Your Purpose & your Gifts
Your Purpose & Your Gifts have been under your nose all your life sweet heart, you've just been looking the wrong way.
It's what comes to us with so. much. ease... so much that we DISCOUNT IT because, well, this couldn't be a gift, could it? It's too easy?
We DISCOUNT IT because, it's so damn easy it happens TO US and THROUGH US and we can't fathom how on earth it's possible to CHARGE MONEY for this precious gift of ours. This gift, that, we don't yet see as a gift.
Here's my story on PURPOSE and GIFTS, the story my life has been breathing, dancing and calling through me without my conscious awareness - until now.
What I'm about to tell you is what I came here for.
This is my gift to the world.
This is my gift to the world, except, it took me 32 years to get here. To this point, here right now. But it was all worth it.
See, I've waited tables since I was 17. I've been an open book, a listening ear, a patient shoulder and for YEARS (like nearly a decade) I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why some 50-something year old lady was telling me her LIFE STORY while I had ten dishes stack on one arm and four in the other.
Now, I don't mean to seem ungrateful but this happened to me in Townsville, it happened to me 150kms west of Alice Springs, it happened to me in a restaurant on a hiking track along Queen Charlotte Sound NZ, it happened to me in London, it happens to me everywhere I go.
People tell me things.
They tell me things and then say, 'I've never told anyone that before.'
or
' I don't know why I'm sharing this,' after they've sharing an intimate detail about their life.
I was always, I AM ALWAYS, grateful for these interactions. Grateful for the trust these strangers have had in me with personal details of their lives.
It's just, I've never known what to do with these details beyond accepting them and appreciating them in the moment.
Perhaps this is enough.
Of course this is enough.
But, as it were, this is my gift.
One such occasion, in a restaurant overlooking the water in New Zealand, a professor of Psychotherapy was dining with his wife and struck up a conversation with me that carried on through their entree, mains, desserts and finished with him slipping a tenner into my hand at the end of the night and advising me that I should study psychotherapy.
For years I thought I should do that - so interested am I in human development, behaviour and the mind. So much reading I do on the topic of my own accord, listening to podcasts and watching of YouTube Videos.
I keep going back to it - should I study Psychology? Psychotherapy?
Who knows?
I kept looking at courses.
Kept looking at other people.
Looking TO other people for advice.
When, my gift was under my nose all along.
I don't need to become a psychologist or psychotherapist to help people. I've been doing THAT all my life.
All I need to do, is stand up and own my gift and share it freely with the world. Share it with world and OWN IT as a gift, as being of value.
Partner that with my capacity for empathy, my passion for journaling - writing and reflecting on life and my insatiable curiosity (and follow through on research) and VOILA! You get what I now do.
I help women change their lives for the better. I help women become their own best friend and counsellor by sharing the tools and techniques I've used to improve my own life. I share my own lessons and findings that create intuitive wisdom, insight and understanding that can be applied to their own life story.
So, I ask you today to back and listen to the story your life has been singing through your every move and decision.
What is it that comes so naturally to you that you don't even perceive it as a gift?
Find a way to give THAT back to the world and that's your purpose baby.
Write your way home,
Trin
Stuck in the same old thoughts? Read on...
Do you ever find yourself turning the same thoughts around and around in your head? 'Oh I don't know how I'm going to get this job finished by the deadline. If I don't meet the deadline I'll let the team down and myself...Oh I don't know if I'm going to get this job finished by the deadline....' On and on and on...
Have you ever been stuck in a loop where a certain thought/group of thoughts just doesn't leave for days (or weeks) on end? When it feels like an old record playing and no matter how hard you try, you can't find the STOP button. It just won't stop!
We beautiful humans have anywhere between 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. According to some researchers, as many as 98 percent of these thoughts are exactly the same as the day before, (how boring?).
If you're stuck in a negative cycle of thoughts it be very, very painful to be in our own heads.
One of the techniques you can use to WRITE YOUR WAY OUT of these thought cycles... is changing your perspective. You can write about yourself in third person, from another person's perspective or you can narrate the situation. You can write about the situation as though it's a comedy. Anything to shift your perspective on the situation andopen your eyes to more possibilities that you cannot see because you are running the same thoughts over and over.
If you want to learn how to write from different perspectives, hit the contact button and drop me a line.
Another practical tip you can utilise - when you notice yourself thinking that same old thought again, stop yourself, take a deep breath and replace the thought with a newer, positive one. Even if it is just a thought that OPENS MORE POSSIBILITY. eg. Original thought, "I can't do this." to "I've never done this before but I am going to give it my best go."
With heart,
Katrina
Your answers for you, You're welcome!
Don’t know what to be when you grow up?
Don’t know what your purpose is?
Don’t know what to do next?
I call bullshit.
And you know what?
//SPOILER ALERT//
I don't have all the answers for you like I promised in the title..
But YOU DO.
Deep down, you know. You know AND You ALWAYS have known.
You're just letting other voices get in the way. Read: Fear, doubt, limiting beliefs... lies.
But here’s the truth.
You get to choose.
Here’s the key to that sentence – YOU GET TO CHOOSE.
In every single moment, in every single situation – even if you don’t feel it is this way – you have a choice. You get to choose. Always.
So why are you running around trying to fill yourself with quick fixes, trying to quiet that inner voice with social media, books, conversation, alcohol, junk food, tv?
What you really need?
Where the answers lie?
In your heart.
Right there.
Walking around with you every moment of every day.
Your heart.
Keeping you alive and speaking to you in quiet gestures.
If only you could silence the noise.
If only you could say no.
No to distraction.
No to procrastination.
No to friends (from time to time)
No to alcohol.
If you could sit still, be with your heart.
If you would listen.
Really listen.
Your answers, your meaning, your purpose, your next move, your next choice? It’s right there.
Just ask and Listen In well.
Your heart is always speaking to you.
So pull out your pen and paper and let it speak to you.
From my dear heart to yours,
Katrina
What is yours and what's been handed down...
“EVERY book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests and mines and stone-quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.”
I'm writing to you from my childhood home. The place in far north Queensland, on the outskirts of Townsville where I first walked, spoke my first words and ate my first piece of kangaroo poo. Yes, it's true and no, kangaroo poo is not a part of the NQ diet.
Tucked in under the doona of the queen bed that now fills most of my childhood bedroom come spare room, two shelves of stuffed toys watching over me, I reflect on the child I was growing up here.
I reflect on the quotation that I am of this place, my parents, their parents and the people who lived in this town, this country before me.
If you need a reason to write, let it be this;
TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND YOURSELF MORE FULLY.
Learning as you write what it is you really THINK, FEEL, BELIEVE.
Inquiring as to where those beliefs come from and what they mean, how they facilitate what you are, who you are and how you live.
We are most certainly quotations of our ancestors -- have you ever taken the time to stop and reflect on what they have given you. Other than life. What beliefs? What ideals? What is yours and what are theirs?
Is it time to stop and reassess your values? What is yours and what was simply given to you without your attention?
With heart,
Katrina
Which wolf are you feeding?
Have you heard the story about the Cherokee Indian teaching? The one about the two wolves.
It's been doing the rounds on the internet and it's recounted in more than a handful of books.
It goes like this:
-------
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
-------
How do you feed the wolves?
With your words.
Which Wolf are you feeding?
What words are you using?
With heart,
Katrina
image from pinterest;
Do you notice your words?
In my work as a journal muse – teaching women how to use writing as therapy – I've become accustomed to listening. In between bouts of writing and different activities, we often share our experiences. It is here that I became acutely aware of the correlation between people's words and their worlds.
Someone who is having a rough time, a down patch, will use words like can't, not, no, shouldn’t. Phrases like, 'I couldn't do that,' 'I couldn't believe they did that to me.' 'How could this be happening to me?' 'I couldn't do that.' 'They have a problem, not me.'
Those in a better headspace, who are doing well? Tend to use words like can, yes, sure, I'll do my best. Phrases like, 'I listened and really tried to understand.' 'I'm really happy that he's doing so well.' 'This is great!' 'I am really enjoying myself.' 'I learned a lot'.
Notice the difference?
Words create worlds. Of this I am certain.
Have you ever stopped to listen to your own words and reflect on how they are creating your world? Are you aware of the words you use on a regular basis?
Are they creative or destructive?
Positive or negative?
Get my free Words + Worth e-book to read about the impact words have on your self-worth and therefore, your entire life... PLUS how to change your words.
With heart,
Katrina
It all comes down to you
I sat down this morning to write.
The first thing I did? Open emails.
Rookie error, I know.
Immediately, I was sucked into another online course.
An online course offered by one of my online idols.
Another online course that sounded like it was going to solve all of my problems. It was about business, about making this thing work ONLINE. I felt like this one course would change my mindset and all my business/cash flow problems would be solved. It was the answer. The magic key.
I'd be forced to leave my hospitality job for all the clients coming at me, for all the work I had to do on my own business.
I was sold.
I was in.
This course? Yes please!
But.
I paused .
What I really need to do? I thought to myself... is the work.
I need to show up. I need to do the writing. No one else can do it for me.
Just like no one else can do anything for you.
We can help and we can receive help. But, at the end of the day, someone helping you isn't going to do the work for you.
If you want to change any aspect of your life - you have to do the mental work, the energetic work, the physical work.
Remember that.
Signing up for a course, working with a mentor, hiring a personal trainer...
it
all
comes
down
to
YOU.
(I'm still taking the course, I'm just aware that I'm going to do the work.)
With heart,
Katrina
image via:
their-minds-are-made-up.tumblr.com