Daily Love: Growing into Grace Workshop Recap

Hello everyone!

I don’t know if you all have realized, but I’ve been on a bit of a self-help/motivational kick lately. Shocker, I know! I heard about the book “Daily Love: Growing into Grace” when I was listening to Wake Up with Taylor on my way into work one morning and the interview with author, Mastin Kipp completely reeled me in. I’d heard about The Daily Love before, but this was the first I’d heard about a book. In the interview, the book was described as being for the person who had hit rock bottom and needed direction in rebuilding their life. I wouldn’t say I was necessary at “rock bottom,” but I definitely had some stuff going on in my life that I needed some clarity and direction on, so I decided to pick up the book after work and see what all the fuss was about. Couldn’t hurt right?

There were a couple of lessons in this book that really stuck out to me. The first one being this:

I have always believed that everything happens for a reason, but sometimes it’s hard to stick to that when you’re in a situation where something bad has happened to you or you feel like someone has hurt or betrayed your trust. It’s really important to know that there is something to be learned from every good and/or bad thing that happens to us; sometimes we just have to look a little more closely to find the lesson we are meant to learn. Trust me. I know this is easier said than done, but it really helps change your outlook on things when you stop playing the victim and start looking for the lesson.

Another thing that really stood out to me from this book was this simple, but very powerful phrase.

After I read this, I placed the bookmark back in my book and just sat there thinking about this in silence for a little while. We’re all guilty of doing this from time to time, but I realized I had been doing this in a few different places in my life, with a few different people, and it had to stop. This phrase has taken on a few different meanings in different aspects of my life over the last month or so, and I’ve really been trying to make decisions that are best for  me with only myself in mind after reading this. Not saying that I’ve become a selfish person as of lately, but I’ve been making decisions for me and only me for the first time in a long time and it’s been a freeing experience.

After I finished the book, I was left with a feeling of “What do I do now?” Luckily, last Friday the Daily Love: Growing into Grace Workshop made a stop in Seattle,WA and I brought my partner in crime along for the ride.  It ended up taking us almost two hours to get there from Federal Way, WA, which is around a 50 minute drive normally. Needless to say, we were a little stressed out by the time we got there, but we ended up only being about 15 minutes late. Turns out Mastin was also late, so the workshop didn’t start on time. What a relief!

The event consisted of a brief introduction to the book, kundalini yoga practice, a workshop and a talk going over the following topics in detail:

• Bad situations are just grace’s way of getting your attention and causing you to make necessary changes in your life.
• Sometimes grace enters your life in subtle ways, and sometimes it’s more aggressive. It just depends on how stubborn you are to making the necessary changes. (I must be super stubborn because grace aka life has kicked my butt quite a few times lately!)
• Fear is a misunderstood emotion. Just because you’re afraid of something, doesn’t make it bad. It’s usually a compass guiding you where you need to go (unless you’re in mortal danger of course!)
• You need to have courage to live the life that is meant for you.
• To change your life, you need to change your behavior. You need to feel your feelings, ask better questions (No more “Why me?,” ask “What’s the lesson?” instead.)  and take immediate action.
•  You are the change you’ve been looking for.

I know this might sound like a bunch of hippie BS to some of you, but he’s been on Oprah talking about this stuff and Oprah doesn’t lie people! 🙂

At the end of the event (which ended up running a couple hours over because there was so much to talk about), Mastin took pictures and signed everyone’s books with personalized messages. That says “Stay courageous!” in case you were wondering. I thought it was actually pretty fitting for my current life path right now. 🙂

He was very sweet and spent time with everyone individually to talk about what we liked most about the event, even thought the people who run the venue were getting a little antsy to get home for the evening! Here are our photos from the evening!

If you haven’t checked out “Daily Love: Growing into Grace” by Mastin Kipp yet, I’d highly recommend it. It was an empowering book that has opened my eyes to a different way of looking at the negative things that happen to you in life. I definitely plan on reading this again because I’m sure I’ll pick up some new lessons that I missed the first time around. I’d also recommend checking out the Growing into Grace Workshop Tour if you can make it to one of the event dates.

Questions of the Day:

Where have you been getting your inspiration from lately?

What is your favorite inspirational quote?

What book are you reading right now?