Category Archives: motivation

The Truth About My FEAR!

18 Sunday Mar 2018

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fear in redFear is paralyzing.

Fear is painful.

Fear can cause illness.

Fear. Is. Necessary.

It was a Monday and I had pain on the right side of my stomach, a little towards the back. I didn’t think much of it and the next day the pain was gone. On Wednesday, the pain returned and the intensity gradually increased all day. As I lay in bed that night, I couldn’t lay on my right side and if I laid on my left side, I couldn’t even rest my arm on my right side. The pain was too intense so I slept through the night on my back. Because I am not a fan of doctors, I said to myself, ‘if this pain doesn’t go away by Friday, I will go to urgent care.”

Thursday morning came and the pain was still there but now I FELT bad. Before it was just the pain, like any other pain, but overall, I still felt well. This feeling was different. There was an overall bad feeling throughout my body.

There was truly something going on with me and I needed to figure it out. I looked the symptoms up online and found appendicitis, gallstones and irritable bowel syndrome as possible diagnoses. I zeroed in on appendicitis because my ex-husband had emergency surgery in 2017 and was told had he not gone to the hospital when he did, there was a great chance that he would not have been alive 24 hours later.

This couldn’t be appendicitis. Could it?

I napped on and off on Thursday, walked around grimacing and wondering what was going on with my body. I never get sick. I was unable to be productive. The pain was too great. The miserable feeling was consuming me. My mind was playing tricks on me.

Or should I say FEAR was playing tricks on me.

As I lay in the bed Thursday night, a moment of clarity came over me. The origin of the pain wasn’t internal. There was something going on in my external world that was manifesting as pain internally. But what could it be?

I texted a longtime friend and described to him what was happening with my body. His text was simple and straight to the point…

“There is a weakness in your right kidney due to fear and lack of willpower to step out on faith and run your own business doing whatever it is you love.”

BULLSEYE.

The moment I finished reading the text, the overall bad feeling I had been experiencing all day, instantly vanished. The pain in my side started to dissipate and was totally gone by morning and has not returned.

FEAR was the root cause. Fear started a war with me and was defeating me – one painful moment at a time.

Here is what that longtime friend didn’t know:

  • He didn’t now that I had re-launched the Amazing Woman Network.
  • He didn’t know that I had been having calls with women who want to help push this entire movement forward.
  • He didn’t know that women were excited about it and being drawn to it.
  • He didn’t know that I was thinking about the sheer magnitude of my assignment from God – the way God gave it to me.
  • He didn’t know that the assignment scared the hell out of me.

fear on stoneFear is paralyzing.

Fear is painful.

Fear can cause illness.

Fear. Is. Necessary.

The fear caused such great pain paralyzing me all week, prohibiting any movement in my assignment.

Had I not addressed the root cause of the pain – fear – those possible diagnoses may have become a reality only to be fed prescription medicine to “heal” me, never realizing the cause was fear, never defeating fear and never pushing through on my assignment.

The fear was necessary. Once I understood that fear was attempting to defeat me, I was able to be the victor. I was able to laugh (or at least giggle) in the face of fear and thank it for showing me just how great and necessary this movement – this assignment from God – really is. If it weren’t great and necessary, there would be no attacks of fear trying to stop me. If it weren’t great and necessary, the road would be easy.

2 meaning so fearPlease understand, although there is no longer the pain and bad feeling, FEAR is still attacking me. I am able to recognize it quicker and therefore overcome it faster but it still shows up. There are moments when I want to Forget Everything And Run but instead, I continue to Face Everything And Rise and replace FEAR with FAITH and come out the victor.

It is the FAITH that allows me to complete one task at a time, to keep pushing forward, to just do the work knowing that if God gave me the assignment, I can do it. Failure will only come if I let FEAR win.

Whatever your assignment, FEAR will come for you but just because it comes, and continues to come, doesn’t mean it will be the victor. Recognize it for what it is, go within for answers and strength and step further out on FAITH and Face Everything And Rise. After all, everything you ever wanted is on the other side of FEAR!

If I can do it, surely you can!

My Year of No Fear!

