InSpire by Tony Gilotte

Life has come at most of us and we have had to stand up and fight for our survival. Challenging times are no strangers to us. We have made it this far and have developed resilience and a persevering attitude.

This is a wonderful testament to you and your strength and resolve if you can say this, and most likely, those reading this today can relate to the idea of being a survivor.

However, I want to propose a new ideal for you, the strong and determined survivor. This ideal is taking the next step beyond a  survival mentality.

We did not survive to just stay in this place of being able to say that I made it against all odds. Why did we fight through so much to get to today?

I want to suggest that we can build a very powerful life on top of this foundation, that is moving from surviving to thriving!

I have had some recent lessons in the art of listening to my own fears, not to give them space but to give them a hearing. Instead of being woken in the middle of the night, or experiencing fear in a stomach or headache, or tension somewhere in my body, or emotions of sadness or worry, I am giving my fears a hearing.

The stronger part of me, my soul, can offer a space of unconditional love for all parts of me. Including my fear. Listening to but not internalizing my fears, allowing the reasoning behind fear to be expressed, will help to relieve them.

Life is not easy, taking risks and trusting is always a challenge to the desire for safety and familiarity. Truly experiencing life requires us to follow our heart, our passion, to find fulfillment we must step out into the unknown and be stretched to see what we can become if we will follow our dreams. To do less is to not live fully. Yet to do so, can provoke fear which is often dormant until risk arises.

Giving your fears a hearing along the road toward fulfillment is simply loving all aspects of yourself. Your passion gets a place to be heard, so let's also give fear a place. The difference is that when fear gets in the atmosphere of love, it diminishes.

Fear is fed by judgment, our own, or someone else's. Perfect love casts out or removes fear, not by rejecting it, but by assuring it that there is no judgment, failure will occur and you will still be loved, you will fall short, and still, be loved. It is ok, to not be perfect, no one is, and judgment usually comes from us and others, when we forget that.

A reading of the Beatitudes 

Once we have been able to obtain the courage necessary to take the steps toward fulfilling our life's calling, and we begin to make decisions in our outer life that align with this inner reality, we are on our way toward the path to fulfillment.

Now we must work strategically with the process and trust the unfolding of the path ahead. It is very easy to miss this. We have worked through the courage and made the decisions.  Fear was set aside and I am proclaiming my right to create my life the way I see it.

The real work now begins, it's time to make it happen. It's time to get up every day and go to bed every night with a single focus. Trusting, following, working with, the process to get there.

This will require a thousand more faith stands, and as many, rejections of fear. It will require a single focus and a continual reminding of yourself of what you have decided and why.

You have all that it takes to get there, today, tomorrow, then the next day, trust the process.

I want to inspire you to fulfill your dreams by taking the necessary steps. Take action, build on courage, and make the decisions that will open the doors to your greatest life! 

In honor of a dear soul who asked me to send some readings to help her through a difficult challenge. I hope you find comfort. 

As we come to the end of 2020 and look over the horizon into 2021, I want to take a moment to suggest a few ways that we can make this crossroads into the new year, a time for yourself, to take the necessary steps toward fulfilling your dreams, in your life!

As we are amid the holiday season, it is a time to remember, especially this year, the spiritual abundance that we have available to us. Especially this year, as 2020 has been a year of struggle and challenge that we did not see coming as we approached the new year this time a year ago.

We never know what might be around the bend in the world, but we can have some sureness about what is happening on the inside. Our spiritual life is something we can connect to and experience, regardless of what is happening on the outside.