Memorial Day Healing Message: Fight for Each Other's Happiness and Freedom! | Up Our Game

Possible on Memorial Day 2021 to talk about happiness and freedom. And before I begin, I want to just thank all that lost their lives to fight for our freedom and all of the families who lost loved ones who died fighting for our freedom. And what if we could all come together today, really committing to fighting for our own personal freedom and the personal freedom of others. I believe that that would be impactful in a way that is incomprehensible, and I know it's possible. I came on today raw, no makeup, no frills, just natural and real. And I want to share a little bit about my personal journey fighting for freedom. And I was thinking about, I'm about to work out with my husband and go for a walk in our neighborhood. And something as simple as going for a walk wasn't possible for me. Just four years ago, I had drop foot after severe nerve damage from chemotherapy, which I ended up making the decision to quit because the side effects and my body's response to the chemotherapy was so incredibly severe. I had drop foot. And I was just thinking about as I was putting on my yoga pants, getting ready to go outside after this, how if I would have listened to what the doctors were telling me about my leg, I probably wouldn't have fought for the healing that occurred so that I can walk and move and be free in my body today. We have a history of people fighting for our freedom, and yet do we fight for our own? Do we fight for the freedom and the happiness of others? I had to get to a point when I had dropped foot in this leg and I couldn't move and the pain was so severe, words can't even describe it for the possibility of my leg working again, of me being able to be free in my body again. And I had to fight to be happy even when it seemed like those results were a fantasy or an idealistic, naive and fruitless endeavor. And it wasn't fruitless. And whatever you're facing right now, I'm here to say to you, you can be happy anyway, and you can focus on fight for your freedom anyway. And only when you'll do that for yourself will you be able to be a stand for the happiness and freedom of others. But we want to put our heart and soul into giving back to other people before we'll do it for ourselves so much of the time. But it's got to flip. It's got to be you fighting for your happiness, you fighting for your freedom first so that you can make even more of an impact and you can be happy and you can be free no matter what you're facing. And in the month of July, I will be bringing in a diversity and racial equality expert to help us take on fighting for the freedom of equality and equity around racism and diversity. We're going to take this on in the Healing is Possible community and in the Healing is Possible movement in June and July of 2021, this year and today. I want us to start with just waking up to the possibility that you can be happy and you can be free, no matter what's happened, no matter what you're facing now, or no matter what you're afraid of. And until and unless you'll commit to those ideals, you're going to be miserable. And that's going to impact everyone around you and everything around you. And that has a ripple effect. And you don't have to listen to this message and you don't have to agree with me that you could commit to happiness and freedom no matter what. But if you're still listening, I'm going to give you some tips and some tricks and some steps to do just that, because it might seem impossible. But if this calls to you even a little bit, stay tuned. So I want to talk about happiness next. What does it mean to be happy? I'm going to tell you my definition and create your own from there. My definition of happiness is I can be with any circumstance and and any emotion, no matter what's happening. That is the simple definition. What does that mean? What if there are only five actual human emotions and everything else is learned? This is what I believe. You don't have to agree, but just consider what I am saying. We are born knowing how to be angry. We are born knowing how to grieve. We are born knowing how to be afraid, joyful and excited. Anything and everything else is something you saw, something you learned, something you inherited, and something you bought into. Shame, guilt, rejection, abandonment, jealousy, competition, embarrassment. I could go on and on. All that is learned, all that is drama, anger, grief, fear, joy, excitement. Those are the five human emotions. So if you don't know where to start on your journey to happiness, start there. Can I be free in the face of any of those emotions? If the answer is no to one or any of those emotions, then they're stuck. That's toxic, and you won't be able to be happy. And another word for happy, in my opinion, is just free. And when we have an emotion, what it is so easy to do is to take it out on those around us to look for something or someone to Blame, but really it's just an emotion that's trapped in your body. It is never another person or a situation that has you upset, ever, ever, ever. And the people that coach with me get really responsible for that. And you right now watching this, I am going to invite you to get really responsible for your upsets are never the other person or the situation. And they are an opportunity for you to get more free. If when you get upset or triggered, you would lean into that and get responsible for what's the emotion in me that has me unfree and unhappy and how do I release a healthy way your life would change forever. Now when you're expressing emotion again, it's not about lashing out, it's not about directing that emotion at anyone else. That's what happened to all of us right in our childhoods. I've not met anyone that didn't have programming that emotions are someone else's or something's fault or didn't witness some someone in their life as a kid taking their emotions out on someone. We've learned it, we've seen it. That doesn't mean that it's useful, healthy or that it works. It doesn't. And then it's really brave to take full on responsibility for your emotion and your happiness and your freedom, no matter what's going on around you. And I just want to suggest that that's possible for you today and you can start even just with journaling, getting it out of your body and onto a page. What I'm feeling is what I'm needing is what I'm wanting is what's in the way of my freedom. And happiness is what I'm needing, what I'm wanting, what I'm feeling, what's in the way of my happiness and freedom. You can just start writing, but know that that emotion needs to come out. And when you won't face the upset, you stay in your patterns that keep you unhappy, unfree and miserable. That's happiness. Being able and willing to be with any emotion in any circumstance from a clear, solid, grounded place. It's not about everything is going well. It's not about feeling good. It's about being free in the face of whatever you're facing. And I want us to remember how powerful we are and we have the power to choose and we have the power to be intentional and we have the power to not be a prisoner to our circumstances. And to me, that is freedom. Then I think it is all well and good to be pursuing happiness and freedom for yourself, but what I want to suggest is that the reason I want to be happy and free is so that I can support as many people that want that too in being happy and free as well. And I play a game with myself when I'm seeing people interacting, people hearing about what's going on in the world or the country or even my community, where I imagine all of these beautiful souls happy and free and respected and honored. No matter what the situation at hand is, I think when we raise the bar, people need it. And whether they even know or not that we are thinking of them, raising the bar and honoring them, it makes a difference. I know when I was sick with cancer, all of your love and prayers and I saw in my Facebook memories this morning, it is the anniversary of the day before I started chemo five years ago. I just asked everyone to see me as healthy and as healed and is winning this battle with cancer. And whether I knew it or not, whether I knew who was thinking of me, I know that people in the community rallied and were believing that I could heal and that it made a difference. So don't underestimate the power in you and how powerful it is when we're wishing for happiness and freedom for people that might not even know we are doing it. And the more you pursue happiness and freedom for yourself, the more you can be a stand for the happiness and freedom of others. And that ripple and that impact is more powerful and magnificent, I believe than we will ever know. And it is totally worth it. And as we are coming back into life in the world and the realities that are upsetting that still aren't healed in our country, globally, in our communities and our families and ourselves, I want you to just take today's healing message that it is possible to be happy and free no matter what you are facing and run with it. Thanks for listening. Happiness is possible. Freedom is possible and it doesn't require anything outside of you changing or being different.