LifeOhm

Live Joyfully - Coaching, Aroma Freedom Sessions & Young Living Essential Oils

Archives for November 2012

5 Ways to Make Your Gifts More Unique and Thoughtful

By 2 Comments

Thoughtful Gift Giving

 “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” ~Mother Theresa

Now that we’ve made it through Thanksgiving, it seems like holiday shopping is on everyone’s mind. We all want to find the perfect gift for those we care about and it can really end up being quite stressful, especially if you wait until the last minute. Here is a list of five things you can do today to help make your gifts more unique and thoughtful.

1. Determine Your Budget – for the holiday season and then for each individual and stick to it. A small budget may require you to be more creative but a great gift is still possible.

There are plenty of great low or no-cost gift options as well such as giving someone your copy of your favorite book, a certificate for some of your time for babysitting, dog-walking, knitting lessons, or making something homemade (see ideas below).

My friend Kathirynne also wrote a great article on Phenomenal Gift Giving on a Less-Than-Phenomenal Budget.

2. Brainstorm and Personalize – take a blank piece of paper and a few minutes to brainstorm the interests of your gift recipient. Once you have a good list, then you can really personalize the gift, a key component for thoughtful gift giving. Some ideas may include:

  • Make a CD of podcasts for someone who listens to them
  • For a quilter, purchase a great book on quilts or some lessons at the local fabric store
  • Get a coffee lover their favorite kind of coffee and a nice travel mug
  • Put together a picnic basket with all the ingredients for a great picnic

3. Consider Giving Clutter-Free Gifts – It seems like we all have too much “stuff” in our lives and giving a clutter-free gift is a great way to help simplify your gift recipient’s life. Some great clutter-free gift ideas include:

  • Gift certificates for experiences such as classes, museums, dinners, concerts, manicures, pedicures, etc.
  • Food items you know they’ll love like Tazo Tea, spices, chocolates, wine, or a pie
  • Memberships to clubs, associations, zoos, or to the museum.
  • All the ingredients and a recipe for a simple yet elegant meal.
  • A paper shredder – we all have personal and financial papers that pile up and could use some help to get organized in the New Year.
You can find a more extensive list of clutter-free gift ideas on Flylady.net, a great resource for decluttering ideas and tips.


4. Consider Homemade – Close friends and family will appreciate a thoughtful homemade gift such as jelly, sauces, salsas, soaps, scarves, candles, or some scented sachets made with herbs from your garden.

5. Include a card with a heartfelt message. This is perhaps the most overlooked way to make a gift thoughtful. Taking the time to write a personal message in your card tells the person they are important and that you cared enough to personalize the card. Consider telling them what you appreciate most about them or thank them for specific contributions they made during the year.

Psychologists have been able to show that the act of gift giving benefits both the giver and the receiver. This year, take the time to make your gifts thoughtful and heartfelt, enjoy the spirit of the season, and help spread feelings of love and caring with each gift. Happy Holidays!

 

Escaping the Trap of Victim Consciousness

By 1 Comment

Victim Consciousness

 “To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.” ~Eckhart Tolle

From time to time, we may all feel a bit out of balance with life, stressed or just plain weak, that is part of the human condition. When you’re feeling overwhelmed or out of balance, it’s easy to fall into complaining, blaming others, or just ending up in a state of despair. All of these states are examples of victim consciousness.

It is victim consciousness that can often be blamed for many of our social ills including war, dysfunction, and by many accounts, even disease.

In Life Visioning: A Four-Stage Evolutionary Journey to Live as Divine Love, Michael Bernard Beckwith describes a victim:

“The victim has a tendency to think that life is doing something to them. It’s an external diety, a God, it’s a circumstance, a situation, one’s parents, in more superstitious cultures it might be described as The Devil. The victim stage is characterized by “What is Life Doing to Me?”, “What are Those People Doing to Me?”. Every victim has a powerful “they did it to me” story. They have a powerful BLAME story.

If you ask a victim, why aren’t they happy?, why aren’t they evolving?, why aren’t they successful? why aren’t things going right for them? – they will immediately have a story. About 90% will have a story about how somebody else did it to them.”

The limiting beliefs of the victim conscious state prevent individuals from moving forward, growing and developing and establishing that sense of inner peace. Beckwith goes on to say:

“Pain pushes you, until your Vision pulls you.”

But the victim has not yet been pulled by vision of a higher vibration of energy, a higher frequency, or that which is seeking to evolve through them, so they are being pushed by pain, and feel that life is drudgery, boring or something to be protected from. For those in victim consciousness, energy gets used up coping with life and defending themselves against bad things that might occur.

“Almost every ego contains at least an element of what we might call “victim identity”. Some people have such a strong victim of themselves that it becomes the central core of their ego. Resentment and grievances form an essential part of their sense of self. Even if your grievances are completely “justified,” you have constructed an identify for yourself that is much like a prison whose bars are made of thought forms.” – Eckhart Tolle, The Pain-Body And The Egoic Self

Once there is an understanding of victim consciousness, it becomes easier to change current thinking patterns and finding self empowerment. True peace can only be achieved through personal responsibility and accepting things are they as, not as we wish they were. In order to move out of the victim consciousness and into a higher order of being, one must begin to take responsibility for one’s life. The victim must begin to release blame from their daily practice. You must begin to let go of blaming – any one, any circumstance, any situation – for your dilemma.

Along with releasing the blame is practicing forgiveness. Beckwith says,

“Forgiveness is not ‘I’m forgiving this person, and now I get to hang out with them, and we get to be friends again’. That may be true in some cases but in some cases, you may never like that other person, that person may not ever be a part of who you would want to associate with or call friend. That’s not what we are talking about here.

Forgiveness is eliminating toxicity from your being. You are coming out of being a victim and stepping into a greater sense of empowerment, having dominion over your attention, taking responsibility for your life. You don’t want to give your power away to any one or any circumstance, saying incorrectly that they determine your success, your health, your happiness, your wholeness.

Do you find yourself falling into victim consciousness? What are your strategies for regaining your center? Share your thoughts below.