Hi there! 👋🏼
Are you feeling the frantic pace of everyone around you as kids, parents, and teachers prepare for the start of school?
We've definitely been feeling all of the chaos around us, and we've had to be more firm with our boundaries to maintain the peace in our minds and in our home.
Whenever you see contrast or chaos in your outer world, it gives you an opportunity to investigate the areas where you might be choosing chaos in your life or where you are doing things that aren't in alignment with your true desires.
The chaos in my outer world has been so overwhelming for me that it has really motivated me to return to a state of calm and peace.
I usually find the clarity that I'm looking for when I'm reading a book, so I was reading The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck yesterday.
Martha talks about how so many of us are hustling up the mountain towards things that don't make us genuinely happy.
We do things because other people say we should do them.
We do them because we think we need to do them in order to be successful.
All of these things that we think we "should" do are creating chaos and dis-ease in our minds and our lives.
These are some of the questions that Martha invites you to ask yourself to find out if some of the things you are doing are out of alignment with who you truly are:
"Do you ever hang out with people you don't truly enjoy? Who are they?"
"Do you consistently make yourself do anything (or many things) you don't really want to do? Make a list."
"Are there things you do solely out of fear that not doing them will upset someone or lower your value in someone else's eyes? What are they?"
Martha encourages you to just become aware of how much of your life is spent hustling outside of your true nature.
When you spend a lot of your days out of integrity with who you truly are, your body will let you know.
It will feel stressed, tense, anxious, sick, sore, exhausted, painful, or out of whack.
It is one thing to try something new in order to be brave and to see if you might like it, but if you notice that you hate it, you can stop doing it.
I told you in a past letter that I was being brave by showing up for more speaking engagements, but the chaos in my life recently has made me become really aware of the areas where I'm not living my truth.
Doing podcast interviews and speaking during live events are things that I tried in order to stretch myself and be brave, but in all honesty, there is nothing I enjoy about being a public speaker.
Just because you can show up and do something well doesn't mean you need to keep showing up and doing it if you don't enjoy it.
Yesterday I canceled two podcast interviews and my speaking engagement in September, because the only reason I was pushing myself to do those things is because I thought they would help us grow our audience and find more people who would be interested in our relationship course.
If you are doing something only as a means to an end, ask yourself if it truly makes you happy or if there is another way you could go about achieving your goal that you would actually enjoy.
You might not have any new ideas for achieving your goal right now, but if you just remain open to the possibilities, they will come.
As a culture, we are constantly pushing ourselves to do things we hate doing in order to achieve success, but WHY???
If the purpose of life is joy, it's time to believe that you can achieve success if you follow your joy and live your truth.
The more you do things that bring you joy, the brighter your light shines and the more you attract wonderful things into your life.
I am choosing my joy above all else.
What are you going to choose?
It's completely up to you, dear friend! 🙂
Much love to you,
Amber
P.s. If you have become aware that you are doing a lot of things that aren't in alignment with your truth, I highly recommend The Way of Integrity. You can buy the book here if you would like to gift me with a small commission at no extra cost to you. I am an Amazon affiliate who only recommends books and personal development products that I personally own and love. ❤️
If you would like to create a life that excites and delights you, you can buy my book Celebrating Your Life here.
If you missed my letter Tell a New Story, you can read it here.
You can read my next letter Give From Your Overflow here.
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