Inspirational Jewelry

Release the bondage of resentments

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Happiness is an Inside Thing!

Faith

Faith is what makes life bearable; It’s what gives me the strength during tough times.  It’s that spark, even if tiny at the time, which ignites into flames, as long as I keep holding on to the belief that this too shall pass.

Now I am not saying  I have it all together; That I never doubt or just want to give up at times, but through perseverance and determination, with God’s strength that’s within me; I keep moving forward no matter how hard it may be.   Then Just when I think I can’t do it one more second, the change I was waiting for takes place.

Faith doesn’t come easy for myself and many others.  Growing up in an alcoholic family , being abused, and abandoned on a regular basis; made it difficult for me to believe anything about God, much less that He was loving and caring.  However, I continued to go along with what everyone else was doing and saying; even went to a Christian High School and College, but it just wasn’t there.  I always had an impending doom attitude; believing that God was up on some big throne waiting to punish me yet again; that I was hopeless and a bad little girl.   These thoughts are what I lived with most of my life; they are what was engraved into the core of my being.  The saddest part was that the churches I grew up in were what I call Hell, Fire, & Damnation churches.  The portrayed God to be this person who was angry at all of His children and was going to get revenge on each and every one of them.  If you wore the wrong thing, talked the wrong way, looked or acted like you liked a boy, danced, laughed & more; you were going to hell.  So no wonder it was hard for me to develop a loving and caring relationship with God.  He had always been portrayed as Mean & Vengeful.  Then there’s the psychological factor that weighs in; Counselors believe that the father image of the family is what a child bases their first impression of God as;   So for me that was horrible; My father was a very abusive and sick man; so looking at God that way (even though I didn’t know that’s what I was doing at the time) made it even scarier.

I know that a lot of times in life we don’t feel God’s presence.  We don’t think He is even there anymore.  With all the hurt and pain in the world today, it may look and feel like He has left you all alone, but He hasn’t.   I do not believe that God makes things happen for a reason; I can’t believe that, or I would be agreeing to the fact that He made my Dad abuse me, in some horrible ways, just to prove or make something happen.  However each of us chooses our path and God will  not go against our will; I also believe that Life happens and that God can take what has happened and turn into something powerful; whether the event itself brings someone into you life, a greater bond with your family, an opportunity, or a number of other things.  I just know for me, I can’t believe that He sits up in Heaven thinking up ways to make bad things happen to us.  He lives within my heart; He is my Spirit, He is my God and He’s with me all the time.  He has given me all that I need to live a happy, joyous and free life; I just have to learn how to tap into that power.  Some days I have all the faith in the world, then others not so much; but one thing is for sure, I am much closer to God than I once was.

(((hugs & love)))

Wendy

http://www.wingsofencouragement.net/

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These are just a couple of our items at our online store;  There are more charms that can be added to the cuff bracelets; Check them out at our store tab on our website at http://www.wingsofencouragement.net/

Guilt & Shame

Guilt and Shame can keep you stuck in the past and fearful of the future, if not dealt with in the appropriate manner.

In Recovery we go by our 8th & 9th Steps, which first tell us to make a list of all the persons we have harmed , then to become willing to make amends , to the best of our ability.  This does not mean that we grovel or crawl, begging forgiveness; it means what it simply says, We do it to the best of our ability.  We approach the person and or place, as long as it does not cause harm to ourselves’ or others, and we don’t say I’m Sorry (for they have heard that quite often and it doesn’t mean much to them at all) we admit our wrongs, ask what we can do to make it right, and then we go out there and make a living amends, which means don’t continue the same behaviors that put us in such a predicament to begin with.

It’s not about begging for forgiveness; It’s about owning up to your part and being willing to make it right; Whether or not they forgive us is not the point; The point is that we faced something that we never thought we would be able to; that we are finally taking responsibility for our wrongful acts and are willing to not only make it right, but to live differently in the future.

Most of the time they do forgive us, but sometimes they don’t and that’s okay.  Each person is entitled to their feelings and have their own process of healing; But now we can hold our heads up high, looking the world in the eye, for we have completely and thoroughly examined our wrongs and made them right.

