Which body would you rather live in?  One that is being punished, deprived and hated?  Or one that is honored, respected and loved?

I have spent much of my life feeling as though my body isn’t good enough.  Always wishing it was stronger, leaner, thinner, and taller.  I had a very sad relationship with my body, I was always disappointed in it and felt like I had to control it somehow. 

When I was ready for my body to do me the ultimate favor and carry a baby, it couldn’t even seem to do that for me.  This only made my relationship with my body even worse.  After years of heartache and lots of crazy treatments, my body finally came through and I had my first miracle baby.  I think I appreciated my body a little more because of it, but honestly I’m not really sure it changed the hateful relationship I was so accustomed to.  

Then breast cancer happened.  My body once again was letting me down.  I felt so betrayed, heartbroken, disconnected, and completely scared.  This was over 6 years ago, and I think it was my rock bottom.  I began searching for a better way.

I went to a Hay House event about a year after my bilateral mastectomy, and I was listening to Dr. Wayne Dyer give a talk.  He was so magnetic, and I was soaking up all his words… and then he said it… ‘Are you living your life based on fear or love?’  

This simple yet profound question just about knocked me off my seat.  I began to tear up.  I wrote down ‘Fear or Love’.  I realized that EVERYTHING I had done to ‘take care of myself’ was based on FEAR!  

I was exercising because I was afraid.  Afraid if I didn’t I would be fat, my cancer would come back, I wouldn’t be able to keep up with my life, I wouldn’t be good enough, I would be too stressed… and the list goes on and on.  Never once did it occur to me to exercise because I wanted to give my body some love and take care of myself better... out of love… nope, not once. I was drinking green juice, eating a vegan based diet, nothing processed, only because I was so scared the cancer would come back if I didn’t.  Never did it occur to me to feed my body nutritious food that nourished my body because I loved my body and I wanted to take care of it out of love and respect.  

Then I realized this went well beyond how I took care of my body, but my motive for almost all things in my life were based on fear.  This shocked me to my core. The toxicity level was huge. 

I needed to make the shift to love.

And sure enough, that's when I was introduced to EFT, Tapping.  

It's through EFT that I was able to heal my old patterns of hate, disappointment, disgust, resentment, fear, etc towards my body and step into choosing love.  

I now choose love.  

Am I perfect at it?  Absolutely not.  It’s a practice.  

There's no such thing as being perfect at anything. 

If I find myself wishing my thighs are smaller, or my arms are more muscular.  I stop… and decide to thank my body instead… after all, my body has been through a lot, and it never gave up on me. Even through all the abuse that I have put it through, it never gave up on me... for that, I'm eternally grateful.  

I know this life goes by too fast.  I don’t know if I'll be here tomorrow.  

So I have decided to thank my body for showing up and doing it’s thing.

I now choose to eat a healthy diet and exercise because I want to support my body and help it do it’s thing.  I choose to do it for love.  Love for my body and love for my life.

Switching from fear to love has been one of the most radical things I have ever done.

Are you ready to be radical?  

This past weekend I had the privilege to attend Super Soul Sessions 2 at UCLA.  This was a birthday gift… to me, from me… and I’m pretty sure this one of the best presents I have given myself.  I met my very dear soul sister friend in LA, who was also celebrating her birthday.  It was a weekend filled with celebrating life, friendship and the future.

The lineup for this event featured some of the top inspirational thinkers and thought leaders, including Oprah herself.   It was a very full day with overflowing amounts of inspiration, worthiness and love.  I was certainly high on inspiration and life by the time this day ended.  Surprisingly, the audience included many other thought leaders that were there supporting their peeps, and we had the chance to meet Mastin Kipp, Danielle LaPorte and the delightful Dr. Christiane Northrup.  

All of the speakers showed up to share their truth.  They were vulnerable, relatable and incredibly inspiring.  The common thread of the day was that through our struggles we have the opportunity to find ourselves and choose love.  

Here are some of my highlights...

Shaka Senghor has an incredible life story, you can read about it in his New York Times best-selling memoir, Writing My Wrongs.  His big awakening is that “humans by nature are redeemable” and “redemption is always possible”.  I was deeply impacted by his life story and his current work… if he can choose to change his internal story of himself, anyone can!

Marie Forleo’s big message was “Everything is figureoutable” meaning, you can figure anything and everything out, you just have to do it.  This was something her mom used to tell her when she was growing up and she credits this belief to her huge success.  She ended her talk with “What would you do if you believed ‘everything is figureoutable’ in your bones?".  Such a great question.  I have been watching MarieTV for about 5 years and this year I’m in her B-School Program. She is dynamic and filled with such a warm, loving and giving heart.  If you aren’t familiar with Marie, I strongly suggest checking out her free weekly videos, you won’t regret it.

