Our Promise Of Purpose

To create is to love,

and to show the world

who you really are.

-Jennifer-

Since beginning this practice of awareness, I have rediscovered the world in a much different light.  Part of this discovery was influenced by my nephew who is only seven but one of the most intellegent people I know.  He doesn't miss a beat.  He notices everything and has a profound opinion on everything he sees.  He is fascinated with the solar system, dinosaurs, animals of all kinds and the why's and how's behind it all.  There is much to learn from a child's curiosity.  There is much to learn when as adults, we start to see the world with the newness of a child's eyes.

These are things for me in my busy world I had not thought about in decades.  The amazing beauty that is the everything of this world.  My journey of living my best life and being actively aware moment to moment was a definite struggle in the beginning.  To try to settle my mind enough to be in the now was such a challenge for me it often times just didn't happen.  I had deadlines, appointments, assignments and work that over took any beautiful awareness that was existing right in front of me.  I was careless in pretty much every moment for a long time.

During my awakening, that all began to change.  A huge part of my transition was in practicing meditation.  I would ask my Divine often times as I was starting a meditation session to help me see the world through his eyes.  That is when the world changed for me.  More so, it was my perception and presentation to the world that was changed.

I wrote in an article that I've made a daily practice of looking at the sky to find the sun every day.  This helps to center my mind and really appreciate the magnificence that lay above me.  Colors have become brighter and more prominent.  I have noticed the intricacies of so many things.  A flower up close and personal, watching birds and squirrels play in the trees outside of my windows.  There is this entire world going on every day and I've missed it for so long, until now.

To think of all that has been created is so stunning and awe inspiring.  Think about it.  Every detail that makes up this Universe is so unbelievable.  How did it all get here?  How did it become what it is?  How long has it all been here?  These questions are the very questions my nephew asks all of the time.  He wants answers to all of the big big questions.  And now so do I.

The spiritual journey I've begun trekking, has not only answered so many questions for me, but I have started to ask just as many new questions in which I don't have answers to just yet, but I am basking in the search and the wonder.  I want to know the why's and how's because I don't want to miss out on anything.  I want to honor my purpose in this life of being a continuum of the great Creator that has brought me here.

I had the pleasure of being able to thank the very person that was my inspiration for Spirit Launcher just the other day. After trying to mesh schedules she and I finally had time to sit down and talk.  Her story is incredible and the absolute reason this blog was even started. She had a vision, she created it, and it grew beyond her wildest expectations.  I cannot wait to introduce her and her inspiring story to you all.  Creation is what makes it all worth while.  It is what we are supposed to do.  To honor our truth, our wisdom and our promise of purpose to our Creator.  If he can create all that has been created, surely we can come through with our end of the deal.  Surely we can ignite that spark and celebrate who we are and what it is we have to offer ourselves and the world.  The world deserves our creative capacity.  The world is not complete and at its greatest design without everyone's creative participation.

How do you participate in your promise of purpose to the world?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

Happiness Is...

Happiness is...

everywhere and in everything.

-Jennifer-

One of my favorite Spirit Launcher interviews is this week's Reinventing Home with writer +Wendy Omuro.  There was a point in the interview where she talks about her "Happy Day" journal which was a gift from her mom as a child.  The moment she spoke about that journal my heart filled with such joy.  What an amazing gift to receive at such a young age.  The gift of being able to see the world through happy eyes.  To learn the lessons of greatfulness and gratitude are priceless.  I was truly blown away by that.  What a blessing!

What eyes do you see the world with?  Is it dependent on what side of the bed you wake up on, how much money you have in the bank, if you're in a relationship or single, if you are feeling well or not?  How do you determine what you see?  Have you ever thought about it?

On your worst day, do you have the ability to look for what was good and what was happy about it?  Or are you only able to see life as a glass half empty and see all that is or could be wrong?  Gratitude is such an easy thing.  Yet in this day and age you sometimes wonder if it even still exists.  We get upset if someone is driving too slow, if lines are too long, if everything doesn't go exactly as planned, but in the bigger scheme of life does any of this really matter at all?  And is it worth mulling over and ruining not only your day but the people around you?

I walked into my office on Monday morning and one of my co-workers asked if I saw the rainbow on my way into work.  Unfortunately that was the second rainbow I have missed this week, I guess they were meant for someone else to see.  But an interesting thing happened.  My co-worker and I had a very simple and enthusiastic conversation about how it is the little things in life that make the biggest difference sometimes.  And how spectacular life's miracles really are.  To really see a rainbow for all of its splendor, is a reminder to smile in that wonder.  She ended the conversation by saying, "Seeing that rainbow, I knew it was going to be a good day!" 

Have you thought about the people around you?  Friends, family, co-workers, the public and how their attitudes influence your own attitude?  I'm sure you have lived out this scenario at some point in life.  You are having a perfectly fine day and someone crosses your path who is grumbling and carrying on about every wrong thing in their life and the world.  Your perfectly fine day starts to shrink and dwindle and suddenly, you are complaining about this other person and all of their complaining.  You have just entered into their unhappy zone and you didn't even realize it was happening.  You finally get away from them and all you can feel is the ick and heaviness left behind by the weight of their negativity.  It is contagious.

Fortunately, happiness is just as contagious.  We can't always choose who we can be around but I have learned to surround myself with people who have the same intentions as I do.  To be happy, to live life to its fullest and to never waste a moment on the wastes of life.  Take the garbage out to the curb and let it be taken away, never to be seen again.  I want to be surrounded by people who are going to uplift me and inspire me to become even better in each moment and with each breath.  If we are not improving in life then what are we doing?  With improvement comes even more happiness.  Happiness is...very simply the only way to live.  If we lose touch with it, we lose touch with ourselves and our purpose.

To be unhappy we must disconnect from our truth, our wisdom and our promise of purpose.  To be happy we must engage in our truth, our wisdom and our promise of purpose.  Now is this concept too good to be true?  Happiness is never too good to be true.  Happiness is the core of our being.  It will wait for us to acknowledge, participate, and ask for the next dance.  But the question for all of us is, are we willing to wait for happiness in life or are we going to ask for the very first dance and never let the music stop?

Where do you find happiness in life?  What would you write today in your "Happy Day" journal?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.
Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

When There Are No Words

Know that it is only time, not
love that can be lost.

-Jennifer-

I had a conversation with a friend earlier this week.  The same friend I mentioned had received potential grave news with her father's cancer diagnosis.  Well that potential has turned into a definite.  Now I see cancer patients everyday.  As a nurse in the hospital I would see new cancer diagnoses and as a nurse in hospice I would see the end stage of the disease.  There were new relationships that I built with patient's that in their physical body, lasted only a short time here on Earth.  But in the spiritual sense, I will carry them in my heart forever.

My challenge still is and always has been with all of my patient's, their families and now my dear friend, is what to say to someone who is grieving.  We have the standards of "I'm so sorry for your loss", "I'm thinking of you and your family", "I can't imagine your pain", and I've used them all.  But none of them seem right.  None of them seem good enough.  Mostly, none of them can take away the pain their heart is suffering.

In reality, there are no words that can erase the burden of grief.  Only the depths of the love determines the depths of the pain.  Only love and time can ease the heartache, yet it never completely disappears.  It is a knife to the heart, a fist to the gut, a knock to the wind in our very soul that each of us must come into contact with through our physical life countless amounts of times.  Loss is a part of life.  But it is a chosen few that we are fortunate enough have pull and hold onto our heartstrings, and never let us go.

