The Strong Within Affirmation Podcast

May 23-#143 Tag Me Tuesdays

The cocoon is not the ending, it is the beginning of my transition.

We try to compare our chapter 1 with someone’s chapter 15.  I was talking with a student of mine who recently went through a divorce, and her fear was of starting over and not being able to make it on her own.  I listened to each story she was telling as we were walking.  I wanted to make sure she had let out each story that was keeping her hostage , and after she finished, we worked on changing the physical first. 

Everything we think manifests into the physical, so when we focus on negative thoughts or situations we feel stuck in we slump down and get as close to the fetal position as we possible can.  I asked her to stand up straight, to elongate her spine, to raise her head and eyes forward, and to roll her shoulders down and back. After she stood up straight I asked her how she felt, she said, “better.” I said good, now I want you to begin taking nice slow natural deep breaths.  I waited a minute while she did that and then I asked her how she felt, and she said “much better.”

When we focus on fear we get in fight or flight mode and our breathing shallows.  When we breathe deeper through our diaphragm it gives our body what it needs, it helps us time to stop and think more logically…it gives us a pause from the emotional thinking that isn’t true, and it helps us to step back and think things through. That pause becomes a trigger or placeholder in the future for helping us to pivot from our anxiety and fears to calm and creative thoughts  that helps us change our perspective and work through our problems.

After we got her physically feeling better, we looked more closely at the stories she was continually telling.  She said things like, “I am moving backwards instead of forwards, I depended on this person financially for my livelihood I can’t do this on my own, I’ve been out of the workforce too long I’ll never be able to get back in, or who would want an old woman like me,” and other stories she was telling that weren’t true.

I reminded her that she hadn’t moved backwards but was entering a new story.  She was creating a whole new book, and was not going back in chapters of her old life.  She was the new and improved 2.0 version of herself free to choose any direction she wanted to go.  While it felt like a blow to where she was, it actually was the cocooning process helping to get her ready to become the new butterfly of her life.

What stories have you been telling that have been keeping you from cocooning into the butterfly you are meant to be?

When you are moving forward in your life, know that with each transition and every struggle, the opening of your wings didn’t just happen, you had to go through a cocooning process to prepare you to be able to hold such great and magnificent wings. 

What story do you have to tell to help you prepare for your new transition?  Change doesn’t just happen to us, change happens in the world and we decide to embrace it and choose our direction, or we decide to freeze up and be a victim of that change.  I hope you decide to choose your path, and not let your path be chosen for you.

The cocoon is not the ending, it is the beginning of my transition.

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by: Basematic-Zest
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

May 22-#142 Mindful Mondays

I am not a small part of the assembly line; I am the entire factory.

We are born and we think that we had no choice in the matter.  That we were thrust into the world tired, wet, cold, hungry, and being hung upside down and getting spanked upon our birth…but I don’t think that is true necessarily.  I believe we choose to be born.  We think that our heart beats magically, or that our organs just automatically function and that we have no say in how they work.

Yes, people will have conditions or ailments where certain things don’t function properly, but I have come to know that the reason my heart beats is because I choose it to beat.  My involuntary actions that seem to be out of my control are actually in my control by the deepest essence of me.  The life force of me that says I WILL EXIST, and I WILL continue to exist.

When we begin to understand this, some very powerful things happen.  You will not be a victim, you will not identify with the circumstance, fate, or the system being the one in control of where you are.  That type of thinking gives you an out to not live a full life, and it’s untrue because you are the one who chose to be here, you are the one who is making the choices to be exactly where you are.

Think of it like a manufacturing line. You might see yourself as only one worker in whole assembly line of your life, but you are every aspect of it. You are the factory.  You are the voluntary and, so called, involuntary processes of your life.

It’s easy to place blame or to say that something else is in control, but when we step back and see the bigger picture we begin to function in our life differently.  We understand that it’s not that we are in control of everything outside of us, or that something outside of us is in control of us…but rather we are in collaboration with it all. 

The universe is not separate from me, I am not separate from the universe…but I AM the universe.

One cannot exist without being a part of it, being a part of it all, and you and I… are part of it all.  You are more than your voluntary actions. You are the whole factory. You choose to be, you make the choice to be exactly where you are…you are not a victim, or the observer watching life happen, you are the one making it happen to you.  Life is not reacting to us, life is responding to us.

I am more than my voluntary actions. I am the entire factory.

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by: Basematic-Zest
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

May 21-#141 Smiling Sunday

I am like a skipping stone. I create great ripples of change in this world.

If you think about it, we are the stones of life. 

I can either create positive ripples in the pool of life or negative ripples.  Well maybe I could just be a weight on the world and sink too.  I see people being weights rather than a positive ripple as certain individuals become comfortable with only existing in life.  Making just enough to buy the things they don’t need while trying to impress people they don’t even like. 

