“If your path demands that you walk through hell, walk as if you own the place.“

To say life has been a bit crazy the last several months is an understatement. Some may describe it as hell and others a welcome reprieve. Either way, many of us have been left feeling as if the wind got knocked out of us and at the same time the universe changed the way we breathe. So now, we find ourselves gasping for breath trying to figure out new ways we can inhale and exhale. Fatigue, burnout, stress, overwhelmed, uncertainty, and isolation are all words that accurately describe any given day. We’ve lost our mojo!

We have all been flooded with articles and social media posts on how to cope during these uncertain times. My goal is not to add to the endless information you receive in your inbox, but to offer you a few suggestions on how to feel better day to day so we can all get through this together…safely, on the other end.

Mojo Tip #1: Educate yourself

I consider myself a life-long learner but I must admit, at times, there are things I would rather not know. “Ignorance is bliss” is a real thing! During some tough times in my life, I had to learn the hard way that educating myself on what was going on was, in the end, better than muddling through trying to figure it out for myself. My daughter, who is an amazing and healthy woman today, is a recovered heroin addict and I resisted educating myself on addiction for years. I guess that was my way of denying it was actually happening. When I finally educated myself on addiction, not only did it help me understand what my daughter was going through, but it helped me make better, more informed decisions on the next steps she and I needed as she went through the recovery process.

The amount of information and opinions on COVID-19 is staggering and sometimes it is hard to know what to believe. Social media and the news have become hard to trust and world leaders are at odds on the best way to move forward. There are two questions I ask myself when seeking information on a topic I wish to know more about. One, who are the experts? Who has the combined education and experience on the topic at hand? Secondly, is the information I get from those experts consistent and congruent? In other words, is the information reliable? Are the experts saying roughly the same thing?

Yes, I agree, not all experts always get their information correct. We are all human, therefore, not perfect. But, at the end of the day, they are usually correct more often than the guy I went to high school with who has an opinion based on unchecked social media posts. Just sayin??

Mojo Tip #2: Seek help and be open to receive it when it shows up

Help for me showed up in many ways when I was helping my daughter battle her addiction. As I educated myself on addiction, I realized that as a psychologist, I could not counsel myself. I had a limiting belief that because I was a psychologist, I should be able to figure out what to do and how to heal on my own (Cardinal rule #1: Never “should” on yourself!). I began sessions with a gifted man from the rehab center, Mike, who worked with me on my anger issues. I also worked with an amazing counselor, Kim, who I still work with to this day, who helped me with my mind set, reframing the limiting beliefs that were driving my behaviors (or lack of them), and helped balance my energy. As I opened the door to allowing myself to receive help, more help showed up in the form of random checks from clients and friends who knew what I was going through, some as high as $5,000, all saying “no need to pay me back…this is for all the help you have given to me over the years.” I also had an interesting wakeup call as I realized that the friends and family I thought would be there for me were not, and the friends and family who I never expected in a million years to support me, did.

In the end, whatever we are going through, know that we are never meant to go through anything alone. Accept help when it shows up and be brave enough to reach out for it when you need it. Beware, it usually comes in miraculously unexpected ways!

Mojo Tip #3: Never lose H.O.P.E.

My counselor Kim defines H.O.P.E. as “Hold On Pain Ends.” I had struggled with this word since my Dad died of cancer.? I did not see the point in hoping if we could not control the outcome (there is that control freak coming out!). As I continued my counseling, I realized that when we are going through challenging times and there seems like there is no hope, that just because we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel, does not mean that there isn’t one. The key is we have to trust that the light exists, which means trusting in the process of life and more importantly, in ourselves. I have to admit that this has been the hardest lesson for me to grasp and I continue to work on it to this day. With many years of self-reflection and counseling, I finally have come to realize that the Universe (God, higher power, etc.) always has a bigger plan for us than our own. The experience with my daughter allowed me to meet people I would have never met, learn how to find inner peace within myself when the world around me was chaotic, and helped me identify many things about myself I may have never realized. The strength that I gained from this experience has carried me through many other difficult times in my life.

What the world is going through now is unpredictable, at best, and that makes it very scary. It is easy to lose hope and want things to just go back to the way they were. What I have found is that when things change this drastically, this fast, it is usually a sign that transformational and much needed change is upon us. Change of this magnitude does not happen without a reason. As much as we like to give ourselves power, even WE could not screw things up this much! When the “finger of God” touches down, hold on tight…because not only will it be a hell of a ride, but the end result will be better than we ever imagined.

