Being LOVE is not being a pushover.

I repeat, being love is NOT being a pushover.

Today I had to do one of my least favorite things in the world. I had to call someone who owes me money. It wasn’t an individual, it was a big company that I had a contract with. I had fulfilled my end of the agreement on the project and had never received my payment. It was not easy for me, I felt my fear boil up because I didn’t want to “bother” them. I even was apologetic in my first couple of emails to them a month ago. I prayed for guidance and help around it and I got three wonderful angelic messages. The first was while I was out to go grab some green juice this morning and listening to one of my favorite podcast’s She Did It Her Way and the guest of the particular episode was a woman named Ann Ricketts who now teaches presentation courses at silicon valley biggies like facebook and twitter. I was paying for my juice and going on my way when I heard Ann talk about how women over apologize and under qualify what they do. She talked about how we have this habit (that a lot of men don’t) where we will say, “Sorry to bother you” or “I won’t take up too much of your time” instead of just standing in our power and owning it.

Ding Ding Ding.

Own it. I knew I had to send another email and try to get this figured out. The check was 3 months late. Then I got another hit. Call Dad and ask him how he would phrase it. Ah, of course. My dad, my superhero, famous for telling me to,”put my big girl panties on and deal with it” when I need a little loving nudge would be a great person to call for this. I get him on the phone and the first thing he says is, “stop emailing, start calling.” Makes a lot of sense, emails are kind of passive and don’t really convey how serious I am. He also told me that if in a few days they still don’t come up with the check that I might want to take a little visit to their office, show them how serious I am in person. Most importantly he reminded me that I didn’t have to apologize for any of it! That we had a contract, I upheld my end of the bargain, they did NOT uphold theirs and although I could and should handle it professionally in a classy manner that I needed to stand my ground. If I was going to be a pushover, they would be happy to push me over and keep the money.

When we love ourselves and our grounded in who we are and the good work we do in the world, we don’t need to apologize for asking for the money we are owed.

Lastly, before I picked up the phone, I was reminded of a lovely client I had a session with just yesterday who was struggling to stand in her power and say no to things that weren’t expansive for her in her daily life. I realized that the same muscles I was explaining to her to build, I needed to keep working on at a bigger level. We are constantly strengthening our love muscles and what starts out as saying no to events and people who are not in your highest good at that moment evolves to standing in your power and asking for what you are owed unapologetically.

I prayed before I got on that phone. I sent them love and I asked that the situation be resolved in a peaceful, loving manner. I wish I could say that they apologized, wrote me a check and had someone drop it off, that did not happen. The book is not yet closed on the matter and I will continue to stand in my power from a place of love in this situation till it’s resolved but I learned a really important lesson on an even deeper level. Love does not shrink, love does not wimper, love allows us to have a strong foundation in the storm and an immoveable peace in all situations.

I’m a pisces, I’m naturally not someone who likes confrontation. I would love nothing more than for all situations to go smoothly and not have to deal with ruffles. I had been praying about this particular situation for a few weeks now, asking for it to be resolved easily and timely. However, sometimes we don’t know what’s in our best interest and while I would have LOVED for the check to come in the mail when it was supposed to and this situation to have been remedied immediately, perhaps the path of greater growth was in me standing in my power and getting a much needed reminder that:

Being love is NOT being a pushover.

Being love is STRONG.

Being love is FIERCE.

Being love is POWERFUL.

Stand in that power. Stand in a place of love UNAPOLOGETICALLY.

Saying NO to people and events who drain you is self care, it’s loving yourself on a deep level.

Standing up for yourself from a centered place of love is nothing to apologize about.

You are pure LOVE and your are not a pushover.

“Understand through compassion or you misunderstand the times.”- Yogi Bhajan 
Today at 9amPST, 12pm EST set your iPhone alarms and join in for a global compassion meditation with @gabbybernstein + @deepakchopra (link to live stream in Gabby’s bio) so that we can send a wave of love and compassion through out the world. Our meditation individually is a powerful force of love and together it is only multiplied. Spend a few minutes today, even if you’re at the beach like me and can’t access the live stream to do this simple compassion meditation at 12pm EST.
*close your eyes and imagine someone you love fiercely in front of you. On each inhale, feel yourself receiving love from them. On each exhale, send love from your heart center to them.
*next choose someone who is more of a casual friend, someone you like. Repeat the sending and receiving love process.
*now move on to someone who you don’t really know but see every so often. Think the guy you get coffee from, maybe a co-worker you don’t know so well, etc. Repeat the sending and receiving love process.
*here’s the toughie, pick someone your not fond of at all. See them as an innocent being who just wants to be happy and free and send them love, receive the love from them.
*lastly, send love out in a wave over the entire earth, feel this love circle back to you. Take a deep inhale in and hold it while you feel yourself fill to the brim with love and compassion.
Exhale and slowly open your eyes. Sat nam.

We can literally BLOCK the flow of the things we desire to manifest in our life with our BUSYNESS. After Shanghai, I was literally drowning in busyness, I’m not proud of it but total transparency, my schedule was full with meetings I had put off till I returned, my inbox was packed from losing power of my laptop for over a week and my home was full of packages that came while I was away and my half unpacked suitcases. I felt drained – can you guess why?! I gave myself LOTS of self care, bubble baths, over eight hours of sleep and pumped myself with good for you food, but I still had some space to clear for things to get flowing again. Slowly, I got a lot of that cleared away, finished with old emails, put all my clothes away and took four days away at #wanderlustfestival to really just relax. I made S P A C E. I went to yoga class after yoga class, meditated, laid in the grass and spent some time just connecting with people around me. I came home and instead of jumping straight back to business, I cleaned my entire apt and threw out anything that didn’t feel good. I went to bed early, I took a bath and bought a bunch of delicious, organic, good for me groceries to stock my kitchen. Between this weekend and today, I’ve had over five amazing things manifest that I can’t wait to be able to tell you about and I know that it was because I finally made the space! Long story short, if you want that opportunity, if you’re ready for more on your plate whether it’s your wellbeing, work, relationships or finances, you have to clear that space. You don’t have to go to yoga festival to get it, you can do it by cleaning your house, by saying no to events that clog up your schedule and by creating time when you can just have fun and relax. When we make space in our lives we allow the things we desire to flow towards us. But don’t take it from me, try it yourself. Where can you give yourself more space? Xo, C ✨#LightMaker

Wow, 14 days of positive shifts flew by with you guys and I am so grateful to all of you who participated in the #MyPositiveChange challenge with myself and Aura Cacia and shared your thoughts and pictures with us as you tackled each day’s challenge. It’s so often that we overlook the small shifts we can make each day towards living a life that truly LIGHTS us up and I hope you all experienced things getting a little brighter each day as you incorporated each new task. For those of you who weren’t able to join us or who maybe started late into the challenge, here’s a recap of the 14 days of positive shifts! The challenge may be over but these positive changes are evergreen!

DAY 1: Skip Snooze. Make the most of your morning by taking those extra 5-15 minutes to spend some time meditating, journaling or even just giving yourself a moment with your tea to slowly take in the start of your day.

DAY 2: Practice Gratitude. Enough said. Take a few minutes and list the things in your life you are grateful for. Better yet, enter the day with the attitude of gratitude. 

DAY 3: Sleep Easy. How do you make sure to wind-on properly? For me it’s a nice lavender bubble bath from Aura Cacia, meditating and journaling. Create your own night time routine for a deeper slumber and easier time falling asleep.

DAY 4: Move Around. Pick something your body loves and get active, whether it’s yoga or kick boxing, just get your body moving in a way that feels fun!

DAY 5: Clean Green. Switch out those harmful, chemical filled products for simple, organic cleaners like white wine vinegar, lemon pieces, and essential oils.

DAY 6: Treat Yourself. And that doesn’t mean a sundae! Find some time to do something for you – let it be relaxing, rejuvenating and make you feel like a million bucks. This poolside lounging by @rebs_fit looks like the perfect treat!

DAY 7: Shop Smart. Bring your own bags, shop locally and organic. Support local farmers with your dollar and your body by eating seasonally.

DAY 8: Commute Calmly. Deep breathes on the way to work, relaxing music and perhaps some lavender essential oil near by? How can you find more calm in your commute?

DAY 9: Get Balanced. Eating nourishing food, making time for your meditation or giving yourself enough me-time, what can you do to add balance into your life? Love this idea for painting from @new.englander  – honing my artsy side always makes me feel more balanced too!

DAY 10: Snack Smart. Duh! Let your food LIGHT you up! Snack on nutritious foods that will help fuel your day – like this yummy sweet pea, basil and mint spread on toast by @hintofgreens.

DAY 11: Nourish Skin. Taking care of your skin is an all around job, it means not only giving yourself the nourishment and self-care to have healthy skin but also taking great care of what products you are going to put on it. Only the best! 

DAY 12: Seek Inspiration. Inspiration is everywhere, you only need to tune yourself into it! When you make the conscious choice for inspiration, you also make the choice to do things that ar more expansive for your soul. I’m with @mrssariag23 in finding loads of inspiration in A Course in Miracles and fun, inspirational card decks!

DAY 13: Cut Caffeine. A biggie but a goodie. Cutting caffeine, even by swapping out just one coffee a day for some herbal tea or hot water with lemon can help you get back in tune with your body’s natural energy supply.

DAY 14: Spread Love.

Today is the final day of the #mypositivechange challenge and we’re ending it with #spreadLOVE! There are so many ways we can spread love every day but I want to chat about entering each interaction in our day with the energy and intention of love. Whether it’s the guy on line in front of you for a bagel this morning or your partner, your parent, everyone including YOURSELF. Are you going about your day and your interactions with love for yourself as well as others? This doesn’t mean you have to DO anything specifically or have some sort of plan, you can simply set the intention to bring the love with every interaction and allow yourself to be guided to the right actions. It can be as simple and as powerful as entering each conversation from a place of love. So go ahead my loves and #spreadlove today and everyday. Xo, C ✨#LightMaker

A photo posted by Cassandra Bodzak (@cassandrabodzak) on Jun 14, 2015 at 10:46am PDT

I’m so grateful to all of you who participated as well as my fabulous co-host Aura Cacia. Find out more about the all the beautiful essential oils Aura Cacia offers here and follow them on instagram and Facebook. Please take it upon yourself to challenge yourself to make small shifts for positive change far beyond our challenge!