Everything I say, think, or do creates a ripple within this world which means I will work to be deliberate on what I create.  I want to leave everything better… than when I first got there.  Success is a variable target, but I want to be a stone within this world that skips as many times as possible making the biggest most positive affecting ripples in this world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote helps to remind me about the types of ripples I will work to leave within this world, as he said “To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - that is to have succeeded”

I will work to succeed and be a positive ripple within this world, as I leave it better than when I first entered it.

I am like a skipping stone. I create great ripples of change in this world.

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by: Basematic-Zest
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

May 20-#140 Synergy Saturday

Mountains crumble not to show the end of something, but to show the opportunity in new beginnings.

Nothing is permanent in this world.  The biggest and strongest things will crumble and fall. But don’t be discouraged by this fact, it’s comforting to know that you don’t have to be the biggest, the strongest, or the best to thrive. It’s about understanding that you have to be able to adapt and change as nothing is permanent.  It doesn’t mean you have to be a chameleon by being fake and conforming to any situation. But what it does mean, is that you can be yourself in every situation. It just means that you have to expand yourself a little more to not only see yourself but to see others as well.

It’s about adaptability and learning how to flow better with other things and people around you.  You are water, you don’t only flow by yourself, you form with other bodies of water to create something greater than you could have done alone. I think we forget that in every environment it’s not about displaying our might and strength, but it’s about learning how we can collaborate better by applying our strengths with other people’s strengths. By combining forces, beautiful and strong new beginnings form.

I don’t wish for things to stay the same, I wish to figure out the best way to flow and then apply it accordingly. And so I remember that:

Mountains crumble not to show the end of something, but to show the opportunity in new beginnings.

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by: Basematic-Zest
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

May 19-#139 Fantastic Fridays

I’m almost there. I’ll remember that the tests given to me, is the Universe just seeing how committed I am.

I think about lottery winners, or professional rookies who sign big money contracts that came from a place of no money, or individuals who were given something instantly that they weren’t ready for…and I see people who struggled keeping what they were given.  It’s not because they didn’t deserve it, and it’s not because they couldn’t keep it, but it was the universe saying I am going to test you and see how bad you really want to stay in this position in your life.

We buy into the lie that rich people have it easy, and they got there by luck.  Some of the most successful people I know didn’t fall on top of the mountain by accident.  If you get to know them deeply, you’ll see their impeccable work ethic and how they focus on goals differently.

For some of the biggest goals I’ve reached:

• I first had to believe I was worthy of it,
• but then I had to believe that I could hold onto it.

We can get caught in speaking self manifesting prophecies such as, “maybe we aren’t meant to have good things, maybe we are meant to be in doomed relationships, maybe we are meant to be broken or keep receiving broken things, or maybe that life isn’t fair and this is just the way things are.”

However,  those are stories that don’t align with the person you are.  Today, we will remember that the challenges in our lives are not to take the things from us that we deserve, but that the Universe is speaking to us and asking, “if you’re truly committed to thinking and becoming different, then I will help you keep it in your life by challenging you.  How bad do you really want this? ”

Let’s be challenged today, let’s know that the universe is not taking from us but giving to us, and let’s enjoy the tests that are ahead.  Thank you Universe for always believing and seeing the best parts in us.

I’ll remember that the tests given to me, is the Universe just seeing how committed I am.

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by: Basematic-Zest
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

May 18-#138 Thoughtful Thursdays

Losing isn’t in my vocabulary, beautiful lessons and opportunities are.

Everything I thought I lost out on, I found I got so much more in the lessons from losing something.  When something is taken away, it helps us to learn the value of that thing.  I’ve learned about appreciation and living in the moment by having things stripped from me.

I will take nothing for granted as I know that what is in my life is here for a reason, and I know that nothing is permanent in the physical world and the spiritual world.  I will relish and be excited for change because it means I am coming into alignment with how the world works.  I am part of an ever-changing system, and I’m grateful to have lost things because noticing their absence means they meant something to me to begin with.

A great life is not in what we own; a great life is in knowing everything given and taken away was appreciated.  I will appreciate the beautiful things I’ve been given, I will learn from them while I have them, and I will learn why I had them after they’ve left.  I am grateful for every opportunity and lesson I have been given. I learn lessons, I don’t hold onto regrets.

So what is something in your life you’ve been holding onto, that’s been holding you back? Take 5-30 minutes writing down some of your regrets. 

1. Write down what you learned from your regrets,
2. and write down where those particular things being taken away are supposed to guide you now.

No matter where you are in your life, no matter how far gone you feel, I can promise you there’s always a path to help you back to the person you want to be.  It just takes awareness, forgiveness, and little actions to help you back onto the path you wish to be on.

Losing isn’t in my vocabulary, beautiful lessons and opportunities are.

