Unfiltered & Fearless February

Hellooooo Februaryyyy!

What a start to the new year it's been! I hope that all of your lives are going well, and that through whatever struggles you may be facing right now, you are still finding time for sunshine, and sharing that sunshine with others for that matter! 

January was an overall successful one for "Clear Skies & Goals Set High!" I spent the whole month, through football games, New Orleans, Oxford, and typical Atlanta nights totally sober! What a challenge that was, but how amazing it felt to do it! It was a clearer thinking & feeling month than I've had(truly) in years. My spirituality and relationship with God has been sincerely awakened, my relationship with myself and others is in a heightened growth period, and my inner sunshine is getting brighter by the day! Take care of you and the world will fall in place to do the same! 

I've been trying to figure out what I wanted the theme to be for 12 Months of Sunshine's month of February, and tonight it became very clear to me! So the theme for (the remainder of) this month is Unfiltered & Fearless February!

What exactly does that mean?

From my personal experience, I feel like there are always things I need to do, say, or act upon that are preventing me from feeling my highest level of happiness. Maybe a conversation I need to have that's been weighing on me, something I've been scared to do or say because I'm fearful of the results or what would change if I said or did those things I fear, etc. 

What is in place in your current life that you need to unfilter or fearlessly take on? What necessary moves do you need to make that terrify you, but that have to be done? 

If we spend even parts of our lives walking on eggshells about a person, situation, or things we need to talk about, or things we are fearful towards, we are preventing ourselves from reaching our ultimate happiness. Living in fear of the unknown will only bring us unrest if we do not try to resolve where the fear is coming from. 

I recently took a road trip to honor my Dads life. It's been 5 years since he passed and I always do something to celebrate him at this time. This year I took a road trip, by myself, to go spend time with people I love and people that love me, and have continued to during some of the toughest moments in my life. When releasing balloons for him on the 50 yard line of the Ole Miss Stadium, as I did 4 years ago for him, I also let go of my own struggles I've held onto by writing these things on the balloons:

Fear

Anger

Sadness

Past Resentments

Negative Thoughts

I also sent some good things out so that God and the universe could receive the happy energy too, and hopefully it would come back to me:

Love

Hope

Healing 

Faith

Happiness

Doing this symbolic act to not only honor my Dad, but to also honor myself, felt too good beyond words. Looking back to reflect things I've struggled with or feared, but then overcome and gotten through, to be where I am today, is such a powerful, wondrous place of joy to revel in, and my prayer and hope is that you can discover some of this inner power and joy within yourself! 

So this month, I challenge you to find something to unfilter or cease fearing in your life! Make it a simple/personal move or shift, or make it a public/symbolic one! Decide what type of move works for you, put a plan in motion, and act upon it! 

•Have a conversation you need to have with someone you love; express and share your feelings with them!

•Leap into a risk you've been avoiding taking because you are fearful of the results; something amazing could come of it!

•Take on a job or volunteer roll you've been interested in but just not making the time for!

•Spend time on a relationship you've been timid towards opening up to again; who knows where you both may be in your lives now?

•Go back to that study group, that church service, that mentor you haven't contacted in a while, and see what joy may still reside within those!

Whatever it is you are fearing or filtering in your life, trust that you have the ability and the strength to overcome it. God and/or the universe do not give us things we can't handle, so long as we CHOOSE to handle them in a positive, driven way. Decide on your results of the fears or filters you are overcoming or taking on, and know that the circumstances will turn out just the way you want! Our minds and inner strength and power are so much more amazing than we even understand. 

Revel in the fears.

Revel in the filters.

Uncover the unknown, and find the sunshine on the other side.