The Remarkable Circumstantial Adaptability of Man
Paul Bond www.paulbondart.com

A guest blog by Donna Bond, Life Coach

I’m excited to share these powerful words of wisdom from Donna Bond. Donna and I will co-host a transformational one-day workshop at the beautiful Hotel Del Coronado in November. Ready to Ignite Your Spark?

Donna Bond, M.A. is a graduate of the University of Santa Monica where she earned her master’s degree in Spiritual Psychology with an emphasis in Consciousness, Health and Healing.

As a professional life and business coach, spiritual advisor and inspirational speaker, Donna Bond’s work centers on serving individual transformation of consciousness. Assisting individuals and businesses to live into the full potential of their lives, from the inside out. Donna offers inspiring workshops and transformative in-depth coaching programs to assist clients across the globe achieve new heights of meaningful success, personal fulfillment and Spiritual aliveness using the principles and practices of Spiritual Psychology. 

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ~ Mary Oliver

You chase a lot of things outside of yourself. You chase jobs, people, promotions, purpose, circumstances, money and happiness believing that when we arrive to the destination, life will be different, better, happier. Happiness through pursuit you may discover, is fleeting.

For those of you who have been around the block a few times and have obtained success and worldly possessions you may have found that happiness attained from things outside of you is actually, well fleeting. It feels good for a few minutes, but sort of like carbohydrates, ultimately you are left feeling empty.

Consider perhaps that the fulfillment you seek is, in fact, not outside of you in some “destination” but rather, inside of you. And, it’s been with you all along, but it’s just been covered up. You don’t have to look far to discover the joy you are looking for.

How can you shift out of the pursuit of happiness in chasing the next best destination and instead begin to cultivate the gems and riches that reside inside of you? And, how can you begin to integrate these gems into your life so that you can live a rich, purposeful, fulfilling, joy-filled existence while you are on this planet?

You can do this by taking the journey inward. The path of self-discovery is not a place to arrive to, but rather an unfoldment of what is already present within you.

Here are ten reasons why you might consider taking the journey in.

THIS is YOUR life. What you trade your time for is what you trade your life for. You can keep putting everyone else first and try to make yourself happy by getting acknowledgment and praise for the things you do, OR you can start paying attention to YOU and how you can support yourself.

Realize that LIFE is a MIRROR. What is happening in our experience is just a reflection of the material we have in our consciousness. Some of that “material” is healthy and balanced and some of it is not. If you are caught up in a repeat performance of things you do not prefer, the only way you are going to be able to change the reflection is through alteration of what is in the inside – not outside.

SELF-LOVE is a PRACTICE. You are so hard on yourself. Especially you women. You take your inner critic everywhere you go and are the first one to chastise yourself. How could your life be different if you were to bring love, compassion, understanding and acceptance to yourself? Begin to praise, acknowledge, recognize, accept and approve of yourself and you will begin to experience the beautiful practice of self-love.

RESPOND instead of REACT. Release reliance on things outside of you to make you happy. Be willing to give up being a “control freak” trying to make sure the entire world behaves as you’d like them to, so you can feel good. Heal the inner pain points that invoke this type of reaction and you can pause to respond instead of react and realize what is happening in life is FOR you, if you choose to see it that way.

DISCOVER WHAT YOU LOVE. What brings you alive? What lifts you up? How can you follow your joy? The alternative is to keep trying to please everyone else in your life and relying on their approval. Every time you put your own needs aside to make someone else happy, you are entering into self-betrayal and self-sacrifice. When you honor what you love, your cup is then full and you can show up for others without feeling depleted.

EMPOWER YOURSELF. Take a participatory and intentional role of designing and creating what you would love to experience in your life. Or, you can live by default allowing life to push you around.

LEARN LIFE MASTERY TOOLS. Discover self-supportive tools that will assist you in cultivating a life of joy, fulfillment, happiness and aliveness.

BE IN AWE of your own magnificence. Befriend the voice of the inner critic and discover how incredible you are. Lay down the judgments of yourself and everyone else. Come into the knowing that YOU ARE ENOUGH.

RECOGNIZE the LOVE THAT YOU ARE. Underneath all the patterning and programming and all the installed belief systems you learned from your parents, teachers, schools, religions, government, society, culture, etc. – underneath all the things you were taught, is the TRUTH. The TRUTH that the essence of your essential nature, the TRUTH of YOU is pure Divine LOVE. Discover – or rather remember, that you are a unique, individualized expression of universal energy, having a human experience.

YOU create time to know YOU. Recall your dreams, uncover your longings, come face to face with your discontent, have a revelation, discover what you love and how you want to live your life. Remember who you are. Discover the authentic you.

If this opens your heart and pulls on your soul even a little bit, honor that. To delve deeper into these ideas and more, I have created a women’s retreat called Discover the Authentic You, where you will learn life mastery tools to support yourself in taking the journey in for the purpose of living a life that you love – from the inside out. For the purpose of assisting you to discover the joy of you.