You’re Never Trapped by Your Life

… you’re ONLY trapped by the choices you make.

All we have in our lives are our choices. They are our ticket to happiness, freedom and the life we want to live.

Believe it or not, you are NEVER bound by the circumstances of your life, you are ONLY bound by the choices you have made thus far.

In other words, if life isn’t working out the way you want it to, you always get to make another choice and put it on a better track. But most of us don’t realize that we can do that.

As humans, we tend to fear change. We tend to stay with what we know even if it makes us unhappy. Many of us get stuck in very dark places because that’s what we’ve come to know and we’re unsure as to how to change it, so we never do.

But here’s the deal, you are never meant to be unhappy. An unhappy life is an unfulfilled one.

You’re never trapped by your life, but you can be trapped by the choices you make. So if your choices are making you feel trapped, make a choice to free yourself. And realize that a choice to stay trapped (for whatever reason – obligation, responsibility, or uncertainty/fear) is still a choice.

Are you living the life you want to live? If you’re not, MAKE ANOTHER CHOICE. Remember you’re not trapped by your life, you are only trapped by the choices you make. You can never run out of choices, you can never run out of options, if you’re stuck in your life, you can always choose again. It’s your life, choose wisely.

Read more inspiration in Donnalynn’s new Book, “Life Lessons,” click here.

If you would like more information on Life Coaching Sessions with Donnalynn, click here.

If you would like to schedule a session with Donnalynn, click here.

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Feeling Stuck

… is an indication that you are NOT LEARNING.

Therefore you are prohibited from moving forward – kinda like being held back at school.

You would only feel stuck in the space you are in if you hadn’t yet learned what needed to be learned in that phase in order to progress to the next phase. Life builds on itself and lessons build on themselves. With every lesson learned in a life, you move up and you move onto the next phase of your life. But so many of us stay in cycles repeating the same behaviors and expecting a different result while wondering why we are stuck?

Feeling stuck in your life is very purposeful. It is meant to make you feel uncomfortably trapped in your situation so that you will shed the light of consciousness on it and bring about the change it requires to transform. You are not meant to fall into the “stuckness” but to look for answers on how to “get unstuck.” Just remember, if you do not initiate a change yourself, change will never happen.

So ask yourself, why are things not changing? What am I not seeing? What am I not getting? What behaviors and patterns might I be repeating that are keeping me in this frustrating cycle? What might this situation be trying to teach me?

If you are feeling stuck, learn to objectively look at your situation and get the lesson from it and get out so you can truly move on with your life. You are not a victim of your situation – no one is keeping you stuck but you. When you open your eyes and learn to show up differently, you will have a different result and one which will naturally free you from the chains that bind you.

Read more inspiration in Donnalynn’s new Book, “Life Lessons,” click here.

If you would like more information on Life Coaching Sessions with Donnalynn, click here.

If you would like to read some reviews on Donnalynn’s Coaching, click here.

If you would like to schedule a session with Donnalynn, click here.

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Living Outside Your Comfort Zone

… is where the magic happens.

Because magic only lives in the realm of the unexpected. If it’s expected, it’s ordinary. To be extraordinary, one must find themselves OUTSIDE the expected.

Everyone wants magic, but not many are willing to step outside the safe, orderly haven of expectation and routine. Comfort zones dominate our decision making processes and therefore limit our potential for greatness. Comfort zones control our dreams and passions and stuff them into the small, safe and controllable boxes of routine which suffocates the spirit.

Nothing amazing is ever created within a comfort zone. Creativity can never fluorish within narrow confines of human thought. Boundaries must be pushed – walls must be torn down – and risks must be taken – in order for real magic to infiltrate our existence.

Do you believe in magic? Do you believe that magic exists for you? Staying in your comfort zone will never invite the energies of magic to dance with you. Comfort zones keep you safe, they do not make you great. 