The Universe does not give us anything that we cannot handle, including the lessons. Everything comes when we are ready and if we choose to ignore the lesson, it is guaranteed it will come back around again when we are ready to receive it. We always get more than one chance to advance our soul. If we trust the process of life, trust ourselves, be open enough to seeing the signs the Universe is sending us, and act on those signs, the Universe takes care of the “how” for us. Our life then moves with the Universal flow and we find our mojo again.

“Groovy baby!”

Dr. Chris

Guest blog contributor, Chris Sopa’s daughter, Natalie Sopa, 19 years old.

“Above all, don’t lose hope” 
~Pi, “Life of Pi”

When you look up at the stars, what do you see? Do simply see stars? Do you see beauty? Do they make you feel insignificant? Or do you look up at the sky, with the stars reflecting off your eyes like fire above a stagnate lake and feel possibility and hope?

Most of the time when someone looks up at the stars they don’t see the beauty or the possibilities that hold ungodly amounts of hope. They see a sky that is too large to comprehend; a large quantity of space that holds mysteries not yet known to the human race. Many feel themselves shrink back, feeling smaller and smaller by the second until they feel like an empty void of space.

Sometimes in life, things can make you feel small, unimportant, and insignificant. They can tear you apart piece by piece, ripping your soul so you feel like nothing but a deep, unexplored sea. Whether it is a divorce, a breakup, the death of a person or dream, or something as small as a deceptive lie told to you, these kinds of events can hurt you more than you would ever possibly think. The wound may heal, but most of the time there is always a scar left over on your soul. Then, once something happens that is similar to the event that created the scar, the wound is ripped back open.

Feelings like this should not be ignored. Like my Mom always says, most of the time if something keeps bothering you and ripping open a healed wound, there is a lesson that you need to learn from it. It may not always be so obvious because pain can leave such rough scars on our souls, our subconscious always remembers the pain, so; unless we do something to heal the wound to make the scar fade we will always feel reoccurring pain. We must strive past the pain and get to the source of the sorrow. You must keep digging until you get to the center of the earth. There you will find the lava that is fueling your pain.

Cooling that lava is where the peace will rise like evaporated water. As many experts say, “This is easier said than done.” The journey to peace might be more painful and rigorous than the wound itself, but the result is worth the fight.

Whether you feel like an endless space filled with stars or a deep sea filled with mystery, there is always hope for something new to be discovered. What will you discover at the end of your journey to peace?

For your FREE copy of Chris Sopa’s 7 Steps to Changing Any Behavior click on the photo below.

Chris Sopa is founder and owner of Chris Sopa International, Inc.

This is taken from Chapter 3 ~ Overcoming Limiting Beliefs from “Choosing the Life You Were Born to Live:  How Changing Your Thoughts Will Change Your Life” by Chris Sopa, published by Balboa Press.  Click here to purchase your copy!

“One great way to see where your fears lie is to bring them up in your mind for a brief moment in time so you can shed some light on them.

A wonderful exercise I have my coaching clients do is to list seven things in your life you want so bad but are scared to death will never happen:  Your “Seven Impossible Things.” Why seven? Because seven is a very sacred number and there is a certain power in having to force yourself to think of more than just three or five things. You have to go deeper into your mind and deeper into your fears.

The key to the exercise is to list the seven things you want and then walk through all of the reasons why you think it won’t happen…what you fear will get in the way of it happening. Then, in a column next to it, list all of the reasons how it could happen.

When you take the time to really think through and put on paper your fears and then possible solutions to those fears, the fears lose their power. The fears turn simply into obstacles that can be easily overcome with a plan and a little faith. You then are also focusing on what you want to have happen instead of all of the reasons why it cannot happen, using the power of your thoughts to manifest exactly what you need.

Having a plan, is one of the ways to overcome fear; another way is to understand and know that Divine is there to help you on your journey. You are never alone.”

Chris Sopa is founder and owner of Chris Sopa International, Inc. You can learn more about her at www.ChrisSopa.com. Find her at Facebook.com/ChrisSopaInternational, Twitter @ChrisSopa, LinkedIn, and Google+.