Crystal

fear is a liar

Commitment Day

01 Monday Jan 2018

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jan 1Every year, at this time, people set out to make their New Year’s resolutions. Lose weight, eat right, exercise more, improve credit, save more money or pay off debt. Are any of these on your resolution list for this year?

People start the year with a bang and fizzle out as quickly as they start. Why else would January 17th be Ditch Your New Year’s Resolution Day? But TODAY is January 1st – Commitment Day.

Resolution is defined as a firm decision to do or not do something while commitment is defined as the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc.

Last year, one of your resolutions was to lose weight. There are numerous ways to lose weight but of all the options, you decided to get a gym membership and go on a diet. You made a firm decision to do those 2 things to reach your desired goal.

How long did it take for you to go back to your regular eating habits? How long before you stopped going to the gym? Did you ever really start? Did you last until January 17th? February 17th? August 17th? Did you lose the weight you resolved to lose at the beginning of the year?

Probably not and here’s why.

You weren’t committed. You know you needed to lose the weight. That’s why you made the resolution but you weren’t committed to the actual weight loss. You weren’t dedicated to doing the necessary activities to reach your desired goal.

This year make the resolution AND make the commitment and recommit as often as you must to make it through the year.

Jumpstart coverHere is a little GIFT to help with your goals for the New Year – The JumpStart Challenge. It’s all about the first 90 days of the year. Crush those and you set the momentum for the rest of the year.

“How you execute the first 90 days will determine your year. If you have a successful first 90 days, you will naturally build momentum and will undoubtedly see the results you desire.”

JumpStart gives you the boost you need to have the BEST YEAR OF YOUR LIFE and it’s free to you. Get It Here!

Happy New Year!

Crystal

 

 

 

There is No Destination – Only the Journey

19 Sunday Nov 2017

Posted by in empower, inspiration, motivation, Personal Coaching

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embrace the journey8 years ago I was given the overwhelmingly exciting assignment – empower women globally- and of course, I had no idea how to accomplish that. Not to mention, the whole “why me?” thing but you don’t get to say “God, use me as you will” and renege on those words because His assignment seems a little challenging.

So as I went about the tasks of creating, building, writing and developing, there was this journey that unfolded before me and I had no idea what God had in store for me.

We live in a microwave society where we want things to happen immediately. We want to be an overnight success. We want memberships to soar and sales to fly through the roof. We want the biggest following, to impact the most people, make the most sales and claim our success. I was no different. I wanted to do this assignment well. To be the best of all the people God had given assignments. I wanted to make Him extremely proud and know that He picked the right one.

He however, had a different plan. Phase 1 of the journey was 8 very long years. 8 years of failure, restarts, self-doubt, loneliness and quitting over and over again. 8 years of lessons, wins, rebuilding my faith, learning to trust Him, self-love and rebirth. 8 years of learning to trust His timing. 8 years to believe His promises. 8 years – the first phase of an amazing ride.

What did I learn in those 8 years?

  1. That you will keep repeating a lesson until you learn it. If you seem to relive the same trouble and hardships, over and over, it’s probably because you’re not learning the lesson God is trying to teach you. Just like in school, if you fail a class, you have to repeat it.
  2. Your journey may not be just for you. One of my spiritual advisors asked me “How can you empower other women if you have never been through anything?”
  3. The bigger your assignment, the more work God has to do. While you are doing the work you can touch and feel, God is building you up, moving and preparing others, putting them in place, securing the path for the next phase and beyond and some of that takes time.
  4. His timing is always right. No matter how many times you think it’s the right time, you have to learn to trust His timing. He gave you the assignment. He knows when, where and how. This will be one of the biggest tests of your faith.
  5. Be grateful for the losses. Sometimes those things that you think are losses are actually wins. They make you stronger. They make you better. They increase your faith. They bring you closer to God.
  6. There is no destination. There are only journeys in life. When you focus on “making it” to the “top” or reaching the destination, you miss out on what is truly important – the journey and all the lessons, blessings and love that you will experience along the way.

As I enter into this next phase and all the pieces continue to fall together easily, I am so grateful for the journey thus far. Every hour of each day gives me another experience or interaction that solidifies my understanding of my assignment and purpose.