Strive to be extraordinary. Get out of the ordinary box, leave your comfort zone behind and open up to the magic all around you. Challenge yourself to get out of that comfort zone and do something/be something amazing. Life is to short to sit back and accept mediocrity. Allow yourself to break through your confines and create the magic that you seek. You were never meant to stay safe, you were always meant to achieve greatness. What are you waiting for? You are the only one standing in your way.

Read more inspiration in Donnalynn’s new Book, “Life Lessons,” click here.

If you would like more information on Life Coaching Sessions with Donnalynn, click here.

If you would like to read some reviews on Donnalynn’s Coaching, click here.

If you would like to schedule a session with Donnalynn, click here.

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If You Can’t Let Go

… you are still attracted to the lesson.

What is it that keeps us stuck in certain situations and with certain people? Why can’t we let go when we know we SHOULD let go?

The answer is pretty clear. If you’re still attracted to a person or a situation, there is a lesson there that you have not yet internalized. For when you get the learning from any situation in life, you are always ready to move on from it – in fact, you are excited to move on from it.

So if you find yourself obsessively trying to break free from a person or a situation but unable to do so, it is really time to look in the mirror and ask yourself what is the lesson here – what is the real learning? Why am I not able to move forward with my life? What is keeping me in the same repetitive pattern of unhappiness?

In order to help you find the lesson, look back to previous relationships and situations, see if you can detect the pattern. Once you do the work on finding the lesson, the lesson stops and you are free to move forward in a more constructive and fulfilling way.

Don’t beat yourself up for not being able to move forward. You are not weak and it’s not that you need a given person or situation in your life to be happy. It is only that you have not yet learned what needs to be learned from these people/situations and that is why you are finding yourself stuck and unable to break free. Do the work, get the lesson and get out. Your life is waiting to move forward – the rest is up to you.

Read more inspiration in Donnalynn’s new Book, “Life Lessons,” click here.

If you would like more information on Emotional Wellbeing and Life Coaching Sessions with Donnalynn, click here.

If you would like to read some reviews on Donnalynn’s Coaching, click here.

If you would like to schedule a session with Donnalynn, click here.

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The Wheel of Karma Keeps Spinning

… as long as you’re still on it.

If there is negativity between you and someone else, then you are karmically connected to that person whether you want to be or not. Did they harm you, humiliate you or slight you in any way? Are you angry with them or hurt by their actions? If so, you are karmically bound to them until that karma is repaid or worked through somehow.

How do you work through it, you might ask? Working through karma is NEVER about winning or getting even. If you are still feeling the need to do that, you haven’t gotten the lesson yet. Do you really want to be free of this person? Then learn to free yourself from the karmic wheel. Freedom does NOT come from fighting and winning, it comes from FORGIVENESS – forgiving yourself as well as forgiving the other person.

Every negative situation you encounter helps you to be a better person. Once you can understand what you were meant to learn from the experience and how it made you grow into a better person, then you can forgive the situation and eventually forgive the other person thus freeing you from karma’s grip. That is the space where real freedom and healing takes place.

Balancing karma establishes harmony in relationships. You do not have to balance karma by playing the “tit for tat” game. You can rise above that game and jump ahead to your own freedom by forgiving yourself and forgiving the person/situation.

Forgiveness frees you from the karmic wheel. Trying to get even keeps you stuck on it. The wheel of karma will always keep spinning. Ask yourself if you want to be on it?

Read more inspiration in Donnalynn’s new Book, “Life Lessons,” click here.

If you would like more information on Emotional Wellbeing and Life Coaching Sessions with Donnalynn, click here.

If you would like to read some reviews on Donnalynn’s Coaching, click here.

If you would like to schedule a session with Donnalynn, click here.

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Staying Never Gets You Anywhere

… it keeps you in the same place.

Only movement initiates action.

Whatever changes you would like to make in your life require some type of movement, strategic movement NOT “busy” movement. Strategic movement has the intention of bringing about change. Busy movement is activity that uses your energy but doesn’t bring about the desired result (e.g. being too busy at work to have the time to look for a new job or spending your time trying to fix a relationship when the other person is doing nothing).

