Find Your Miracle Morning

Posted on February 4, 2019 by Carmen

A Miracle Morning. What would that be like? What would that do for you?

How many of us start out our days harried, rushed, having dragged ourselves out of bed because we just can’t get excited about the day? Trying to successfully get out the door, running through the list of things that need to get done and feeling just oh so unexcited about it.

What if I told you that you could change that? I mean really change that. Would you be interested?

The Miracle Morning

Months ago I was working with a client and she wanted me to create a banner for the book club she was running, The Miracle Morning. Of course I did that, but I was curious as to what this was all about so I looked it up. “Success before 8 am” it claimed, “Everyday will feel like Christmas”, “Not a morning person, you will be”. Really? I thought, I’d heard many of these claims before, what would make this one any different?

Even with these doubts in mind I decided I would give it a go anyway. I grabbed the book from the library and started reading. Hal Elrod claimed that even if you are not a morning person that you will be bouncing out of bed with enthusiasm each morning. Ok we’ll see, I said, I was not a morning person.

The whole basis of the book is in order to create success in your life and business that you need to be working on yourself personally on a regular basis. If you want to move up to the next level, raise the bar on success, you have develop personally and you have to work on it every day. Because if you are not working on yourself personally you won’t level up no matter how badly you want it.

“Your level of success, will rarely exceed your level of personal development, because success is something you attract by the person you become.” Jim Rohn

This made total sense to me. And I could see it, I love my me time, but when life gets busy, guess what goes first? Yup my me time, my workout, my reading, etc. and in fact this book was suggesting I needed to do the opposite. Protect and create that time all the more. Hmmm, made sense. All the times I have felt stuck, like I wasn’t getting anywhere, when I spent a bit of time on me, magically things shifted. Now if I was doing this on a daily basis…

The 6 Pieces

Your life is made up of a variety of components which are both external and internal. External ones are events, people, places. These things can affect you in your world, but they are not who you are.

Internal components are physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual, your inner world. And your inner world is where you create from and creates the basis for how you react or interact with your external world.

With this in mind, Hal has created the Miracle Morning so that you are working on all these internal components on a daily basis. Improving and shifting your inner world on all counts, which then in turn affects your outer world.

Hal calls these 6 internal components the Life SAVERS and they stand for:

S – Silence is one of the best ways to immediately reduce stress. Connecting you to your inner voice, gaining clarity and increasing self awareness. Silence can take a variety of forms and can be anything from meditating, prayer, reflection to deep breathing and gratitude.

A – Affirmations are positive statements that you say over and over in order to support changing your thought patterns, your inner programming. You know those inner voices or even critics. Focusing on changing what you say by creating statements that you repeat over and over to change that negative self talk and bring in the positive. I personally have changed my affirmations to afformations which has made an even bigger difference for me. More on afformations later.

V – Visualization is the process of picturing and focusing on what you want using visual cues, whether they be physical or within your minds eye. It is the practice of imagining specific behaviours and outcomes that you would like to create in your life. Things like vision boards, drawing what you visualize or picturing it in your mind are all forms of visualization.

E – Exercise is simply movement of your body. This can be as simple as doing 10 jumping jacks and a few push ups, some gentle yoga or going for a run. The key here is to get the body moving and the blood circulating. It’s proven that just a few minutes significantly boosts your energy and self confidence, enhances your health, improves your emotional well being and enables you to think clearer and concentrate longer.

R – Reading is one of the fastest ways to improve areas in your life. You can quickly acquire, knowledge, ideas and strategies to achieve what you want. You also have the advantage of learning from experts who have done it before, no need to reinvent the wheel! And it’s limitless there are many books out there to choose from.

S – Scribing (writing) is simply putting pen to paper. Capturing your thoughts, whether they be insights, ideas, breakthroughs or simply just airing things out (that has value to and can be healing). You could write that book you always wanted a few minutes at a time, write your gratitudes, dream, just the art of pen to paper will benefit.

And Your Miracle Morning is simply the first hour of your day divided into 10 minute sections for each of these 6 components. Are you with me yet? Or are you still thinking yeah right.

How It Has Helped Me

I have to admit when I first started my Miracle Morning I was keen to give it a try but I did not think it would transform me into a person who loved mornings. Or that I would bounce out of bed an hour earlier willingly and have it feel like Christmas each day. But I gave it a go because well I wanted change, and I wanted improvements and if Hal assured me that this would make a difference then I thought fine, I’ll give it a fair shake. So I began.

As I got started on my first morning I enjoyed it. I found I was very happy once I got downstairs to start the rest of my day, things that usually bothered me didn’t, and magically we were more on time that morning, in fact I think we might have even been early, then ever before. Huh I thought. Ok I looked forward to day 2.