Amandla Stenberg is 17 years old and the profound wisdom that she shared with us blew my socks off.  My favorite messages of hers are “Love for ourselves and each other is our most powerful tool” and "When I am myself, my real self, I am my most revolutionary".

Are you familiar with Kris Carr?  It was Kris that gave me a sense of control and power after I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I will be forever grateful.  She was diagnosed with a rare form of stage 4 liver cancer more than 10 years ago, and has made it her life's work to learn how to take care of her mind, body and spirit and share her findings.  Her big message… choose to have unconditional acceptance for yourself “loving yourself in all your glory”.  

Oprah Winfrey opened up about her weight struggle and admits that she has been eating her emotions her whole life.  She has finally made the decision to stop wishing her body was different, thinner or firmer and start thanking her body for all that it has done for her.  She is now truly caring for and respecting her body. She has stopped eating her emotions and is choosing to acknowledge them and deal with them instead.  “The decision for a better life is mine.”  

“Step into the light, it’s already waiting for you to step up and do what you are called to do.”  - Oprah Winfrey

India Arie shared her SongVersation, it was a beautiful mix of talking and singing sharing the wisdom she has gained through her struggles.  She says she is a student of life and the process, which is “breakdown, breakthrough, break the shell, elevate and fly.”  She also sang for us her incredibly gorgeous song I Am Light.  

Dr. Shefali Tsabary wrote The Conscious Parent, which I highly recommend reading if you haven’t already.  She has a revolutionary view on parenting and it is based on honoring your children for who they are and liberating them.  “Our children are not the easels in which we get to paint the life we never had.”  

These talks will be aired on www.supersoul.tv in the near future.  I hope you take the opportunity to watch them.  It's your choice to be open, inspired and...

“Claim the essence that is the phenomenon of your life”. - Oprah Winfrey

Hello Beautiful Readers,

Have you been enjoying Spring?  We are experiencing a break in the rain and enjoying some sunshine up here in the NW.  It is such a beautiful time with all the flowers blooming and everything coming back to life.  We were even able to go out on our paddle boards this past weekend, which is one of my favorite things to do.   Another thing that I enjoy doing is reading, especially books that inspire, challenge me to grow and support my wellness journey.  I always like to hear what other people are reading so I thought I would share with you three books that I have recently finished and loved... and I would love to hear from you.  What have you read lately that you enjoyed? 

Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes- I loved this book for so many reasons, but one is that I was laughing out loud throughout the book.  I first fell in love with Shonda’s relatable and incredibly honest sense of humor when I saw a video of her Dartmouth Commencement Speech.  If you haven’t seen it you can click here to watch it.   But it was when I read her book that I became a huge fan.  In this book she tells about her year of deciding to say yes to all the things that she would normally say no to because they scared her or made her feel uncomfortable.  She takes you through her realization that she had become way too comfortable in saying no and that she was actually disengaging from life.  This leads to her uncomfortable adventure in learning how to say yes to herself and as it turns out she begins to say yes to life.  She is a single mother of three girls and is an incredibly successful writer.  She tackles all of the real struggles of being a working mother in the most honest way.  She clarifies this idea of having it all by saying you can have it all, but not all at the same time.  

“Whenever you see me somewhere succeeding in one area of my life, that almost certainly means that I am failing in another area of my life.”  

I relate to this so much.  It’s a struggle... and a dance, some days I’m so much better at it than others.  She goes on to say that she wouldn’t have it any other way and I have to agree.  Since this year of yes, Shonda’s life has improved so much that she hasn’t stopped saying yes. Relatable, funny and empowering- my kind of book.

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert- Most people know Elizabeth from Eat Pray Love and Big Magic is her latest book.  She dives into all that is creativity, and gives us permission to be creative (by us she means everybody).  You don’t have to qualify yourself as an artist to be creative but rather we are all creative.  

She even says “Human beings have been creative beings for a really long time--long enough and consistently enough enough that it appears to be a totally natural impulse.”  

The other point of her book that I found to be such a great reminder is that your creativity doesn’t have to be something that you must labor through and complain about, but rather something you enjoy.  It’s your choice!  And the more you choose to enjoy it the easier it is to be creative.   

Miracles Now by Gabrielle Bernstein- I have had this book on my nightstand for a couple years now and have read this over and over but not in the typical way.  This book consists of 108 Life-Changing Tools for less stress, more flow and finding your true purpose.  Most mornings I open this book and trust that the page I land on is the lesson I need for that day.  It may come in the form of an intention to set for the day or a supportive tool.   Some of the tools she teaches are meditation, tapping, breathing and mindful exercises and much more.   This is a great guide to a more spiritual and mindful life.

Have you read any of these?  If so, did you enjoy them?  What have you read lately that you love?

-love and gratitude