Tag Archive for: tools

Born to Shine Toolbelt Time

I am starting over this morning. I got so tangled in trying to understand how to use social media to be seen in the world that I became invisible. I now understand clearly that my job was never to be a media marketing success. My job was always to offer healing resources to God’s hurting children…and I’ve been failing miserably.

So, dear friends, let’s start from scratch.

Close your eyes and imagine an incredibly beautiful gate. Can you see it? It is the entrance to a land of wondrous and limitless possibilities. You have the key. If you use the key to open the gate, you and I will begin a journey together that may transform each of us. How or if we are changed will depend on the choices we make; will we remain earthbound, or will we be given wings to fly? Choose.

I believe prayer is the key to opening that gate. Prayer is a heart-and-soul connection with our loving Creator; it is a conversation that grows us closer to Him and expands our ability to feel the wonder of following Him. Praying, literally, changes how we see and experience the world. I agree with Mark Batterson, author of Draw the Circle, when he writes:

Prayer is the difference between seeing with our physical eyes and seeing with our spiritual eyes.
Prayer gives us a God’s eye view. It heightens our awareness and gives us

a sixth sense that enables us to perceive spiritual realities that are beyond our five senses.

Prayer is the most powerful tool I can offer you. IF YOU WANT TO SEE YOURSELF WITH BETTER EYES, YOU NEED A NEW LENS. Choosing to see yourself through the eyes of a loving God rather than through the eyes of a critical and toxic material world will change everything, and prayer is the Holy tool that will open your eyes forever to the truth of “I am and always will be enough!”

Rise and Shine: Woman with Arms Outstretched at Sunrise - Ready to Take on the Day

I have always had a fascination with tools and tool belts.  I don’t know why I am such a fan; perhaps it has to do with the ability to have a way to repair, to create, to solve a problem myself because I have the appropriate resources to do so.  I often use the terms tools and tool belts to illustrate the possibility to heal and to grow stronger.

 I even collect photographs of tool belts, ready and waiting to be filled with shiny, new instruments of personal power.  From time to time, I will post some of these pictures to Facebook to let you know I am posting a new “tool” to what I am calling RISE AND SHINE TOOL BELT TIME. 

Tool Belt Time is going to be another addition to the Rise and Shine blog. I will periodically post a technique that I have found useful in my Transformational Coaching practice.

The tool I choose to offer today is one that my clients have found very helpful with controlling anger and finding a way to make a better choice in the midst of such strong emotional upheaval.  It seems too simple to be very powerful, but, so far, it has worked for each man, woman, boy, and girl who has tried it. You can choose whether or not you add it to the tool belt we are creating for you to use in your daily life.

ANGER CONTROL:  When you feel yourself moving into the place where your emotion (anger) is threatening to overwhelm your ability to evaluate a situation and make a healthy choice, begin counting backward by three’s.  This action is just complicated enough to force your body to focus on thought rather than emotion. Switching from emotion to intellect allows you to pause and to take stock of what is really happening.  You can then use your wonderful brain to choose a positive course of action rather than a destructive one. Practice makes this more and more powerful.

Sandy's Signature | Sandra Garton Breech