My Grown-Up Christmas List! by Kelly K. Brown

I’ve celebrated many Christmas Seasons over the years and have always enjoyed the celebrations, the festivities, the shopping, the baking, the beautiful packages and lights… ahhhhhh what a festive and joyful time of year!

Most of those years, like many people, I was ‘hoping for this’ and/or ‘wishing for that'---always having a list of things I’d like to receive.

Few people in my ‘current’ world know that for many years, I also sang solos in Church… and one of the songs I sang (that touched my heart then and even more deeply today) is again my list of What I’d Like For Christmas this year!

I hope you enjoy the song's message as much as I do!

My Grown-Up Christmas List!
(David Foster & Linda Thompson Jenner)

Do you remember me
I sat upon your knee
I wrote to you with childhood fantasies

Well I'm all grown-up now
And still need help somehow
I'm not a child
But my heart still can dream

So here's my lifelong wish
My grown-up Christmas list
Not for myself
But for a world in need

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
Everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown-up Christmas list

As children we believed
The grandest sight to see
Was something lovely
Wrapped beneath our tree

Well heaven surely knows
That packages and bows
Can never heal a hurting human soul

No more lives torn apart
that wars would never start
and time would heal all hearts
Everyone would have a friend
and right would always win
and love would never end
This is my grown-up Christmas List

What is this illusion called
The innocence of youth
Maybe only in our blind belief
Can we ever find the truth

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
Everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end

This is my grown-up Christmas list
This is my ONLY Lifelong Wish
This is my grown-up Christmas list!

May your Christmas be all you hoped and a wonderful time of peace, joy, happiness and harmony in all areas of your life!

Sharing A Love That Never Ends...

Kelly

More of Those Please! By Kelly K. Brown

So… the news is on, you’ve read the paper, you're hanging out with people who recently lost their job, or you know someone else who has and are talking about it… have you noticed (felt and taken the time to experience) what happens INSIDE OF YOU when you surround yourself with words, thoughts and the emotions of fear?

If you are paying attention to your thoughts, you’ll find yourself 30 minutes away from the experience or conversation and discover yourself thinking fear-filled thoughts… suddenly worrying about YOUR job, YOUR economic future, certain it means gloom and doom for you and so much more! You will notice one thought leads to another like it, and another like it, until your mind is filled with fear for YOUR future. This is the way most people allow their thoughts to be influenced everyday.

Do you find your thoughts creating these unwanted scenarios in your mind, focusing again and again on fear-filled ideas rather than purposefully focusing on what you really want in life?

Every day when I wake up, I have the opportunity to make a choice to create the life of my dreams by focusing my thoughts intentionally... and so do you. In life, we are afforded the opportunity to make choices all day, every day about WHERE to place our attention and on WHATEVER topic we choose. As each day unfolds with new experiences, people and situations occurring all around us, we again have the choice to choose HOW we want to focus on the situation at hand---thereby creating our current and future life experience.

I like to keep things simple, so I think of my life as the keeper of an incredible garden of choices (flowers) and everyday I get to pick and choose which flowers I will bring from the garden into my home (my life experience).

As I go out into the world (my garden of life), I see all types of flowers, some are blooming, some are not. Some are weeds! Some have the most sacred beautiful aroma and some; well to me they don’t smell so pretty. BUT in the end, they are all part of the garden of life, and I have the choice to accept all the flowers to be as they are.

So everyday I head out with my basket to pick flowers… “Ohhhh I love those pink ones and yes, I like that purple one… but Ack! I don’t love those yellow ones at all!” And right there, in that moment is where I get to make the most important choice of my day. I can choose to spend the rest of my day focusing on how much I wish the yellow flowers were pink, I can bemoan that my garden has icky yellow flowers that have no smell in the first place, or in fear I could even choose to RUN FROM the yellow flowers… I’m making an important point… are you getting it?

It’s such a silly, simple example and yet this is how most of us live our lives anytime something we don’t like pops up! In my own experience, (even as I continue growing and changing) I discover I find things I don’t love or like and instead of just seeing them there (yellow flowers), I attach ALL sorts of old mental stories, drama, angst and then in that vibration of thought I RUN from that which I don’t want only to find I’m now attracting MORE of it into my experience. And then later, I’m surprised to find I’m surrounded in my garden of life with an abundance of YELLOW flowers---exactly what I didn’t want.

Do you see the inherent wisdom in exercising your powerful option to purposefully 'choose your thoughts' and how that applies to ANY situation?

