Via Intentblog Written by Christine Arylo

What if fear no longer stopped you from your dreams?

What is it that you really want right now?

Not from your head or your ego, or what you think you should have to make you happy.

Go deeper.

To the place where real dreams, dreams worth having and dreams that actually have the power to manifest in reality come from.

Go in to your heart.

Who already knows exactly what dream is raising its hand screaming, “Ooh! Ooh! Pick me!!”

Who already knows the first few steps you could take right now to turn it from dream to reality.

What does your heart have to say?

Can you hear her or him?

Okay, let’s do this together.

Close your eyes right now.

Take a breath and put your hand on your heart and ask, “What is the one dream I have for myself that right now is most important to me?”

What does your heart say?

And if you were to ask “What is the one or two steps that I can take in the next three days to move towards that dream?”

What does your heart say?

And wait, one more question…

“What is the one thing that will stop me from this dream becoming real?” What does your heart say?

Okay, just one more…

“If I didn’t listen to fear but instead to the truth in my heart, what do I know?”

Whew! Great work moving past your fear into love… if you were really listening to your heart when you did this exercise, then when you asked yourself what would stop my dream from becoming real, you would have felt your heart contracting, fluttering or some kind of feeling that was BLAH! That’s because fear had the microphone!

And as an ambassador of Team Love, I’m just not going to let fear win over you and smash your dream. All you have to do is take the love dare!

SELF-LOVE DARE…

Take one giant step toward your dream!

1.Write down the guidance you received in your journal, on a piece of paper, heck even a sticky note. Just somewhere you can see it.

2.Then write down, say out loud or share with a friend the one or two actions you are going to take in the next 3 days to take a giant leap toward

If you need some extra support connecting to your Inner Wisdom and her Team Love message about your dreams – you can download the video meditation I created.

Wherever this finds you today, read this knowing that fear only has the power you provide it and at any time you have a choice … To choose to have faith in LOVE or to choose to have faith in FEAR. I really encourage you to try on having faith in LOVE. And of course, that love starts with the love you have for yourself. Love yourself well today. You deserve it.

PHOTO (cc): Flickr / Augustine Press

They say 40 is the new 30, but I’m not feeling it. I am single with no children, a few misses in the marriage category, and for the most part unlucky in love. They say 40 is when you realize that life starts to go down, but that depression eases after mid-life crisis peaks at 43.

Sorry for the depressing talk.

I never had an issue of getting older. Now all I want to do is cry when I look at myself in the mirror. I never thought a number would be so hard. I will be going to Disney tomorrow with my wonderful family and then planning my daughters very special birthday.

I hope this gets better.

I feel like all I will have is a big pile regrets. I dont even own a house yet. Only this big feeling of doom is creeping up on me! How can I fend off this emotional mid life crisis, and what do I do for my Birthday?

Not fun and Sunny in California.

James Spring, a man in San Diego, read about a little girl who had been kidnapped by her parents.  The parents, who were wanted for murder, did not have custody of the child and had fled with her to Mexico.  Mr. Spring decided to go to Mexico and save the little girl (and her baby sister) as a way of celebrating his 40th birthday!

Here’s a link to the story in The Santa Cruz Sentinel:  http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_8851661

All the best,

Andi

http://thethinksithink.blogspot.com

http://listsgalore.blogspot.com

Over the past week, there has been terrible news. An acquaintance has been killed, a baseball player died, friends and family both received very concerning health news. Everything I need to put my life in perspective is here. I have been given great gifts. I just wish I felt better about how I was using them.

My misgivings about turning 40 have been considerable, but not rising from a general discomfort with growing old – though, I have to say, that number 40 seems as huge today as 30 once did (knowing full well that in 10 years time, both will seem impossibly young). It’s been this feeling that I’ve been moving backward as much as I’ve been moving forward.

That is really a stupid thought, given all that has happened in the past decade. Ten years ago, I was single and barely employed. Today, I am 7 1/2 years into marriage, with two children and – Breaking News – a third one on the way, a second little boy, coming right around the time the Dodgers will make their Coliseum appearance in March. (Talk about your Moon Shots!)

My career, after a pretty major detour, has also been on an upswing since last year – and that’s a relief. And Dodger Thoughts has been an unexpectedly rewarding pleasure.

But during the past 10 years, I abandoned the career that I really wanted, and to this day I regret the decision. A few somewhat out-of-touch acquaintances of mine this month have asked me if I were on strike (with the Writers Guild of America), and I found myself feeling sad to say that I wasn’t.

I wish I were screenwriting. In fact, I have an idea burning a hole in the pocket of my brain right now, but I have no time to work on it. Screenwriting, for me, is not like blogging. In the time that it takes me to get out what would qualify as a medium-to-long post on Dodger Thoughts, I’d just be getting warmed up to work on a script. That first hour of screenwriting was more like calisthenics than anything else. My life, these days, simply isn’t conducive to writing fiction.

