I truly feel as though people are craving connection now, more than ever. I absolutely love having the opportunity to sit down and have real, meaningful and connected conversations with people and my interview with Maria Flynn was so enlightening. I left the conversation feeling like I had so much in my own life to reflect on and think about; Maria’s energy and presence are just magnetic and I felt as though I could have talked to her for hours. To watch the full interview, head over to my Rebel & Rise page here.
I wanted to share with you some of my biggest learnings and takeaways from my chat with Maria and also some of the wisdom that she shared because it helped me and so I’m sure it will help you as well.
1 – Are You Forcing Gratitude?
Think about your life right now; perhaps you have a family, a spouse, a great job, a roof over your head, beautiful & smart children, a great social life, etc. Do you ever feel shameful for “wanting more?” As though it’s not okay to want more, because of all the great things that you already have? Are you forcing gratitude? That’s not to say that you aren’t grateful for what you have; it’s about feeling like there is something missing. That feeling, is what Maria describes as the “ache”. And in her own life, that ache that she personally felt is now the stimulus behind everything that she does.
Too many women (and men) feel like they are doing all the right things. They multitask and are highly productive and they do everything for everyone. They are positive and grateful because they feel like they should be. It’s important to not mask the ache that you’re not answering. If you start to listen in to your soul, to your intuition, that’s when you start to transform into your authentic self. We need to remove the shame that’s attached to people “wanting more”. It’s not about having it all, it’s about answering what you are here on this planet to do.
Maria says, “Don’t forget your spiritual force because that’s your intuition, it’s your divine guidance, it’s what leads you to your purpose in the world and what gives meaning to everything that you’re doing. You are a sacred thumbprint of this universe. You are here with divine purpose. You don’t have to worry about the sun rising and the seasons coming. There is perfect order. You are not separate from that perfect order. That is the ache; you’ve been doing all this other stuff, which you must do to allow yourself to live on this earth, but there is a divine purpose for why you’re here. That’s the spiritual force telling you to listen. There is more for you to do. There is something else for you to do.”
2 – Aim for a Steady State of Growth
Some ups and downs in life are inevitable; the goal is to get away from having sharp peaks and deep valleys and instead, invision your life as a steady state of growth. Life will always happen and sometimes, horrible things will happen to us. Growth and personal development don’t negate those things from happening. When you integrate your spirituality and you integrate a strong mindset and daily personal development, you might have setbacks or plateau for a bit, but you don’t drop down into that deep valley everytime. You bounce back much more quickly each time, and each time you get stronger. Aim for that steady state of growth; don’t wait for something bad to happen to start working on yourself and don’t just work on yourself when things are going great. As Maria said, “You don’t have to wait for the breakdown in order to have the breakthrough”.
3 – Be Present
We live in a world where everything needs to be bigger, better, faster. And in that, we tend to tune out. We scroll our social media accounts as a way to numb out and avoid the realities of our present world. Being present is what the most successful people are amazing at. Be present for what each moment is bringing you; that will allow your intuition to speak more clearly to you.
4 – Energy is Everything
Energy is the most important thing. Whenever you come to a crossroads and you’re trying to figure something out for yourself, tap into the energy that you are feeling. When you are around certain people or in certain situations, pay attention to the energy that you are feeling. Your energy is precious. You don’t have to explain yourself to the people who want to keep you small. Let those people speak their peace, thank them and move on. Don’t feel like you have to win, or convince anybody. Trust the process and trust the universe. It can be really difficult because our ego kicks in and wants to defend or make them understand; practice not engaging and losing your energy to the situation.
When you start to practice this more, you gain so much confidence that you don’t need to over communicate or explain. You just are. Practice and model what it is that you want from them because energy attracts energy. You need to have the higher energy and the other person will either step into it or will step out of it. It’s that simple.
Trust the universe and trust the filtering process. It’s not always beautiful or easy or a straight path; but trust it. Allow yourself to communicate from a place of love, respect and freedom. If someone is behaving a certain way, give them the freedom to behave that way. It’s not our job to control them just like you don’t want to be controlled. Allowing them to behave a certain doesn’t mean they “win” or you “lose”; it just is. Protect your energy and choose what you are going to engage in and allow in your life.
There were so many other great insights from this interview, including what Maria feels are her biggest gifts she has given to her children – be sure to check out the full interview here.
Thanks again Maria, for such an amazing conversation! Can’t wait to connect for part 2! You can find Maria here: https://www.facebook.com/MariaLFlynn/