358 I Rise From My Fires December 2017 Sunday Week 5_mixdown

Smiling Sundays-#358 December 24 The Strong Within Daily Affirmation Podcast I Rise From My Fires   A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man without trials.” ―Seneca   Every hardship, every fall, every scrape, bruise, cut, wound whether physical, emotional, mental or spiritual is not your breaking point…it’s your proving point. And the only way you’ll fail is if you lose perspective. If you step too close to the problem and forget the greatest of lessons…that you are not your problems…or that your problems are not you…they surround you but will never become you. For when you can take a breath to pause and step back, to see the bigger picture, you’ll see the storm as only a moment in your life…not an endless turbulent horizon.   And I like the thoughts of storms, because what they do is clear a pathway. Take a look at wildfires that are happening all over as we look at them as catastrophic, which they can be if they get out of control, but environmental scientists will reason that they are seminal in a healthy ecosystem. In an article called “Why are wildfires good for the environment” by Will Donovan, he interviews Dr. Timothy B. Mihuc professor of environmental science at State University of New York Pattville, and Dr. Mihuc says, “Many forests cannot sustain themselves without natural wildfire, including pine barrens, lodgepole pine forests, Eucalyptus forests and many more. These forests require canopy fires to regenerate because the trees in the forest are adapted to only produce seeds following a major fire event. Hence, fires can be regenerative for the forest, and without them many of these forest types would decline on the landscape. It’s like ‘resetting the clock’ on the ecosystem allowing it to thrive all over again for another 200 years.”   What also was interesting is he said that when these new younger trees grow after a fire—they create patches in the forest which act as buffers and stop the spread of fires in their tracks. But as humans, we’ve used fire suppression in ending smaller natural fires which causes unnatural occurrences in nature that creates greater problems later on.   One of the reasons I named my life coaching business Strong Within was the idea of fire. There are two meanings within my logo…the first is the yin yang aspect of balance. The W is shaped as a flame with water below it to balance it out…but the idea for the flame came from the the mythical bird of the Phoenix who dies in the fire but is reborn and raised anew in the ashes. It was the idea of dying of the old self by going through the life trials of fire and being reborn better, and having a better perspective about the true strength that you’ve always possessed within.   We have learned to fear the fire, the destructive force of what the flame can do…but that’s because we have forgotten we are the flame. We are the changing force in this world, and when we suppress our true strengths, when we fall in line to not stand out, to not be our authentic self…we then die a slow death instead of live a long remarkable life.   So remember that every abrasive force pushing back on you, every fight coming towards you, and for every storm that you go through…it is not the act of becoming better at seeing the problem…but the process of seeing the friction as the beautification of yourself…and seeing the solution through all the fog. It is not your breaking point, but rather your proving point.   Today’s Personal Commitment: What’s your life logo? What mythological creature will be the mascot and reminder of how you want to live your life? Is it the Phoenix born anew in the ashes through the fires of trial and tribulation; is it the Ouroboros that snake or dragon eating it’s own tail as it depicts infinity or the repetition of life in Samsara and Nirvana and how every ending is always a new beginning; or maybe it’s like griffin—the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle as those combination of animals represent courage, leadership, great sight to see problems better…etc.   I always loved looking up mythological creatures and their origins and meanings. It was like looking for the better parts of humanity’s ideas. I saw it as ways of looking for more strengths within myself. So maybe this might be a fun exercise to make up your own coat of arms, on how you want to live your life and be guided by higher principles. I thought that starting my life coaching business would be about helping people, and it is, but it was really about making myself better so I could help others become better. It was about me becoming the Phoenix and being reborn because of the fires that tested me. I still have a long way to go, we all do, so I’m praying for more friction in our life as we are still being polished.   I Rise From My Fires Here's a link to the article of Why Wild Fires are Good"  https://blog.suny.edu/2013/08/ask-an-expert-why-are-wildfires-good/     Thanks for listening.  I'm sending great energy your way as we become Strong Within together, Personal Development Life Coach- Chris O'Hearn Contact info- email: [email protected]  phone:865-219-3247     Music by: - Zest by basematic (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. - I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Location: Knoxville, Tennessee USA but available worldwide