The next morning same results, and then the next and the next. And then all of a sudden I craved this daily time for me, I got mad if on the odd occasion the alarm didn’t go off and I missed it or had to delay it until after I took the kids to school. I was noticing I was more productive and efficient, happier and super excited about getting up each day. I was wondering which book I was going to choose next for my reading time and what other things was I going to bring in to benefit my life and finally move me forward. Things started to shift, stuff that seemed stuck all of a sudden started moving. I was not only hooked, I had seen proof and I was a believer.

What I think makes a big difference between the Miracle Morning and other morning ritual programs is doing all of these personal development pieces at once. I am sure many of you meditate on a regular basis, and exercise, perhaps read intellectual books, etc. but that most of you do not do these all in one shot. This, I believe, is the key, working on them all a little bit at once nurturing each part, feeding the soul completely before you start the rest of your day.

Ready to Create Your Miracle Morning?

What would it be like if you had this? Ready and willing to get out of bed each more with excitement, starting your day by filling your own bucket. How would your life change? Are you willing to try?

The Miracle Morning is something you can easily do on your own. Get the book read and follow it and you are on your way. And for some people that is perfect. But for others it is helpful to have that community, that support, that accountability when trying something new. Those cheerleaders that have your back and say “You Got This”, no matter what happens. That say if you miss a morning, without judgement, don’t worry about it, start again tomorrow, we all falter sometimes, and that is ok.

Either way, you choose the way that works for you. And that’s another reason why I love the Miracle Morning, it is totally customizable. I love having my full hour, but sometimes I only have 30 minutes or less. Hal says don’t worry, you can do it in as little as 6 minutes on busy days or if you are strapped for time (you will find as you go though that you would like more time and will make the adjustments to create that). Make it fit you, make it fit your time, the key thing is to just do it.

You can also choose to extend your silence time if you want 15 minutes instead of only 10, and really 3 minutes of visualization works, while you might do 20 minutes of writing and 5 of exercise. Whatever works, it does not have to be neat little pockets of equal time necessarily. Just ensure you get in all 6 personal development pieces in your chosen time. That I believe is of the utmost importance.

The Book Club

If you are one of those people who likes to have that community and support consider this – I was so excited about what I had discovered that I knew I had to share this with other people in my life. I knew that many other people could benefit from this and I wanted them to experience it for themselves. It really was creating miracles.

So I created and led my first ever book club with a small group of people last Fall. And I loved it! I was so passionate and excited about the topic and I loved leading a group of people through it, watching their experiences. Seeing them learn and grow, supporting them in creating their own Miracle Morning and how it was benefiting them. It was fun, it was magical and it felt good to know that I contributed to the new benefits that they were now experiencing in their lives. It was a wonderful experience and one that I love to share again and again.

Our Fall group was so successful that I am offering this group experience again starting February 6. We read through the book together and connect on live calls to support and enhance our experience. We share and dive a little deeper into the book through guided questions and reflection – taking what we are reading and bringing that to the next level. It also provides accountability as we connect with each other once we start playing with our Miracle Mornings. If this interests you, join us for this next group by registering here. I look forward to having you!

And if the group thing is not for you right now, then I invite you to seek out the book and do it on your own. The Miracle Morning is an easy read and though, like me, you may read through and go “Yeah right” give it a try for a few days and just notice what differences it will make for you. It really will create miracles.

Welcome to my Fairy Garden

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Carmen

A couple of weeks ago I taught a class for children about fairies. It was a great experience and the kids loved it! We got to play outside, do sketches, learn more about fairies and how they help us and make Fairy Houses!

Making the Fairy Houses was the part that everyone enjoyed the most, including me! I even had one of the staff members from the store come in just to join us to make them. The boys worked diligently and it was neat to watch what everyone created. I had provided a variety or materials for them such as popsicle sticks, twigs, glass beads, tin foil, etc. to create whatever they wanted.

I was really excited about these Fairy Houses as I had seen some in Greengate Garden Center and thought it was a fabulous idea. They had all kinds with miniatures to add, but I found them to be expensive. Then when I was searching on the internet I found ideas to make your own and I liked how they used natural materials to make them. This was also a less expensive way to go and I could easily make more than one. So I incorporated into my class.

Unfortunately I did not get a chance to finish it in the class so I brought it home incomplete. I had intentions of getting back to it to finish it up but seemed to be unable to. Finally yesterday I sat down with the twins while they played play doh (I love that stuff) and finished making my house. I was very happy with how it turned out and immediately put it out in the garden. Now when I go by and see it it makes me smile and the kids love it too. I think we might just have to make some more…

Playing with the Fairies

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Carmen

As a child, growing up fairies were not uncommon. They were in our books and stories and parents would often refer to them as helpers of some kind or another. Magical, whimsical creatures that are playful and fun, yet can also be mischievous.

As I grew up I never thought much about it until I embarked on my spiritual path and started learning more about Angels, Fairies and other realms. It’s all pretty fascinating and if you choose to believe and work with them, can be quite magical.

