Answers in the Dark by Sheri McConnell
Excerpted from Smart Women Know Their Why at www.smartwomenwhy.com
“Sometimes you have to let go over everything to trust that which you cannot see.”
—Unknown
Faith is a big part of living a successful life and being a successful entrepreneur. My secret is deciding to have faith in myself more than any type of external force. Notice I said the word “decision” because that’s where it starts. My journey has taught me to always intuitively know which direction to head next and when I look to find answers outside of myself, I always end up off the path a bit. It took me until I was well into my thirties to be able to trust others because of not having established trust in any form whatsoever during my childhood. For me, I had to have my own family and connect with the love I had for them, to be able to trust myself and others.
The deeper reason it’s important to be able to trust is because your heart must be full and complete in order to bring out the passion and joy for yourself and others in your life. The feeling of trust will penetrate the walls surrounding a broken heart, the pain from being alone or feeling alone. Like you, others have been in the dark and are searching for what you now know to be true. They are searching to believe in themselves in the darkest moments of their being. This is trust at its core.
Let’s talk about a few ways to learn to trust yourself, to empower you to live the life of your dreams – which could mean grow a wildly profitable business, having a huge family, authoring a series of books, or traveling the world and meeting exciting people. Shoot, your dream life could include all of these! Mine does!
Trust in Balance
If you’re moving in “auto-pilot” the heart will not shine and the days will cast heaviness in the center of your body. Balance will provide the base of being grounded to the truth. Believe in the love you have for yourself and you will come from the deepest parts of your soul.
The fastest way to develop a trusting relationship with balance is to connect with nature. This will bring the balance between work, family, love, and life. In this connection you will build the foundation to hold you up in any storm. Each day, work on getting out and seeing the beauty of nature around you. This will help make the connection stronger and remind you of just how small we are in the universe. The more you bring in nature and hold the thought of each molecule and atom circling in your path, the more balanced you will become.
I live in San Antonio, Texas. We’re blessed here with nine annual months of beautiful weather, enabling me to connect with nature more often than many. If you live in a more extreme weather climate, do whatever you can to create the sounds and smells of the outdoors in your home during the cold winter months.
Trust in You
True power will emerge when you’re engaged in being of service. All you have to do is trust that the power is given to you to serve and that if you serve, the world is abundant. This doesn’t mean when running a business, you don’t charge for products and services. You can’t produce quality products and services and effectively help your customers if there isn’t an exchange of money. Trusting in your own power to lead others through your products and services is the inner structure that allows the new ideas and the new beginnings to come forth.
Trust in Energy
The innocence of childhood energy is what we tap into when we are at our center. Remember the feeling of being with oneself and having no cares or even a negative thought to speak of?
This energy still exists within you. Trust yourself to bring this calmness into your thinking when you’re taking on the biggest obstacles and conflicts. Tapping into this energy will help you to reduce stress and become heart centered. This constant energy, felt by others, enables them to rejoice in the knowledge that this power is also within them. And knowing about this energy will help you break the barriers of negative energy in any room.
Our truest sense of self comes from trusting in our energy and the energy signals we get from others. Your goal is to have no barriers or boundaries where energy is concerned. To be with the energy of each moment. In the present moment, there’s no fear, no doubt. Only you in your power, experiencing all of life’s joys presented to you each day.
Stuck in Your Journey?
Many people get stuck in their journey. They relive the worst parts of it over and over, in an unloving way. This vicious circle of disappointment in self, circles them right back around to the same negative starting place. I’ve been there and I get it.
Instead of getting stuck on your journey, take the mistakes you made and will make and love yourself as if you were a child who is learning. Even as adults, in some areas of growth we are only children and we must be gentle with ourselves to thrive and grow through the journey. What I know to be true is we’re all searching for a place of belonging and validation. You can create this for others by being a leader who spreads passion and love.
Your journey is a gift because it provides the wisdom you will need to go out and create positive change in the world. Your goal is to learn from your past and do better as soon as you know better. Be strong and have courage to change. Trust me, I know how hard it is to move past comfortable dysfunctional patterns. But the rewards of doing so allow you to stand outside yourself and get a good look at who you have been and where you are now. What surfaces is love. And then you can shine this love for others… because, you see, without the journey, you would not have this gift.
Because of my journey (see chapter one), I was able to survive the darkness and can now shine a light for others who are now in the shadows of darkness themselves. They need help from someone who has been there and who has conquered the fear of internal and external chaos. I do this by casting light on dark situations and allowing my words to fill the gap between doubt and love. I invite you to find your passions (your gifts) and cast light for others too.
Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Website? You have my permission, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sheri McConnell is the CEO of Sheri McConnell Companies, Inc. and the president and founder of two global organizations, the Smart Women’s Institute of Entrepreneurial Learning (formerly the National Assn of Women Writers-2001) and the Global Institute of Associations-GIA. You can visit Sheri, access her free article archive, and grab lots of free stuff at http://www.smartwomeninstitute.com or http://www.giaconnect.com. Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, their four children, a weenie dog, and three hermit crabs.
