Archive for 2009
By Charlene M Brown
Ladies, do you know what’s really sexy!? Being able to walk into a bar, club or restaurant in a flyy outfit, some baaaaaaddddd heels and sitting down to treat yourself to whatever it is on the menu that you want!
By Charlene M Brown
Have you ever said to yourself, “Gee, I wish I could change this”?
By Charlene M Brown
Sometimes the women closest to us are not our mothers, yet they’ve mothered us just the same.
They might be our best friend’s mom, an aunt, or maybe even a college professor or elementary school teacher. Whoever they are, they have provided some mothering at some point in our lives!
I work with teenagers and at some point many of them accidentally call me “Mom.” I mostly take this as a compliment (mostly!
), glad that they view me positively. Coincidentally, I am often asking them to do something a second time (read, “nagging” them).
Perhaps you don’t get along so well with your mother so you’ve turned to other women for support and guidance. Or maybe you do have a good relationship with Mom, but just need an outside perspective.
Mothers, whoever they may be to you, are the backbone of most societies. In most cultures, women are the ones responsible for the running of the household, the raising of the children, the feeding of the family.
What would we do if not for these everyday acts of courage of doing what needs to be done to make sure the family is taken care of!?
We would perish!
No matter who your “mothers” are, make sure you tell them “Thank You! for being wonderful!” They need to hear that too, maybe more than everyone else.
Mother’s, whatever shape they come in, are pillars of strength and true beauty.
So go make that phone call, send that card, make that lunch appointment with the women you call mothers. Send them some roses or fresh made bread or a basket of fruit—do something to let them know you are thinking about them and grateful for their womanliness!
It doesn’t have to be a large gesture-just something so that they know you care.
Stevie Wonder’s song, “I Just Called To Say I Love You” always does the trick for me! Every time I hear that song, I get all warm and fuzzy and want to call everyone I know to say a big old “I Love You!” So go find that song and listen to it, then call all your mothers and let ‘em know how much you care!
Do You Love Your Life Now!? I Do! (Because I have been surrounded by women of beauty, strength, courage and grace who have all mothered me and I am grateful!)
Letting Love In: How Compassion and Forgiveness Allow The Doors To Open Wide!
Lovin’ Life Now! Newsletter
Volume I, Issue 6:
Letting Love In: How Compassion and Forgiveness Allow The Doors To Open Wide!
This Issue is prepared especially for you!
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In this Issue:
1. Welcome!
2. Letting Love In: How Compassion and Forgiveness Allow The Doors To Open Wide! (Featured Article)
3. Announcements/Offers
4. About Lovin’ Life Now Weekly Newsletter
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1) Welcome to this issue of our Lovin’ Life Now! Weekly newsletter. A special hello to you if you are receiving this for the first time. Feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might be interested in it.
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2) Letting Love In: How Compassion and Forgiveness Allow The Doors To Open Wide! (Featured Article)
By Charlene M Brown
There are so many people complaining about finding the perfect mate that I’d bet if they all held hands and stretched themselves out, they would fit around the world several times!
The overwhelming majority of these folks are probably Western in their beliefs where complaining makes up a large part of our society. But most of them are probably also holding onto to past hurts and negative energy that they are sabotaging themselves right out of Love’s way!
Okay, okay, let’s slow this down a little bit and take it piece by piece!
At some point or another, we all hold onto some sort of bitterness and resentment for something someone did to us.
Perhaps it was the promotion we got glazed over for. Or maybe it was the insult to us or a loved one by some insensitive soul. Or the angry, hurtful words spewed in a terrible fight.
Whatever the situation, we have all been slighted some time in our lives.
And I bet you can recall very vividly the emotions you felt at the time, as if you are reliving it every time you think about it.
Well guess what!? You ARE! And every time you think about it, you are sending that signal out to the Universe saying, “Yes, I want more of this hurt and pain and craziness.”
Every time you think about something, you make it stronger and pull it toward you more forcefully.
So if all you are pulling in revolves around craziness, bitterness, and resentment, what do you think you are going to get time and time again?