The truth is, there are no words that can express, that can in an instant fill the emptiness, the very hole that resides in our spirit as someone leaves us.  So if it's not something that we can say that can help, is there something we can do instead? 

We can wholeheartedly offer up our availability.  To just be present to love, support, to hold, to hurt and grieve along side them.  To give love and show love in the biggest way of just being there. Most of all to be reminded in life that you must love like you've never lost. And to know that it is only time, not love that is ever lost.  We have moment after moment, day after day to be assiduous with our words, actions, thoughts and intentions to give the most of ourselves which is giving the most of our hearts.  We must remember to do this because our love will remain, it is our time that is limited.

Words are beautifully important, don't get me wrong I use them everyday.  That being said it is our actions that make the words come alive and become "something" we can hold in our mind, our hands, and our hearts.  It is putting things into action that makes the memories that we keep alive in our own minds.  Without my action in life, these words wouldn't really mean much at all because no one would get to see or experience them.

I had a dream shortly after my grandfather passed away.  He was walking through a crowd of people to get to me.  And when the crowd cleared he said, "There's my girl, there's my girl."  Then he wrapped his arms around me so tightly.  I can still feel that hug to my core to this very day. He has been gone for over a decade.  Even after he left this physical world, because he loved so greatly, I carry that love with me now and for always.  Again it is only time that we lose, never love.

So to honor those who have left, those who must leave soon, and to those who are grieving we have to act in love now.  Now is the time that counts.  We don't have to look for the perfect thing to say or do.  All we have to do is lean on love and we will be divinely guided in our ways, for always.


How do you love greatly?  Who has loved you greatly?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

A Secret Life

A secret life possesses a lost and found.

Where did we find this mask

to wear?

Where did our truth go underground?

-Jennifer-

I all too often talk with people who project their lives to be "perfect."  Yet when you talk with them one on one, it is as if they are moments away from a total emotional meltdown.  The lives they want people to think they are living and the lives that are actually living behind the scenes, are polar  opposites. They wear a smile, when inside they want to do anything but.  They are living a secret life that they only reveal to a certain few if any at all. Those certain few, are the one's often times that will hold their secret for them. 

They become so miserable, but are living in that misery for so long they get used to the patterns.  Their emotions teeter back and forth between the desperation of wanting out of a bad situation whether it is a relationship, finances, a job or whatever it may be, to settling and just taking it because the thought of "getting out" becomes too uncomfortable.  They avoid having to admit the truth at all costs.  They in a sense are in hiding.

You watch life start to swallow them whole after so much time passes.  They can start out to be a vibrant spirit and very quickly become the walking dead.  I can absolutely and unfortunately relate to this.  Not only was it practically every single childhood friend I had, it was also my ex-husband that were all involved in my secret life.  I had the most manipulative, controlling, lying personalities around me.  Not only did I keep their secrets, but their secrets ultimately became my own.  I wouldn't share with anyone how horrible these people treated me and others because I knew the reaction I would get if I had.  It would have been what are you doing with these people in your life? What is wrong with you that this is who you surround yourself with? But without them at the time, I thought I would have been alone. I had unfortunate patterns that I had learned from childhood.  I had learned that anger and hurt was love and to just deal with it.  So I stuck it out because I didn't know any better.  I gave them the benefit of the doubt as I did everyone and I got burned, badly.  Those scars don't heal over night either. It takes awhile to even put the fire out, before you can even see the scars that are left behind.

This is the thing about leading a secret life.  You are so far from the facade that you are projecting, you cringe at seeing other people living well and living their truth.  You become angry, sarcastic, bitter, jealous and just downright mean and depressed.  The anxiety you carry is beyond any weight measurable.  It will bury you alive if you allow it. The thought of anyone finding out what you are hiding, is sometimes more frightening then the actual life you are living.  You can say the most horrendous things about others that at the end of the day aren't about the other people at all, it is about you. These were the most miserable years of my life.  It makes me shutter to think of living that life.  It makes me nauseous to see other people living it out right now.

It took me to the point of my emotional pain manifesting itself into physical pain and fatigue too massive for enough sleep to cure. This was when I said enough, there has to be something better.  I was living off fumes left behind from the utter exhaust that was my life.  I wanted to live.  Not hide in someone else's shadow and also my own. To heal any pain it must be brought up, be confronted, be understood and accepted as the past in order to create a better future. 

So how do we get out of this vicious cycle?  We first get honest with ourselves and we very quickly need to put our pride to the side in order to become honest with the world around us.  When you decide to live in your truth you will realize how many people will offer their support.  You also have to get comfortable in being able to know how to accept their support.  Remember, no more hiding.  When the truth comes out all secrets fall away.  You then realize that the secret itself wasn't the monster after all, it was your own pride and ego that was the enemy. It was being too proud to admit you are human and are capable of making disastrous, catastrophic mistakes, or simply just being someone and something you really aren't.  But there is a solution to every problem in life.  That solution is always the truth.

Learn to stand in your own truth because we all carry a message.  That message lives from within.  Shadows recede the truth and light turns a spotlight on it.  Be okay in making mistakes but also be okay in owning up to them.  And don't forget the lessons hidden within them.  Use those lessons in order to make circumstances better the next time around. When we understand our patterns we can then learn to create better patterns.  Remember me talking about the journey we take away from our orginal selves? We are influenced by our family's, friend's, and social patterns in society that carry us sometimes far away from who we really are.  They are not to blame per say because often times they are just doing all they have been taught.  It is a cycle.  Taking time to understand that cycle and undoing it, can be the very key to rediscovering your own truth.

We can only learn to be who we are by expressing the truth within us that wants to come out.  And the truth needs to come out.  When we start to express our own truth it can be uncomfortable in the beginning. People may be surprised at what we say and what we stand behind. They may welcome or reject this different way of being.  And that is alright because standing behind who we truly are is something we cannot hide if we want to live the life that was intended for us.  Nothing good can come to us while we are in hiding, because it couldn't find us even if it wanted to! So our truth must be told, lived and loved every day.  And believe it or not, whether we voluntarily reveal our own truth it will eventually surface no matter what.  What you must determine for yourself is, do you want to tell your own story, or have your story tell it for you?

What secret life have you led?  What did you learn from it?  How did you reveal your truth?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

The Five Point Meditation

Happy Wednesday Spirit Launchers!  Welcome back to our midweek meditation.  I so look forward every week to joining our spirits together in this loving community.  I have a very special meditation for you this week that I have not experienced anything like before.  We will join tonight at our usual time 8pm Eastern and 5pm Pacific time.  We will all be as one connected by our energy.

This meditation is a balancing of the mind, body and soul.  It will take us through an internal and eternal  journey to discover all that we are made of.  We will work on our strengths and our weaknesses to come to a point of balance and then rejuvenation as we begin our take off as we meet our challenges in life.

Please sit in a comfortable crossed legged position.  Close your eyes as we begin.  As always I suggest reading through the meditation a few times before we meet at our designated time.

The Five Point Meditation

by Jennifer Fremion

Press your hands together in front of your heart space in prayer position.

Take a few deep breaths in and out.

Slowly bring your hands upward, still in prayer position with your thumbs at your brow point.

Hold your hands at your brow point and now spread your fingers as wide

apart as is comfortable.

Each finger represents an element that makes up a part of ourselves.

The thumbs represent love.

The second fingers represent infinity.

