Celebrate TOGETHER!

You may be blocking your OWN blessing

Happy Monday...I pray you all had an amazing weekend. I know I did! I'm so thankful for family & friends that love me unconditionally. It was mos def a blessed weekend.

Are you still paying it forward? If, not...do something nice for someone today. If you are, keep the positive energy flowing! The Universe thanks you!

Over the past few months, I've come across several situations where people have truly been blessed. Be it new jobs, promotions, finances, relationships, healing, new cars, homes, educational advances etc. And, it really made my heart a little heavy when they shared that there were people directly in their space that opted out of celebrating what God did for them....with them. People who they thought would be happy for them and the direction their life was taking. People that knew the struggle and "story" behind where they once were and where God has brought them to. People who for whatever reason....refused to be happy and celebrate WITH them. Then it hit me........Everyone won't celebrate with you, but that should never stop YOU from celebrating and thanking God for what He has done.

Jealousy & envy have been cancerous to many relationships, not just intimate ones. They both destroy from the inside out. If you are at a negative place in your life and you see a friend or family member being blessed...do you not know that celebrating someone else’s happiness can open the windows of heaven for you?! If you are in need of a financial blessing and someone you know just came into a big sum of money...celebrate WITH them! If you are in need of a physical or mental healing...celebrate WITH the person who has been healed. If you desire a healthy & loving relationship and someone in your space has been blessed in that area...celebrate WITH them! As long as you continue to be the person that brings the black cloud over someone else’s happiness, joy & celebration, trust and believe you reap a negative seed into your own life.

 Romans 12:15 - “Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep."

We all have seasons where it may be difficult to be around people who are being blessed in an area that we are actively praying for God to move. Trust me, been there, done that...got the keychain. But what I also know is...celebrating and truly being happy for someone that is being blessed made all the difference in Him favoring ME in certain areas of my life. It also gave me encouragement that if He will do it for them, I know He can and will do it for me! More importantly, what God has for me, it is for me! He may not give me what I want but He will provide me with what I need. It's also reassuring to know that in addition to our needs...God will always throw in a few wants! *smile*

So, celebrate with your brothers and sisters who are celebrating right now. Be happy for them! Set aside your own personal feelings, opinions and SELF to just be happy and genuine. You don't know what God is doing in their life. All you see is what your natural eye shows. You have no idea how God may be moving on them spiritually by bringing this particular season to their life. Sitting around waiting and wishing for someone to fall is surely a way to keep you from being blessed. AND, it may even encourage God to move even GREATER in that person’s life. I encourage you all to rejoice and celebrate with the people in your space. It may be just the thing you need to shift and bring about your OWN breakthrough.

Have a Super Dooper week!!

Chanel-

The Ultimate Sacrifice

Holy Week 2011

Hello everyone, this weeks Blog is dedicated to the ultimate sacrifice; Jesus dying for our sins.  I'm so full right now because no matter what the sin is....He died to save us from it. To save us from ourselves.

Like us, in His human form, Jesus asked God to take the cup from Him. He KNEW what he ultimately had to do and didn't want to. He KNEW all that would come in his final hours. He cried. He asked "why?" 

This was proof to me that when I find myself in dark places I cannot beat myself up when I react in ways that are simply....human. Feeling like the things I do aren't amounting to anything. Feeling upset when I feel people misjudge or mislabel me. Feeling like, "Lord WHY ME?" Feeling like I sometimes have too much weight on my shoulders. Feeling like I've been wronged or treated ill by people that I loved and them not giving it a second thought. Feeling like I'm tired of always being the one that has to be the bigger person and show love, understanding and forgiveness. Then I remember....Jesus said, "Not MY Will but Yours Be Done." And I continue to press. I may not like all the cups dealt to me, but I thank God he saw me able to drink from the ones He has given me. I'm thankful that He deemed me strong enough to have gone though the things that I have...and I've come out like shining diamond! Gone thru the fire but Thank God I'm Stronger. Better Wiser! Enjoying this wonderful place that my life is currently in & just giving Thanks!!