But it’s not just the notion of a dream deferred or denied that has had me down. It’s that with the passing of that dream has come the passing of any chance of being worry-free when it comes to income. The fact is, short of actually being a working Hollywood writer, my job at Variety is about as happy a situation as I could have found. But it’s journalist pay. Nothing much there.

I can’t think of much that is more distasteful than complaining about money, and the fact is, I make more than plenty of people. So my point isn’t to cry poverty. It’s just to articulate this reality that my income isn’t keeping up with how much I’m spending on day-to-day life, even though I’m trying to keep those expenses to a minimum. This year, in fact, I will have made more money than I ever had before, and yet I’m still not earning what I need to. I’ve gone from fiscally responsible to irresponsible, with each passing year getting harder, regardless of what I should be earning or spending. That’s why I feel like I’m moving backward. I spend a great deal of time worrying. I find myself talking about it with other people even though it’s the last thing I want to talk about, because it’s so inexorably a part of what’s going on with me in my head. Money matters more to me than I could have ever dreamed possible 10 years ago – it’s poisoning my life. But moving to a cabin in Montana isn’t an option.

Ten years ago, I had sincere fears of hitting 40 lonely, not in financial decline. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. I don’t feel sorry for myself. I feel fortunate. I love this family of mine. But I’m just sharing with you that, in all honesty, when I see those bills, I have to remind myself to feel good about myself. It’s embarrassing, really.

Another place where I’m suffering is with my friends. In the past month, by coincidence, my best friend from college and my best friend from high school came into town for the first time since my wedding, and I had the chance to catch up with them for a couple hours apiece. Each time, with no effort, we fell into that incredible groove of conversation that best friends have. And then they were gone, eventually heading back to Michigan and Colorado. I still have my best best friend sleeping in the same bed with me, and my parents 10 minutes away (and don’t think I underestimate that). But aside from them, I just don’t really have anybody that tight. All my closest friends live elsewhere, and we’re horrible at keeping in touch. It’s just not right.

Perhaps most importantly – and this should be clear by the melancholy tone of this piece – I’m not entirely happy with the person I am, about how I can be angry and selfish and self-defeating. It’s not that I don’t have my good qualities, but I don’t really feel like I’m evolving. I’m meeting some of the greater challenges of my life, but I’m not keeping pace. As my world becomes centered around getting my work done, and making sure I give my kids what they need instead of screwing them up, and trying to juggle my pregnant wife’s prayer to get 15 more minutes of sleep in against my desire to have 15 minutes to myself, I feel more like I’m devolving, unless the fact that my life belongs more to others is the real evolution. I often tell people that now, the days take longer but the years fly by. It’s the strangest thing.

If I could give myself completely to my family, or take myself completely away, I’d be happy. But I find myself want to straddle the two, which are contradictory. Me Time vs. Them Time. Why can’t Them Time be Me Time 100 percent instead of less?

People can minimize it all they want, but these round-numbered birthdays are times that I take stock, and looking at myself, I see a complicated picture. I see things to celebrate, even to take pride in. But I don’t always take pride in myself. Just trying to survive each day and punch out a few good moments without screwing up doesn’t seem like much to crow about.

I’d like to say I love my life, but love implies accepting the good and the bad, let alone the simply irritating, and I struggle. My family can be a trial at times, but it gives me a kind of joy you simply can’t otherwise imagine, and I can honestly say that my favorite moment of any day are the moments that I walk my little girl to kindergarten, or hugging the kids good night. But I keep wanting perfection. I’m 40 years old and still a spoiled brat.

Anyway, when I went to bed Sunday, I turned out the light, looked at my clock glowing with its LCD display, prepared to tick off the last 45 minutes of my 30s, and said to myself, “Screw it. I’m just going to be a young 40.” It’s going to take some effort, but it’s pretty much the only way to go.

• Fear that I’ll not be able to do some of the things or go some of the places I really still want to.
• Fear that I’ll never do some of those things I did when I was younger.
• Fear that my kids that are starting to grow up, will turn out like little jerks instead of the good men and women that I am hoping for.
• Fear that as I get older I’m turning into my dad.
• Fear that I’ll never own that new Mustang I’ve wanted for so long.
• Fear that there is a real reason not to put off seeing a lawyer about writing a will.
• Fear that I’m approaching “middle age” without a retirement plan.
• Fear that my 20 year marriage isn’t doing well, and I have no idea what to do about it…
• and yes, fear that life will be over sooner that I expected.
• Fear, I never really new fear. Unfortunately now I grow more and more familiar with it.

Funny what just another year can bring.