Mirrors and Bridges
The Transformation Company
Digging Up Buried Dreams, Part 2
How do you focus in a world of noise and unbury the dreams that God has placed in your hearts?
You master the obstacles and overcome the distractions.
It is called the MOOD tune-up process. It helps determine the difference between your calling and something pulling you away from what you need to do.
We learned previously in Digging Up Buried Dreams Part 1 the first two steps – how to have mastery over obstacles. Now it’s time to build on our knowledge and learn the other two parts of the MOOD tune-up.
Step 3: Overcome Negative Thoughts and Feelings
Overcome means to conquer, gain control of, and defeat.
What you think about determines your feelings and affects your mood. You can control your thoughts and defeat them by limiting what you allow in your mind.
As you go through your day, pay attention to what you are thinking about and write it down. This process slows down your mind. It also reveals what triggered your mind to think negative thoughts and cause your feelings to change.
I used to have racing thoughts and suffered from anxiety and depression as a teenager and young adult. Later in life, I learned how to take every thought captive and not allow my feelings to overwhelm me. I did this by memorizing scriptures and bringing them up every time I had a negative thought. One scripture in particular that I learned is in the second chapter of the book of Corinthians in the bible.
2 Cor. 10:5 (KJV) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
You can prevail over negative thoughts and feelings too. Memorize verses like this and say them out loud every time the negative thought tries to creep into your mind. Cast down every thought that does not line up with the path that God has set before you. Mastery comes with practice and repetition.
We looked at the M, O, O (Master our Obstacles and Overcome) parts of the MOOD tune-up process. Finally, let’s look at the last step, overcoming distractions.
Step 4: Recognize Distractions and Remove them
Distractions tempt us from doing what we need to do. If it does not line up with our calling in the season that we are in, it is a distraction. We cannot hear the prompting of the Holy Spirit if we don’t stay focused.
Distractions come in many forms. People and information are a few of my favorite and most challenging examples.
People – People are sometimes beautiful distractions and keep us from what God has put in our hearts to accomplish. We either need to walk away from the relationship or limit the interaction.
Information – Every day hundreds of bits of information compete to get our attention. We must decipher if the data we receive is going to add value to our lives. If it doesn’t, remove it.
We learned in Part 1, that our physical environment and ourselves can also be obstacles stopping us from reaching our God appointed goals. Eliminating distractions helps us stay focused on the vision that God has for our lives. It helps unbury our dreams (what God has called us to do in this season of life).
In this season, I am a daughter, wife, sister, aunt, life coach and a friend.
What titles or callings do you have on your list?
Digging Up Buried Dreams: Putting it All Together
You have a purpose, calling, and dreams inside your heart. Be the ruler of your thoughts and your heart will follow. Take the time to do a checkup on your emotional and mental health. Do a MOOD tune-up.
MASTER the OBSTACLES and OVERCOME the DISTRACTIONS.
We all have dreams inside of our hearts, dare to live out yours.
I would love to hear how you are mastering obstacles and overcoming distractions. Comment below.
Ready to Discover God’s Call on Your Life?
We cannot unbury and dig up our dreams if we don’t know what they are.
If you are struggling with focus, in a new season of transition, want to organize your life, home, or grow your business, I would love to talk to you. I can help you go from overwhelm to productive, chaos to calm, and accelerate your growth.
If that sounds like the season you are in, set up a time for a 30-minute discovery phone or zoom call. I would love to hear your story and help you have a more productive and peaceful life.
Photo credit: Timothy Eberly from Unsplash
Digging Up Buried Dreams Part 1
What do dreams, thoughts and emotions have to do with each other? Everything.
It is crucial that we see the connection and use that knowledge to look deep inside our hearts until we find that forgotten dream.
What did you want to be when you were growing up? What did you love to do?
For me, I loved to write songs and poetry. By the time I was in college, I had two huge binders full of my writing. Then, I threw them all away along with my dream of becoming a writer. I went over 20 years, with that dream buried deep inside my heart. But God, so lovingly put me in front of women who poured life into me and helped me resurrect the buried dream.
The same can happen for you. You may be asking yourself, how in the world am I going to dig up the dreams I buried so long ago? That’s a great question. Let me show you how.
In honor of mental health awareness month, I will teach you a process I call a MOOD Check-up. Remember I said there was a connection between our thoughts, emotions and dreams?
For us to dig up our buried dreams, we must get our heart and our head in alignment with the dreams God placed inside. We must do what we are called to do now and remove obstacles standing in our way.
The M is for MASTER.
Master means subject, ruler or reigning.
We should be the master of our home, schedules and our own body. Just like it craves food, our body craves order and balance. When there is balance, then we can step into our purpose. Our purpose (why we are on this earth) doesn’t change. Our calling (titles – how we carry out our purpose) does change. It is connected to our dreams and influenced by our thoughts and emotions.