We are all our own self-fulfilling prophecies!
With negative feelings and emotions taking up so much space, where do you suppose there is room for Love!?
There is not. Or perhaps very little.
Ahhhh. No wonder it’s so hard to love then.
Who is the bitterest person you know? What are they so bitter about? I’ll bet somebody “wronged” them along the way, whether an ambiguous “They”, or a very specific person or incident. And they are holding onto that sense of wrongdoing in their hearts!
I know about bitterness!
And have the biting sarcasm to go with it.
It’s a funny thing about emotions, when we hold the negative ones in our hearts, there are only but so many that will fit, usually only enough room for 1 or 2. But when we hold positive and useful emotions in our heart, there seems to be a limitless amount of space for more positive emotions.
Like attracts Like!
When fear and bitterness and anger and negativity are in our hearts, there is no room for anything else, including Love.
In order to let Love in we have to let go of all those other things that are no longer serving us. I know Sheila may have cut in front of you in the second grade, or your big sister may have been the shining picture of perfection that everyone always noticed, or you really deserved that promotion, but where is this bitterness about it getting you!?
We have to stop replaying all the little and big hurts we have ever experienced in our lives and move on.
We have to find forgiveness, both for the other person, and more importantly for OURSELVES!
We have to reclaim the positive side of life.
Until and unless we release all these negative things in our hearts (not to mention the literal, physical mayhem it can cause to our bodies!), we will never be able to let the positive back in.
“When the door of happiness closes, another opens. But often times we look so long at the closed door that we don’t see the one which has been opened for us.” ~Unknown
Instead of focusing on the one that closed, go look for the next one that is open!
In order to “Let LOVE In”, you have to let anger and resentment and bitterness out. Let them go! Find the space in your heart for forgiveness! Only then, will the seed of Love begin to be cultivated into the great flowering Tree of Life!
A Big HUG to You!
~Charli B.
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3) FREE Stuff! Are you looking for True Happiness? Or perhaps you want to be “Well” all of the time? Or maybe even learning to really Know yourself. We think these are so important too! So we want to give you these FRE.E gifts to help you get there! We have Two FREE E-books! The first, Knowing Yourself Like the Back of Your Hand, you can get to by clicking here. See #4 for our True Happiness E-book! That’s a $20 value absolutely FREE!
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4) About The Lovin’ Life Now! Newsletter
To SUBSCRIBE, go to our website www.YouCanLoveYourLifeNow.com and enter your name and primary email in the box on the right. You will also get our daily Lovin’ Life Now! Tips and our great FREE download, “True Happiness by 35: The 11 Steps to Get You There!
Please forward this newsletter to anyone you know who is looking to get their life back on track (or who may have an interest in any of our information).
You Can View Past Issues of our newsletter here: http://www.youcanloveyourlifenow.com/category/newsletters/
Want this article for your own website or e-zine? Feel free to use it as long as you include this paragraph.
Using an intuitive approach, Charlene Brown started You Can Love Your Life Now!.com to assist women to find and live their BEST Lives! Go to www.YouCanLoveYourLifeNow.com for more information and to download her FREE e-book True Happiness by 35: The 11 Steps to Get You There!
© 2009 You Can Love Your Life Now!
By Charlene M Brown
What are all the things you can’t do!?
How much time do you spend thinking about them?
By Charlene M Brown
Have you ever listened to one of your girlfriends knowing it wasn’t the best thing for YOU to do!? Or maybe you have a girlfriend who is always advising you to do things that are for HER benefit and not your own!?
By Charlene M Brown
If you’ve been following my articles for awhile or if you just take a look through this category (College Taught You What!?), you will find that I often talk about (well, write about) what college didn’t teach me, noting the irony in the title!
Well, this time, I am going to talk about what I did learn while I was in college.
My senior year in high school, was a little rough for me. My best friend had just transferred to a new school, and in her void, I was shut out of a lot of things that I had only been included in because of her. I was stressed about getting into and going to college, tired of taking tests and filling out applications for this or that. I was just plain tired!