I Thank Him for deciding to stay up on the cross just to save me.

Here is one of my favorite songs for this time of year.

                            Rev. James Cleveland "He Decided to Die"

When Jesus hung on Calvary,

people came from miles to see;

they said, if you be the Christ,

come down and save your life.

Oh but Jesus, my sweet Jesus,

He never answered them,

for He knew that Satan was tempting Him.

If He had come down from the cross,

then my soul would still be lost.

Chorus

He would not come down

from the cross just to save Himself;

He decided to die just to save me.

Have a great week & enjoy your Holy Week services.

Chanel-

Making Better Decisions

Making Better Decisions

Pay It Forward: Starting next month I will be volunteering my time at Roberta's House as a Grief and Loss dialogue facilitator. Roberta's House is a safe place where children, teens and adults discover that they are not alone in their grief and engage in mutual help. Children with their families share their feelings, memories and experiences in an atmosphere of acceptance with the love and support of trained volunteers.  

Roberta's house volunteers with professional staff assist children, teens and adults on how to experience and express their feelings safely and in a healthy manner. Working through the necessary grief task and understanding the essential needs of a child's grief allow families to support each other and communicate more effectively.  At Roberta's House children/families and adults can receive the support they need and look to the future with confidence and hopeful anticipation to develop quality relationships.

 

“Life is the sum of all your choices.” - Albert Camus

This week’s blog is centered on making better decisions. I selected the above quote because life is INDEED the sum of all our choices. There are some people that always seem to make the worst possible decisions in many areas of their lives. That one person, that often makes you ask the question "What were you thinking when you made THAT decision??!" It seems they always find themselves in a bind, crazy situation or really dangerous position simply because of the decisions they have made. I'm sure we all know at least one person in our space that fits that bill.

It is true that even when we make the wrong decisions, we can learn something from them. When we are open to learn from those situations, a wrong decision has the ability to build character, make us humble, wiser, strong & better. The key here is learning from them. You should NOT find yourself making the same bad decision(s) over and over again. This is actually a pattern of destructive behavior and the consequences are oftentimes more severe and detrimental to your overall well-being.

When you visualize the progression of your life, your goals, aspirations etc....the decisions you make today should reflect those things. Meaning, the decisions you make today should reflect where you ultimately want to end up. If you are making foolish, unwise & emotional based decisions your destination and journey will reflect those decisions. Please know, I'm not saying that everything will end up just as you planned it but I will say that when you make faith-based decisions from a place of wisdom (having most if not all the information needed) you are allowing the universe to guide you in the right direction.

When I make decisions at this point of my life I ask myself, "How does this particular decision align with where I want my life to progress?" I try to make the best possible decisions. If the decision/action is in direct contradiction to what I want in my future...I avoid it. I don't always succeed but I am at least mindful of the impact making a bad decision can have on those things I want in my future. **I would be doing this blog a disservice if I left out the fact that many times, making NO decision out of fear of making the wrong one can be just as destructive as making a bad one.**

If you want a better credit score: make decisions that will help you on that journey. STOP using your charge cards, pay some off, opt out of buying something you really don't need, budget your money and pay bills on-time etc. If you want a healthy loving relationship: make the decision to invest time with your partner, establish lines of trust, peace, discover ways to become or re-establish your friendship, keep the BIG monsters OUT of your relationship (we all know what they are). If you want a career change: make the decision to go back to school, take a few courses to brush up on your skills if you are rusty in some areas, attend job fairs, update your resume' etc.

Making better decisions is critical to your journey and the path you take to get there. I challenge us all to make the decision to make better decisions....the course of your life will thank you for it!

Have a super week!

Chanel-

“Life is the sum of all your choices.” - Albert Camus

Take the Risk!

The Reward of Risk

(Please take a few seconds to read the text in the above Picture....)

"I would rather fail in trying, than succeed at being mediocre."  - Chanel T. Bastfield
 

Good Afternoon Everyone! I pray your weekend was splendid and you had a chance to enjoy the wonderful weather.

