Episode 31

Do You Celebrate Your Life Or Do You Curse It?

We get it. It’s easy to give most of your attention to what ISN’T working. In the episode, we will teach you how to begin to shift your attention to what IS working in your life. This may blow your mind!

About the Host:

Jani Roberts is the Owner of Alignment Essentials, a health and wellness company spanning the fitness, self-improvement, and mindfulness spaces. She is the creator of the Warrior® Workout, Moving Meditations™, Inspirational Conversations™ and all of the Alignment Essentials programming content. In addition, Jani is an International best-selling author of the book, Navigating the Clickety-Clack, How to Live a Peace-Filled Life in a Seemingly Toxic World.

Jani has over 40 years of experience in the health and wellness field. She owned and operated a large gym franchise in Florida, as well as a boutique studio for several years where she specialized in health and wellness related services, products, preventative health education, personal training, small group fitness classes, private nutrition and health coaching.

She has literally trained hundreds of thousands of instructors around the world, and she was the featured choreographer and performer on numerous training DVDs. She has presented for dozens of large Health and Wellness brands such as Nike, and Adidas. She holds several certifications through ACE, AFAA and NASM.

Jani travels extensively as a speaker and presenter sharing her Alignment Essentials wellness tools and helping people find more joy in their lives and is currently training at the Shamanic Institute of Healing. 

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Transcript
Jani Roberts:

What? Life isn't supposed to suck. Get out of here. Life is supposed to be good for me? I don't think so. Truth? Did you know that you have the power to create your own reality? True? Did you know that you can live the life that you've always desired? Holy? That's right. And that's why we're here. Are you ready? Unless you're on Joy overload, you've come to the right place. It's time to get out of your own way and start creating more of what you want, and less of what you don't end up with the excuses. I'm your host Jani Roberts. Let's do this.

Jani Roberts:

Welcome, everyone, it is time to celebrate. Now, I want you to grab a pen and paper right now. Don't think do grab it now. Go write down 10 things that you could celebrate right now in this moment. 10 things celebrate, go, go go go go. Oh, my goodness. Are you struggling? Come on. You should be almost done at least halfway in 10. In nine, in eight, come on. 710. Thing 654321? What do you got? You got a lot. So let's talk about this concept. You know, I remember this story I heard. I think it was in church one time. And I'm not going to remember it exactly. But it was a story about how one of the great teachers in this you know, if you want to think of Jesus, Buddha, whatever works for you was talking to someone who had transitioned and was saying I want to I have a question to ask you. And this person, you know, kind of freaks out, oh, I'm going to be judged or what have you, which doesn't make any sense. But you know how we are? Okay. Why would why would a great teacher ever judge? And he calms himself down takes a deep breath. And this great teacher says, Did you enjoy the gift of life? Right. So we make this more complicated than it needs to be. So when we say what can I celebrate, I can celebrate my breath, I can celebrate the beautiful day I can celebrate the rain, I can celebrate my body, I can celebrate my relationships. I can I mean, it should be very easy for you to reach for things that you could celebrate. Even though I know there's a lot of contrast going on in real time in your life. We want to be able to really work this practice of paying more attention to what is working than what is not. So how do we do this? How do we we work on this a little bit every week? I know. And it's because it is the work? How do we do it? So we start with the quiet mind. And when we're struggling, we ask for help. Help me to pay attention helped me to see help me to look at what is working? Yeah. Help me. So you want to be brave. You want to be the most courageous human, ask for help. Hmm. If I practice gratitude, and we talked about this last week, if I practice gratitude, I'm going to be celebrating more. Because there's going to be more joy. There's going to be more appreciation. And these feelings of joy and appreciation boost me into a vibe of celebrating. For sure. Ask people around you. What did they do to celebrate? And note to self? You may hear I don't? What is there to celebrate? I don't have anything to celebrate. Again, note to self. Do you want to be that person? Or do you want to be the person who is paying attention to what there is to celebrate? We can absolutely celebrate our connection every moment of every day, our ability to choose. Yeah, and we can pay attention. We could flag those amazing things that happen and sit in them longer and bask in them. So when the magical things do occur, we don't just blow it off and oh, yeah, well, you know, I got lucky one time. One of my one of my great teachers Marianne Williamson, said Joy's What happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really

Jani Roberts:

are? So what do you do to celebrate? How do you do it? I'm curious. Do you use your body? Do you dance? Do you clap? Do you raise your arms overhead? You know, what do you do? When we start to move physically, we cannot not shift into a better feeling place. I know even when I have been coming back from major injuries or illness, the minute I'm able to move more, I feel better, happier, more joyful, I start smiling, even when it's painful, because I'm getting there. And I'm in a state of appreciation for the back the fact that my body is so amazing, and it will always fight to pull itself back to wholeness to wellness. Yeah. The body wants to move feels good. When it moves, it is celebrating you when you move it. And it's contagious. It's absolutely contagious. If you if you are stopping by a friend's house and you go in and there just happens to be a few people, they're having a good time. And there's a couple people dancing. Do you not smile immediately? And does your body not want to do that with them? And does the music not move you? This is energy? This is energy that we can tap into at any time. Yeah. So we want to celebrate ourselves. We want to celebrate what's working in our lives. And we also want to celebrate others. We want to say wow, we did go well done. Congratulations. So we don't feel resentment or why do they always get everything? Why is everything always working out for them and not me? Know, when we are celebrating ourselves, and the beautiful life that we have created an are creating, regardless of appearance, let the judgment go, we naturally are going to be in a place of being able to celebrate others and what's working in their lives. So check in if you feel yourself feeling a bit resentful, or jealous, or any of those fear based feelings. Let it go. And just celebrate with that other situation. If it doesn't personally affect you, it will affect you. If you celebrate it, it will put you in a better feeling place. Because hey, if they didn't, you can if they could, you can. Why not? And journaling is a beautiful way of celebrating what's going on in each of our own minds. Wow, I'm really expanding. I'm really learning I'm really growing. Even though it is sometimes uncomfortable. I'm celebrating my growth. I'm celebrating the fact that I'm trying. I'm celebrating that even though sometimes I get discouraged with all of this. I know that I will never stop because now that I know what I know there's no going back. I have the power to create my own reality. And I can choose joy and I can choose to celebrate what is working and what is working in other people's lives. So if you're struggling with this, and you're feeling as though wow, I don't know. You know, I don't know if I can really find something in this moment I am. I am in a dark place. Let me make this really easy for you. Step outside. Even if it's a snowstorm, step outside. You want an attitude adjustment. Step outside, put your feet in the dirt, put your feet in the sand. Look at the sunrise, look at this sunset. Reach to Mother Earth for peace and joy. Listen to the birds listen to the orchestra of Mother Nature. Mother Earth sings all day long to us, supporting us nurturing us. We just have to remember to be present and celebrate with

Jani Roberts:

her and do anything gangs get out, move around. If you don't like crowds, don't do crowds do the woods. If you like going to concerts, go to one. Whatever you got to do, you want to go to the coffee shop, smell the brew, take in the music, sit outside, take some deep breaths, walk your dog. Back, cool. We've all heard dance like no one is watching all the time, all the time. And always, always, always ask for hope. When you're stuck with that, coming together as a community, this is one of the reasons why we have the live monthly calls during the course so that we can see each other on the screen and actually connect that way, visually, but it's also why we come together annually for retreats, because there's nothing as powerful as when we are all together physically. And for those who can't make it, we hold space for them. And we acknowledge that their energy is there, they they are supporting us during this very special time. And we are supporting them. In the in the course journals, there are quotes on a lot of the different pages. And they're powerful quotes by some of my favorite songwriters, authors, poets, and they're, again, they're extraordinarily powerful. And I work to keep them general enough so that we could all tap in and really relate to them, I would encourage you to, you know, highlight books that you're reading, if you actually hold on to your book, and you don't do audible only. If you do do audible and you hear something that really grabs your attention, write it down, have a journal just for those messages, because they're gifts, and they are there to celebrate, when something really jumps out at you. A song lyric, it moves you, you can feel it, wow, I can feel that shift. This is powerful. What a gift I've been given through this teaching. And there's a very specific message in it for you, you and I could be listening to the same lyrics and get something completely out of it based on where we are on our own personal journeys. And yet we could celebrate together if we went to hear that particular artists live, we would be celebrating together and in so much joy. But we'd be really celebrating individually as well. Yes, absolutely. Now, Giving thanks is key. And something I'd like to suggest you may already do this. But when you're doing your meditation, your morning meditation or your evening meditation, really it goes it goes whenever it works, whatever it works for you, right. So whatever way you get that in, but we know how important the morning is right? How we set our intention and our energy in the morning. I think it's really important that when you when you wrap that meditation, you do so in a state of appreciation and gratitude, even if you're crying, because it's a you know, it's one of those days that you're on the struggle bus. But you give thanks. And you celebrate the fact that you now know how important it is to do this work for yourself, and that you are in a place of celebration in doing it even though it can be some of the hardest work you'll ever do. You just want to say thank you. I am so grateful I have such a tremendous amount of appreciation for the fact that I am awake to this work and I'm understanding that I am very much in control of my experience. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, and thank you in advance. You could be saying this to yourself to source whatever works for you for helping me to see hear, taste smell be present in this experience. One of the songs

Jani Roberts:

that we use the main song really that we use when we're celebrating is really a fun fun song. And I just wanted to enclosing share a few lyrics with you because we all just laugh and smile. When we do this and we at the end of retreat, we always do it and it's just such a good feeling. because it's time to go back to our, to our lives in the way that we live them, you know each and every day, but we've had this time to come together and we're so grateful for it, and yet grateful to go home and discover what is next on our path from that perspective. So here are some of these lyrics for you to contemplate. Maybe you want to close your eyes. Take a nice deep breath. Hey, we're just getting started. Take your fears, and let them go. For the lovers and the brokenhearted, take a deep breath and make the world a little colorful. And want to feel like a light in a dark place. Another color in the world of black and white. Want to try to paint the world in a new way. left home with a dream in a suitcase. Work hard. Play hard. We don't have to grow up, hide and seek. Promise me that will never grow up. Yeah, we're just getting started. Take your fears. And let them go for the lovers in the brokenhearted. Take a deep breath. Make the world a little colorful. Got a little little color back into your eyes. Work hard, play hard. We don't have to grow up, hide and seek. Promise me that will never grow up. Yeah, we're just getting started. Take your fears and let them go. For the lovers and the brokenhearted. Take a deep breath. Make the world a little colorful. Until next time, I will be celebrating you all day long. Nothing but love family. Nothing but love. We will see you soon. Take care. Peace.