(((hugs & love))))

Wendy

Acceptance

When I am in harmony with all that surrounds me, with God and myself; I am able to walk through chaos, with faith and a positive attitude. I don’t deny my feelings; they are recognized, felt , and released; my attitude is filled with love and acceptance. I know that I have done all that I can and God will take care of the rest.
Yes, it’s difficult, but worrying about it won’t change things; actually you will end up having to go through the incident twice, if what your fearing comes into play.
So do what you can, then let go of the rest; It’s much better to have peace, than fear in your heart. Don’t allow yourself to be blocked today; Go do something fun, enjoy some alone time, read a book, listen to some music, have coffee with a family member or friend, just DO something different, that will take your mind off of the situation. Recite Positive Affirmations, whether you feel it or not, make a gratitude list, make a phone call to someone who is lonely, etc…. There’s many things you can do, which require no money; So DO them; You only have this one life to live and NOW ,THIS VERY MOMENT, is worth cherishing!
Wendy Box

Inspirational Jewelry

I am so grateful for how my life is today;

I would have never dreamed 7 years ago that I would have a facebook page that had over 1 million followers, my own line of jewelry, and books coming out in the near future.  So gratitude does not even express how I am feeling at this moment.

I am doing what I love to do and all because I chose to take a few steps in the direction of my dreams.

Please check out all of our jewelry and let me know what you think at  http://wingsofencouragement.net/store.html

Always remember that you deserve the best that life and love have to offer;

You deserve for your dreams to come true and you are worth all the effort it takes to make that happen.

(((hugs & love)))

Wendy

Old beliefs,thoughts, & ideas

Today I was required to attend our Family Program at work; (a 3 day ordeal) as part of our yearly training. While I not only taught the Family Program for my previous employer; I created that very program; It was still required of me to attend this facility’s proceedings.
As a direct result of the class itself; I began feeling “less than”, “a part from”, “isolated”, “dumb”, ignorant, useless and plain stupid; even a state of complete hopelessness came over me.
Yes those are all very powerful feelings and I experienced each one of them, off and on, throughout my day; all because I was learning something different. You see my addicted brain was telling me that I didn’t need to go to these classes, yet in just one day I have learned so much.
I have dealt with those feelings and let them go, one by one; but I know that I am so much better today than I was almost 6 years ago. I also know that this is a life long process; one of which some require a more rigorous program than others. It does set me apart from most everyone, yet I keep going, because I do know that each and every day I am getting closer and closer to being free from the compulsion to think such powerful thoughts of negativity.
So I do my best to replace them with the positive and keep taking deep breaths, taking one step at a time; knowing that I am getting to where I want to be.
Wendy Box

 

Give yourself a break.

 

Over the past several months I have noticed myself experiencing some old thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors.  Of course I let it go on for way too long, but the past few days, I’ve been taking some time to do some self-reflection.  While I may not have pin pointed the exact nature at the core of my inner self; I have become aware of how quickly low self-esteem, codependency, insecurity, fear, loneliness, isolation, and the loss of purpose and hope, can take over my life when I am not practicing my personal program of self-care.

With that being said, I have made a commitment with myself, to attend regular meetings (for my Recovery), call my Sponsor more often, give back to others, and meditate more deeply; long with making sure I am practicing daily affirmations.

When you seem to be snapping at everyone around you, when you can’t find the motivation to do anything, talk to anyone, or just to get out of bed; when you feel as though all hope is lost; SLOW DOWN for a while; take some time for yourself to reflect on when the feelings began.  Most importantly make sure you are not neglecting time with YOU and your loved ones; Make sure you are taking time out to have some fun, Make sure you are practicing what it is that set you on the right path to begin with.  Then slowly start incorporating the positive steps back into your life and give yourself a break.  We all have moments of uncertainty and confusion; we all at one time or another doubt our mere existence; It’s the AWARENESS that brings us back into the right direction; for without awareness, there’s no recognition of a problem in the first place.