Do you realize that each decision you are making is moving you more towards expansion or contraction? Think about that.

Think about the thousands of decisions you make in a day. Which direction are you going?

Are you happier than you ever dreamed of?

Are you espousing lots of gratitude for the blessed life you are living?

Are you more in wellness or illness? Notice how you are feeling and what you are telling others.

Where are you with expansion and contraction in your life?

What feels right about expanding?

I believe the ultimate goal is to live from love. Loving your life, loving yourself, loving others, loving what is.

Ask yourself, “How can I love more?” “How can I do more to serve and care about others?”

Be love.

Love in your thoughts, words, and deeds.

Focus on the ways love is showing up for you.

As The Course of Miracles says, Everything is love or a call to love.

Love is expanding. Fear is contracting.

I know for me, this has been a huge awareness and growth. I lived more from fear and doing. Fear – Was I doing it right? Who was I disappointing? What will they say? On and on.

Nowadays, I’m aware of what I am doing or have done. I notice when it doesn’t feel good. I’m willing to dig into that. I’m more willing to forgive my transgressions. I’m open to listening to what’s going on, what pattern is there, and what’s needed to shift this way of being. Just like one of my husband’s friends was in a quandary. He was acting strange around one of their friends and had been for a while. He realized how uncomfortable this was making him. He chose to do something different because he didn’t like this contracted feeling. After he did, he felt happy and relieved. Expansive.

Pay attention to the contractions in your life. If you are like most people, quite a bit of your life is played out here. What if you decided to shift that? Simple ways.

How much of your day and life are spent in contraction? Resistance? Judgment? Wishing it wasn’t this way or that?

Where are you spending lots of energy protecting yourself and reacting to life?

Do you know that when you feel contractions, it is affecting your body? You are holding, constricting the flow in your body. Stress, outrage, and being upset are all ways you are contracting and affecting your body.

Are you willing to release these old ways and patterns so that something greater can come into your life?

Are you ready to move out of some of the contraction in your life?

The other day, my calendar quote was, “I no longer need any negative drama in my life. I choose only good experiences from now on.” How does that resonate with you?

Are you willing to catch yourself when that negative drama and conversations begin?

Do you realize you have a choice?

Begin noticing all the ways you are contracting in your life. Awareness is the first step to change. Your health will thank you. Your spirit will be grateful. Others around you will thank you for not being so grumpy and negative.

Where are you with living in expansion? Notice the peace, joy, and childlike behaviors you are feeling. I have some of those MacKenzie-Childs Christmas reindeer. I LOVE them. I giggle nearly every time I pass them.

Begin today thinking and perceiving more goodness and kindness.

As Abraham-Hicks says, “If you will let your dominant intention be to revise and improve the content of the story you tell every day of your life, it is our absolute promise to you that your life will become that ever-improving story. For by the powerful Law of Attraction—the essence of that which is like unto itself is drawn—it must be!”

Start breathing deeper into your body, down to your belly. Reach your arms high into the air and ask for the highest white light be brought down through your body to every cell and atom. Breathe into that. Open up channels. That’s expansion.

Choose simple mantras to remind you – like “Something amazing is going to happen today.” See what shows up for you. Does someone call you? Or does another hawk come swirling by? Smile, be thankful.

Notice the ways your choices are in expansion or contractions with your:

Physical Being – Are you listening to what your body is telling you?

Emotional Being – Are you paying attention to your feelings and emotions? Or stuffing them?

Mental Being – How kind are you to yourself? Are you holding grudges or resentments? Is your world full of judgment?

Know that you won’t always behave in the most open and expansive way. But be willing to release the contractions by 2% more today and tomorrow. You can release the holds and open up to a whole new way of being.

Life is lighter and brighter when you open to expansion. As my pilates teacher is always telling us, “Open up your collarbone as if it were smiling big.” Just the words feel good, but also your chest and body do too.

How can you be more open today? Whether with your body, mind, or spirit?

Let 2024 be an expansion for you.

Allow yourself to be lighter, kinder, and more loving.

Stay open to life.

Each moment is offering you an opportunity to expand. Are you up for it?