The third fingers represent spirit.

The fourth fingers represent fear.

The fifth fingers represent Ego.

Notice how our spirit is in the middle of the opposing emotions.

We will concentrate for one minute on each represented version of one's self.

Close the hands in an intertwined fist with the thumbs remaining at the brow point

and are the only fingers remaining pointed to the sky.

Begin the breath of fire, breathing equal breaths in and out very quickly

as you pump the stomach with each breath.

Say the words, "I am love" and repeat in your mind for one full minute.

After completion of one minute, cross your thumbs and bring your second fingers pointing

straight up in the air.  Take long deep breaths in and out.

Focus saying in your mind for one minute, "I am infinity."

After one minute fold fingers down and continue with pointing the third fingers up.

Begin the breath of fire again and repeat, "I am of grateful spirit" for one full minute.

After completion, fold fingers and raise the fourth fingers up.

Take long deep breaths in and repeat, "I am not my fear" for one minute.

Change to the the fifth and final fingers.  Begin breath of fire one last time

and repeat in your mind, "I am not my Ego."  Repeat for one full minute.

After completion take long deep breaths in and out.
Rest your hands in your lap.

Feel the changes within your body.  This is a difficult and highly involved

meditation.  It will take practice to become comfortable within all of the

transitions.  With practice not only will the meditation become more comfortable, but life

will become more comfortable as we transition from moment to moment,

day to day, and from challenge to challenge.  If you wish, practice this meditation
everyday for forty days.  Keep a journal of the

changes you not only feel within yourself, but the changes you experience

within the world. 

Namaste

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.



©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

Reinventing Home: The Article

Home is where the soul

can lay its head.

-Jennifer-

Yesterday we met Wendy Omuro and discovered both her reinvention of her home Maui and her reconnection with herself.  So under that very theme I made a very bold decision this weekend to begin to fully embrace the yogi lifestyle and explore more of the home within myself.  I meditate, practice yoga and eat fairly healthy most of the time.  But I felt a strong need to explore and challenge myself in my practices even more.  So I have begun a forty day journey into delving deeper into my soul to find what beauty awaits to be discovered.  To delve deeper within the home of my soul, my self.

As an Oncology nurse I am surrounded by sickness every day.  I see what this horrible disease can do as it rampages through someones body.  Through this disease I have also seen the grace and beauty of the spirit as it never fades completely no matter how weak, frail and sick the spirit's home can be. As powerful as the spirit is, it is limited when its home is compromised.  Seeing this everyday and then my friend getting news of her father's diagnosis of having metastatic cancer, I started thinking about my own spirit's home.  At this point I am the absolute healthiest I have been in my life.  But, I want to do as much as possible preventatively.  That is what my love with yoga and meditation is.  And although this practice is not a cure all, what it does do is creates a union of the body's elements and cleanses the soul, mind and body.  At this point in my practice, I have made a decision to amp it up and take it not just to the next level, but to the highest level that can possibly exist.

I was thinking about how much of spirit I feel especially when I am practicing meditation.  I know that my body is just a vehicle, a machine if you will.  But it is also home to my spirit.  It is what houses the very thing that makes me alive.  So this weekend was the beginning of reinventing my spirit's home.  Home isn't just a place that is a produced structure. A home is full of love.  I feel so full of love everyday of my life so I want my entire body to emanate what my heart feels.

I started a very strick meditation regimen of an early morning meditation for thirty minutes before work and then an hour long workout followed by another challenging meditation before bed.  Also I have made a total alteration with my diet.  I have started to follow a plant based diet that is instructed and recommended in all of my yogic practice materials.  This means absolutely no meat for the next forty days. What is the significance of forty days?  Forty days signifies a new habit being born.  Practice anything for forty days and it will become a part of you. 

Within the first meditation I felt different.  My mind felt lighter.  After feeding my body with nothing but foods that have bathed and grown in sunlight my body felt lighter.  When I began to workout I felt I had more energy, flexibility and patience within each movement.  By the time I finished my evening meditation, I felt more intune with my entire being.  These results, and mind you I am only on day four, have just magnified.  I am so curious to see where I will be at the end of my forty day journey. 

This is what is so brilliant about the teamwork that is our mind, body and spirit.  When we feed them with what they need, they become up for any challenge.  I actually wanted to create an intensive discipline for myself.  This is exactly what my spirit was asking for. I want to dig deep within the challenge and see what more I can find within myself.  

Yesterday morning I experienced a totally different kind of love.  My heart was so full I actually at one point felt weightless.  I have felt love so deeply within my practices in general but nothing like this.  I felt so full of spirit that it was apparent to me that my inner light was shining at its absolute brightest.  This was such a miraculous experience I can hardly wait to see what this morning brings!

And don't get me wrong, the practices are not all that is part of the yogi lifestyle.  I've talked about this in practically every article I have written.  Meditation, yoga and eating are just that, they are practices.  It wasn't until I started using these skills in my everyday life and actions that they became transforming.  I practice giving, gratitude, patience, and the source of everything which is love, in everything that I do.  The miraculousness of yesterday was that not only did I feel a difference in myself, I felt the true difference my energy was bringing to the table with everyone I was around.  The atmosphere everywhere I went was light, loving and friendly.  Smiles to and from total strangers, people not cutting me off in line but allowing me to go ahead of them, people holding doors open for me.  Now would this all have happened yesterday regardless of my new practice, possibly.  But would I have noticed and felt the profound love as deeply?

I am reading Marianne Williamson's book, The Gift of Change.  In the beginning chapter she talks about how we are all spiritual people.  That is who we are by nature.  Yet we can so easily forget those qualities within ourselves because of lack of discipline.  We don't practice the gifts of gratitude, patience and love as we should.  And that by us practicing these simple virtues, not only can we have a miracle within ourselves due to an abundant change in perception, but we ultimately could change the world we live in just by extending our loving vibration.  That is my goal with furthering my practices is to increase and extend from my body, mind and spirit's loving vibration to the world.

Any time I start a new shift in practice I begin a daily journal of the adventure.  This way I have a day by day account of the miracles taking place within my mind, body, and spirit.  We spend so much time and money taking care of the homes we live in.  Don't we owe it to our spiritual home to do the same?  To spruce it up and make it even better than we could have expected.  To do a little bit of reconstruction one day at a time.  Reinvent our home to what it is meant to be.  Instead of becoming confined within four walls, why not allow our spirits to expand to our infinite selves?  Why not allow the mystery that lay behind a reinvention come out of hiding to show us truly what we are made of?

What can you do to reinvent your spirit's home?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you.

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

Reinventing Home: The Interview

Wendy Omuro is the creator of the newly transitioned blog site rediscoveringmaui.com.  Her site began as reinventingwen.com which was influenced greatly by the recent passing of her father and wanting to travel down a different path in life and rediscover herself.  After writing a few posts, Wendy realized that her passion lay in the magnificence of her surroundings.  Her home of the beautiful island of Maui, Hawaii.

Wendy grew up on the gorgeous island of Maui as the youngest of five children.  She coined herself as the black sheep of her family because she never seemed to follow the straight and narrow path in life. "I took detours, back roads, and ended up in a couple of ditches along the way," she explains about her life's journey thus far.

