It is this most surreal feeling to process. its the feeling of looking out on your life thinking “this cant be real. this is too good to be true. This is overwhelmingly amazing!” I thought. You can feel that feeling from a lot of things, it could be your first foal you bred yourself. It could be the feeling of winning that barrel race or doing so damn good you heart feels like it could beat straight out of your throat. You are so ecstatic by life, it pours through you at a rate we can hardly process and believe is real.
I love when reality gives me a jolt of ecstasy.
I gave birth January 23, about 2 months before my due date on March 30. It was a lot to process the shocking speed at which I became a mom. Not just a new mom but a mom to a 30 week old, 3.5 lb little girl. Still as I write, it feels hard to believe this is my life. But it is, and I love it!
I discovered love and excitement like I hadn’t before. Not just for my new baby girl, but for my partner and also my new role in all of our new lives together. My role has changed, still I am not sure how I will navigate the new world once our baby is out of the hospital but I know it will be perfectly aligned.
Things in life seem to happen for a reason, wouldn’t you say? Maybe at the moment you don’t understand why certain things happen. Maybe you never will. But, maybe these things that are so hard to put into your brain of comprehension are there for a reason you just haven’t discovered, yet. And this undiscovered realm of thinking is an invitation for yourself to dig deeper, to understand more, to feel God and our spirits more than before. You are being brought down a path, it is your path, it’s time to love it. Even if it makes no sense, even if it feels unfair, even if you don’t understand it yet; there will be a day you will, I promise. Even if it is the last day on earth for you; you will discover your place in all of this unfolding of life. Your place is exactly where is was supposed to be. That gives a great sense of peace, love and understanding.
When things don’t go to plan, adjust your way of seeing the plan.
My plan has changed quite a lot recently. Bringing a life into the world has given me so much more than a new title, it’s given me a new sense of purpose and clarity I never experienced. Instead of doing this life for me, I am doing it for her, for my family and for my future. This is something I never had a lot of clarity around until now.
“What does my future look like? what do I want? How can I get there?” the questions went on and on as I stared ahead into a foggy unknown path of pure misdirection.
thats what I thought anyways..
until I landed here.
It all was for a reason.
The confusion.
the love.
the decision.
the path.
It was all mine, even if at the time I felt like a passenger, I was indeed the one helping steer the ship. I had help too. The suggestions of what could be. The thoughts coming into my mind from unmanifested belonging, they crept in and told me where to go. I had to believe and I also chose to believe.
I put faith in front of fear.
Instead of straining my eyes to try and see through the fog, I closed them. I took a breath in of truth, trust, and faith and I took the next step that felt the best. I continued to do so until I opened my eyes and found a baby girl in my arms and a loving partner by my side.
is it magical?
yes. it can be.
being purely you. Loving yourself and loving the direction you are going. Loving the lessons. Loving the detours you were not expecting but can surrender too as an invite to grow and evolve more. Surrendering to your path, allowing life to sway you and allowing your decisions to be the invitations to a life far greater than you thought possible.
At the end of the day, who do you report back to? Who do you share your day with and judge whether it was good or not?
To answer that simply, ask another question: Who are you trying to hopefully keep alive, healthy and well? That hopefully, is You.
You are the centre, you are the controller of your own life.
I am here to call out those who make excuses for where they are today. I would ask those individuals what did you do yesterday? What did you do this past month? This past year or ten years to bring you here?
it is easy to blame, to use outside circumstances as a way to get out of why you are where you are. Why you aren’t as healthy as you’d like to be, why you aren’t as happy as you like to be, why you aren’t as alive as you’d like to be.. but at the end of the day, who do you have to sit with and be honest with — yourself.
You can lie to them, but you can’t lie to yourself.
You can pretend to them and make them believe you are someone you are not. You can take those small actions you know deep down are not helpful, but you do them anyway, of course, you can! You are the creator, you are a part of the creator. The creator’s energy sits inside all of us humans on earth. — You are the creator of your destiny.
Yet, we pass the Paton on to some outside circumstance. “this thing right here is why I am how I am.” Leaving you with no responsibility; just the way you like it.
But, at the end of it all, you are still responsible for you. In today’s world of knowledge being so incredibly accessible, you have no excuses anymore. Well, the only excuse might be that “I hold my progress back. I am closed-minded to new possibilities. I struggle to be responsible for my actions.” The list can go on and they are very worthy, but, do they belong in truth?
I just have one small example I am going to share, it’s so basic you might even laugh. But it helped spark this topic idea and my desire to sit down and write it down.. so here it goes.