As you continue along your path, remember, there is no destination. Right now, this moment is all we have. Be in this moment and your journey will be come clearer. Your faith will become stronger and life will start to look and feel different.

#SodaChallenge

07 Tuesday Mar 2017

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TAKE THE SODA CHALLENGE AND SAY NO TO SODA

Added sugar can have disastrous effects on your health when consumed in excess and most people consume sugar in excess. If not you; look around at your coworkers and see how much soda they consume in one workday. The amount is staggering.

Here are 8 reasons to avoid soda like the plague.

  1. Sugary drinks don’t make you feel full and are strongly linked to weight gain – The brain was designed to regulate calorie intake. If you eat more of one food (like potatoes), you should automatically eat less of something else. That’s the body working as it was designed however; liquid sugar (soda) is consumed on top of the total calorie intake. Because you don’t feel full from drinking the sugary drink, you drink more and you add a higher amount of sugar calories, as much as 17% more, leading to weight gain.
  1. Excess amounts of sugar turn into fat in the liver – Sugar is composed of two molecules – glucose and fructose. Every cell in the body can metabolize glucose however only the liver can metabolize fructose.  Read the labels and you will find them riddled with sucrose and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), which are nearly 50% fructose. When too much is consumed, the liver becomes overloaded and turns the fructose into fat.
  1. Sugar dramatically increases belly fat – Sugar consumption makes you prone to storing more body fat around the belly and organs. This is known as visceral fat, or belly fat and it is harder to decrease.
  1. Sugary soda can cause insulin resistance – Insulin’s role is to drive glucose from the bloodstream into cells. Soda intake causes the cells to become resistant to the effects of the insulin. As a result, the pancreas makes even more insulin to remove the glucose so insulin levels in the blood go up, also known as being insulin resistant.  Being insulin resistant is a huge factor behind metabolic syndrome, which is a stepping-stone towards type-2 diabetes and heart disease.
  1. Soda lacks essential nutrients – Soda gives empty calories and contains absolutely no essential nutrients, no vitamins, no minerals, noantioxidants and no fiber. They are great however, at adding excessive amounts of sugar to your daily “food” intake.
  1. Sugar can cause leptin resistance – Several studies have linked sugar intake to Leptin resistance in rats and remember, leptin signals you that you are full in order to stop eating.

Reading is Fundamental (RIF)

06 Tuesday Sep 2016

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readabookPicture it, 1970 something, you’re watching your favorite TV program and the commercial break is one of the different RIF commercials (1980 commercial & 1970s commercial). As you look at the very dated commercials of some 25 plus years ago, you realize the message still applies – READING IS FUNDAMENTAL.

September 6th is National Read A Book Day so here are some facts about reading and a link to the Crystalized Library!

Did You Know:

  • 33% of high school graduates will never read a book after high school
  • 42% of college graduates will never read a book after they graduate
  • 15 minutes a day of reading will add up to 1 million words read annually
  • 86% of wealthy people love to read with 88% claiming that they read self-improvement books for 30 minutes a day

Why read:

  1. Reading Reduces Stress – a Mindlab International study at the University of Sussex showed that with just 6 minutes of reading, the participants showed decrease in heart rate and ease in muscle tension.
  2. Reading Makes You Interesting – the more you read, the more information you obtain and you are able to speak with others on a variety of subjects.
  3. Reading Helps Develop Verbal Skills – where it may not improve your communication skills, reading will equip you with a wider range of words to use in communicating with others.
  4. Reading Improves Focus & Concentration – being engaged in a book takes the ability to close out the rest of the world.
  5. Reading Improves on Your Imagination – when reading a description of a place, event or person in a book, your mind has to stretch and imagine what you are reading.
  6. Reading Makes You Smarter – you can gain a wealth of knowledge from books at a fraction of the cost to take a course covering the same topic.
  7. Reading Improves Your Memory – the process of reading keeps your memory sharp.
  8. Reading is Entertaining – a well written book can help with all of the above as well as keep you enthralled in every word, page after page.

Share some of your favorite books in the comments and don’t forget to check out my LIBRARY.

Happy Reading!

Crystal