Strategic movement is movement to initiate change NOT propagate the same stasis. Be honest with yourself and ask yourself if you see your actions as helping you move forward or keeping you stuck in your own patterns.

It’s very simple, if you are standing still, you cannot move forward. And if you are looking behind you, you cannot move forward. You can only move forward by making the extreme effort to do so.

We keep ourselves back in life by not allowing ourselves to move forward but instead, we stand still and complain about the situation. Staying in the situation and bemoaning it will only charge it with more negativity and unhappiness. 

Time to break the cycle. Staying never gets you anywhere. If you want to move forward, you have to bring in a type of strategic movement or change that will NOT allow you to look back at your past, but push you forward into your dreams. Nothing else will do.

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Read more inspiration in Donnalynn’s new Book, “Life Lessons,” click here.

If you would like more information on Emotional Wellbeing and Life Coaching Sessions with Donnalynn, click here.

If you would like to read some reviews on Donnalynn’s Coaching, click here.

If you would like to schedule a session with Donnalynn, click here.

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Just Because Things Aren’t Bad

… doesn’t mean they are GOOD.

We are all good storytellers. We tell ourselves stories about our lives so that we do not have to see what is right in front of us. It is always easier to pretend that things are ok then it is to actually change them for the better.

We’re responsible for living the best life we can, but most of us fall short of finding that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We tend to fall into self-defeating cycles where we either stay stuck in phases that are no longer serving us, waiting for it to change (see “Waiting for Your Life to Come Together”) OR we try and convince ourselves that we are in a better place than we actually are. 

Both are equally deconstructive strategies and damaging to our happiness. But the latter is extremely counterproductive because you are lying to yourself. Just because things aren’t “bad” for your right now, doesn’t mean that you are in a “good” place either. This distinction needs to be made.

Just because you are not fighting with your significant other everyday, doesn’t automatically mean you are communicating well and getting your needs met.

Just because you are employed and recently received a raise doesn’t mean you are in the right line of work for you personally where you are feeling most fulfilled.

Just because you can afford your rent and your commute is decent doesn’t mean you are in the most optimal home situation.

We tell ourselves stories about where we are in life in hopes to make ourselves feel better. We say things like, “it could always be worse”. It could always be worse but if it was worse at least you would have more of an impetus to make change. Don’t lull yourself into a false sense of security in any area of your life. It will seal the final nail to your coffin by manipulatively keeping you in a place you should be moving on from.

Just because it isn’t bad, doesn’t mean it’s good for you either. Get into the habit of asking yourself if it is good and RIGHT for you. Once you know the difference, the sky is the limit to how high you will soar.

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Read more inspiration in Donnalynn’s new Book, “Life Lessons,” click here.

If you would like more information on Emotional Wellbeing and Life Coaching Sessions with Donnalynn, click here.

If you would like to read some reviews on Donnalynn’s Coaching, click here.

If you would like to schedule a session with Donnalynn, click here.

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You Are WHERE You Are

…  because you have put yourself there.

Nothing ever happens to you in life. You are co-creating each and every experience.  

All experiences in life are important, especially the “painful” experiences which always bring you to a much better place, unless of course you allow yourself to go some other place with it. Those painful experiences are what help you to bottom out and clear the slate for a much better experience moving forward. But sometimes we’re not ready to move forward and we choose (consciously or subconsciously) to stay in the painful space because identifying with the pain somehow seems oddly comfortable.

When you cannot let go of a painful situation – albeit love related, work-related or friendship-related, then you are CHOOSING to stay stuck in a situation that is no longer feeding you. At that point you are being held responsible for where you are in life. You own it. No one is keeping you back. You are the only one in your own way. No one has control over your life unless you give it.  If you are unhappy with where you are, you need to recognize that no one has put you in that box but yourself. “Bad” things happen to “good” people all the time. But good people know how to move past the experience so they can move forward in their lives. They don’t stay mired in the muck. Keeping yourself stuck will assure you that you will destroy your own life.