Iwas in the shower this morning. To backtrack I also recently got my hair coloured at a salon. The lady said it is best not to use really hot water on your hair as it will damage it further. (who else has been told this) Along with 100 other things we are told are good or bad with good reasoning too! It’s not just made-up rules, these suggestions if you will, are backed by facts and it would be best if you listened to them and tried to implement them in your day to day.
So there I am, kind of cold and wanting that water scorching. But the hairstylist came into my mind, her warning to not use hot water on your hair. At that moment I had two choices; I could listen to her advice, or I could ignore it. Both options would lead to a certain set of consequences.
Option one was a positive consequence, I don’t damage my hair. However, the second consequence is I further damage my hair and then complain about it in a few months. Both are my choice, both lead to consequences I am responsible for. The hairstylist isn’t going to barge into my shower and yell at me for having the water too hot, she quite frankly doesn’t care what I do with that knowledge. Heck, she might even want me to damage my hair quicker so I go back to her sooner to help me fix the problem. But what is that what’s best?
What would I prefer in the long run?
I would say I want healthy hair; therefore I will be accountable for it and make sure I don’t use hot water like it was suggested.
It’s the small things.
Realizing you are in control. You report back to You at the end of the day. If you feel the need to blame someone or something, just pause and ask yourself “What was my part in all of this?” “What STILL is my part in all of this?” “Are there things I could do differently or do better?”
Those answers will vary, but it could be as simple as I need to learn more. I need to be open-minded to more information, perspectives and ideas. Or, it could be “I need to make choices that serve my future self, my higher self, my truest self. I need to be kinder to me and take care of me. I need to love myself more and act in accordance to that love.”
There is no one answer.
But it all lies within you. You are in more control than you give yourself credit for.
No one is coming to save you, but you can save yourself.
Believe in your power and own it! You have a lot to give.
Fully embrace all you set out to do. Feel it in your bones and know where you are is where you are meant to be.
Feel a hunch, trust it. Feel a push, move with it. Feel like you should step up, start stepping. Everything in life, is here for you. You can choose to ignore it and stay where you are or you can choose to push past your insecurities to do what you feel is right.
I feel everything starts with you, with I, with me. I am choosing to do what I can with where I am and with what I have. That’s all it takes. Be flexible to life unfolding, like a corral is flexible to the waves of an ocean. Flow with it, accept it for what it is and trust it is all in the timing it is meant to be. Don’t resist the lessons of life, feel them, embody them and know they are the transformations you need to bloom fully. Each chapter is a lesson and a realization to be had – that is what it’s all about.
Feel and do, it is that simple.. yet it is the hardest thing to accept and live out. It takes stepping over the self limiting fear, and looking it in the face as you wave it goodbye.“You will no longer control me” as you continue down the path meant for you.
The path is fuzzy, it’s blurry; but it’s yours – if you want it.
From launching WCH a few years ago, to the evolution of life and of myself we are now standing “here”. As I overcome my own human experiences, I know there is more than just my own goals, my own achievements I want to achieve, there is more to life and the more I see the more I know I am meant to be here, doing this.
It’s messy, it’s confusing, it’s frustrating, it’s scary, but I choose to look at it all with curiosity and a smile.
I had this one idea to launch a campaign with used show shirts, so I launched it. It is building momentum as the initiative behind the movement is being felt and supported. Thank you to all of those who are standing behind me and supporting me as we collectively continue to support our communities.
Thank you for the path, thank you for the chance to be messy and still make it through. I thank the supporters who see what I feel, as I continue to sway between the guidelines. I feel, I listen and I do. To all of those that are doing the same thing, we give you the energy and love to continue doing what you feel as well.
All this being said, imagine a world where we all follow our path fearlessly.
It’s spring! Although it feels like winter is lingering and won’t give up the stage. I can’t help but feel the spring weather around the corner, eagerly waiting to shine its bright light on all of us. Creating life through its energy; the trees begin to bloom, the grass returns to green and everything seems to become full of life again; ourselves included.
I love creating and just challenging myself to grow into a higher version of myself with everything I do. However, this month’s article has come to me slowly. My mind is not flowing as it usually does with ideas so I took a drive to park in front of the Grand River at a local walking trail. Hoping nature would spark some creativity and ideas worth sharing with all you amazing readers.
I had the idea for this column which started as a seed inside my mind a few weeks ago. Now, I am finally bringing it into fruition with my hands typing these words on my laptop. It took a while for the idea to grow inside of myself until I felt it was ready to harvest into reality in the outside world. Sometimes ideas are perfect in our minds. We don’t want to ruin it by making it real and maybe a little less perfect in reality, so it stays put in our brains. This might have been a case of that. But I am all for taking imperfect action!