As the Holidays quickly approach, it is the most joyful and yet the most stressful time of year for many people. The Stuff of family, presents, expectations and “shoulds” is more prevalent now than at any other time of year. I encourage you to think of everything and everyone throughout the season as nothing more than a flower growing in the garden of life. Do your best to allow all things to be as they are, exercising your power to choose and then focus again on what you want in life. I promise, with thoughts like that, it will be your best Holiday experience… EVER!

Empower yourself today to make your own choices and focus only on what you want to create in YOUR garden of life… “Oh Yes! I love the purple and pink ones… More Of Those Please!”

Technology STUFF by Kelly K. Brown

Technology Stuff…

Are you a technological buff or is it that you simply can’t find your way around the latest iphone? (Or are you somewhere in-between?)

Technology stuff, for me, has always been a bit of ‘burden’. I LOVE what it does, how it makes my life easier and all the super cool things my life contains because of it, AND I don’t always like having to go through all the books and instructions trying figure it out. It mostly feels like work to plod my way through all the ‘details’ and mistakes I make along the way. BIG Ugh!

As you may have guessed, whenever I mention a defeating pattern of behavior I’ve become aware of in myself, I typically go searching for the origin--where this ‘type of thinking’ on this subject came from---and then also I seek answers so I can effectively change my future. And this topic of technology is no different.

What I came up with is my old nemesis—FEAR! What? Fear of Technology? Well, not exactly… it’s more like fear of what will happen when I play with technology---when I don’t know what I’m doing, when I don’t know how to fix it.

Having crashed a computer or two… or three (years ago)… and having children who downloaded things that caused a myriad of struggles in my business life when my computer no longer functioned properly---and NOT knowing how to fix it quickly and easily myself… created a space of fear about trying new things with any sort of technology.

Most recently, I’ve had a series of THREE brand new printers that for some reason unknown to me, keep failing when I really need them and all the time and energy spent replacing, re-installing them, etc. is my least favorite thing to do. I found this frustrating, irritating, and annoying because again, I didn’t know how to get things moving again quickly and easily. (And you can’t believe how I miss my fax/copier/printer when it is not functioning properly).

As you can see… I wasn’t focusing in a positive manner (which is the fastest way to change ANYTHING in life)! I wasn’t being present in the moment and accepting that what is, IS WHAT IS, until I recently made an internal shift to just be ‘okay’ with whatever was up in my ‘printer gone wrong world’, and began choosing BETTER thoughts about me, technology and how we could play better together in the future!

I decided I’d had enough of this Fear of Technology life I was experiencing based on past happenings and past programming and have now mentally named 2009 The Year Kelly Soars WITH Technology (rather than against it!)

Every day when I vision (and I do vision my future every day) how 2009 will look and feel for me, my thoughts and vision boards now always include the latest, greatest technology pieces coming to AID me in all my work and play endeavors… from the fun of wii to exciting new software and hardware of all types and sorts---all with FUN in the learning. FUN people to guide me along the way and FUN people showing up right on cue if things don’t go according to plan.

In essence, I’ve decided that for me, technology is NOT to be feared because I fear the mistakes I might make (out with that defeating pattern of thinking), it is actually an incredibly valuable tool that CAN be fun in the learning and growing phases… and from here on, I simply won’t see it any other way!

It’s funny how throughout life, we ‘think’ one thing is going on (in this case, technology mishaps)… and later, we discover it is just another way that fear and doubt are surfacing so we can see them for what they really are (thereby dismantling them) and begin again with new choices of thought and behavior that will bring us a better life!

Stay tuned as 2009 rolls around to keep me on track! If you also struggle with the fear of technology from time to time, feel free to join my journey… the more the merrier I always say!

NOW is all You've Got! by Kelly K. Brown

Can you believe we are already at the end of another whole year? As I look back on my own Journey, 2008 flew by in a whirlwind of unprecedented change in just about every single area of my life, both personal and business, as well as to most every single person I know.

As you look back over this year, take a few moments to think about the topic of your most prevalent conversations---the major themes running behind most of your thoughts. What have they been about?

Foreclosures?
The Economy?
Government Bailout Programs?
The Election?
Speculation on Your Future?

Or maybe it was something else, such as paying bills, finding a job, wondering how your business (as you knew it) can survive in the economic wind of change we all just experienced and are currently experiencing.

As you think back to your conversations and thoughts over the past year, do any similar patterns come to mind? Does any ONE way of feeling stand out? i.e. were you mostly scared, worried, hopeful, angry, insightful, frustrated---or maybe even depressed?