You are where you are because you have allowed yourself to be there.  If you don’t like where you are, time to get out and move forward with your life. Even if that change seems foreign and frightening, I assure you nothing could be more frightening that staying in a dead space where growth will never happen. It is true, you are where you are because of your choices thus far. But where you are headed is always supremely up to you. Are you ready to OWN YOUR LIFE?

Read more inspiration in Donnalynn’s new Book, “Life Lessons,” click here.

If you would like more information on Emotional Wellbeing and Life Coaching Sessions with Donnalynn, click here.

If you would like to read some reviews on Donnalynn’s Coaching, click here.

If you would like to schedule a session with Donnalynn, click here.

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Staying Too Long

… makes you miss your stop.

Sometimes we stay too long in spaces we shouldn’t – spaces such as dead-end jobs and dead-end relationships. We stay hoping somehow we can transform them into being what we need them to be. Staying too long doesn’t remedy a bad situation, it makes it worse. It overstays your welcome and drains the situation or rather – runs it into the ground.

Be honest with yourself. Are you staying because it is what you really want and deserve or are you staying for some other reason based out of fear such as “I don’t think I can do better” or “there aren’t any other opportunities out there for me” or “I will never be able to do what I really want”.

Don’t stay too long in spaces that are not working for you. Yours is not to force fit them to meet your needs. Yours is to be strong enough to be able to discern what is best for you and for your growth and let the rest fall by the wayside.

Staying too long makes you miss your stop. Life is like a train ride from New York City to Boston. You will always get to your final destination in life, it is your destiny. You will reach Boston one way or another. But it is your choice as to whether or not you will enjoy the journey along the way. That journey has some beautiful shoreline along Connecticut and Rhode Island. If you stay too long at certain stops, you will miss the beautiful views and experiences that that journey has to offer. Don’t try and hold the doors open and stay in the station. Let the doors close. Let yourself get to the next stop and get out and take a look around. Life is too short to stay at one stop for too long. There is a whole coastline out there for you to explore. Give yourself the chance to have some great experiences and when they have served their purpose, be strong enough to let them leave your life. On to the next stop…

Read more inspiration in Donnalynn’s new Book, “Life Lessons,” click here.

If you would like more information on Emotional Wellbeing and Life Coaching Sessions with Donnalynn, click here.

If you would like to read some reviews on Donnalynn’s Coaching, click here.

If you would like to schedule a session with Donnalynn, click here.

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Staying Stuck

… keeps you locked in a bad place.

And who wants to be locked in a bad place?

We seldom realize that we are the ones who have put ourselves into bad places. We are so quick to give up our power over our lives and say that something or someone else is responsible for holding us back. But the truth is, we are responsible for holding ourselves back – no one else is. No one has control over your life unless you give it to them. End of story.

Sometimes we find ourselves swirling in a negative cyclone of emotions and wondering why things are not changing for us? Almost as if we cannot get out of the space we are in. If you find yourself in this space, this is your indication that you are in a rut and you have unfortunately put yourself there by allowing it to continue.

Being stuck is like being caught in a doughnut hole. You keep spiraling and spiraling around with no way out and the walls seem too thick to penetrate. Since the energy that is trapped is negative, it holds a very dense and low vibration that is very heavy and overwhelming. It keeps you stuck in the hole and makes it almost impossible to see the light of day.

How do we break the cycle and climb out of the doughnut hole? Allow change. Any change. Any small amount of change in your life will work to infuse lighter, clearer energy into that doughnut hole and break up the stagnancy so that you may be lifted out of your own trap.

Life is too short to keep yourself stuck in a hole. Take small steps towards change. Invite fresh energy in and watch how life suddenly lifts you out of your hole.

Read more inspiration in Donnalynn’s new Book, “Life Lessons,” click here.

If you would like more information on Emotional Wellbeing and Life Coaching Sessions with Donnalynn, click here.

If you would like to read some reviews on Donnalynn’s Coaching, click here.

If you would like to schedule a session with Donnalynn, click here.

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