Love The Life You’re Living

Your Life Your Way

There is nothing you need, for all will be provided, when you are in love with the life you are living. And when I say life, I mean your life.

You did not arrive on this planet to live someone else’s life, nor did you arrive on this planet to live in someone else’s shadow. You and your life matter; you are not to be controlled or manipulated by anyone at any time into believing that you do not. I encourage you to always believe in the following statement and to say it as an affirmation:

This is my life. I am here to live and love my life, my way.

When I observe the interactions of others or when I have conversations with clients or friends, I continue to be amazed to see at how so many of them go on about the need to meet someone else’s expectations.

From the moment you were born, you were taught to believe that a variety of things in life are important. Then, in your teenage years, even when demanding your independence, you started to wear new masks of conformity because you were taught the importance of fitting in versus having the choice or the power to live an extraordinarily original life.

Now that you are an adult and claim to be in charge of your life, when you step back and allow yourself to quiet your mind and thoroughly think those important things through, what are you discovering? What questions are you asking your whole self?

Perhaps you are a recent college or university graduate, degree in hand and ready to take on the world. Yet, because of a job-saturated market, no one will hire you. And there you are asking yourself, Now what?

Perhaps you graduated 20 years ago, got married, raised a couple of children, and are in a job that you have been doing year after year after year, and you have recently begun to ask yourself, Is this it?

Perhaps you are into your late 40s or early 50s, have gone through a divorce or two, and a corporate downsizing or two and feel stuck in an endless cycle of What the hell am I to do now?

Regardless of your age and regardless of the situation you find yourself in, have you thought about the masks you wear? What about the mold you’ve cast yourself into and allow yourself to stay in? What about a past you have yet to forgive yourself for? What about the increasingly heavy baggage you are carrying around day after day as a result?

Why are you continuing to conform to and accept standards that in your heart and head do not seem right? Why do you continue to surrender your power to them?

Very few of us, myself included, entered our 20s unconditionally valuing, accepting, and loving ourselves. Aligned with my observation, I endorse what wisdom writer Anthony de Mello had to say about how most people sleepwalk through their entire life. In his book Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality, the late author and Jesuit observed that most people are born asleep, mature asleep, live through adulthood asleep, grow old, and then die asleep. He goes on to assert that most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. In fact, they are having a nightmare.

Anthony de Mello also defined spirituality as waking up. In saying so, he provided a way to escape the nightmare, which is, quite simply, to wake up. For some, this will mean a radical and instantaneous awakening event (which is my story) followed by a lifelong series of interwoven awakening and transformative steps. For others, waking up will be a more gradual series of steps. Either way, the foundation for your lifelong transformative journey is to value, accept, and love your whole self unconditionally.

My intention and the intention of this book is this: to gently guide and encourage you to enrich your life regardless of your age (the younger in adulthood the better). First, you will work through a series of positive life-affirming self-assessments (aka, a series of steps) in Part One: Look into the Mirror. Second, in Part Two: Beauty Surrounds You, you will continue to learn how to apply and integrate much of what you have discovered or rediscovered about yourself when you are out in the rest of the world. You will also learn how to slow down.

At the end of each chapter, a summary encourages you to take the time you need to self-assess. Each summary features at least one affirmation, as well as what I call mala meditations (a mala is a string of beads used by Buddhists and Hindus while reciting mantras). I have added Twitter hashtags that you can incorporate when sharing your awakening or transformative thoughts and experiences with family, friends, and the rest of the world. Finally, towards the end of the book, you will find the link to my YouTube channel where you can watch short videos highlighting some of my personal stories. There are also videos that showcase the natural beauty that Canada is known for around the world.

Whether shared via Twitter, directly by way of my website, or via my other media platforms, I hope to hear from you as you awaken, as you transform, as you unlearn, and as you learn to live and love the life you are living.

Repeat:

This is my life. I am here to live and love my life my way.

Much love and blessings to each and every one of you as you embark on your beautiful journey.

Bryan,

www.bryanarndt.com
Toronto, Ontario, Canada