Wendy's passion for writing started at a very young age.  As she described to me it was love at first "write" when she first picked up pencil and paper at the age of five and dabbled in writing lyrics for songs.  She took piano lessons and would write lyrics to go along with her original music compositions.  As a child, Wendy also kept a journal.  She still has her very first journal, a small yellow book entitled, "Happy Day" written on the front cover.  This is where Wendy would pour her heart onto paper and tell her dear friend Diary what was happy about each day.  This was a gift from her mother that helped to create an open dialogue with herself and expressing her emotions each day.

"My mom must have bought that journal for me the day my dad was released from the hospital," stated Wendy. "He was in there for quite sometime and the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong. Looking back I recognized my mom not only encouraged me to write about my feelings at a young age, but to do it with a positive outlook.  I believe she purposely bought the book with the words "Happy Day" on it to prompt happy thoughts.  Looking through the pages nearly every single journal entry started with the words, "I'm happy today because..."

Wendy began the transition of her website in what she calls her backyard adventures to rediscover her surroundings and share her love with the world as she explores the island she calls home through new inspired eyes.  The very thing that strikes me when going on an adventure with Wendy is her excitement, warmth and genuine love she has for the great island of Maui, but also her incredible zest for life.  You feel as if you are right there with her.  And even though she is a virtual tour guide, her craftsmanship of description allows you to see the beautiful sky above you, to breathe in the soft breeze by the water, and to feel the loving community that makes up this gorgeously divine paradise surrounded by ocean no matter what the actual distance for the reader may be.

In the beginning Wendy wanted to focus her blog on the reinvention of herself with Reinventing Wen.
"The true inspiration behind my blog, Reinventing Wen, came to fruition after my dad's passing in January.  The incredible legacy he left behind, combined with my mom's unwavering strength and positivity during that difficult time, caused me to reassess my own personal journey.  Prior to my dad's passing, I was already taking the first steps in pursuing my passion of writing, but knew that the life of a freelance writer would be full of challenges.  I had doubts and second thoughts about the path I was on.  But as soon as my dad passed, and I grieved the loss for a few months, something inside me changed.  I felt like I needed to let go of everything holding me back.  The doubts, the fears, the huge mountain in front of me and instead, let the voices of love, support, encouragement and optimism resonate with my heart.  I am a true believer that everything happens for a reason and that there is a Divine purpose for every soul. Now that my dad is amongst the angels, he is shining the light for me and illuminating this path I was meant to be on."

After writing several posts for Reinventing Wen, Wendy explains, "I began to notice that those posts lacked focus and I realized that my desire to rediscover my surroundings, went hand in hand with my ongoing mission to reinvent myself.  This journey of reivention will never end for me.  I feel that everyday is a new opportunity to better myself and now that Maui's in the mix, I have an even greater opportunity to better my community, and give gratitude to this incredible place I get to call home."

When asked if she has ever lived outside of Maui Wendy responded, "I moved to Missouri when I was twenty-one. After spending a few months there I packed everything up and road tripped out to Washington, where I ended up living for several years.  But my heart has always remained loyal with Maui. My favorite thing about Maui is the people.  Everyone feels like family.  A sense of ohana (family) and aloha spirit, is prevalent in the culture here, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

What are your dreams and goals for your website? What are your dreams and goals for life?
"I think my dreams and goals for my website and the things I envision for my life, mirror each other. I dream that my website grows into something that helps people see the good in themselves and others, draws attention to the importance of gratitude on every level, and reminds them to look for the beauty in the world around them.  I hope that as I make my way along this journey of reinvention, I'm able to inspire others to do the same, if that's what their heart's crave.  I want to keep writing, hopefully publish a few books down the road and keep on the path of living a life with Divine purpose, the kind of life my dad lived and the kind of life that my mom continues to live.  They have always been my biggest cheerleaders and will forever be my heroes.  I have a never ending list of support with all of my siblings, my loving boyfriend and incredible friends.

What advice do you have for anyone who is just getting started to live out their own dream in life or who is on the edge of taking the leap but too afraid to jump in?
"My advice would be simple; stay the course.  Try your best to approach the obstacles with a grateful heart and look for the lessons in each situation.  Learn from them, adjust and proceed with a positive mindset.  Forget about failure, because you know you're strong enough to pick yourself up and try again if that happens.  Tune out the negative criticism of others and focus on the voice telling you to follow your heart and do what makes you happiest.  It's always better to try and "fail" instead of not trying and wonder.  In the wise words of author Kobi Yamada, "Sometimes you just have to take the leap and build your wings on the way down."

Thank you Wendy for sharing your Spirit Launcher story with us all!  You are a delight and a true inspiration to the world.  Thank you for sharing the beauty that is Maui and the beauty that is you!  To see what Wendy is discovering in Maui go to http://www.rediscoveringmaui.com/.

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.
Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

The Time Is Now

Now is the time to make

everything happen.

-Jennifer-

A very close friend of mine got devastating news this week about her dad having been told he has cancer.  The prognosis is still up in the air as far as its origin but it is metastatic.  My heart has been hurting so badly for her and her family.  She lost her mom to cancer just a few years ago, and so here she is facing the unknown with the only parent she has left.  All of this in an instant and life changes.

I know that I have become much more aware of staying in the present moment but we are all guilty of going through life day to day expecting business as usual.  However these situations are the reminders the Universe calls out to us to take a moment and be grateful and thankful for life as it is right now.  Although we should tell the one's we love, that we love them everyday we sometimes don't always.  This made me want to give everyone in my life a giant hug and never let them go.  Knowing that at some unknown time in the future I will have to do just that.

I spent part of yesterday afternoon with my grandmother with whom I love and adore beyond words.  She has been my hero in life always.  She has taught me what it is to love unconditionally.  It didn't matter how awkward I was growing up, how I dressed or how many mistakes I made, because she loved me just the same.  That is why my love for her extends beyond anything else.  This was the greatest lesson she taught me.  This is a part of her legacy I will carry on in her honor throughout the rest of my life.  I am so grateful that I have this time with her.  Just to sit and talk to her.  To hear her laugh and to feel her hug me when I'm about to walk out of her door.  The love in her voice, her eyes and her heart is so magnificent just as the light she has within her.

My grandparents are the epitome of unconditional love.  I was talking with a friend earlier in the week and then again with my mom last night about how my grandfather, who has been gone for over a decade now, was always so kind, loving, generous and proud of us all.  He let the entire world know we were his grandkids and we were the biggest piece of his heart.  Both times as I shared the same story about him I got chills.  That is how deep unconditional love runs.  Even when we leave this Earth it never leaves our loved ones heart's.  We are connected with that loving energy that can never be broken.

The time is now to be love, show love and do loving things to and for the people around us and in this world.  To follow our hearts no matter what and to act from that heart space.  Now is the time to follow through with promises and commitments.  Now is the time to take the time to spend with the ones we love.  This time is so precious and we are never guaranteed how much time we have. So now is the time to make time to do all of these things.

We can become so bombarded with daily responsibilities that we feel like we are running against time.  Time doesn't stop for us.  Life just keeps going.  That is why it is up to us to fill our time wisely.  Look for the memories that can be made.  Don't get hung up on details and issues that in the end don't matter.  Walk through life with grace knowing that if we are present, time will always be on our side.  This is how memories are made.  These are the memories we will carry with us as the people we love need to pass on.  After all, it is the memories that make life worth living.

What memories do you make everyday with your loved ones?  Share with us we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.



Win or Lose

Sometimes our biggest victories lay

within our biggest losses.

This is where our courage and love shine

beyond any trophy.

It is what we gain from our losses that
is our real victory in the end.