Fairies are the protectors of animals and the environment. They are wonderful healers, helpers and help us to remember the importance of play. Though they are the most abundant outside they can also reside inside as well. They love lush, wild and natural gardens and will help you create a beautiful garden if you wish (among many other things).

Children especially can relate to and connect with the Fairies. Because they are so open, creative, imaginative and accepting with pure hearts full of love, the fairies often easily connect with children.

A great way to welcome fairies to your garden or home is to create fairy houses – and whether you choose to believe in them or not, this is a great craft for the kids that is lots of fun and can add wonderful decor to your garden.

In fact I taught a class a number of years ago with children about fairies and we made our own fairy houses. In a class full of only boys, they were so focused and engaged for 45 minutes! making their houses with great attention and detail. I was also so excited about it I started my own fairy house.

You can make your house out of pretty much anything but here’s what you need to get started:

popsicle sticks

white glue

glue gun (kids use with adult supervision)

small glass beads – clear or colored

twigs

leaves

acorns or pinecones

play doh or clay

small pieces of bark

small stones

tin foil

For the base you can either make four walls out of popsicle sticks or you can take twigs and glue crossing over each other, log cabin style. This is how I started my house and then made a popsicle stick roof. Basically what you want to do is create a base for your house, four walls and a roof and then decorate it adding in things like a stone chimney (toilet paper roll with small stone glued to it and put on the roof), glass beads to outline doors and windows, clay to cover the roof and give it texture, etc. Get creative!

You can either have the kids sit down and design their house first on paper or if they like to create as they go along that works too. What I did was take the kids outside to create their design and then gather materials to make their house. They gathered things like leaves, twigs and small stones – I had brought old branches from my raspberry bush – to make their houses. The more natural materials you can use the better as the fairies will appreciate it! Also ensure that you are not picking live things to create your house, gather things that are already on the ground.

Whatever the kids come up with will be beautiful and appreciated. You can also make a house within your garden by building around existing trees and bushes, setting up paths, etc. And the fun part is putting it in your garden and then watching for signs of the fairies coming there!

*Note: if you are putting your homemade fairy house outside you’ll need to use a sealer once you are done building to make it waterproof, so that it is protected in the rain.

Would you like to learn more about the Fairies? Join me live on April 14th for a free workshop all about the Fairies!

For more information and ideas on how to make a fairy house check out these websites http://www.fairyhouses.com/about-fairy-houses/how-to-build/ http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Fairy-House

Learn more about the Fairies in Fairies 101 by Doreen Virtue. This is a very easy read and a great introduction to them and what they are all about.

The Healing Power of Reiki

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Carmen

On my continuous journey for growth and learning I recently took a Reiki Level I class. Having heard of this modality before I was not really sure what it was exactly, though I was familiar with the term and had had received some Reiki treatments before myself.

I decided to take the level I as I felt that this was the next step for me in my spiritual work, having already taken classes with Sonia Choquette, and becoming a Certified Angel Therapist® with Doreen Virtue. I also felt that for myself this was the next thing that I needed to do, as I understood that in taking the class I would continue and experience my own healing – even if I wasn’t conscious of what healing I needed.

I also took it as an opportunity to expand my spiritual circle of friends and colleagues, joining other like minded spirits in our journey. I also considered it some time for me and an opportunity to work on myself.

According to the International Training Center for Reiki, Reiki is “a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by “laying on hands” and is based on the idea that an unseen “life force energy” flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one’s “life force energy” is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.”

Reiki treats the whole body including the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies. It is a simple, natural and safe method of spiritual healing and self-improvement that everyone can use.

Not really sure what to expect in the class, though confident that it would be a positive experience, I learned that Reiki is a very simple technique that once you are attuned to it, passed on by a Reiki Master, it is very easy to do. It is calming, relaxing and peaceful. Reiki can never cause harm because you are channeling source energy and it will always go to and treat the area that needs it most. This does not mean that the client will experience complete relief after one treatment, depending on the ailment, but will definitely experience positive results.

The Chakras

One “side effect” of taking the course is that you go through a 21 day cleanse of the 7 chakras, one chakra a day, 3 times. Depending where you are in your life and what you have to move out, this may not be a very fun experience. In fact, though glad I have taken the course and plan to take level 2, and I know I will be better in a better place once the 21 days are completed; there are days in this cycle that I am definitely not enjoying and finding it challenging to ‘cleanse’ and still manage my everyday life. It would be nice to take a 21 day vacation after completing the course!

Reiki benefits everybody, whether you are the recipient or the practitioner, and has been shown to improve people’s lives and/ or medical conditions when used in conjunction with traditional medical practices. There is no downside to having Reiki. My suggestion is to go experience a Reiki session and see what the benefits are for you, as it is different for every individual. At the very least you will have a very relaxing and pleasant experience and I think we could all use a little more of that in our lives!

Have you ever had a Reiki session before?