Pay It Forward: I sponsored a child from my church to play laser tag. The fee was only $13 bucks but with the economy being so fickle, that may be the determining factor in whether a kid can go on the trip or not. So...I gave the money for an unknown kid to enjoy a day of laser tag fun.

This week’s blog is about taking risk! I've been researching Dr. Ben Carson all morning and he has some great insight into the notion of taking acceptable risk. The key term being acceptable. If you never step out of your comfort zone and launch out into the deep, how will you ever learn or experience the FULL potential of what this life has for YOU. In my opinion, we tend to stay in our comfort zones because it's the safe space that we feel we have control over. If we stick to what we know, we minimize our chances of getting disappointed and or rejected. As creatures of habit, being in control of our destiny and everything therein {or at least feeling like we are} makes us feel secure. Right?

Taking the risk is oftentimes associated with negative results. "It's not worth the risk" or "Avoid the risk at all cost" are just a few mindsets that keep people in a state of mediocrity. Yes, you may temporarily avoid disappointment, yes, you may temporarily feel accomplished in your complacency but you may also experience great reward and personal fulfillment in taking the risk!

For example: I think back to when I was playing the penny machines at the casino...yes, playing the penny machines were safe, didn't seem to cost me much and when I won...it made me feel like I was doing something special by seeing 500 winner on the screen!! But....as I graduated to playing the quarter machines I realized...my cost may be a little more and the risk of loss is higher...but when I did win 500..it was 500 QUARTERS instead of 500 PENNIES! You get the picture I'm painting?

I stepped out of my comfort zone and looked at the big picture. This helped me to see that staying safe and taking minimal risk isn't always the answer for success. There will be times when you have to throw caution to the wind and take the risk! There will be times when you have to make a decision where the risk of loss may be higher but...instead of looking at what you could lose, look at what you could possibly gain! Also, even if you make the decision to take the risk...and it's not the best decision, at least you've received a valuable life lesson and you can say, "I at least tried and I now know the results of that particular action." Dr. Carson outlines how to determine when to take the risk and his system is one that I feel could lead to empowerment in many dynamics of life! If you are interested in this topic pick up his book, Take the Risk: Learning to Identify, Choose, and Live With Acceptable Risk.

Perhaps you are dealing with an issue in your professional or personal life and you are struggling over making a move based on the risk of the decision. To get you started answer the following questions:

- What’s the best that can happen if I do this?

 - What’s the worst that can happen if I do this?

      - What’s the best that can happen if I don't do this?

       - What’s the worst that can happen if I don't do this?

The risk just may lead to an even GREATER reward!

Have an AMAZING week!

Chanel-

Your Reflection

Reflecting shifts your Perspective.

Good Morning Everyone. I missed a week of blogging because an acute onset of Bronchitis and an Upper respiratory infection desired to give me a week off from work and all normal activities. But...I'm alive and now back to work! Thank you for all the emails and calls. I appreciate you all.

Pay It Forward: I paid for baby supplies for a young lady that looked like she could really use some help. I don't know why I always feel like crying after a pay it forward (sometimes I do) but the feeling is amazing and I just pray that the people who are touched by this movement really remember my deeds, see the Christ in my actions and do something for someone else.

--This weeks blog will be short....it's about reflection & the impact it can have on your perspective---

I came across another online blog that I started last year. It only had like 5 entries (not sure why I stopped) and it was a personal blog. So, it wasn't one that I shared with anyone like this one...it was more of a mental flow of thoughts, feelings and a season I was experiencing in my life. My FIRST impulse was to quickly EXIT out and not read it. Then, I took a deep breath and decided read. The blog captured an exact time of my life that may have been lost as a distant memory had I not recorded it in written form. Wow. I mean, it's one thing to remember something but when you have the actual event recorded and captured in whatever form...it takes on a whole new energy. So, after reading the entries...I took a few moments to, Reflect.

How many times in your life have you stumbled across an old photograph, ticket stub, heard a song, experienced a moment or smelled and scent that instantly took you back to a certain point in your life? I mean, the trigger almost made you feel the exact emotion behind the event it was SO intense? You may have even had to ask yourself, "Why am I feeling this or Where did this feeling come from?!!" All because something triggered you back to a moment of your life...I'm not speaking of only negative events here. I'm speaking of those moments in your journey through life that are a major part of who you are now...this very day.

I feel like reflective moments are given to us to evaluate, appreciate and enjoy...Life. Reflection can catapult you into a state of appreciation of the life you NOW live. It provides you with a vivid space to evaluate where your life is...and where it could have been. It also gives you an opportunity to remember and experience a moment that can give you peace, understanding and joy of certain situations. Reflecting is not dwelling, it's simply allowing yourself to BE in whatever moment is presented to you. If you take the time to reflect on your journey it may also give you clarity about other situations. You begin to see things for what they really are. You begin to realize that some things aren't as important as you once thought they were. You begin to evaluate situations in a totally different light. You begin to have peace about things that may have otherwise driven you off the deep end. You begin to value life and the things IN your life more. You begin to appreciate even the not-so-good moments. You begin to have an inner soothing about the uncertainties of life. You may begin to find the strength to keep on movin' on.

Allow yourself time to reflect. Don't get so caught up in the daily grind that you miss an opportunity to see just how far you've come, the person you’ve evolved into or the progress your life is making. You may be feeling like your life is at a stand still...or that you're stuck in limbo or that you're just gliding thru life and not really making any progress. Perhaps you're missing a loved one and just need a moment to find solidarity and comfort in their memory. Even if things are going GREAT in your life...I challenge you to reflect with an open heart, mind and spirit & be open to the universe guiding you. You'll be amazed at how your perspective about life will shift.

Have a fantastic week!

Chanel-

Stinkin' Thinkin'!

Is 'Stinkin Thinkin' Sabotaging Your Life?

                              

Happy President's Day! I'm sure most of you are still enjoying the comforts of your BED but some of us are actually at work. So...enjoy your day off! I pray this Monday is amazing for you...and you touch the life of someone else in a positive way.

Pay It Forward: I returned a brand new iphone4 that someone left at a game in Atlantic City. When the gentleman met me to get the phone back he attempted to pay me for returning it. I told him, "No, just pay it forward." I could never take money for doing something that I pray someone would do for ME if I lost something really valuable.

Today I want to blog a little about a phrase I've come to love. I first heard it by way of one of my favorite inspirational speakers, Joyce Meyer. I love her..she's so animated and raw! If you don't know who Joyce Meyer is...Google her. I promise you she will be a blessing! She is hilarious but speaks such truth. Anyway...the phrase, "Stinkin Thinkin" has NEVER made more sense to me than it does at this stage of my life. I talk a lot about the power of thoughts and the impact your mind can have in ALL areas of your life. This is something that I've struggled with. I have literally had to reprogram how I think and I STILL catch myself drifting off into the land of negative thoughts but at least now, I'm mindful of it so it's easier to snap myself right back out of it! In addition, because of this…it’s also very easy for me to recognize when other people are doing it. If you're honest with yourself...for just a moment, I'm sure you can recall moments in your life where your stinkin' thinkin' was the driving force behind an action or inaction that had a negative outcome.

Stinkin thinkin' has caused people to limit themselves in terms of higher education & careers...it has caused relationships and friendships to dissolve, it has caused individuals to fall into depression...feelings of anger, resentment, bitterness...I could go on and on. The unfortunate thing is....your thoughts (thinkin') are a by-product of your life experiences so; in many cases what you are thinkin isn't actually what IS. For instance, if you are always operating from a wounded, self-defeated, hurtful, angry, bitter, guarded & untrusting place...you will always look at circumstances in your life FROM these very places. So you are applying the same type of self-destructive thinking to NEW circumstances. Thus getting the SAME results such as: pushing people away, creating a "safe zone" in your life out of fear someone will hurt you, not applying for jobs, school etc and becoming stuck in self pity....Yes, self sabotage.

 Your thinkin' will cause you to keep reinforcing self-sabotage that in most cases is a subconscious thing. So, because you failed at school BEFORE...your stinkin thinkin' tells YOU that you won't ever be able to succeed. Because you didn't get the LAST job...your stinkin' thinkin tells YOU that I won't get this one either, so why try? Because the LAST person hurt you...your stinkin thinkin says THIS person will too! You will even subconsciously DO and LOOK for things to validate this irrational thinkin! If you meet someone that actually treats you nice and has the qualities of a wonderful partner, you will start to think, "This must be too good to be true...what is he/she hiding?" Or...You look for things that will validate something negative, when there really is nothing there! I use these examples to illustrate how this type of thinkin' can really be catastrophic to your life! Always thinkin' someone is out to hurt you, or you can’t trust people, or that you’re a failure...or always thinkin you can't or won't succeed will in fact make these things a reality! But here is the kicker, in many of these situations...it's NOT the other people....it's YOU. Your thinkin WILL have an impact on your life and how you respond to situations. You may not always realize it or want to own up to it but it does.

So, I challenge you today...EVERY time you start to think something negative replace it with a positive thought. Joyce talks about the Battlefield of your mind... (I highly recommend this book for a great read)...it will show you how your stinkin thinkin' controls your life in so many negative ways. It’s not always easy and it’s very frustrating but the reward will be YOU taking a stance to change the direction of your thoughts and decisions.

Have a super doper week!

Chanel-

Valentine's 365

                                                                Love is.......

I was immediately attracted to this particular picture & I think its kinda dope. No matter what the language...it's still all love.

Pay It Forward: I paid for a gentleman's items at the dollar store. I simply asked him if it was "ok" and he hesitated at first..but then he smiled and said, "That was a really nice thing to do." I must admit..it does make me feel uncomfortable at times because you never know how someone is going to react to you asking if it's ok. But..I've realized that saying, "I just want to do something nice for someone"..instead of "Let me help you" makes a difference. They don't feel like your trying to give them a handout..I guess.

The big love day is next Monday! Red balloons, candy, flowers, cards, massages and everything in between. I think it's wonderful that a special day is set aside for showing that special someone just how you feel and showering them with love. I support it 100%. I support it even more when the person knows AND feels this love all year around. Many people get caught up in the day instead of getting caught up in the fact that 02/15 is just hours away...and then what? Back to the same ole' same ole. I admire couples that really have healthy happy relationships ALL year long. They serve as a template for me and how I want my relationship to be. They have hills and valleys but understand that Valentine's Day type affection is needed even more so in the "valley" times. It makes you appreciate and cherish the high points all the more!

***80/20 rule runs across my mind*** Nobody is perfect. We ALL have flaws. Yes, even YOU! Don't let your 80 go for the 20. Instead..try to turn your 80 into 87.562 *smile* Yes, they get on your nerves, have their own set of antics and moods but knowing that YOU have someone that cares about your well-being, makes sure you have a meal most days, if you're sick you know you can count on them, if you're in need of support they are right there holding you up and cheering you on, if you need a laugh they are there to do the silly stuff that only the two of you know about (inside jokes), they are there to rub your feet when you've had a hard day, they are willing to go to bat for you...even when you're wrong as the day is long...lol, they actually understand you as a person, they support your individual dreams & aspirations & most of all....they provide you with the security of knowing... "We are IN this thing together come hell or high water!" You know that when the going gets tough and stormy...they won't just jump on the next thing sailing. They stay..stick it out..talk it out..work it out...and weather it with you. You weather it together as a team.

Now...after reading that: I challenge you to start your 02/14 Today...show them how much you care and appreciate them.

I will not be blogging next week because I want to focus on my special someone.

You support me, you understand me...and you genuinely have my best interest at heart. You came into my life so unexpectedly. We don't know what tomorrow holds...but we know WHO holds tomorrow. Let's just keep moving forward and letting Him guide us. What we have is effortless..And for that...I'm so thankful.

Have a super dooper sexy week and Valentine's Day Folks!

Chanel-