We will see more peace, prosperity and joy in our life when we walk in our calling and master of our life. In this season, you could be called parent, caretaker, teacher, speaker, employee, student, entrepreneur, volunteer, artist or friend.
I fought against my calling to be a writer and am embracing it now.
Master and own the calling and title you have been given in this season. We looked at M for Master and ruling in the authority you have been called. Now, let’s look at the next part in the MOOD Checkup.
O is for OBSTACLES.
An obstacle is anything that stunts our growth and stops us from moving forward.
According to Professional Organizer Tracy McCubbin, in her book called Making Space Clutter Free, clutter blocks are a type of obstacle and they all start with a story. If we repeat the story over and it over, it becomes a belief and we can develop deep emotional attachment to our stuff.
The items in our home can affect our mood and we are no longer can see the truth behind the clutter. We become clutter blind. The items become both mental and physical obstacles and keep us from living completely free. They steal our joy, peace and our dreams because they weigh us down.
How do we win the clutter battle? First, we purge some of the items, one small space at a time. Start in the room you spend the most time. Then, do one drawer at a time before moving on to the next. Next, decide what to toss, donate or keep the items. Lastly, organize the items by sorting them into groups or containers. Even just 15 minutes a day can make an impact on your space.
If you feel you are not able to do it yourself, grab a friend or family member to assist or hire a coach. If you would like support on how to discover your calling on your life or master your schedules, clutter or any other obstacles, I would love to talk to you.
We have a monthly journaling and planner club and community of people who are wanting to make this year the most productive year of their life and master obstacles in their life.
We have talked about the connection between our dreams, emotions and thoughts and two parts of the MOOD checkup process. We will cover the last two parts next month. Follow my blog and sign up for my newsletter to get more tools to transform your life.
I would love to hear how you are walking in your calling and mastering obstacles in your life or any questions that you may have. Comment below.
Photo provided by Canva.
Your Story Matters: Have The Courage To Share It
I spent the rest of the day crying, begging for another shot at life.
Ever been on your knees, on the bathroom floor asking God for a do over and in desperate need of hope?
That was me, a little over four years ago, looking for one glimmer of light to hold on to after losing what I thought was the job of my dreams. I was embarrassed and did not want to tell my husband that I screwed up any chance that the interviewers would choose me and let a great job slip through my hands. How could I do that and be so selfish? I could not even look at myself in the mirror.
A Bad Day
God let me cry that day. I know He was there because His promises in His Word say that He will never leave me. But this time, I did not feel His presence. I felt alone and empty inside, broken in a million pieces, like a mirror shattered on the floor. The pain was intense. It ripped through my body in waves. At times, it choked the life right out of me.
In my brokenness, I cried out to Him and said, “God, please don’t let this be the last chance I have at a great job. I am sorry I messed it up all up. I want a job that I love going to, a job where I make a difference in the world, my dream job.”
A Ray of Hope
About a week later, I attended a Health and Wellness Women’s conference. When the last speaker started talking, I found myself having the urge to run up on stage. Strange, I had never felt that before.
Stranger, is what happened next. I heard a voice. Not out loud, but in my thoughts, say, “You can do that.” “What? No”, I said, “I could never do that.” Almost instantly, I heard “Yes. You can and you will.”
After the conference, I scheduled a call with the speaker. She is also a life coach and an author. Three words that I had heard before, but never all together: Speaker, Life Coach and Author. I really liked the sound of that. Those words felt like home to my soul.
She asked me what I wanted to talk about during our clarity session. I said, “I see a picture of a bridge on a wall in a room. I am talking to someone privately, but I am not sure what I am talking about.”
A New Start
And that was the beginning of our Genesis story, the story of how Mirrors and Bridges got started. It was born out of the desire for wanting something better for my life and the life of my family. It was conceived in pain, at the bottom of a bathroom floor.
Mirrors and Bridges, llc was born on April 1, 2020, at the start of a global pandemic that changed the future of our world as we know it forever.
What is your Genesis story? What pain have you endured in your lifetime that you can use for good? Your story matters. It matters because you matter. There is no one else in this world like you. No one with your abilities, strengths or talents. You and your life stories are unique. The world needs to hear your stories of endurance, hope and courage. They will bring light into the world and lift us up when we need it most.
Four years ago, I needed you. I needed to hear your story because, I lost all hope in mine.
We all have a story. Have the courage to tell yours!
If any of this radiated in your heart and inspired you in any way, I would love to hear about it. I would also like you to join our Mirrors and Bridges Community. You can find me on social media platforms here: https://linktr.ee/melonieabenjamins
Photo credit: shot by Ireland on unsplash.
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