-Jennifer-

Last night I was sitting watching my seven year old nephew play in his baseball finals.  His team had been gaining momentum with win after win all week.  This game proved to be no different until about midway through, when the other team had hit after hit scoring a massive lead.  Although my nephew's team never gave up, you could see the panic in every play of watching victory slip through their hands.

They eventually did lose the game.  Watching these young boys play their hearts out to the point that this loss brought them to tears got me to start thinking.  This was their first significant loss.  Their first memorable disappointment in life.  And when I look back as an adult, I can still remember mine like it was yesterday.  Seeing my nephew last night brought back all of those emotions.  My heart went out to him and his teammates because at the age of seven, losing feels like your world is crumbling.  You feel like nothing else matters and every color in your world has just turned to gray. You don't understand how you could want something so badly and not get it in the end. You feel that you were cheated out of a victory that you worked so hard for.

As I saw the loss approaching I realized how vital a lesson this is in life.  And to learn the importance of losing at a young age can make the difference in how you react to things the rest of your life.  The thing I've grown to love about team sports especially for young kids, is the lesson of teamsmanship.  Win or lose your team holds you up, lifts you up when you're down and is there for you no matter what.  You are in it together.  It is a giant community of friendship and support.

Now these are small kids being exposed to this lesson very early on.  You can be a sore loser, a poor sport or you can choose to brush yourself off when things get hard and prepare yourself for the next challenge and to play even harder the next time.  Can you imagine what life really would be if we never got this lesson?  To learn how to work as a team and to remember to just have fun with it?  As an adult, that would lead to a pretty miserable and bitter existence if this lesson wasn't understood.

A yoga instructor told a story about being in the middle of a coorporate meeting when one of the men stood up, stomped out of the room and began to thrash his fists in the air yelling incomprehensibly.  His supervisor went out after him and said, "Hey, remember rule number six!"  Immediately, the other man said, "You're right I totally forgot. My apologies."  He took a deep breath and gathered himself.  Now what is rule number six you might ask?  Rule number six is, don't take yourself so seriously.  Remember to have fun!

We've all had moments of letting emotion get the best of us.  Especially in those moments where we've really put our hearts on the line, gave it our all and realized not that it wasn't good enough, but it just wasn't our time.  Any time we put our hearts on the line it is always good enough!  But when it comes to wins and victories the simple rule of the Universe is if it is your time, then it will be.  Just as long as we follow Universal code as I call it, when we learn to be led in life and remember to breath and listen to the call, we never really fall short.

We can take a lesson from these little guys as they poured their hearts out in every play. The lesson is that in every play in life, win or lose we are held and loved no matter what.  We are all meant to shine in our own perfect moments.  They may not be right now.  But with every loss realize we are in our preparation for greatness. And when it is our time, we will shine so greatly that we each will hold the record for most wins because we never really lose if we never give up in the first place.  We just have to keep our eye on the prize and keep going.  And within our own momentum we will always meet vicory at the finish line.

What have you gained from your losses in life?  Share with us we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.



The Mess up

It is human to fall.

It is what we learn while getting back up

that brings the richness of a lesson to life.

-Jennifer-

We can tie ourselves down so easily when it comes to making decisions.  Crossroads I hope, we will all realize some day is an exciting adventure, not something to make a circus of.  I was having a conversation with a friend over dinner last night.  We were talking about making decisions and decisions we both have made in our lives that led to great experiences and others well, left us wondering what we were thinking.

I've learned over the last few years that my entire life I have suffered from the dis-ease of worry.  I worried about how every little detail was going to work out in my life.  And if I saw it heading for the opposite outcome of what I wanted, I would try to bully the situation into making it what I wanted.  The big lesson in that is, that approach never works.  And at the end of it all I would be so exhausted, so mad and so upset, all because life didn't happen the way I wanted it too.  I felt like I was always going against the grain in everything I did.  And that is exactly what I was doing.

This was an ongoing merry-go-round of misguiding myself in every which way.  My life was a revolving door of disappointment after disappointment.  I would say to myself, "I'm such a good person why does this keep happening?  What am I doing wrong?"  Finally I wanted to get to the bottom of what exactly I was doing wrong.  Because living like this, was nuts!

I call it spinning. When we replay things over and over again in our heads.  What if I do this and this happens?  What if I don't do this and this happens? We can actually worry so much that we burn out our brain's circuit for rationalizing anything and we inevitably make a decision that didn't serve our greater purpose.  And I know a lot of people who do this especially when they are in the midst of trying to figure out a problem. One of those people used to be me. Have you ever noticed how absolutely irrational someone can be as they are trying to rationalize a situation for themselves?  

The truth is we all mess up in life.  It is part of figuring out how to live and how to live our best life now.  Believe me I graduated from The School of Hard Knocks.  Not only did I graduate with flying colors, I was valedictorian.  I learned through the better part of my childhood how to worry myself sick through any situation. This habitual practice carried itself well into my adulthood.  It only took countless disappointments, a divorce, and my entire world turning upside down for me to finally say, "I don't quite think this way of life working out for me."  I messed up.  But over the last year especially, I have retrained my brain to think, react and act differently.

I have read more books in the last year than I ever thought imaginable.  I began to deepen my practice of meditation and yoga.  I became not just a student of teaching, skin care, or nursing all of which I have formal degrees in.  I became a student of life.  I wanted to know why things happen and how to turn unnecessary habits into necessary habits.  I wanted to live big and live the best life possible.  And I have and continue to learn everyday through living how to do just that. 

I wish for everyone to reach this space and beyond.  Where challenges in life are looked at as opportunity for growth not punishment.  Where people no matter what demeanor, are looked at as teachers who come into our life to teach us something about ourselves not just the other person.  Where living full of heart translates into living life to its fullest.  We are going to mess up. Sometimes big sometimes small.  Life doesn't come without fail.  In fact failing should be a welcomed part of life.  It makes us stronger and the love for what we want even more powerful. And we remember those fails in order to not repeat them in our future somewhere.

There is no mess up big enough to mess up our lives completely.  The key is to look for the light in any decision.  What does your intuition tell you?  How would you want to be treated if you were on the receiving end of the decision?  Is this decision one you can live with or will you have regret?  How is your decision working toward not only your benefit but the benefit to the other's directly effected by it? 

The best decision we can make when making a decision is to not bombard ourselves with other people's opinions.  Only you know all the details to put two and two together to get the correct answer.  We're not perfect with this process but we sure know how to make it much more difficult than it needs to be sometimes. So the easiest way to not mess up as big or to not mess up at all, is to allow yourself the time to take the ride of the emotion out of the decision making.  Clear all channels so the best answer can come your way.  However you can find stillness in your life find it, go to it.  This is the space where the answers lay waiting for you to hear what they have to say.  And what they have to say is the truth of your being, of your core, of your experience.  This is where the answers to life come to life.

Where do you go to find stillness?  How does stillness change your situation for the better?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.



Full Of Heart

When we are full of heart

we grow wings to fly.

Our imagination becomes reality.

Our dreams come to life.

-Jennifer-

My wish for everyone is to be able to explore the part of yourself that makes you become childlike again.  It may be buried deep among all the adultlike masquerades we have led in this life but believe me, it is there.  So what is it within you that brings you to life?

For me it is many things.  That is what I find fascinating about filling your heart full.  If you have one thing that makes you fall in love over and over again and you start to use it in your daily life, that one thing inevitably turns into two things, then three, and so on. In actuality your heart never becomes completely full.  It just begins to grow bigger and bigger in order to compensate for all of the love.  It's a really miraculous thing that happens.

When people ask me what I love to do in my spare time I start to laugh, because I don't really have a lot of spare time. But what I do full time is fill my heart.  I have been truly blessed with spectacular family and friends and careers that I love.  From nursing to skin care to writing and eventually teaching yoga and meditation.  All of these things take up so much of my time that spare time, really doesn't exist.  In my quiet time I am usually reading which inspires me to take better care of my body through my yoga practice which in turn inspires me to start writing, which in turn puts me in a state of pure bliss.

Have you ever thought about what that sensation is in those moments of absolute bliss?  That moment when you do something within your love that makes your heart flutter and takes your breath away?  In practicing all that I practice I have come to realize that is when I feel most in line with my Divine.  I have talked many times about how important I feel it is to honor the talents that reside inside of us because they are there for a reason.  Simply for us to share them with the world.

In sharing our talents and becoming comfortable in doing so we realize how big of a gift each one of us  is to the world.  That is why it is out of the question to sit on the side lines in life.  We have been put on this Earth with purpose and it is our duty in this life to use those talents to shine brightly.

In those moments of pure elatedness, have you ever noticed that we don't sweat the small stuff?  Those little things that may pick away at our emotions other times, just seem to subside or completely disappear.  We are meant to live in this state as often as possible. The only way to achieve this is to be living within our own love and walking with a full heart.  In the beginning these moments can be quite fleeting.  However they are long enough to which we realize how important and how desired those moments truly are.  And although they are fleeting, those moments stick with us.  We don't forget them.  They are constant reminders to dig deep within our buried self and start to excavate our true meaning with it all.

So in imagining what we love, we are living out what we want in a dream.  To take the dream to a state of reality is what we call living.  What is it that you dream about doing?  How can you start to live that dream into a reality?  When we are living in our dream time flies by. We come to realize that when we give ourselves wings we don't need to be concerned with time.  Time in a way just disappears. In those moments we are immersed in and brimming over with our love. We are complete because we are full of heart.

How can you give your heart wings today?  How can you show your love to the world? Share with us we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.

Full Of Heart Meditation

Welcome back Spirit Launcher's to another Wednesday community meditation.  This is where we gather together to spread light and love to one another.  As we go through life we will have our ups and downs but no matter what, if we are full of heart, we know the outcome of any circumstance will be to our benefit.  If you need lifted in spirit this is the place to be.  So let our loving energies get to work. 

As always I suggest reading through the meditation a few times before we begin.  We will meet together at 8pm Eastern and 5pm Pacific time.  But remember these meditations can be practiced at any time of the day as often as is needed.  The idea of community meditation is to experience the power of our energies as we come together both near and far across the globe.  This is where we join together to be as one. Sit in a comfortable crossed legged position, close your eyes and rest your hands on your knees palms facing up in order to receive.

Full Of Heart Meditation

by Jennifer Fremion

As we begin, take a long enriching breath in through your nose and release. 

Repeat this breath three times.

Say in your mind,

"I am full of heart, and my heart is full of thee."

"I am full of heart, all burdens I no longer keep."
"I am full of heart, therefore my heart is free."

"I am full of heart, nothing but love will I breathe."

Continue to repeat this as you focus on your mind's eye for

at least 3 minutes.

Feel with each cycle of these words your heart fill

with love and admiration for both life and the world we live in.

Feel the release of all stress and worry.

You are perfect within this heart space.

Sit in silence after 3 minutes of repetition.

Let your heart whisper what it is you need to hear.

Sit in stillness.

Let it be just you and your heart.

Let life be just as it is in this moment.

Sit in stillness as long as you need.

Namaste

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.





Heartstrings: The Article

Heartstrings connect us to

a deeper love, deeper sympathy,

deeper empathy.

Our greatest gift is to love,

and love always, 

with no strings attached.

-Jennifer-

What is the one thing that we all need to live, grow, expand and heighten?  The answer is very simply love.  Love is the most powerful thing in existence.  It can move mountains and it can break hearts.  And a heart can never break in the same place twice.  Yet we can always lean on and lean towards love, because love will change darkness to light in an instant.  Love can remove all barriers and barricades.  Love is the answer to any problem we face.  Think about it.  When you ask how can I make any situation better?  Love better.  How can I make a difference in life?  Love the difference.  It is the answer to any puzzle or any equation.  Very simply love.

What is one of the greatest ways to express love to another?  To be in service.  My heart song sings so loudly when I am in service.  It could be the littlest thing imaginable but to see a face light up, a voice quiver in gratitude, to receive a warm embrace as a thank you, it doesn't get any better.  This makes life worth living.

I have owned my skin care business for almost nine years.  This was really when my need for service was initiated.  Still to this day there is nothing better to hear then a client coming through my door for a treatment saying how much they have been looking forward to their appointment with me.  It warms my heart to no end. 

Nursing has taken service to an entirely different level for me.  When I began working as a nurse in hospice I would start my day by saying The Prayer of St. Francis.  This prayer still brings me to tears every time I say it.  It is the epitome statement of service.  I would then ask that I be of help to at least one person for that day.  Now I ask everyday, to be of help to as many people as I can for the day.  This is the one prayer that never goes unanswered.  This has been the prayer that keeps me present in each moment to look for ways I can help another.  The prayer can be as simple as just asking, "How can I help?"

I loved to feel the love back from all of my patients.  When I went to ICU to work it was a different experience.  My patient's often times were in coma's or sedated with medication because their situation was so grim.  I was still in service however, I felt different.  I didn't have the same feeling as I did when my patient's could have conversations with me.  I questioned if I was in the wrong area.  So I meditated on my concern and asked, "Am I in the right place?"  I then received the message to serve with what is.  I realized I was so used to being of service but having the instant gratification of a smile, hug or thank you from my patient's.  I realized that was the reason I felt somewhat lost in ICU, because I didn't know if my patient's even knew I was in the room with them.  This was the point that I learned to serve with no strings attached.  I didn't get a smile, hug, or a thank you, but I knew that the energy of my love was helping my patient's in whatever way was needed.  I realized I didn't need a reaction in order to feel I was making a difference.  Because no matter what, when you love you are making the biggest difference of all.

Nursing has allowed me to be open and to look for the lessons as they come my way.  Lessons of love are the most profound and will change you to your core in ways you could have never seen coming.  It is the foundation of life.  It is what we have come here to do, forever and always. 

Marianne Williamson in one of my all time favorite Super Soul Sundays, stated that we are to love and live on Earth as in Heaven.  That, opened my heart space even more.  I grew up saying that very line in prayer but as a child even into adulthood, it never made sense to me until Marianne explained it with her magnetic eloquence.  

To love, to really love is all that is necessary and all that is required of any one of us.  Love without question, love without judgement, love as if you are looking through the eyes of the Divine. Because for all intents and purposes we are.  We are representing the greatest example of love and that is the love in which we came from. To love Divinely, is our greatest assignment to fulfill and our biggest shoes to fill in this life. 

For me I didn't want to waste a lifetime being afraid to love.  I've lived that life and it isn't one for the taking.  When I asked for a new way of living, it took massive shifts within my own heart but I finally made it.  I survived the stumble.  Although it was a rocky road of sorts and sorting, I found my way back home of where I had always longed to be. And know from the depths of my heart, because I dare to love so greatly the seed of love is always within me growing and knowing to give more love. The more I give in love, the more love there will be. These are words to live by.

Where do you feel love the most?  Where do you give love the most?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.





©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.



Heartstrings: The Interview

Jeannie Bayless is the sole proprietor of the quaint small town shop known as Heartstrings.  The store is home to all natural home made soaps, bath products and fragrances.  The idea for Heartstrings was born out of an experience Jeannie had with her youngest daughter who out of nowhere had a very bad skin allergy to the everyday soaps on the market.  After changing laundry detergent and other house hold products, Jeannie discovered there was nothing really hypoallergenic and naturally skin friendly out on the market. This was what sparked the idea for Jeannie to study ingredients and begin to create her own homemade line of soap products. 

Jeannie started on a research frenzy to find a combination of natural healthy ingredients to help bring her daughter's skin back to health.  When her daughter's skin started to clear from her reaction by using a product Jeannie developed, she began giving her product away as gifts.  With the extraordinary response from friends and family she soon realized it was inevitable that she should also begin to manufacture soaps that could fill the void in the already vacant industry. Jeannie then began the creative journey of developing multiple bath products and the venture of opening her soap shop to house the loving craft that is her product line.

Early on Jeannie sought out the best suppliers in natural skin care for her products.  She made a promise and through the fifteen years she has been in business even with escalating prices of materials, Jeannie has stuck with that promise to only use the highest quality ingredients available.  She never skimps or cuts corners to make her products work.  These are some of the most lush bath products on the market, yet the price range is more than affordable.  Beyond even the price point these are not just skin care products that smell and feel good to the skin they are remarkable skin care treatments in themselves.  Very early on in her business Jeannie added a new line of lip balms with the incredibly cleaver name Gecko Grease which is well known throughout the country.  Not only is it super rich for the lips containing multiple lip butters, it has the added skin care protection of an SPF 15.  A must need for this summer if you have not had the pleasure of already using it.  "The uniqueness of my products is there is nothing in them that shouldn't be.  I use the highest quality of ingredients and am so proud to put these products on display for people to enjoy and I know they are getting a phenomenal product.  There is no better feeling.  I just released a guy friendly version of Gecko Grease called Bad Dog Lip Balm that I am so excited to offer!"

"Developing a product is such a creative process all the way around," says Jeannie.  "Sometimes I start with an idea of the packaging, other times it is a fragrance.  I never really know exactly where each product will start but I just get an idea and go with it." 

"When I first opened my doors fifteen years ago, I sent out 60 postcards to my closest family and friends.  Then my business evolved very rapidly through word of mouth and really grew from that perspective. About three years into my business back in about 2001, I was asked to do an interview in one of our local newpapers.  That was a real turning point for me.  My business really took off from there. My shop grew from one room to three rooms by 2005.  I've been asked by larger companies to mainstream my products commercially but I want to be able to continue to have creative control in knowing that each product is always made with the best of ingredients and the best of love.  One of the coolest stories I've heard from a customer is they were on vacation in California and saw a woman pull out Gecko Grease from her purse!  I'll never forget that story because that was when I realized that my product was reaching far beyond my small little town and surrounding cities.  That was huge for me and so much fun.  I hear those stories more and more everyday which is so amazing to me.  It just makes everything I do so worthwhile to know that my products are used and loved because they are made with so much love."

"Currently customers can go to my website and purchase my products.  I can ship them anywhere.  I do have my product in stores in Florida, South Carolina, Indiana, Texas, California and Hawaii but primarily my products are here in my shop.  I don't want to take away the at home feel that my shop has to offer to those who can travel to me.  In my case my shop is a destination location so I want everyone who walks through my doors or places long distance orders to know how special they are to me.  In purchasing my products they are taking a piece of my heart and love with them.  It never gets old seeing how much people enjoy my products.  My customers are like family to me. Today people work harder than ever for their money and they want and deserve to get something very special for it.  I know that when people purchase my product they are getting something so incredibly special that will bring joy to their life in however they need it to."

As far as the future for Heartstrings, Jeannie says she always has something in the mix that she is working on.  She is excited about the release of a new product that she is keeping as a surprise until the product launch.  "I take January to March of each year to do research for new products and ideas.  This is the time where I really start to see what is needed in the market and what I can add to my product lines that will continue to evolve my soap line.  I change my shop over twice a year in Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter.  I have an open house every holiday season.  This year it will be November 7th, 8th, and 9th.  This is always such a fun time of the year for me.  This year I have something very special planned so I hope everyone will join us either on the web or in the shop if they are in the area."

How would you describe the heart of Heartstrings?
"I think literally what makes Heartstrings what it is today and always has been is I truly am passionate about what it is that I am doing.  I felt I could really make a difference in people's lives with my products.  I saw it take care of my own daughter's skin condition and I knew I had something very special to offer just from that perspective.  Heartstrings provides people relaxation, enjoyment and happiness because of the products that I have developed.  The heart of it is that I truly love what I do everyday and I feel so rewarded when people tell me how much they love my products.  I just adore my customers and the friendships I have been able to make and maintain throughout the years."


What advice would you give to someone who is wanting to open their own business for the very first time?
"I think first and foremost to be very passionate about what you do.  Have a really good business plan and research the need for what you are wanting to do and make sure that the market is needing whatever it is you are wanting to sell.  Retail isn't always as glamorous as people think.  The economy has its ups and downs, gas prices and supply prices are always on the rise.  There are so many obstacles you have to be prepared for.  That is why you have to truly love what you do and have faith in yourself that you can do it because it is in those hard times your love and passion will be tested.  Stick with it and if you have a good business plan everything works out in the end."

Visit Jeannie at http://geckogrease.com/about-gecko-grease.html to experience the home made all natural skin care products that have been changing people's lives and the way they look at skin care for fifteen years.  Thank you so much Jeannie for sharing your Spirit Launcher story!  You and your products are beyond inspirational!


As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.
Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.



                                               ©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.



The Gravity Of Hurt

Happiness is weightless.

Pain can be the sum of all gravity

placed on your shoulders and in your heart.

Choose wisely as to what it is you 

wish to carry with you.

-Jennifer-



I talk with a lot of people who go through life carrying on the pain of life's experiences. They carry around the anger, heartache and disappointment as if the intial pain strikes their heart again and again.  They are upset and in a sense become lost within the pain itself. They want to numb, supress, or disguise the pain.  They will do anything they can to not feel the actual hurt. It is impossible in life to avoid pain.  Pain is a natural state of suffering we receive.  There is necessary pain and there is unnecessary pain. There is intentional hurt and unintentional hurt.  It is a natural state that seems in society today to be prevalent in all facets of life.  What we have begun to do in society is welcome in the pain however shy away from feeling it. We have in a sense become a numbing society.  One of which we feel we don't really have to feel pain and hurt if we don't want to.  Again pain is a natural state of life.  It belongs to us.  The question is, how do we deal with it in a healthy way and how can we not carry painful experiences with us that will create unnecessary pain into our future.

To hurt or not to hurt? That is the question.  To be hurt is something that we all have felt.  We have all felt the disappointment of expecting someone to be something they are not or couldn't be to us.  So what can we do to exacerbate a hurt instead of accepting it and walking away with the hidden lesson of the experience?  We try to bulldoze the outcome and change it into what we want or wish it to be.  We check out of life because we become so busy manipulating a solution so we can be right instead of understanding that it was not meant to carry on any further in our life.  This is unnecessary pain.  We are investing in the wrong investment in life with this scenario.  Everyone has their part in our lives just as we do in their's.  What ever happened to acceptance of what is instead of trying to make what is into what we want?  Have we become so spoiled in having the ability to have a quick fire result in our lives that we can't accept being told no?

