Jodi Chapman, Author at Jodi Chapman

Learning To Be Grateful For It All

Aug 3, 2011

Sometimes sad and horrible things happen in life. Things that we don’t understand. Things that don’t make any sense at all. Things that make you question the divine order of everything and wonder how these horrific events can occur.

The world can be a violent, scary place filled with hatred and anger.
And I am the first to admit that I have a hard time embracing this part of our world.
I struggle to make peace with events that bring me to my knees from sorrow.

I have fantasies of waking More

Another Perspective

Aug 2, 2011

Have you ever wondered how others see you? Have you ever stepped back from your life and looked at it as though you were an objective bystander? Have you ever felt stuck and asked a loved one to offer guidance and perspective? A few months ago, Dan and I were on a call with a wonderful life coach, and she asked us how we defined success. At the time, we were in the mindset of “when this happens – we’ll feel truly successful.” We quickly listed off many things that needed to happen in our lives for us to feel like we were successful. Our list went something like this:

We will feel successful when we…

are the bestselling authors of inspirational books. have inspired many people through our writing and how we live our lives. make a certain amount of money. move into our dream home. find a way to balance it all and still have time for ourselves and each other. And the list went on and on.

When we had finished listing things off, she said something that truly opened my eyes. She said she already saw us as successful.

She listed the following examples: We had started a business that was still supporting us seven years later. We had fallen in love and built our lives around being together. We created products that inspired people to go within and live their best lives. We were featured on Etsy as an example of someone who was able to work for themselves and make a living at it. Our journals were bestsellers on the top spirituality-based website.

And while we felt that we still had a lot of work and growing and accomplishing and inspiring and creating and living to do – in her eyes we were already there.

We were successful. This truly changed the way I looked at my life. Instead of constantly striving for the next level, I began to look at what I had already accomplished and sit with it for awhile. Be still with it. Pat myself on the back. And acknowledge my success.
Sometimes we need another’s perspective to see how far we have come. Try seeing your life through someone else’s eyes.

Your loved ones and friends don’t have your inner critic. They don’t have your checklist and goals in their minds. All they see is where you have been More

Breathing in New Life

Aug 1, 2011

Happy August to everyone! The past couple of months have been super busy for me. I’ve been feeling extra frazzled, so I’m really looking forward to a fresh month and this new moon period where I get to create new beginnings and the life that I choose. I really love that each thought we have and each choice we make has led us to right where we are in this exact moment. I love it because it empowers us to take action and make positive choices if we aren’t happy with everything we see.

Look around you – take a look at the life you have created. Do you like what you see? Do you like who you have become? Do you like where you live? who you spend time with? how you react to stress? how you react to joy?

Spend a few moments really breathing your life in.
Close your eyes and feel what it’s like to live this life.
And take responsibility for your part in creating it. You created all of the wonderful parts in your life, and you also created each of the parts More

The Saboteur

Jul 31, 2011

Shared Wisdom Guest Post – Featuring Carolina Caro I am a firm believer that the universe is designed to grant us everything we could possibly desire. So you might be asking yourself, then why don’t I have the perfect life? If you’re anything like me, you might have some limiting beliefs that stand in the way of having everything you want. I’ve mentioned in previous posts this notion of picking up negative programming as early as our childhood. Most of us have been taught that life is difficult in some form or another; therefore, our circumstances manifest themselves to prove us right. Exploring our dark side is a way to understand why we act in ways that are opposite to the desires of our conscious mind. Once we grasp why we have certain self-defeating attitudes, we can work towards diminishing them and eventually eliminating them completely. Identifying these shadows from our past is not always easy because by the time we are adults, we have developed a sophisticated ego mind. This ego does not want to be examined very closely because it prefers to keep us enslaved by our wounds rather than to have us get acquainted with our higher Self. Think of every time you’re inspired to behave in a way that would better your life. Isn’t there always a pesky voice telling you all the reasons why you shouldn’t move forward? That little monster is the ego. Its sole purpose: to keep you from being truly happy. I like to refer to my ego as the saboteur. The most dangerous thing about the saboteur is that it usually tries to convince me that it’s acting in my best interest. The ego doesn’t realize that it sees the world as a projected perception based on all these distorted ideas it has accumulated. I certainly grew up with the ingrained belief that everything would be a struggle. I would need to work really hard to get the grades to land the stable job with the big salary to support a family and afford all the perks in life. Sound familiar? Then if I add to that every belief that was born from my bad experiences, the recording starts to sound like this: the world is a scary place, people shouldn’t be trusted, you need to compete with others, there isn’t enough to go around, people will hurt you and on and on. And then I wonder why my experience of life is the way it is! But what if none of that were actually true? What if our inner dialogue could be completely different? What if it sounded something like this instead: “My life is effortless. I acquire information and skills about the things I am passionate about. I am fortunate enough to apply my knowledge in my job, which never feels like work because I enjoy doing it so much. I am well compensated for my work. I am surrounded by people who do the very best they can everyday. I have wonderful personal relationships that are supportive and nurturing. All my desires are fulfilled”. Does that sound too good to be true? I know my ego would certainly say that’s a bunch of airy-fairy stuff. But I’m learning to pay close attention to the voice of that saboteur so that I no longer accept its arguments at face value. Sometimes it’s like a little wrestling match between my ego and my higher Self. And yes, sometimes the saboteur wins. But with every confrontation between these two, my ego shrinks a little more allowing my higher Self to step a little more to the forefront. And sure enough, when my higher Self is steering the wheel, life is definitely abundant in all areas. The right people and the right circumstances just show up at exactly the right time – the synchronicity of the universe never ceases to amaze me. The blessings are all there, just waiting for us to get over ourselves. We really are the only ones standing in our own way.