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by: Basematic-Zest
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

May 17-#137 Wisdom Wednesdays

I keep it simple.

I don’t complicate life. I don’t fight against things, but I work with things.  And I don’t allow fear to control my life.  I implement small consistent daily habits that keep me moving forward and achieving small wins.  Those small wins accrued up over time become huge life shifts. The reason I have trouble getting everything done, is I haven’t built my simple but powerful foundation of habits that help me be more productive.  It’s not that I can’t do everything, it’s that I’ve been trying to do it all at the same time.  Einstein said, “that the purpose of time is so that everything doesn’t happen all at once.” 

I will focus on what is important to me, I will utilize the small consistent habits that help me grow daily, and I will keep my eyes and mind focused on moving forward.  I keep life simple by focusing on the small things that make huge impacts in my life.

What could be one simple habit or shift you can focus on for the next 30 days?  Write it down and put it in a spot where you will be reminded to implement it daily.  Change happens thru action, but change also happens because we simplify the overall process. 

I reach my goals because I keep it simple.

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by: Basematic-Zest
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

May 16-#136 Tag Me Tuesdays

Self-confidence is the best outfit I own.

My closet keeps thinning down, not because I don’t love looking good in clothes, or that I only own a few outfits, but because my clothes don’t make me…I make them.  The best outfit I own is the self-love and confidence I have in myself.  There’s the lie we tell ourselves that we are not as cool, good looking, or as confident as the people we admire…but the secret is that they aren’t bulletproof, they’ve just decided to go towards their fears with an enthusiastic commitment.

I’ll stop lying to myself. I’ll stop telling myself that I’m not as good as him or her, I’ll stop telling myself that I am not smart enough, pretty enough, rich enough, or fashionable enough…because those are all lies anyways. 

And besides, what or who am I comparing myself to?  I’m not meant to compare, I’m meant to be my own unique expression, so I’m letting go of comparing and I’m looking at complimenting others for their gifts as I build up my own unique gifts as well. 

I’m confident in myself, not because I was gifted secret talents, but more because I craft consistent small habits towards my goals every day.

Self-confidence is the best outfit I own… and I look damn good in it.

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by: Basematic-Zest
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

May 15-#135 Mindful Mondays

I don’t give up on people; I focus on what’s best for me.

I don’t leave people, I focus on finding what’s best for me, and sometimes that means moving into a different phase of my life where certain people no longer fit.  I’ll always work to believe in people, but I won’t make excuses for their bad behavior anymore.  I’m no saint, as I’ve made my share of mistakes, and I’ll give my best to everyone, but if they can’t respect me then it’s time for me to move along to the places I’m supposed to be.

I won’t allow myself to be held back by someone who isn’t ready to travel to beautiful heights with me.  Their time will come when they’re ready, but I’m not waiting for those who don’t want to change. I’m meant to go to great places (physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually).

I won’t give up on you, but I will focus on what is best for me, and I know you will focus on what’s best for you.  Healthy people don’t wish and hope for others to complete them, they know they’re complete already. Healthy people allow others to add to their already bright light and their happiness.

I don’t give up on people, I focus on what’s best for me.

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by: Basematic-Zest
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide

May 14-#134 Smiling Sunday

I focus on, and allow, abundance into every aspect of my life.

I don’t focus my attention on lack, I don’t focus on fear, and I don’t focus on the negative what ifs. I look to see the power of the universe in every moment. I look to remind myself that the Universe will provide me whatever I ask of it. 

Experts say that the subconscious performs a good portion of our daily routines, while the consciousness is only doing a small fraction of that.  I will remember to be purposeful and deliberate with my attention because while the consciousness only is doing a small part, the consciousness is the beginning part to directing my subconscious. 

Think of it like this.  The subconscious is the boat helping you to travel where you want to go. It’s the vessel getting you there, but the captain is your consciousness telling the boat which direction to head.  The boat can be on autopilot a good portion of the time, and if you haven’t been deliberate with your attention and directing your subconscious on what is important to you, then you’ll not be the one in control.  You will make claims that you have bad luck, that nothing goes your way, or that you can’t help the way you feel—it’s just the way it is. 

So, what if you were to be purposeful and focus on abundance instead of fear.  What if you were to stop telling the story of “I’ve always been anxious, it’s just who I am.” And what if you were to pivot and tell a different story, a story that you WANT to tell… that says, “I’m confident, able, and I’m successful in whatever I set my mind to.  I’ll focus on confidence because whatever I focus on, I make my reality.”

When you focus on abundance instead of fear, you will always be provided with what you need… when the time is right.  Not because you are lucky, but because the real definition of luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

I focus on, and allow, abundance into every aspect of my life.

Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together,
Personal Development Life Coach-
Chris O'Hearn

Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247

Music by: Basematic-Zest
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide