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Speak Your Truth with Confidence

Try these 10 Affirmations to Speak Your Truth With More Confidence

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Try these 10 Affirmations to Speak Your Truth With More Confidence

Have you ever caught yourself not saying what you really think, maybe because it felt too uncomfortable? Or found yourself hinting at what you mean, but not really being direct, and it just ends up causing confusion? It’s something we’ve all faced at some point. Let’s explore how we can move past that and communicate with confidence.

How often do you find yourself holding back your true thoughts or feelings out of fear or discomfort?

Or maybe expressing yourself in an indirect or passive-aggressive way that creates more tension than clarity?

Many people struggle with communicating assertively in certain situations. Stating our needs, opinions and boundaries directly yet respectfully, may not be something we were taught growing up.

The good news is that just like any skill, assertive communication can be developed through intentional practice. Here are three ways you can get started:

1) A powerful lesson about communication comes from a friend whose family runs a global business empire. He shared that his father’s success was based on four simple words: “What do you think?” His dad made a practice of genuinely asking others for their perspective before sharing his own. This invites open dialogue, helps others feel truly heard, and increases the likelihood they’ll be receptive to your thoughts when shared.

2) This idea is echoed by leadership expert Simon Sinek, who talks about the quiet power of being the last to speak in a discussion. By allowing others to fully voice their views first, you earn respect and your words carry more weight when it’s your turn.

Imagine how different workplace meetings, family disagreements or personal partnerships could be if we all approached them with curiosity about others’ perspectives and asserted our own with confidence yet compassion.

3) Another effective tool is the use of positive affirmations – You know how much I love using affirmations; declarations we repeat to ourselves to rewire unhelpful thought patterns and instill new positive beliefs. Think of it as telling the truth in advance!

Here are 10 affirmations designed to cultivate more open, honest and assertive communication:

  1. I communicate my needs and feelings openly and honestly, respecting myself and others.
  2. I have the courage to express my thoughts directly and respectfully.
  3. I choose clear and constructive communication over indirect methods.
  4. I am confident in my ability to address issues directly and seek resolutions.
  5. I respect the viewpoints of others and listen actively when they speak.
  6. I express my disagreements with kindness and seek understanding.
  7. I am worthy of expressing my needs and having them met.
  8. I approach conflicts with a positive attitude, looking for common ground.
  9. I am responsible for my own emotions and communicate them without blame.
  10. I foster relationships based on honesty, respect, and mutual understanding.

By repeating these affirmations regularly, we reinforce beliefs that allow us to communicate with clarity, confidence and consideration for others.

So to become a more confident and compassionate communicator:

  • get in the practice of sincerely asking for others’ views with, “What do you think?”
  • allow the quiet power of truly listening first before speaking, and
  • choose a few affirmations from this list to repeat regularly as your new self-talk.

It may feel uncomfortable at first, but stick with it – you’ll quickly become an assertive communication pro – you got this!

Intuition Quiz

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Living Above the Line

Are You Living Above The Line?

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One of my favorite ways to explain about energy/emotions/frequency, whether I’m teaching a class or just explaining to one client in a private session, is to use the concept of living above or below the line.

This concept is used in a lot of different ways, but I talk about it referring to emotions.

We all get the “opportunity” to feel a broad range of emotions throughout our lives, throughout a week, or really it can be throughout one day!

Some emotions are heavy, and have a slower vibration. Emotions such as:

sadness / anger / fear / shame / doubt / anxiety / envy / disappointment / irritation / worry / impatience, and so many more.

Since these emotions are heavy and sluggish, they can literally make us feel heavy and sluggish when we are carrying them. These are what I call Below the Line.

On the flip side, emotions that make us feel light, lift us up, and feel so good are:

joy / peace / gratitude / hope / contentment / serenity / awe / relief / confidence / optimism / LOVE / enthusiasm, ETC. These I refer to as Above the Line.

Let’s say there’s an invisible line and all the negative emotions fall beneath it, and all the positive emotions float above it. With that visual it’s easy to see that we want to Live Above The Line. It feels so much better to live in the space of these higher vibrating emotions!

Living Above the Line

But let’s go back to what I said earlier, we all get the “opportunity” to experience all these emotions. So, yes our goal is to do what we can to live ABOVE the line, but it’s really ok if we occasionally sink below it while experiencing one or more of the heavy emotions.

After all…that’s part of this life’s experience. We’re not meant to only live above the line, but yes, life is much more pleasant when we pro-actively do what we can to live from the “up-side”.

Sometimes we carry heavy emotions temporarily while we’re going through some tough stuff, and sometimes those emotions get stuck in our tissues, in our energy, in our mind.

What SimplyAlign does is find the cause of the negative emotion and release it at its root.

You don’t have to remember the event or re-live what happened, often the energy just needs a witness…and a skilled practitioner.

The negative emotions we carry can be from situations we are currently experiencing, or can be stored and stagnating from years of layering these sluggish emotions without fully releasing and letting them go. Oh wow, that sounds heavy doesn’t it?

The good news is, we don’t have to carry them. There are ways to get to the root and clean it up, even if we don’t know the exact emotions, where they came from, or that they were even still lurking there.

Last week I worked with a new client and several times through the session she said, “I feel so light!” I told her, “Yes, that’s how SimplyAlign works.” That’s the statement I hear the most from clients, and it goes back to releasing the heavy vibrations.

So, here’s my invitation for you this week:

Pay attention to how you’re feeling. Check in with yourself during the day to notice what emotion you’re feeling at the time, and whether it’s ABOVE or BELOW the line. Of course the goal is to stay above the line, by keeping or shifting your thoughts to a positive state.

Just having this awareness will help raise your vibration. Yay You!

And if you’re ready to take it several steps further and learn how to use SimplyAlign to quickly and gracefully release heavy emotions (and oh so much more!) then click here to learn more about the upcoming SimplyAlign Training Oct 18-21st – all ONLINE

Having the desire to do this work is a gift, and being able to do it well is a skill.

I can’t give you the desire if it’s not there, but if it is, I can teach you the skills to help you live

ABOVE THE LINE more often and skills to help you help others live above the line too.

Shine On,

Near Death Experience

Do you believe in Near Death Experiences?

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Ahh, you saw the title and still clicked to open – I love that, thanks. I really hesitated to write this, but kept feeling a strong impression that for some reason it needs to go out. So even though this isn’t a topic I generally write about, I hope it touches you in a positive way. My intention is always to bring light and hope.

I’ve been listening to a certain YouTube channel a lot lately, not for any particular reason except that I find these stories so fascinating!

The channel is called “Heaven Awaits” and it features stories from people who have died (temporarily), gone to the other side, and come back. There are many similar near death experience channels on YouTube. I also really love the personal NDE stories told on Anthony Chene’s YouTube channel.

Personally, I’ve never had a near-death experience, but I know people who have, and they tell of the overwhelming love they felt there and how that changed the way they now want to love everyone around them.

Most of these stories tell of a life-review, where they not only see every thought, word, and action of their life, but they FEEL the emotions of others involved, and witness how each interaction created ripples for them and others.

For example, one man said he felt the pain of a girl he said unkind things to in school and then saw how that played out to change the trajectory of her life. He came back never wanting to be unkind again because of the pain it caused another (and him to watch and realize it).

Why am I telling you this today?

Well, I’m not sure except that someone must need it. I actually had another email written for this week, but my intuition kept pulling me back to write this one instead.

Perhaps you’ve recently lost a loved one and these stories will give you reassurance that they truly are in a safe and happy place. These stories tell of being thoroughly enveloped by unconditional love, being so happy and peaceful, met by loved ones, learning important lessons, even seeing colors that we don’t have here on earth, and so many other experiences.

And whether you believe in an after life or not, the invitation is to

live a life of love.

Hearing these stories inspires me to:

be more loving and less judgmental
soften my eyes and see what is really there
be kind -always
look closer for opportunities to help my fellow-beings
appreciate my own uniqueness
don’t look back – keep growing forward
forgive others
apologize and make amends where possible
make choices that create a clear conscience

and mostly, although these story tellers say they felt no
judgment other than their own…

I want to live so that I’ll be comfortable watching my life review
…not squirming.
(Eek, that felt super vulnerable to tell you)

I believe our knowledge, memories and love is all we take with us when we leave this life. Although it’s important to follow your dreams and live an expansive life (everyone has their own definition of that), these stories remind us that our time here isn’t about worldly success, but about: how much did you love?

Perhaps you’ll also want to listen to some stories from those channels, or maybe my simple reminder today to live a life of love is all that is needed.

Thanks for letting me share my heart with you today…

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Consent

Don’t Consent to This!

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I’m here with a quick message today from my friend, Eleanor Roosevelt –

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”

I love this statement and have referred to it many times over the years.

Consent

(And isn’t it cool that our shoe color matches?)


The definition of consent is: permission, approval, or agreement.

We can’t control what anyone else says or does, but we can always choose how we’ll respond. We can let it roll off our back, or give those words and actions permission/approval to settle in.

The emotions we choose to “feel” about another’s comments are created within us because of our own thoughts about what they said.

I know that can sometimes seem like a hard concept, but it’s really so empowering to realize that it’s our own inner thoughts that create our emotions, because words spoken by someone outside of us (an external circumstance) can’t do that.

Keeping our inner thoughts positive lessens the chance of us “consenting” to feel inferior over someone else’s words or actions.

Here are 10 tools to positively fortify your thoughts:

*Limit time with negative people

*Set and keep healthy boundaries

*Always assume good intent

*Do more of what lights you up

*Create a list of personal affirmations -and declare them daily

*Keep a gratitude journal

*Live in alignment with your values

*Keep your word to yourself and to others

*Create good self-care habits

*Practice Self-Compassion

In today’s world we may not always find compassion, tenderness, and empathy, but we can be willing to give it to ourselves.

Pick one thing from this list that you can do more of this coming week.


Much love,

Carolyn Cooper
Regain Calm

7 Simple Ways to Regain Calm

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A lot has happened in our world since January 2020. We’ve all felt much more anxiety (ours, other’s, and the world’s) in this past 21 months. Even sweet Mother Nature has been responding in an eruptive and “fiery” way lately.

With a calm mind we see things from a less frazzled state which helps us to think more clearly, be more loving, and make better decisions. Here are some of my favorite tried and true “calmer-downers”, I hope they work for you too:

4-7-8 Breathing

The 4-7-8 breathing technique, also known as “relaxing breath,” is inhaling in for 4 seconds, holding the breath for 7 seconds, and exhaling for 8 seconds.

(I wrote more about this awhile back in this post)

Dr. Andrew Weil, who teaches the 4-7-8 breathing technique, believes it can help with reducing anxiety and controlling or reducing anger responses. And this one has some added bonuses: he says it can also help a person get to sleep, and helps to manage cravings.

Count to Ten

I know, I know, it might be what your mama told you when you were small, and it may sound too good to be true, but this strategy really works. Just count slowly from one to ten. Try to breathe deeply as you do, as this will enhance the effects. This little trick can help you to quickly gain control of your emotions and feel calmer in a pinch.

Close Your Eyes

Yep. Shutting your eyes for a moment blocks out a great deal of the stimuli that are currently vying for your attention. This brief period of visual stillness will allow you to gather your thoughts and to calm yourself.

Take a Hike

No really…take a little hike, or a simple walk will do. You don’t have to do a full-blown exercise to feel benefits. Taking a leisurely stroll is a great way to settle your nervous system, get grounded and balanced when you need to chill out. Walking is a relaxing activity that gets you moving, literally. It can remove you from a stressful environment and give you fresh perspective.

Try Progressive Muscle Relaxation

If you don’t have time for a walk, an effective calming exercise that you don’t even need to move out of your chair for is progressive muscle relaxation. This is simply tensing and releasing every muscle group in your body (think of it as wringing out the stress!). You can start with your head and work your way downward. Tense up the muscles in your face, hold for a few seconds and then release, then move down to your neck and so on. This exercise can be done in just a few minutes, and you’ll feel tons better afterwards!

Listen to Some Music

We’ve all experienced how the right song at the right time can change your mood. An upbeat song that you know and love will raise your vibration, which is especially good to remember when you need a boost. Music can have a profound effect on your feelings and is a great option to rely on when you want to calm down or feel better. I suggest always having a playlist you love as your go-to when you need to lighten your state of mind.

Get in the H20

Relaxing in a bath of warm water can be quite soothing to the soul as well as calming to the body. To take extra good care of yourself, add bubbles and aromatherapy…because sometimes it just feels good to be fancy. If ‘fancy’ isn’t your thing, you might want to add in about a cup of Epsom salt. The sulfates in it help draw the toxins out of your body, which can also help improve health and promote a general feeling of wellness.

These are just a handful of ways to stay calm when you’re stressed. Choose the ones that resonate with you, and give them a try the next time you feel overwhelmed or when life is chaotic.

“Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.”
Hermann Hesse

Self-Responsibility Starts with an ‘I’

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In the following three scenarios what do the people have in common?

Josie is a woman in her twenties. She still lives at home with her mother who makes all Josie’sresponsibilitiesw important decisions: how to spend her money, who to go out with, even what clothes to wear. Josie is anxious and depressed.

Matt ordered a new printer for his office. When it arrived he discovered it wasn’t compatible with his computer. “Those idiots,” he ranted, “why didn’t they tell me this was the wrong printer.”

Sally and Jerry had a big fight. Now Sally’s tossing and turning in the bedroom while Jerry beds down on the sofa. Neither one is getting any sleep and both think the other should make the first move to apologize.

If your answer was “Hey, no one is taking any personal responsibility here,” you’ve got a good eye for human behavior.

Because what Josie and Matt and Sally and Jerry all have in common is a lack of self-responsibility that leaves them dependent and victimized. They’re caught up in blaming others for their problems and waiting for somebody else to come along and make their life right. Unfortunately, they’re going to have a long wait because, in the words of self-esteem expert Nathaniel Branden, “No one is coming.”

Quote

This is the good news! Your life is in your hands. You get to make the choices, elect the options and take the actions that come with self-responsibility. It’s through the door of self-responsibility that personal power and independence enter, often hand-in-hand, bearing gifts of confidence and self-esteem.

Be clear though, self-responsibility is not the same as feeling responsible or accepting the blame for bad things that have happened or situations that are painful. We don’t all enter the world with the same trappings, and people, events or circumstances have wreaked trauma and caused wounds from which many are recovering. Self-responsibility means that when you have worked through your grief or anger or other issues, you can ask yourself: Now what am I going to do? What options do I have?

At the other end, self-responsibility doesn’t mean becoming so self-reliant you don’t ask for help when you need it or seek others’ opinions or points of view. And it certainly doesn’t mean you have to know everything, make every decision alone or take on the world single-handedly.

Rather than a heavy burden, self-responsibility can be a source of joy. Knowing you can create the life you want by accepting responsibility for yourself is a great freedom. Even saying the words aloud can produce a feeling of power and strength. Try it.

  • I am responsible for my choices and actions
  • I am responsible for how I use my time
  • I am responsible for my behavior and communication with others
  • I am responsible for achieving my desires, dreams and wishes
  • I am responsible for the work I do and the quality I bring to that work
  • I am responsible for the values I live by and standards I set

Granted, saying the words out loud can be a little scary and intimidating as well as empowering. Accepting and acting out of self-responsibility isn’t like falling off the proverbial log; it’s not that easy. It takes practice and working through and making mistakes and falling back and finding yourself in a place you didn’t want to be again. But that’s the thing about personal growth, the place to start is where you are.

It’s great to be able to muscle test how strong or weak you are on each of these to better know where to focus your changes. Don’t know how to muscle test? Visit my store for the Learning to Muscle Test DVD which teaches you how to muscle test on yourself and others.

What has helped you to overcome selfishness and become self-responsible? Join the conversation below…

Author’s content used under license, © Claire Communications

Chakra Healing Part 2

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In part one of Chakra Energy Healing I described what the chakras are. Now let’s talk about how to assess whether or not your chakras are working optimally. This list is certainly not meant to diagnose any physical problems; we are just checking the energetic vibrations of these energy centers. Read more

Vibrational Energy Healing

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Vibrational Energy HealingVibrational energy healing is based on the fact that at a quantum level we are all patterns of light and sound frequencies and as such we are constantly sending messages to the Universe. For thousands of years sages have taught that everything in our material world — animate and inanimate — is made of energy, and everything radiates energy. Einstein used the laws of physics to demonstrate the same thing. Every object, every being, every color, every emotion has a vibration. Even our thoughts and words have a unique vibrational energy. Read more