The pain of hurt is lasting.  It will be with us for a lifetime only because we are to remember it so it doesn't replay itself like a broken record.  Especially with unnecessary pain.  Sometimes we can learn the first time around but often times it takes a few blows to the head before we begin to see a pattern and how that pattern isn't exactly working for our greater benefit.

To hurt is something that we have all done.  We are human and this is an unavoidable process in life.  Sometimes it is unintentional and other times sadly, it can be intentional.  I have had a lot of people in my life intentionally hurt others including hurting me.  It is devastating when it happens. An example of an intentional hurt is being in an argument and feeling like you want to get that last dig into the other person to really invade their heart space.  Or you could be having a bad day and misdirect the anger and frustration onto someone you care deeply about.  The end result of that, a bruised heart for both parties.  You feel the guilt of the pain you have ensued on the other person and that person received an unnecessary blow from your end. What I realized in relationships is I have watched people hurt others around me but it wasn't until it was directed to me that I felt the ugly effect it had on my own heart.  Why didn't I see it coming?  Did I think that I was some sort of exception to their rule of pain?  I carried this burden of hurt for a greater part of my life.  After learning about my own patterns of diservice to myself, I realized the need to opt out of these certain relationships.  I also came to realize that my part in it was that I was allowing it to happen to me but the pain itself was the other person's pain all along not mine.  I came to realize that when people hurt you, it is because they themselves are hurting.  The scariest part about it is they don't even realize they are doing it much of the time.  This is an example of unintentional hurt.  When our pain is brimming over and we don't realize how toxic it can be to ourselves and the people we love the most.

So what is necessary pain?  It is the end result of love.  We all know the saying all good things must come to an end.  Well necessary pain is losing a close relationship, losing a loved one to death, it is losing anything or anyone that is nestled closely to your heart.  This is a necessary part of life.  We must love in life to really lose.  I know in my life I would not give up a second of time I share with the people I love.  I understand that the greater I love the greater the hurt at its loss.  And that is okay. I would much rather love greatly in everything and to everyone. That comes with a risk.  But the risk of hurt is worth it tenfold when the benefit is love.  There is never a right time for loss.  There is no pill that can take this pain away.  There are no words to take this hurt away.  This hurt will burden our hearts and only time can make it tolerable but the hurt of the loss, never leaves.  The reward to this pain is the lifetime of love experienced.  And as great as the pain is, the love envelopes its arms around the hurt and around you because that is so much stronger than anything else in this world.  That is why it is so important to love so greatly.  Love so big because this pain will be there eventually.  But the time you have to share this love will outweight the gravity of any pain in the end.

We are left with an accumulation of intentional and unintentional circumstances of hurt so now what?  We will have them with us always.  The next step is to forgive.  Forgive the other person and forgive yourself.  After all, we are all human trying to unravel the mysteries of each experience of this life.  Forgiveness is the key to unlock the door to any grievance and wave your hand at it as you say goodbye.  Forgiveness doesn't mean you have to accept the unacceptable.  It simply means you are not going to be held down by the gravity of hurt it places on your shoulders and in your heart.  It means you have come to terms with the lessons hidden within the experience.  It means that you will carry the hurt with you only as a reminder that you don't want to and don't need that lesson again.  It means you have now risen above the experience.  That your heart has been catapulted into being able to love more greatly and graciously because you know what it is to be in the space of hurt and all of its lack luster.  It means that the lessons of letting go have now allowed you to become weightless and unburdened again and have prepared you to accept and learn from any circumstances that come your way.

Where have you been hurt in your own life?  What were the hidden lessons found within the pain? Share with us we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.



The Forgotten Self

We never forget the longing we

have for our Creator.

We come back to our Creator as

we walk the path of our forgotten self.

-Jennifer-

We hear mentioned in books, magazines, movies and religion about "The Path of Life".  So what exactly does that mean?  We can hear the path of self discovery, the path of least resistance, the path less followed, so where exactly do all of these paths lead us to?  And which one are we supposed to take in the first place?

Yesterday I talked about a different version of self discovery.  Different from what I had formerly thought that phrase could possibly mean.  I thought as many others have, after hearing amazing thought provoking feedback from my readers, that as we go through life we accumulate experiences that add up to create a fabulous life at the end of the yellow brick road.  However couldn't the path in life quite possibly be the path of our forgotten self?

I've continued to think about this topic because it has gotten me to think outside of the box that society had created for me in my thinking.  I also used to think our Creator was a giant Zeus-like dictator in the sky who was ready to strike and punish me for any and every wrong move I made.  Thankfully I came across the work of Dr. Wayne Dyer who I have mentioned quite frequently in my writing who led me down a different path of thinking and understanding that we are not separate from our Creator. That we are in fact one with our Creator.  Dr. Dyer uses a wonderful explanation of this theory. If we take a cup of water from the ocean, is it not still the ocean?  It is just a smaller version of the ocean yet it is still full of the very characteristics that it originated from.  That right there, changed my life because it changed my understanding and ultimately the way I thought about pretty much everything.

So back to our fogotten self.  That resonates so deeply with me because most of my life I felt as if something was missing.  I felt lost a lot of the time.  It seemed almost as if the more I tried to find what was missing the more lost and confused I became.  What I didn't realize and what my great life teachers have taught me and what the practice of yoga and meditation has taught me, is everything we need is already inside of us.  We have all of the love, all of the patience, kindness, peace, joy, and knowledge to get us through this life.  So how do we become so lost in life?  Well as I discussed yesterday, through life we forget.  We forget where it is that we come from and a lot of times we even forget how it is we have gotten so far away from it in the first place.  The one key factor is awareness.  Awareness of our thoughts, actions, intentions and our purpose.  We let life happen to us and along the way we forget our natural origin. We forget our original self. 

So could it be that the path of life is ultimately the path of our forgotten self?  As I was straightening out a lifetime of bad decisions, not listening to my inner guide, not listening to life talking to me every step of the way, I didn't feel like I was becoming a different person.  I felt like I was dropping a lifetime of heartache and false perceptions.  I felt like a weighted lie had been lifted that held me stagnant for the greater part of my life.  I began to welcome challenges.  I began to get comfortable in the thought of becoming uncomfortable because I knew it was all a part of my preparation for greatness.  So in "finding ourselves" in life could it be that it is just a matter of returning to our original self?  The very self that we bury deep because other people want us to be something different than who we naturally are and then we become lost in living because we know we should be something different than what the world has created us to be.  But we forget that the path in finding our origin isn't outside of us, that it is in fact a path walked within ourselves.

We can spend years spinning, fretting and fearing that we are lost and have gone too far off the path.  But if we realize that this journey is internal and that our return to self is also a return to our Creator, we can never be too far off track to return back home.  When we take our blinders off, it is our original self that has been waiting to be introduced to us and to this world all along.

What path do you travel in this life?  Have you traveled back to your original self or has your journey just begun?  Share with us, we would love to hear from you!

As always with love,

Jennifer

Follow me on Twitter @jfremion.

Email me at jfremionfw@gmail.com.

©2013. Jennifer Fremion. All rights reserved.