Choosing the Life You Were Born to Live: How Changing Your Thoughts Will Change Your Life

"Once you become aware of a thought that is limiting you in one way or another, you then have the power to change it."The thoughts and beliefs we have about ourselves and the world around us create our reality. That reality is the matrix in which we make choices that affect our life and our level of joy every day. Through her compelling personal stories, humor, and the vulnerable nature in which she shares pieces of her own life, Christine Sopa guides you on a journey of selfdiscovery where you will learn to use the power of your thoughts to achieve joy in an ever-changing world.Many of us have come to a point in our lives where we know we can look back but never go back. At this point, it is imperative to be able to see the bigger picture of your life, to understand that you deserve and have the power to create the world around you as you want it to be and that guidance is available to all of us every step of the way. All we have to do is learn how to listen.On this journey of self-exploration, you will learn to understand what barriers keep you from overcoming your deepest fears, how to use your emotions as a guide in making choices, and finally understand why you make the choices you do in your life.Choosing the Life You Were Born to Live gives away the secret to believing in yourself, how to make choices that will honor your highest path in life and why life shows up the way it does. If you are ready to transform your life once and for all, then this is the journey for you!

"Your work is to discover your world and then with all of your heart give yourself to it." ~Buddha In the one of the last movies of the "Lord of the Rings," there was a pivotal scene I will never forget. One of the main characters in the movie, who was destined to be King by birthright, had been living a life as a ranger, fearful of stepping onto his destined path. A conversation was being had by this ranger and one of the elf elders, and in a moment of desperation, the elder said to the ranger, "There is a time to do what you want to do and a time to do what you were meant to do. Put the ranger aside and become who you were born to be!" I think many of us, down deep, we know our path. My path is to be a spiritual teacher and healer. How do I know this? I feel it in my bones. Just as if I were to have you close your eyes and touch you with my finger and ask you, "What am I doing?" You would respond with, "Touching me." How do you know I am touching you? You feel it. Sometimes others see our path a little more clearly than we do. On a long drive one day to visit family in Ohio, my daughter wrote the following poem describing my purpose here: Savior Please
The one to love, the one to help
Save her from saving you
That's NOT what you are supposed to do
She'll take your pain and make it disappear
Put it in a bag and not let you shed a tear
She saves a million, doesn't leave one
Takes everyone until the job is done
Teaching as she walks through the rugged terrain of life
Making it possible for you to live
Loving many, teaching some
Saving all. Of course, I wept when she read it to me because it is so beautiful. It perfectly describes what I am here to do...and I know it. I love teaching and speaking. It is in my blood; I would do it all day long if need be. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would not change a thing about what I do. The key is to find what brings you joy when you do it and then DO IT! It is very important that you do only what you love to do. You may be poor, you may go hungry, you may live in a shabby place, but you will totally live. And at the end of 35 your days, you will bless your life because you have done what you came here to do. ~Elizabeth Kubler Ross Many of my coaching clients become very frustrated because they want so badly to know what their purpose is. They feel as if they are never going to find it and worry that they are going to miss it or are on the "wrong path." An acorn doesn't worry whether or not it carries within itself an oak tree; it is what it is: a seed for an oak tree. Your purpose is revealed to you when and only when you are ready. To feel as if you are living your purpose is a daily journey. After I was sick, I started on a self-discovery process and opened myself up to every lesson life offered me—pain or happiness. I learned to see every person that entered my life and every situation as a learning experience that was taking me further down my path toward my purpose. That journey is still continuing to this day. As you work on yourself, as you are now, it becomes easier and easier to use your intuition and discern your path. Intuition is like a muscle: The more you use it, the stronger it gets. I believe our "purpose" is whatever brings us joy. That may change as our life moves forward, but as long as we stay in a state of awareness of our feelings and our inner truth, we are living our purpose. And when we stray off the path—and we will—our awareness lets us know, through our inner feelings, that we have left the path; immediately, we do what you need to do (or, more likely, we become who we need to become) to get back on the path. You ARE your path, so you are always on it.
~Elaine Kempski, Inner Journey Coaching Everything is connected to feelings. We make decisions based on emotion, not logic. Everything that is in your life right now, from the things to the people, are there because of how they make you feel. When the feeling changes, you change who or what is in your life. If you could only have one feeling for the rest of your life, what feeling would you choose? Be specific here. Don't just say "happy"—that is too vague. Put some meat on the bone! My "one feeling" is inner peace. I use this feeling to help me make every decision in my life and this helps me stay on "purpose." I ask myself constantly, "Does being with this person bring me inner peace?" "Does working with this client bring me inner peace?" "Does doing this or that bring me inner peace?" You get the picture. Find your "one feeling" and use that as your guidepost, your measuring stick to constantly check if you are on the right path.
The purpose of life is to matter—to count, to stand for something, to have made a difference that we lived at all. Make your life count. Do what you love. Don't die with your "music" still in you. You are here to deliver something very unique to this world and you are the only one who can deliver it. Trust, have faith, and know deep in your soul that your purpose will find you.