 Hi, it's Bridget. Welcome to Sunday Morning Coffee with Bridget. Today, I want to share with you a new book that I just got. And it's by Melody Beatty, Journey to the Heart, Daily Meditations on the Path to Fring your Soul. We're going to start this together. So the idea is there are just a ton, a whole year's worth of meditations, daily meditations. So it's not meditation in the form of what you and I think about when we think about meditation. Probably we think about closing your eyes and breathing deeply and softening the mind, opening the heart to receive. Well, come to think of it, maybe it is exactly like that. Because what I'd like to do is read to one of the days of a meditation. And I haven't read it yet. I literally just got this book, so I wanted to read the first meditation, and then maybe talk about it or expand on it. So how about you receive this as a gift? So receive it like a meditation energetically. I'm also going to suggest that you perhaps have your journal handy. You know how much I love journals, right? Especially if you follow my work on Fairy Grasshopper, my other YouTube channel, you know that I love and encourage journaling. Because it's just another avenue, another tool for healing, to express, for energy, to flow and to move, not to have answers necessarily. You might find understanding through writing, but you mostly find the opportunity for connection just another opportunity for yourself to connect with you and the wisdom that is around you and flowing through you. So grab a journal and a pen and have it by your side as we're talking today. All right, so we're going to start a journey to the heart, daily meditations on the path to freeing your soul by Melody Beatty, the first meditation. Honor the beginning. Beginnings can be delicate or explosive. They can start almost invincibly or invisibly or arrive with a big bang. Beginnings hold the promise of new lessons to be learned, new territory to be explored and old lessons to be recalled, practiced and appreciated. Beginnings hold ambiguity, promise, fear, and hope. Don't let the lessons, the experiences of the past, dampen your enthusiasm for beginnings. Just because it's been hard doesn't mean it will always be difficult. Don't let the heartbreaks of the past cause you to become cynical. Close you off to life's magic and promise. Open yourself wide to all that the universe has to say. Let yourself begin an new, pack your bags, choose carefully what you bring because packing is an important ritual. Take along some humility and the lessons of the past. Toss in some curiosity and excitement about what you haven't yet learned. Say your goodbyes to those you're leaving behind. Don't worry who you will meet or where you will go. The way has been prepared. The people you are to meet will be expecting you. A new journey has begun. Let it be magical. Let it unfold. All parts of the journey are sacred and holy. Take time to honor the beginning. Nice full exhale. Nice big exhale. Wow there are some parts that really stood out for me. I'm sure for you as well. Take some time to pause this and note the words that stood out or the phrases or perhaps it was imagery. I'm going to go right to pack your bags because if you are going someplace else to go someplace new you have to leave where you're at even if you're not going on a trip. Even if you are leaving your house for the day's work and it's around trip ritual or routine you still have to leave. It's coming into my awareness that the leaving is a ritual. The leaving is as sacred as the arriving. Leaving seems sad or bittersweet because maybe we long for the cozy comforts of our soft bed and pillows and blankets and our dog curled up at our feet or the familiarity of the environment at home that we've so carefully curated with art that inspires us was pictures of family and trips we've taken with colors that are comforting and soothing and also uplifting to us. Familiar. It's hard to leave the comfort zone and yet we do it often. So leaving is a natural part of our life our day to day life. There are so many emotions that come up during different stages or cycles of our life process. And right here right now with this particular reading about honoring beginnings in order to honor the beginnings we also have to acknowledge these feelings and all of them they're a mix up of they're like all the leftovers thrown into the crock pot. That's a Midwest thing by the way. I think a crock pot you guys know what a crock pot is is throwing all of the leftovers into a crock pot and making a stew out of it or a soup or a casserole or something right. It's utilizing the emotions to help us to fuel us like old dead leaves turn into mulch to nurture the soil of our gardens like that like that the throwaway stuff the hard stuff the stuff that's not pretty the dead stuff that stuff serves us those emotions that energy of intensity of of the longing for the past or the desire to be more comfortable by staying in place at home where we feel safe in the constructs of our comfort zones and at the same time these emotions and the energies of honoring a beginning is acknowledging that there are a mix up of emotions that are here. There is grief. There is a sense of loss. There is a sense of longing of desire of want and at the same time memories of what happened the last time when we started something new or the or the experience that we had the last time we left the home or the last time we went on a trip or the last time we made a big change. The changes don't have to be little or big. The the energy of the emotions aren't evaluated or experienced based on how big or little the change is. The fact is that as that fear comes forward and that fear mixes in with all these other emotions and so it's possible to feel excitement and and curiosity at the same time you're feeling afraid and longing for the comfort of the past the familiarity. So we are used to leaving. We know how to leave. We do it all the time and we have to in order to start new something new. We leave the winter behind as the spring begins to open up our windows and our doors start to open. We spend more time outside. The trees turn from a pale brown into almost what looks like little Christmas lights of little green buds on the trees. As I'm recording this Sunday morning coffee it is just springtime April here with a mix of climate of weather two days ago it was snowing. Today it's going to be in the fifties bright and sunny not a cloud in the sky and not even wind. Tomorrow it could be windy and rainy. It's just the way it is a mix of things and that's how you'll feel when you make a change when you step into something new. Oh you're going to have self doubt that's natural. Oh you're going to wonder if you made the right choice and truth is you're never really going to know that you made the right choice or not because you can never fully lead both of the experiences that you would have had whether you stayed or whether you go. Whether you leave or whether you start