Carolina Caro has had the pleasure of holding many different careers from being a research scientist in the area of HIV/AIDS, to holding various sales and marketing positions in the corporate world to being an actress in theatre, film and television. But her most thrilling experience More

Saturday Selection – Tarot Cards

Jul 30, 2011

I realize that most of you have heard of or even have used tarot cards, but because I continue to be amazed by their guidance and power in my own life, I wanted to make them this week’s selection.

I have had my deck for over ten years, and any time I am feeling a bit lost and am looking for a helping hand from the universe, I go to this deck and pull a card.

And each time I do this, the answers that I need to hear at that exact moment appear.

I am by no means an expert on this, but here is the book and deck that I have and am recommending:

Pocket Rider Waite Tarot Cards Tarot Made Easy I think they are a great tool to gain clarity. They are a great way to connect directly to your higher self and the infinite universe. I would love to hear any decks and books that you use and would recommend.

A Bit of Lightness

Jul 29, 2011

Do you ever feel that life is getting just a bit too serious? Sometimes I find that I’m so consumed with work and have complete tunnel vision toward finishing my projects and meeting my deadlines and managing everything in a healthy and productive way that I forget to have fun. I love what I do. I absolutely do. I love inspiring. I love writing. I love connecting.

And I love remembering why I do what I do.
Why I have these deadlines.

How blessed I am to have a full plate filled with so many possibilities.

I love remembering that a full life is a lived life.

I love remembering to:
Smile.

Laugh.
Be silly.
Make jokes.
Skip.

Play.

Giggle.

Giving myself permission to take some time off to reconnect with these parts of myself is such a wonderful gift.

I invite you to do the same.

Your projects will still be there when you return.
And think of how More

Asking for Help

Jul 28, 2011

I wouldn’t consider myself a team player. I have always been the type of person who would rather just do something myself than have someone else assist me. I thought that bringing in another person with their own set of expectations about how things should be done complicated things, and I found that it was just easier to work alone.

So I created an entire life based on the premise that I didn’t need anyone’s guidance.
I believed that I was fine (even better off) without anyone’s help.

I created a business. I became my own boss. I got to decide what to do and when to do it. I got to call the shots.

Grateful for My Special Place

Jul 27, 2011

It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to write a post about gratitude!
Feel free to click here (or below) to learn more about our Gratitude Project. Okay – now for today’s post:

Throughout my life I have always had a special place where I went to recharge.
When life started to feel a bit overwhelming – which it often did – I could always go to this special place and somehow everything always seemed better afterwards.

This place is my bed.

I remember when I was really young continually asking my mom if I could go lie down. I loved my bed, and I couldn’t wait to get back to the warmth and comfort of it. She would frequently ask me to play just a bit longer, More

Your Higher Self

Jul 26, 2011

Have you ever gotten out of the driver’s seat and allowed your higher self to take over? Have you ever gotten out of your own way and surrendered to your own higher power? Have you ever let go of your lower self – your human self – your ego – your conscious mind and allowed your higher self – your soul – your divine spirit to take the reins? If so – how did it feel? What was different? When I sit down to write each day, I never know what is going to come out. As much as I can control it, I resist planning. It overwhelms me, and I begin to feel boxed in. I feel that if I plan, my higher self and divine spirit won’t be free to show up and guide me along my path.And because of this natural resistance to planning, I am able to write without any preconceived ideas about what “should” be written, or what “must” be written. It is what it is. And I have faith that my higher self and the universe will come together and type what most needs to be written at that particular moment. What my soul feels that you (and me) need to hear the most. So before I begin writing, I take a few deep breaths, light a candle, put on some soothing music, and wait. Sometimes the words start flowing immediately, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes I start writing – thinking that it is my higher self driving only to find out that my ego jumped in and took over. So I start again. I know that my higher self is back in control when I am filled with love and joy and faith and a knowing that only my pure soul could show me. It’s so important to give your higher self a voice. It’s absolutely crucial that we clear space in our lives for this voice – that we make time to listen to what it is telling us.And you don’t have to be writing to have your pure soul speak to you – through you. You could be creating anything or creating nothing when it happens. You could be painting and notice a moment where the brush seemed to be moving on its own – where you felt that pure love. You could be alone with your thoughts when you notice a new voice – a wise, loving voice that is guiding you toward your path.

When you hear this voice (or feel it, as we sometimes do), you will immediately take notice. It can speak quietly though, which is why it’s so important to be still and slow down. You definitely don’t want to miss out on its wisdom. When you do take notice, you’ll find yourself sitting up straighter and breathing more fully. Your higher self has all of the answers. And it’s such a gift that we all have access to this part of ourselves. We only need to learn how to listen More

The Importance of Being Still

Jul 25, 2011

If your life is anything like mine (and I’m guessing that it is), things seem to be moving faster than normal. It feels like the days are getting shorter and the to-do list is getting longer.

I write about self care and taking time to go within. I write these posts for you. My hope is that they will serve as inspiration and help you delve in and remember yourself. But I also write them as a reminder to myself. A reminder that I am not just the messenger – I also need to receive the More