Danni's Friendship Closet.....

There is a Jamaican saying, "show me your company and I will tell you who you are". Our friends are a reflection of us, that is because we choose to be around and tend to get along with people who are similar to us in personality and mindset. Have you really sat and evaluated the people in your life that you call friends, have you really thought about how you go selecting your friends, what personality they must have, what are they bringing to your life? No one enters our lives without leaving an impression on us, that being the case we ought to become very selective of the people who we allow into our lives.

As children we formed friendships with the girl or the boy who sat next to us in class or shared their candy or banana chips with us. The older we become and the more we grow into self our friendship criteria should reflect that change. Therefore if you are carrying with you friends who do not aid in your growth, guess what, they got to go. That does not mean that you are going to suddenly stop talking to them, but it does mean that you begin limiting contact with that or those people because they are not adding value to your life.

What do I look for when I decide to choose someone to be my friend.

Someone who 1.Fuels my positive energy - this is so very important to me, I am the type of person who feeds from peoples energy therefore someone who is negative can easily depress me. That does not mean that you should not be there for your friends whenever they are going through a hard time, its always good to be the friend who listens.

Someone who 2.Renews my spirit. Its is so good to have that person who I can go to whenever I'm feeling down and sad. We all have those moments it is good to have that friend who always knows what to say, when to say it, how to say it and lightens the mood.

Someone who is 3. Intelligent and gives intelligent advise. Need I say more?

Someone who is 4. Energetic and energizes me. I tend to pick friends who are very lively in personality. I enjoy being around happy people. Not everybody is happy, unhappy people seek to make disciples of themselves.

Someone who is a 5. No nonsense person. I find that my friends who are energetic are also very blunt when it comes to knocking sense into my head. As you begin growing into self you find that you have a very low tolerance for foolishness. Friends who are no nonsense will not bring nonsense to you and will allow you to see when you are bringing nonsense to them.

Someone who 6. Diligently seeks spiritual guidance. I enjoy being in the company of people who are spiritually plugged in, they know how to guide you to God, they have the right scripture at their finger tips, they give God centered advise.

Are your friends fueling your positive energy, renewing your spirit, intelligent and gives such advise, no nonsense people who are diligently seeking spiritual guidance? If not then you need to thoroughly evaluate your friends and friendships. Are you that type of friend? If not then you need to dedicate time to changing those habits that are preventing you and your friends from growing.

You are magnificent.

One Love
Danni

Your Heart of Stone

Your heart of stone,
I cannot mend.
Your heart of stone,
Just will not bend.
Your heart of stone,
I'm searching through.
Your heart of stone,
To enter to.
Your heart of stone,
Cries out to me.
Your heart of stone,
Rests not peacefully.
Your heart of stone,
Yearns for love.
Your heart of stone,
Has been given enough.
Your heart of stone,
Will slowly turn.
Your heart of stone,
Must silently learn.
Your heart of stone,
To accept my gift.
Your heart of stone,
It's weight must lift.
Your heart of stone,
Must open up.
Your heart of stone,
Cannot give up.
Your heart of stone,
Needs to see.
Your heart of stone,
The love in me.

Dear Friend,

Please walk with me on this spiritual journey and allow your heart to open up.

One Love
Dan

My Struggle With Fear....

I am a work in progress. There are times when I feel as if I am alone with my problems and struggles. Through my blogs and the response that I have been getting from people I am realizing that I am not alone in the way I think, the problems I go through, the issues I am faced with. As humans we are all faced with similar circumstances the difference is how we process and handle the problems we encounter. We all have a destiny, a specific path that we will go on, but few of us are on that path by choice, most of us are simply going with the flow of things.

Fear as defined by the Oxford Dictionary is panic or distress caused by the exposure to danger or expectation of pain. There is positive use of fear for example fight and flight when in danger and then there is negative fear such as fear of something or someone who is relatively harmless. I have a lot of negative fear. It is important that one takes an inward look at self to determine if your fear is preventing you from being happy with self.

I have the fear of saying no to people. I often times feel that I need to overextend myself and live up to peoples expectations. I realized that if a friend asked me to do a favor for them, even though performing that task would take me out of my comfort zone, I would still do it as a favor to not seem like the bad guy. Another problem I faced was I had a hard time telling people how I really felt about something they did or said to me. I would instead keep it in, maybe stop talking to them or turn a blind eye to it. The choice of not being truthful about how I really felt only made me feel more and more powerless. I never spoke with authority to anyone, just being open and honest about how someone made me feel took an extra ounce of energy that sometimes took hours to muster up.

So I am finally taking my strength back. I am finally walking away from being the person in the back seat and stepping and confronting my fear of people. A part of aligning yourself with God is knowing and believing that He has your back no matter what. So why am I fearful to say to someone, listen, I do not appreciate the way you speak to me and no because I am not allowing myself to being used anymore.

Being used can come from many different angles. Your family can use you, especially if you are the major bread winner in your household. Do not be the type of person who bottles it all in and suddenly explode, making people wonder where that burst of anger came from. Instead be very vocal about your feelings and it will amaze you that people will not take it personally, they will instead respect you for it.

I will not allow my fear to hold me back any longer.

Live your dreams and be extraordinary.

One Love

Danni