department head, Dr. William Thetford. Dr. Schucman described the writing process as an inner dictation that came from Jesus. ACIM has been translated in seventeen languages and has sold over 1.5 million copies. Nearly 2,000 study groups exist worldwide.

The Course teaches that God (or whatever word you are comfortable with) is the creative source behind all of life and that we are all connected in spirit through this creative energy. Our bodies are simply vessels that our spirits use to do our work here on earth. As extensions of this creative energy, we have all inherited its power to create. Our mind is the channel that directs this energy. When we focus on our spiritual connection and let go of the physical limitations of body, we can more easily grasp how we are extensions of the divine creative energy. If we believe in the power of the law of attraction, might it make sense that this power exists because of our connection to divine creative energy?

There are amazing benefits to be found when we understand the implication of this connection. Being connected to the source of life means that we have access to everything that exists without limitations. This access takes place in our minds as demonstrated in The Secret. Even more importantly is the idea that we are a connected family of man, each given a unique role to play. We can find clues to this purpose by looking closely at the unique gifts we were born with. We can ask ourselves what the divine intention was when we were created.

So how does this all tie back to the statement about our ability to create in the likeness of our Creator? We tend to think of ourselves like free agents with minds of our own operating in our own little worlds. Yet we did not create ourselves so our ability to create has been inherited. And because Mom and Dad did not create themselves either, all of creation ultimately gets linked back to our original Creator. The law of attraction is an example of a power we humans have not created, yet one which has been passed on to us. By using this power, we are creating in the likeness of our Creator.