It’s my turn to live.
It’s my turn to feel my feelings.
It’s my turn to speak my truth.
It’s my turn to rest.
It’s my turn to let my light shine.
It’s my turn to see the joy and beauty in everything around me.
It’s my turn to make the choices I want to make without permission.

It’s my turn to show how strong I am.
It’s my turn to pray and believe my prayers will be answered.
It’s my turn to change my mind when I want to change it.
It’s my turn to take care of me and not everybody else.
It’s my turn to be surrounded by people who are honest and trustworthy.
It’s my turn to be alone and savor my own company without feeling lonely.
It’s my turn to remember my Divinity and why I am here.
It’s my turn to live up to my Divine potential.
It’s my turn to cry, laugh and yell with everything I’ve got.
It’s my turn to save myself.
It’s my turn to open my heart.
It’s my turn to love.
It’s my turn to live.

Now it’s your turn,

Chris

Chris Sopa is founder and owner of Chris Sopa International, Inc. You can learn more about her at www.ChrisSopa.com. Find her at Facebook.com/ChrisSopaInternational, Twitter @ChrisSopa, LinkedIn, and Google+.

“We can let circumstances rule us, or we can take charge and rule our lives from within.”  ~Earl Nightingale

The other day I received an email from a dear friend and former coaching client who has been unemployed for over a year now.  Not only has she been out of work, but the cancer that she successfully beat 5 years ago returned and her son lost his job as well.  She wrote me an email to tell me about a wondrous thing that recently happened to her.

As she was at church one day, visitors from Argentina arrived and asked the priest to bless their statue of St. Cajetan.  Being brought up Catholic and never hearing of St. Cajetan, she proceeded to look him up.  St. Cajetan is the saint of the unemployed.  Upon looking him up, she found a novena to St. Cajetan that the unemployed can recite for 9 days with hope of finding employment.  My friend and her son decided to pray the novena to St. Cajetan.  Within the next few days, both of them received job offers out of the blue!

Of course, I was fascinated by this story so when I returned from Peru on Saturday after reading her email, I decided to try it as well.  I am self-employed but since moving to Arizona, I have been looking for new clients too, let’s say, “help my financial flow” a bit.  After only reciting this novena for 2 days, I received a call today from a large government agency asking me to do a workshop for them in a couple of weeks!  Coincidence?  You tell me…

For those skeptics out there, whatever it is you believe is true for you.  But for you believers, here is the novena if you are interested:

Glorious Saint Cajetan acclaimed by all people as father of providence because you provide miraculous aid to all who come to you in need, I stand here before you today, asking that you present to the Lord the requests that I confidently deposit in your hands.

(Mention here the graces desired.)

May these graces that I now request help me to always seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness, knowing that God – who dresses with beauty the flowers of the field and abundantly feeds the birds of the sky – will give me all other things.  Amen.

(Say this prayer for 9 days followed by 3 Our Fathers, 3 Hail Mary’s, and 3 Glory Be’s – if you do not know these prayers, repeat prayers you know that are sacred to you and of your religion in their place.)

I would love to hear your comments on any amazing miracles that happen for you as a result of this prayer!

Remember, even though at times life seems as if it is “against us” because things don’t seem to be going our way, the universe is a kind place.  Nothing happens that is not for the highest good…nothing.  Everything in life has a purpose.  Just because you are not aware of it does not mean it is not meaningful or present.  There are a number of stories of folks who have lost their jobs only to find amazing opportunities waiting for them on the other side of their misery.

Do what you need to do to keep your center.  Take a walk, talk to a friend, exercise, pet your cat, read a good book, take a nap, etc.  Don’t let life circumstances get you down.  Let your internal environment dictate your mood, not your external environment.  The only person who has control over your mood on a daily basis is you.  If you allow someone or something to upset you, it is only because you “allowed it in.”  Keep your internal environment protected.  It is sacred space…treat it as such.

Hang in there and keep your thoughts focused on what you want to bring into your life, not on what is not showing up.  You pull in the exact things that you put your attention upon…make them the good things.

“Prayer does not cost anything but can reap wealth in a wonderful, unexpected way.“
~my friend, Kathi

Let’s pray for each other and watch the amazing miracles that happen!

Chris

Chris Sopa is founder and owner of Chris Sopa International, Inc. You can learn more about her at www.ChrisSopa.com. Find her at Facebook.com/ChrisSopaInternational, Twitter @ChrisSopa, LinkedIn, and Google+.