So here I am, harvesting with action the ideas and vision I made inside of my mind a few weeks ago. This is the topic for The Rider this month.
How does a vision or idea become reality? When we want something in life, there are a few stages to getting it. The first is awareness. It’s noticing the idea inside our mind. It’s seeing the possibilities that can play out in the future. It’s the unknown, the unlimited future floating as ideas in the darkness of your brain. Secondly, it is believing and seeing it clear as day. It’s knowing it is yours to create before it is yours in the current moment of time. In your soul, you see it to be already true. Now, the final, and potentially most important step is the action needed to get you to that thing you envision for yourself.
If you can’t tell already, this is the process of manifestation. You may have heard of it before but it is the idea of turning something from an idea into a reality. It’s a popular word I am hearing from the “gurus” when they tell you how to live your dream life. This process unpacks a whole list of other questions to ask yourself like “What actually is my dream life? What do I want to create in my future? What does it all look like?” and so on.
Bringing this back to the beginning; the dreams and visions we store in our minds are the seed to our reality. As I’ve said before I’m sure, or will always continue to say, that everything starts with and within ourselves.
We get to choose what seed we are going to plant in order to harvest the results we want in the future. I feel the seed is a powerful metaphor we can use to understand and it’s very timely, because it’s almost spring as you know. The seed is a choice to feel a specific outcome that you want to have. It’s already feeling full of it; full of abundance, love, success, freedom, wealth, whatever it is for you, we have to feel it inside ourselves first. It can be hard to believe in when it hasn’t happened yet, but it is an important step to reaching those desires
I did a thought experiment on this and I want to share it with you. It has to do with what we tell ourselves to be true or not.
We can all agree horses are expensive, right? Financial freedom I’d say is a big pain point for equestrians. We want to be able to support our love for horses, but how can you do what if you aren’t “rich”? When I was going through this experiment, focusing on how I can feel “rich” now.. I was telling myself how hard it is, how expensive it is, how impossible it is, how I am not rich enough for life, is what I was basically telling myself.
Now if that’s the seed I unknowingly was planting, what do you think my harvest will be? Ya, likely all of those things I told myself will become my reality. But, with the concept I laid out above, if I start with the intention of what I want to happen, and I believe it is mine to take, I know I will create that destiny for myself.
I then asked myself “what does being rich even mean to me?” I said “my horses I currently own, my health makes me rich. I listed all my assets that make me happy and make me feel abundant. Before I knew it, I was describing a perfect life that I have been creating for myself for a long time. Maybe I’m not where I want to be. After-all, we are always growing and evolving, but we can choose to feel that we are on the right path by envisioning it, believing in it and acting on it, every single day. That is true wealth and that is true abundance. Now it’s only a matter of feeding it into your reality.
I fully believe in the unlimited power to create that we all possess. I want us all to ‘take the reins’ if you will and start planting the seeds of what you want to have in your future, now. Feel it first, believe in it completely, and then act on it. It will become yours if you stay true on your path.
One final thing;
I believe the dreams you have are there because they are meant for you. It’s not something to be taken lightly or disregarded as “well everyone has these dreams”. No. Your dreams are for you. And they are waiting for you to take action on them. This spring, and the 2023 season, I want to leave you with one question: are you ready to own it?
As I was walking towards the barn one day, my feet were sinking a few inches into the newly laid snow. It was a beautiful winter morning where I looked around, feeling and breathing in all the “thank yous” for this moment. It can be so beautiful when we realize and feel the true moment of right here, right now.
This short story gives a lesson of trusting new paths
Sometimes I am a person who NEEDS to see exactly where I am going before I take any steps towards it. I need to know the most, feel prepared the most, and usually not even follow through because I don’t see it as clearly as I want to.
I had this fully body realization that has changed my perspective of this thought, or inner obstacle that had been slowing me down.
I will say first that I think we do need a plan, we need to know what we want in the future. But in my case, the need for the plan actually stoped me from taking ACITON. Which is the final step to any manifestation you want to bring, so action is really important. And one I have been missing out on doing, because hey, it can be scary to start living as someone you haven’t lived like before in this life.
When I started to walk back from the barn I wanted to play a game to see if I could walk naturally in the same footsteps I took getting there. As I was trying to walk the same path I realized it was quite challenging to place each foot exactly in the imprint I had made earlier. I thought “walking on clean snow where I didn’t see the step was easy. But trying to step in places I knew were there was way harder.”
Was this relating to life?
I think so; I felt the difference. It was an easy experiment that left me pondering if I had been too focused trying to step in a spot I could see clearly that I was missing the idea that new paths are always on fresh snow. I had to walk my own path and be ok not seeing the full picture but believing and trusting in the steps that I am taking.
I think trust is a big key. We will talk more about the power of trust. Trusting what has happened and what is happening to you. Trust and relax the process, it hasn’t been laid out yet in the snow for you to see but your path is there for you to create.
We are all trail blazers in our own way, will you own your path and walk it with confidence?
I am the one who need to believe in myself. I am the one who needs to believe I am special. I am the one who needs to see my strengths and weaknesses, honestly. I am the one who needs to eliminate all doubt.
I need to know this is who I am. I need to know I am here for a reason and I am living that reason right now. I need to love myself the most. I need to believe in myself the most.
I can do all these things because I am strong and I am not alone. I can do these things because my body wisdom tells me I can. I can do these things because I feel it’s the truth. I am here to seek and to live highly, always.
We all can do these things.
I need to get over the hump that is my self. It is stopping me.
From your Coach as words I also need to hear – Shelby
Life is going to be challenging, confusing, full of obstacles. Its inevitable
So, how are you preparing now, to be able to handle the things life throws at you?
“How do you” is the question?
How do you become stronger, more resilient and capable thought the hard times that are coming?
Its by developing the resilience now but enduring challenging things WILLINGLY.
What are some examples?
Cold showers. Its my favourite and most resented thing I do. In the moment it is really frekaing hard to turn teh water that sits under ground as cold as possible as it comes through my shower head. It does something remarkable though. Every time I do it, for one, I feel better after. I know there are real health benefits so that is encouraging to make the switch. Also, it is preparing me for my day and life as things arise, and challenges come up. I build up my strength in the shower, I can handle that, I can handle this thing now.
There are many things you can do to help develop this mentally and practice of developing strength, clarity, resistance and courage in your day to day live. It starts by you willingly facing discomfort so when discomfort arises unwillingly, you can handle it with ease, grace and confidence.
Its an amazing thing, really it is.
So for you, what are some things you can do now that are uncomfortable but you know necessary for growth? Signing up for that first fitness class? Putting yourself out there, by maybe asking someone out, asking for a raise you feel you deserve, anything that seems “scary” – that is your answer.
Lean into it. Grow from it. Grow on your own terms of life will forcefully make you grow.
The choice is yours. Choose it today, choose it everyday and life a life you can run, a life you can handle, a life you can enjoy!
Taking care of you by leading by example – empowered people empower people .Start with you..
A simple statement “I am excited for my future” “the future is mine to create”
Within my time, I have gone through both spectrums of minimalism.
This is what I have learnt.
I will start with a story. I went to college a few years after I graduated high school. Within the time before college, I was working and saving money. When you get a steady income with low expenses, it is easy to spend. And I did. I spent without budgeting, and I kept spending without planning for the future.
I decided I needed that pair of jeans or those glasses and I would, without thinking, buy. Of course, I treated myself well with only the best and only with what I truly felt I wanted / “needed”. Then, college hit and didn’t change my spending habits. Guess what happened? I ran out of money before my two years of college were over. I was dry!! And it was mostly because of buying things I thought would make me complete.
The lesson:
I look back at times I went shopping just because I was bored. Today, do I remember those things I “needed” because they were cute? Absolutely not.
Back then I was a different person. I was one who thought I wasn’t enough. I feel bad looking back at who I was, but I am also so proud of who she has also become and is currently becoming every day.
So why does this story matter?
I fell for the marketing. Most marketing tells you that you need to look a certain way, you need to follow society fads in order to be relevant and be liked by your community. I fell hard and so did my bank account (rip). But, through the draining of my money in hopes to fill my soul and heart; I learnt why being a minimalist is something to aspire to become.
No, you don’t have to sell all your shit.. I mean belongings.
You don’t have to be broke to be a minimalist. You don’t have to suffer as a minimalist. A minimalist means you just aren’t controlled by the “needing of things” in your life in order to make you feel full and satisfied. The fulfillment you need comes from you! Solely from you and through your organic measures. Organic relationships, organic love, organic self, organic YOU!
What does this mean for you and how can we develop a more minimalist approach to life?
In this day and age of climate issues throughout our planet, we need to take accountability and responsibility for our consumerism. When we buy into the beliefs “big” companies are selling us hundreds of times a day, our planet is losing.
It’s an unnecessary loss created by us feeling we “need” something to become full, to become happy. They will tell you, your body isn’t quite right and you need to buy products to suit the social norms of physical appearances. They will tell you, in order to feel fulfilled you need to work your life away to buy the things you’re supposed to buy that will make you fulfilled. It simply isn’t true… but that’s not what they will tell you.
What happens when you finally realize contentment never comes from the outside?
Once you develop awareness of the marketing tactics that get you to buy all their things. You see the back end process that’s affecting our world. You buy products from the manufacturer who supplies the goods and where do those goods come from? How are they produced? At what global expense? At what human expense?
You do not need to buy it all.
That bag you had to have, will inevitably get old and tattered. That new car will become just like the old one you prematurely decided to trade in. Why do we have to cycle so quickly? New turns old, turns new, turns old; it happens within a blink of an eye.
A thought prompt— when was the last time you let your phone naturally get old and broken until you upgraded to a new one?
I’m not trying to point fingers and blame anyone. So please don’t get defensive and start making excuses for your actions and reasonings behind it all. I am simply stating, I have gotten by very well and in a pure and honest way by becoming a low key minimalist.. maybe you could too.
Maybe if we all decided to do our part in realizing there is much more to our world then consuming. If we became more aware of what we control and how we control it, we would become more stable within ourselves. We wouldn’t need these things to feel good, to feel satisfied. We also wouldn’t be throwing all the things we thought we “needed” into the trash just as quickly as we bought it.
Things might begin to have longevity.
Your happiness might last longer than the hype of a new piece of technology or new boots you didn’t need. Your contentment starts to feel more solid and durable. Your love for yourself is deeper than the things you possess. The overall need to be “cool” lowers, and with that, so will our planet’s temperature.
The last final question I’ll leave you with is:
Are you a part of the problem or a part of the solution?
The craziest things happen when I put my phone away and just sit in silence… I start to think.
I start to think about myself, my life, my day, my feelings. My brain starts to go travelling down these road in my thoughts and I have the clear open space to follow. I make an opening in my mind to go with these thoughts.
Through lack of distractions, we are able to uncover and bring to the surface so many things we may be ignoring.
Your destiny is inside of you but you are surprising it, ignoring it and not allowing it to come out to the surface.
We do that with distractions. With numbing ourselves from, well, ourselves.
We numb with:
In short – Consumption / Consuming
Food
Shopping
Phone
SocialMedia
Netflix
Just always consuming
And be careful, I know some of you consume healthy information. And that is GREAT!!
But, there needs to be a time and place for you to consume your own inner knowing. It might feel strange but being quiet, it might feel overwhelming but that isn’t a bad things at all. Just let it be. Be still enough to allow new rushing waves of thoughts come flowing in your mind. I promise, keeping your mind open and accepting of these thoughts will eventually bring you clarity.
You will find the clarity maybe you’re searching for by watching people you want to be like or by constantly educating yourself. Again, those are not necessarily a bad thing
But too much of anything becomes a bad thing.
It is all in moderation.
Moderation means mindfulness amounts of a given activity.
This is the sign I am giving you to start to clear away some time and space to simply just be. To allow your thoughts to wonder. To allow yourself to listen deeply to them. To question with curiosity and to be open enough to receiving the answers.
You have it within you. Its time to open the door to them, Open it by being still and being quiet.
I am on the right track. I am where I need to be in this moment in order to grow into the person I am here to become. I am slowly evolving into my higher self by taking conscious steps that allow such growth.
I tap into my intuition and let my innerself guide my decisions and I trust it, I trust myself. With good intentions, I will always do what is best for me, for others, and for our world. Good intentions drive my actions, before I make a move I ask “is this beneficial for myself, for others or for our world?” Then I act accordingly, full of trust and timing in my journey.
I observe the world around me with empathy and compassion, not knowing what everyone is going through. I am willing to put my own issues to the side so they can process and act in a way that suits them with where they are in their own unique journey.
Life unfolds all around me. Life is beautiful and I bring my attention to the amazingness of it thought out my day. I approach new things with curiosity and an eagerness to experience more, knowing I am here to experience all that life can offer.
When things don’t go how I want, I choose to let go of my expectations that they are supposed to go my way. I focus my energy of showing up as my best and highest self, no matter the situation I am in. I trust that in time, I will be given the gifts I need, when I need it.
Today is precious, it’s the only moment I have that I can take a deep breath in, and a slow soothing exhale out. The present moment is all I have and I am going to use it to my full advantage; even when I am resting. I know, to be well rounded, I have to allow all of life to come through me, this includes resting, recharging and regaining focus on the offers of the future present moments.
I am the controller of this vessel. I am in control of me. I take that power with me everywhere I go. I am here to enjoy life and share my love in all ways I can.