In August, I went off to college with this same weariness.
My first year in English class, our final paper was a topic of our own choosing. The professor would call on us to get up in front of the class to read what he deemed “excellent” papers. That year, I gave a tearful, heartfelt “speech” (it was really an essay) about how the great people I had met in college made room at the table for a militant mixie like me. Those are some good people!
Sometime during that same first year, I got booed off the stage (a very humorous story!), which led me to leave the confines of the university and push out an about in the city. There I met many of the wonderful people that the transient city had to offer. I was well-nurtured in the artists’ lair. More good folks!
I had roommates who stayed up talking with me in the kitchen ‘til 3am. I had classmates who “thought I always had the right answer” and took a chance on partnering with me. People who really “got me” and could explain things to me in a way that I understood! People who taught me great lessons about myself that I didn’t even know I was looking to learn. Some of these have been cultivated into my greatest friendships today!
I met people while I was in college who I could have incredible intellectual conversations and share great laughter with. For the first time in my life, I had girlfriends who could laugh and giggle with me. I remember fondly our “Girls Nights In” which usually consisted of Disney movies and some form of music playing/singing!
While I was in college, I found a great love and acceptance in people that I didn’t know existed before. And an unexpected closeness with people I knew before I got there that made it all worthwhile!
In college, I learned the true meaning of “embrace”, both in its physical form and its mental and spiritual forms. I learned to live life as an adventure, new and beautiful every day! I learned that I could, indeed, change the world!
How AWESOME Is that!?
So Go!, Enjoy all that college has to offer you or has already offered you! Be in Awe of all the amazing people and places and things all around you!
On that note, I wrote this poem while I was in college—it’s one of my favorites, and I want to share it with you:
(For K)
Look at that rainbow
The man carelessly standing at the light said.
I looked.
I wanted to BE that rainbow
I wanted to be that rare phenomena
That filled the world with light, where we thought there was none! © 2004 CMB
Do You Love Your Life Now! I DO (Because I discovered great people while I was in college!)
Lovin’ Life Now! Newsletter
Charlene M Brown
What was the best date you ever went on! Who was it with? What did you do that made it so special?
Hold onto this delicious thought (I bet you are licking your lips for one reason or another!
)
Now, when was the last time you took yourself on a date!?
Have you ever?
Well, hunny, it’s about time you did!
This might take some planning and saving—I understand that—but it is well worth it, I promise you! Do what it takes to make this happen anyway!
Get all dressed up! Find your favorite flirty-fun dress, add your favorite jewelry, and accessories, maybe a dab of makeup to highlight your beautiful face, now add your favorite pair of heels and you are ready to go. Don’t forget to take a wrap or a jacket if you will be chilly upon your return (or if it’s Winter or Fall!)
Now take yourself to someplace that you have always wanted to try. This might be the Opera or Ballet, or it might be a nice restaurant in town. Whatever it is, Paint the town red and have a fabulous time with yourself. Don’t worry about your first impressions of your date, just be yourself.
For me this looks like, having dinner at a nice seafood restaurant, enjoying a glass of wine or two, eating dessert (I believe in Dessert!
) then catching a show that has lots of music or dancing or both in it.
And I have done this, and found that I enjoy my own company just as much as I enjoy other peoples’ company!
If dinner is part of your date, make sure you select things that sound like the most delicious items on the menu! And don’t forget dessert! Women are always watching what they eat! Just this once, on your magnificent date, don’t worry about the calories or getting up extra early tomorrow to burn them off, just enjoy every delicious bite of your food and every sensuous sip of your drink. Delight in your decadent dessert!
If you are going to the theatre, make sure it is something you have wanted to see for awhile—make sure it’s worth it.
Before you leave the house, make sure you look in the mirror and tell your date how marvelous she looks. Just for tonight, suspend all judgment!
Just for tonight, have the time of your life!
Tell us about it by leaving a comment!
Enjoy!
Do You Love Your Life Now!? I DO!! (Because I regularly take myself out on great dates!
)