In the world of normal things, most people (if the news is anything to go by) are feeling very negative--some would say with very good reason---and many are experiencing many other emotions that fall into the ‘negative’ category!

If you’ve been thinking and feeling that way, I have a question…

“So, How’s That Been Working For You?”

I ask with the most sincere, heartfelt intentions (as I also ask myself anytime I allow myself to wander off track from a positive mindset). Understand, I get the circumstances are all true---I know none of us are making this up---the economy that currently is… IS what is!

And here’s my point, ask yourself honestly…

Has talking about it, being worried about it, or losing sleep over it ever changed ANYTHING?

Probably not…at least not toward the good anyway! In fact, it is far more likely that the more you focused on it (what you don’t love about what happened this year economically) the more stuff happened, the more you saw it on the news, the more you read about it—some of you may have even found yourself popping up with various ailments and illnesses ‘totally out of the blue’. Consider this: “Will continuing to think and speak those same things in the same way will change anything as 2009 rolls around?”

Here’s the thing… all we have is this NOW moment! That’s really all we ever have---the past can’t be changed, the future is our hope, but definitely not our certainty as no one has the promise of the next breath, let alone tomorrow.

In reading and following my articles or blogs, you are already aware you aren’t your stuff, you aren’t what you have or lost, you aren’t what people say or think… none of that is WHO YOU TRULY ARE (imagine a 3-month terminal illness diagnosis and this will be abundantly clear in seconds)… so if all those things are true and NOW is all You’ve Got---wouldn’t it be just as easy to hope, believe, think and speak that things will somehow be okay, and that you will find a way regardless of the outer circumstances of the economy—no matter what actually happens?

Whether you believe in the Law of Attraction or not (“that which is like unto itself is drawn”), most everyone agrees with the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy---

“Think you can, think you can’t, either way you’re right”!

Are you beginning to see the intrinsic value for you and everyone around you that even while acknowledging in the briefest terms possible what is (the current economy), that a positive mindset, conversation, hope and belief can only bring good to you? Mentally, physically, relationally---everything works out better FOR YOU when you find ways to focus your intentions positively for today and tomorrow.

Does this mean you have THE answer to everything upfront, right this minute? Does this mean you KNOW what tomorrow will bring? “Do we ever?” is probably a much better question!

From my own extensive life experience, here’s what I know for sure!

Ø When faced with a 6-month life expectancy terminal illness diagnosis (within our family), a positive outlook, mindset and faith saved a life! (Yes, I plunked down $35k on a credit card IN ADVANCE of knowing the outcome or that a remission or cure was even possible!)

Ø When there was no money to cover a $14k per month medical treatment---focusing on what I wanted with a firm belief I would be taken care of no matter what---more than sufficient money arrived—and quite honestly there was, in the end, quite an abundance.

Ø When I was down to less than $6 thousand dollars at one point---with no job, no money and no prospects… an out-of-the blue miracle occurred and I was subsequently funded for almost 2 years.

Ø My parents house and every bill they had were paid off completely with money left over (along with cancer bills, surgery and treatment that had not yet occurred) when by miracle of miracles just a month prior to illness diagnosis, my Dad was put into a national restaurant chain commercial on television. No, he was not an actor of any kind before or since. Health Insurance was also provided- absolutely FREE!

I share these few instances (and there are so many more I could share), for no reason other than to inspire you. To give you a renewed confidence, that with faith, hope, a positive mindset and focused intentions on a positive outcome that you cannot yet see, let alone imagine, miracles do happen---and they can happen for YOU!

An idea that never before occurred to you will cross your mind, an opportunity from the craziest unknown place will surface suddenly or someone will introduce you to someone else who will forever change the course of your life. You know from your own past experience, this is exactly how it happens, right? Our current economy is not bigger than our world history, which tells us “things always get better”!

Does this mean that life is then forevermore perfect? No, my life is not yet perfect, but your NOW moments will FEEL better and better all the time (because you will be choosing your thoughts everyday). You will begin to have a strong inner confidence that ‘what is, is meant to be’ (i.e. you no longer fight reality), but you DO consciously focus on what you WANT in the midst of reality anyway!

As 2009 is right around the corner, Now Is All You’ve Got! Maybe NOW is the time to notice your patterns of thought and speech… your inner beliefs. Maybe NOW is the time to purposefully begin focusing your thoughts, speech and intentions on exactly What You Want! When would be a better time than NOW?

Dreaming Only of The Journey I Want…

Kelly K. Brown