something new. The truth is you'll never really know because you can't live both of those lives at the same time so you choose you focus you step into a new beginning and hopeful hopeful for the best of experiences to come and the truth is you will have ups and downs either way regardless of what choice you make or do not make because the choice not to leave is a choice and then you start a new beginning in the same place you start a new cycle or a new phase exactly in the spot with the current perception that you have things around you will continue to evolve and change and grow and other people will have different experiences because they started a new I don't want you to get the impression that we must start new we're we are required to have beginnings because that feels like a lot of pressure especially for someone who might have anxiety or depression or longs for the comforts of the soft cozy bed and the quiet house and is afraid to step back out into the world where things are hustling and bustling and loud and the noises of the city and even the grocery store and all the people it's two people the out there it's two people the out there does that sound familiar yeah does that feel familiar yeah I get you I get you but regardless of whether you move or stay in place there is a beginning that is happening it is happening below the surface within you and it's like a seed that comes to its fruition regardless of whether or not you want it to and it might be a thought it might be in the form of an egging feeling that tugs at your heart it's commonly referred to the what ifs sometimes it manifests in a dream-like state of a daydream or fantasy or in writings in our journal of an experience that we had through a memory that came forward something that we might like to experience again or even more so maybe it's a romantic fantasy maybe it's a real dream or desire as far as the impact the true impact that you want to have on this place the world and the impact you might want to have on this place the world might be in your own community it might be in the school that you work for it might be in your family maybe you welcome in more children as a foster parent it could be any number of things for you it doesn't have to look like starting a nonprofit and finding the cure for cancer sometimes we go from zero to 60 in two seconds flat with these thoughts of what ifs because then what it slides into dangerously into comparison into the not enough space or the value or devaluing of ourselves and we grossly underestimate our value and our worthiness is completely distorted and you and I both know that that's just true it's just a human trait and it is designed because our primal monkey mind is is here to keep us safe it's not here to treat you badly or browbeat you although it feels like that's exactly what happens because sometimes those tactics are implemented in order to keep you safe and safety is comfort to the mind safety is not change you cannot find a sense of security in a change state yet the mind neglects to take into account that changes a natural part of life look at your body do you have the same body you had when you were five years old I would hope not or the same mind that you had at 12 when you're 30 I would hope not you grow and evolve and you change through this routine of leaving where you are at and moving into something new this is where we can honor the beginnings of things because beginnings are natural and they are going to happen whether you consciously choose to participate or not you will experience beginnings because you will be touched by relationships where the people around you experience beginnings if you yourself are steadfast to stay to keep things the way they are you are going to expend a tremendous amount of energy trying to fight off the what ifs inside you and the nagging and the longing feeling that kind of feels like you haven't had breakfast and you really are hungry and you somehow missed lunch and maybe it's dinner time and you still have that nagging hunger inside your body that's what it feels like to stay in the same place and to live with feelings of potential regret or the wonderings or the grief that you will experience in place if you stay the grief you will you are guaranteed to experience the grief of staying the grief of staying happens it is a natural thing you will question your decisions and your choices and wonder if your life has had meaning you may experience regret and remorse for what you haven't done or what you haven't allowed yourself to do and it doesn't have to be a monumental or massive change or shift or move or something grandiose it can be something subtle and small where you are taking care of yourself your heart intending to the needs of your own personal growth and development and by loving yourself in such a way that you are free so that when you leave you can return any time you want to and find just a beauty and the repetitive dance of the comings and goings of things and the stepping into the beginnings while honoring the energy of your presence wherever you are at at this very moment in time and that my friends is exactly what I got from the meditation of honoring beginnings so where are you at today in your beginnings maybe you can start with the thought of where would you like to be what kinds of experiences would you like to have now at this point in your life wherever you're at what kinds of experiences would you like to have our experiences will be varied our desires will be varied because we're in very different places in our life path you might be just starting out your career just out of college you might be entering into becoming a grandparent for the first time you might have had the opportunity to sell your house for a song and now you're going to travel the world and become a traveler and go overseas to different places you've never been to before oh my goodness or your beginning might be you just finished chemotherapy and you get to have some days where you're actually not sick from medicine and you are finding your way to healing to finding wholeness in the life that you've been gifted now understanding the preciousness and the value of you and life dancing together in relationship and harmony wherever you're at I honor your beginning and even if it's just a thought change the beginning to think something differently or open your heart up to the possibilities maybe you'll go out and buy a meditation book or buy a journal today that would be a beginning that would be a beautiful beginning this is Bridget thank you for listening to Sunday morning coffee with Bridget you'll find this every sunday on above life channel on youtube my work as an intuitive life coach you can experience on my fairy grasshopper youtube channel as well where I talk about all things intuitive and I inspire your spirit and fill you with hope is always the goal to encourage you to live your life it's your life after all and you get to live it just live it thanks for listening